Do’s and don’ts of writing an effective CV/resume
for international positions
Many specialists at the mid-to-advanced stage of theircareer hope to expand their work to an international
level, for example, by serving on an international
committee, taking up a position within a globally active
nongovernmental organization, or taking a visiting
professorship or sabbatical at a university overseas. Goals
can include raising awareness, spreading knowledge, anddisseminating working practices in specific populations orin society as a whole.
A number of documents are needed when applying forsuch positions, and all must be written with great care andattention to detail. Among these documents, the curriculum
vitae (CV) or resume/résumé is usually the first documentthat is read during the screening process. As such, itneeds to highlight the candidate’s suitability for the position
quickly, accurately, and clearly.
Although many resources are available to help students and early career professionals write effective CVs/resumes,
few exist to guide mid-to-advanced career specialists. This article seeks to address this gap by offering specialists whowant to apply for influential international positions some tips—in the form of do’s and don’ts—for writing English CVs/resumes. We also provide a general template to help create clear, accurate, and well-formatted CVs.

Download a CV/Resume TEMPLATE (Word File)for mid-to-advanced career specialists
The tips below have been drawn from helping many specialists—senior clinicians, engineers, academics, researchers,social scientists, and policymakers—to prepare effective application materials for top-level roles at home and overseas.
By “application materials,” we mean the many documents needed when applying for influential positions, including aCV/resume (with a publications list), a cover letter (sometimes listed as a statement of purpose or a letter of intent/motivation), a letter to a referee asking for a reference/recommendation, a confidentiality agreement/undertaking, and aconflicts of interest disclosure form.
Here, we focus on writing CVs/resumes. We’ll cover how to write the other documents, as well as how to write
recommendation letters, in later feature articles.

What makes an effective resume?
As a mid-to-advanced career specialist, you will have acquired a number of specific skills and experiences over theyears that you could list on your resume. Providing the standard information needed isn’t the difficult part—you’ve1
Copyright 2016 © ThinkSCIENCE, Inc.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

probably updated your resume several times over the years. The challenges are to know exactly what information tokeep in and what to leave out, how to use the best wording to showcase your talents concisely and appropriately, andhow to best present the information that you decide to keep in.
The person who will screen your application will scan-read your CV to decide whether to look at your application in moredetail. Therefore, your goal is to produce a resume that demonstrates, quickly and accurately, your suitability for theposition. To do this, your writing needs to be:•••

Clear and concise
Free of errors
Formatted for easy scan reading

So, let’s look at how to do this, by focusing on each of the standard sections of your resume. The content can bebroadly divided into six sections. Depending on the position you are applying for, some of these sections may appear ina different order from that listed here.

1.

Heading information (your name, academic degrees/
professional qualifications, and contact information)

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Education and qualifications

Change the nature and focus
of your content according to
the type of position you areapplying for. There is no one
standard template to use.

Employment history
Publications list
Professional memberships
AwardsDate

After you have created a well-crafted CV once, you should be able to update it quickly throughout your career. When
you want to apply for a specific position, you can then focus your time and attention on revising the text to fit the exactposition.
Here are a couple of general do’s and don’ts that you should consider when writing your resume.

Do’sDon’ts (or don’t need to)

Do use a template file to help you prepare your CV (follow Don’t choose a template file that has overly complex forthe formatting carefully); it should have clear, simple,
matting that could be distracting; it shouldn’t have manyand consistent formatting that distinguishes between thedifferent fonts or a complex layout
sections
Do save your final file as a PDF file to submit; change the Don’t use an Excel file for resumes in English (as is comfile properties so that the text can be printed but not easily monly used for resumes in Japanese)copied or resaved into an editable file
Do use bullet points for lists

Don’t need to use fully grammatical sentences; whether
you choose to write in grammatical sentences or not, use
one style of writing throughout

Let’s look at some tips for each section. And don’t forget to download the template, to guide you in providing thestandard information.

2Copyright 2016 © ThinkSCIENCE, Inc.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

1. Heading information

Do’s

Don’ts (or don’t need to)

Do give your name centered at the top of the page
followed by your academic degree(s); on the line below,
give your email and telephone for quick contact

Don’t need to provide a photo unless you
are asked for one

Jane Smith, MEng, PhD
Email: xxxx@gmail.com
Tel: 81-1-1111-1111
Do give your date of birth (DOB) on a new line, leftaligned, if this information is asked for

Don’t give your DOB or age unless requested (your age
is not required, particularly in the United States, to avoid
potential age discrimination lawsuits); if you are completing an online form, don’t give your date of birth together
with your place of birth because these two pieces of
information can result in identity theft if the online form iscompromised

Do give your address where you want to be contacted(either a work or home address)

Don’t need to state your sex, marital status, or dependents

Do give any other information that you want to stand out
quickly to the recruiter when he/she is scan-reading yourCV, such as

Don’t need to include a profile statement (about 200words), which is also known as a career statement/aim
and commonly appears on CV templates (often given byprofessionals earlier in their career)Specialist fields: X, Y, Z
Current position: Physician/scientist at a university hospital, specializing in Z

2. Education and qualifications

This section has various titles, but common ones are “Education and qualifications” and “Education and academicqualifications”.

Do’sDon’ts (or don’t need to)

Do list your most recent qualification first

Don’t need to state all your qualifications if they are not
relevant to your application

Do give the date (month with year or year alone) that you
qualified for each, left aligned

Don’t need to state the start date of training unless you
wish to; if you are listing a few qualifications, sometimes
giving the year alone is clearer

Do state the academic degree and name (or equivalent
Don’t need to write your thesis/dissertation title if you
professional qualification details) in bold type on the same completed it many years ago (but include it if it is specifline as the date, indented
ically related to the position you are applying for or you
wrote it fairly recently)
2014
PhD, Materials Science
X University, Osaka, Japan

2009

MSc, Materials Science
Y University, Sydney, Australia

3Copyright 2016 © ThinkSCIENCE, Inc.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

3. Employment history
This section also has various titles, including “Employment”, “Employment history”, and “Employment and experience”

Do’sDon’ts (or don’t need to)

Do list your most recent job position first

Don’t need to state all of your very early career
positions in detail if they are not relevant to yourapplication

Do give the month and year that you worked in each position, left- Don’t need to include the period after abbreviaaligned; use standard abbreviations for months (http://web.library. tions for months (if you want to make the formatyale.edu/cataloging/months.htm)
ting more consistent and tidy, you can use “Jun”
for “June” and “Jul” for “July”)
Do give your job title in bold type on the same line as the date,indented; follow this on the next line, indented, with department/
division name, affiliation/company name, city, country
Apr 2009 - Present

Regional Director of R&D, Europe
X Company, Geneva, Switzerland

Jan 2006 - Mar 2009

Director of R&D, JapanX Company, Tokyo, Japan

Do summarize your responsibilities if they are relevant to theposition you are applying for; use strong verbs to start the listedpoints•••

Don’t vary the formatting of this section; adjust theindenting if necessary so that all of the job titles
start at the same distance from the end date

Don’t overstate to the point of falsehood (lying)

Led a team of 10 researchers to do Y
Developed…
Increased…

Note: If you have a gap in your employment history that is not covered by academic study and which you think mightraise questions in the recruiter’s mind, mention the reason for the gap briefly in your cover letter.

4. Publications list

Do’s

Don’ts (or don’t need to)

Do list your most recent publications first, in a bulleted list

Don’t need to state all of your publications if there aremany; add a summary sentence and then give the mostrelevant ones for the position you are applying for

Do show your name in bold type for a publication withcoauthors

Don’t state a publication if it is not yet accepted; instead
list it as “(under review)” or “(submitted)”

4Copyright 2016 © ThinkSCIENCE, Inc.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

5. Professional memberships

Do’sDon’ts (or don’t need to)

Do list your professional memberships that are relevant to Don’t need to write these in full sentences (instead givethe position you are applying for and that show your level as a bulleted list)of expertise

6. Awards• Include any awards that show your level of expertise generally, as well as specifically for the position you areapplying for

7. Date• You can finish your CV with the date to indicate the time of writing• Note that dates written as numerals only can be confusing: 02/03/2017 can be read “2 March 2017” in British

English and “3 February 2017” in American English. Using the format “3 February 2017” or “February 3, 2017” isclear.

For example, right aligned:“Updated February 3, 2017”“Revised 3 February 2017”

Summary
We hope these general do’s and don’ts of writing effective CVs/resumes for influential international positions are helpful.
There are no firm rules for writing such documents, except that they should be error-free, clear, accurate, and targetedto the position you are applying for.
In our workshops about writing CVs that we teach to experts, key opinion leaders, and mid-career specialists, weare often asked how long a CV/resume should be. The answer we usually give is: as short as it can be to clearly andaccurately show that you are a good candidate for the position and direct the recruiter to look at your more detailed
cover letter and other application materials.
Our senior editors would be very happy to support you in editing and translating effective resumes that focus attention
quickly on the important details of your career. Please let us know if we can help in any way – and in 2017, please lookout for new feature articles on writing other application materials, such as cover letters (letters of motivation/intent),
requests for recommendation letters, and recommendation letters themselves.

5Copyright 2016 © ThinkSCIENCE, Inc.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.