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The Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of a CV for Social Workers

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by Jennifer Luna, MSSW

     Have you ever wondered when it would be appropriate to use a CV (curriculum vitae or vita) vs. a résumé? Although most social workers use a résumé to apply for jobs, there are many professional opportunities that arise for us in which a CV may be in order. As you grow in your career, a CV is the next logical step to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge.

    The main differences between a CV and a résumé are the audience, length, and format. A résumé is a brief summary of your knowledge, skills, and experience in one or two pages. A CV is a detailed document that can be several pages long and lists everything you have done throughout your career. The CV is intended as a career management tool, which records your career history, as opposed to a résumé, which is succinct and targeted.

    Each CV is a unique document. Although there are a few rules of thumb regarding the content of your CV, there are no set rules about the format, especially the order of things. Develop your vita purposefully by combining elements of content and format to effectively reflect your unique background and career goal.

Your CV’s Purpose and Audience

Applying to Doctoral Program or Academic Job Search

    For applying to a doctoral program or teaching position, it is important to first assess which type of university you are applying to, a teaching program or research-based program. List your previous experience in both of these areas, teaching and research. As you are describing teaching and research experience, use common themes to support your expertise by linking your research, teaching, publications, and presentations together. List the names of faculty and colleagues you have collaborated with and the context in which you worked together.  Demonstrate a clear research and teaching trajectory by expressing how you’ve sought to enhance your skills as you matriculated throughout your career or academic program.

    In the academic job market, a high-quality vita plays a critical role in helping you stand out as a strong candidate. As part of an academic job search, your vita is the first introduction to the hiring committee. Your vita must reflect the extent of your education, professional experience, and ability to acquire funding as it pertains to the position for which you are applying.

For Field Placement Supervisor/Instructor

    If applying for adjunct positions or as a field instructor, use your CV to emphasize your expertise in the field and in teaching. Highlight your field instructor experience in your teaching section. Also, highlight your service to the profession or university to demonstrate your commitment to the field of social work and social work education.

Applying for Funding

    If seeking funding, demonstrate your expertise in the areas you are seeking funding in and ability to conduct quality research or programming to meet the needs of the funder. With this in mind, don’t forget to emphasize grants, research, and publications to support your expertise. List the amounts of grants that have previously been funded and the type of grant (federal, state, foundation). This will give the reader a good idea of your expertise in securing additional funding for your projects.

Public Relations

    This type of CV may be used as an introduction to a conference planning committee, for a board or leadership position, or to emphasize your knowledge or experience in a specific field of practice. The primary purpose is to highlight your record of credibility and expertise to various audiences.  

General Guidelines

    Regardless of the purpose of your vita, follow these guidelines to make your CV well-designed, simple to navigate, and easy to read:

Standard Section Headers

    Assemble standard headers in various orders depending on the purpose of your CV; be strategic and tailor the headings depending on the position. If you are applying to a teaching university, you may choose to list teaching interests before research, or if you are applying for funding, highlight grants that you have acquired. Use the following as guidelines.

Applying to Doctoral Program or Academic Job Search

Professional Heading

Education

Research Interest

Teaching Interest

Research Experience

Teaching Experience

Publications

Presentations

Grants

Scholarships and Awards

Clinical/Practice Experience

University Service

Service to the Profession

Community Service

Professional Associations

Other credentials

For Field Placement Supervisor/Instructor    

Professional Heading

Education

Teaching Interest

Teaching Experience

Clinical/Practice Experience

Presentations

Publications

Service to the Profession

University Service

Community Service

Professional Associations

Scholarships and Awards

Other credentials

Applying for Funding

Professional Heading

Education

Grants

Research Interest or Experience (if Applicable)

Publications

Presentations

Clinical/Practice Experience

Scholarships and Awards

Service to the Profession

Community Service

Professional Associations

Other credentials

Public Relations

Professional Heading

Education

Area of Expertise or Professional Summary

Research Interest or Experience (if Applicable)

Publications

Presentations

Clinical/Practice Experience

Service to the Profession

Community Service

Scholarships and Awards

Professional Associations

Other credentials         

Education

    Your education will always be the first section on your CV. List each degree in reverse chronological order along with the program title, institution, city, state, and year. If you are a current student, include your expected date of graduation. If you are a doctoral student or seeking a faculty position, include your dissertation title and committee chair.

Teaching Interests and Research Interests

    This section speaks directly to the immediate interests of the hiring committee and is most commonly used for academic positions or funding. Hiring committees will look at this section in terms of filling a specific need within their program and/or a good fit with the rest of the faculty.

    Use separate sections for each of these titles. For teaching interest, list every course area in which you have taught, assisted, and developed a knowledge base or have an interest. Don’t use course titles or numbers; rather, use language that parallels Council on Social Work Education accreditation standards. For the research interests, list these by subject areas. Both teaching and research interests should align with your education, experience, presentations, and scholarly work. If you list teaching interests and/or research interests, you should follow these sections with the experience that backs your interests up.

Teaching Experience

    List each teaching experience in reverse chronological order with the title of the position held (instructor, adjunct, teaching assistant, assistant instructor), the course title, the name of the institution, location, and date. If you were a teaching assistant, list the name of the professor.

    If you have taught several classes at the same university, only list the name of the university one time along with the location. Then list the course information as listed above.

    As you enter each teaching job, highlight the skills acquired by each experience, for example: “Developed new course on Social Work Ethics” or “Taught entry level social work course to 75 undergraduate students.” Do not duplicate tasks. For example, you would not want to list “Graded papers and exams” each time. When you duplicate tasks, it may appear that you are “padding” your CV. Remember, you want to demonstrate that you gained new skills with each experience.

Research Experience

    List each research experience in reverse chronological order with the title of the position held (research assistant, researcher, graduate research assistant, primary investigator, co-investigator), the title of the research project, the name of the institution, location, and date. If you were a research assistant or co-investigator, list the name and title of the researcher you worked for.

    Along with each research experience, highlight the skills acquired, for example: “Developed survey instrument for quantitative research study” or “Identified common themes in qualitative data analysis.” As you enter each research experience, demonstrate knowledge of data analysis tools, research methods, and ability to build collaborations and funding attached to each project. As with the teaching experience, do not duplicate tasks.

Practice or Clinical Experience

    This section is very similar to your résumé. Include the name of each organization, your title, city, state, and date for each experience, and list them in reverse chronological order. Begin each bullet with a verb and describe your principal tasks, skills, and accomplishments and knowledge areas.

    If you held multiple positions at a single agency, only list the agency name once, with position titles and dates next to it. If you were promoted, create a bullet statement indicating “Promoted from case manager to clinical director within 1 year.” You may also list field placements and internships in this section, along with the word “intern” in the title.

Publications

    This section can include a wide array of printed and written materials, including op-eds, journal articles, technical or research reports, book reviews, and book chapters. You should list all published and unpublished manuscripts using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). If you do not own the manual, the Purdue Owl (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html) is a great resource. For each publication, include DOIs when available, even when referring to the print documents. If you have multiple types of publications, use subheadings to draw attention to your work. For example, list: Publications, Book Chapters, Journal Articles, Book Reviews, Reports. If a manuscript is accepted but not yet published, list it under publications and state that it is in press or forthcoming. For unfinished manuscripts, use a “Works in Progress” subsection, but do not list more than two or three, as you don’t want to be perceived as having too many unfinished projects.

Presentations

    This section can list all types of presentations, trainings, workshops, seminars, panel discussions, and guest lectures. As with publications, use APA format for these entries.

    Use subheadings strategically to organize your presentations. For example, if reaching a broad geographical audience, you should use subheadings such as local, state, national, and international. If emphasizing the style of presentations, use subheadings such as peer reviewed, invited, poster sessions, or trainings. If a conference is cancelled, add “(conference cancelled)” at the end of the listing. If the conference is moved online, use the same format as an in-person conference, including the original location. Additionally, if the conference occurs but you and any co-presenters are not able to attend, you are still able to list it, but add “(poster/paper session cancelled)” after the title of your session.

Grants

    List all grant projects, including title of the project, name of institution, city, state, date, and amount funded. If the grant was not funded, it is important to list the grant to emphasize the fact that you know the application process for various types of grants. For each grant, list the specific skills utilized to acquire or manage the grant project, for example, “Created budget for RO1 funded grant” or “Create timelines, meet deadlines, and manage multiple projects according to grant foundation guidelines.”

Honors

    In this section, include all academic honors, awards, and fellowships, along with any other accolades that support your expertise and leadership. The name of the award, sponsoring institution, and date should be included in this section. If the award is not self-explanatory, add a brief descriptive phrase to help the reader understand the significance of each entry. This section can also be combined with scholarships, fellowships, and/or affiliations if only one or two in each section.

Community, Professional and University Service

    In this section, briefly list all community and professional service (using subheadings) to include elected and appointed leadership, board positions, consulting, guest media appearances, and task force appointments. Depending on the purpose of your CV, you may reorganize these to speak to your audience. If you are applying for a teaching or field instructor position, list university service first, including university committees, task forces, and any field liaison assignments, to emphasize your connection with academia. If using the CV for public relations, you should highlight service to the profession to emphasize your credibility within your respective field of practice. For each entry, list your role, the sponsoring organization, city, state, and dates of service.

    With a strong CV, you will communicate your value and expertise to hiring committees for academic and teaching positions, funders, and public relations contacts. Remember, a CV gives you the freedom of length to demonstrate your career story. Make it interesting, well written, logical, and compelling, and you are sure to win an interview!

 Jennifer Luna, MSSW, writes about social work career development. Jennifer is a social worker, career coach, keynote speaker, and trainer. She serves as Director of the DiNitto Center for Career Services at the University of Texas at Austin, Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Jennifer utilizes a collaborative yet strategic coaching approach to assist social workers in identifying their strongest skills, areas of knowledge, key strengths, and leadership characteristics.

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