Introduction to Resumes, CVs, and Personal Statements

Welcome to the module designed to guide you in developing effective CVs, resumes, and personal statements for pursuing undergraduate research opportunities. Across each module, we will provide guidance on reading research position descriptions and provide information on how to tailor each document to the opportunity. An important part of this process is carefully reading research opportunity descriptions and reflecting on how your experiences, skills, and qualities align with the specific research opportunity.

This module is not intended to replace the services offered by your University Career Center. While your Career Center likely provides essential resources such as detailed guides, workshops, and one-on-one advising, this module offers specialized guidance and information on tailoring and utilizing transferable skills to undergraduate research positions. Together, these resources will support your journey toward securing undergraduate research opportunities. When you finish completing this module, you will have the tools and guidance needed to stand out in the competitive world of undergraduate research.

| A Case Study: Alexandra's Search For Undergraduate Research

To help you apply these concepts to an undergraduate research context, we will follow Alexandra, a first-year psychology student seeking her first research position. Alexandra’s journey will be referenced throughout the module as an example of how to tailor application materials to a specific research opportunity.

What to Expect From This Module

Transferable Skills: The first section is all about Transferable Skills. This section will provide examples of how to leverage your past experiences and existing skills to re-contextualize and re-conceptualize them as skills relevant to undergraduate research experiences.

Resumes: In the second section of the module, we will provide you with the general layout of a resume and guidance on how to revise and update any existing resumes you may have to tailor your resume for research opportunities.

Curriculum Vitae (CVs): We will also review a research curriculum vitae (CV). We will provide guidance on things you should know when creating a CV, how to structure a CV, and highlight important sections.

Personal Statements: We will provide guidance on the steps to producing an effective personal statement and some tips to remember when writing your statement.

Case Study: In the fourth section of the module, we will further explore Alexandra’s search for a research opportunity as a case study. We will use Alexandra’s application documents to showcase how to tailor application documents to match the requirements of a research position.

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