Click to enlarge – using graphics to list my academic publications in the CV
It is about time for me to look for a job (…a serious one). I am applying for PI position, group leader or “some kind of scientist who does science in a science lab”.
I am working on my CV and I just noted how boring it is to read (proof read) a list of publications, the list of skills or (even worse) a complete list of conferences I have attended in the past (is the “conference attended” a useful section?!?!)… anyways, I came up with a different way to summarize my work (and experience).
I will use the usual (plain, boring ) list of papers, conferences and skills but I will also provide a visual summary. Let’s say something like: “my skills at a glance” or “graphical publication record”. It may make the interviewers life easier.
For example, the diagram of my academic publications is color coded, so you can easily find out how many papers and what journals I have published in during the stages of my career (undergrad, phD student and post-doc/research associate)
The nice thing about this diagram (made with the free software Xmind) is that you can add hyperlinks to the nodes. Ideally I could have inserted an excerpt of the paper’s title and hyperlink to the original reference. Nice idea.. too bad that you need the PRO version of xMind to export the pdf. but the same result (or even better) could be achieved with D3.js (for an online CV though)
I also plotted all of the conferences I have attended during my career… I couldn’t believe my eyes! I have attended a lot (a lot) of conferences.
.. I don’t know if these diagram will increase my chances of getting the job but I DO NEED to put some graphics in my life (and job)!
If you plan a career in science you may get to travel a lot
Posted by Leonardo Restivo