8.5 years ago by
Athens, GA, USA
I agree with Egon and Neil that this is not a bioinformatics-related question and I previously closed this question as off topic (which still is my view) but re-opened it on request from others in the community.
The only point I can make about an academic CV with relevance to a bioinformatics, is with respect to the issue of journal publications vs. conference proceedings. If you are applying to a post that is being evaluated by a biologist or bioinformatician from a biology (not CS) background, de-emphasize conference proceedings, as most biologists don't understand or value these publications. All they care about is publications in journals with an ISI impact factor. One specific piece of advice is do not list multiple versions of a manuscript published as first as conference proceeding then as journal publication -- to a biologist, this is confusing and looks like you are either self-plagarizing or padding your CV. Only list the final version under journal publications. If you are applying for a post evaluated by a computer scientist, this obviously does not hold, since conference proceedings are the lingua franca of CS.
Personally, I fall into the former camp and don't value conference proceedings as highly as journal articles. Why? In my experience, many conference papers are assembled in a hurry for a deadline, have a light-touch review process (either reject or accept with minimal revision), do not have strong editorial mandate for author compliance with reviewer comments, do not have strong copy editing, are rushed to publication, and do not have strong open source code or data deposition policies. Thus, they typically only provide a sketch of a system that is often neither available for use (without request) or described in detail enough for reproduciblity.
I think Bioinformatics career / academic related question should be discussed here in Biostar. As Pierre suggested, question may need some edits - this should be reopen.
How is this related to bioinformatics?
I think the question is, what problem specific to bioinformatics does this question address? In my opinion, there is nothing "bioinformatics-specific" about CV writing.
Relevance? A look at the view density (views/time) suggests a lot of interest. Maybe interest isn't relevance, but I think info on hiring tips is relevant to a field. Knowing that there is nothing "bioinformatics-specific" about CV writing is indeed information in itself, and so might be asked in a community forum. I've hired bioinformaticists, and know what i think is important, but I have no idea what others think, and found it useful to see the discussion.
I would change this question to "As a bioinformatician, do you have a specific way to design your CV"
yes, I wanted to say that in the way Pierre suggests, edited!
to mr. willighagen; this is related to bioinformatics in the way this thing can be improved in the bioinformatics research world. Also, if you do not present your CV in the proper way, you do not get funding, and finally, you can not do research
Glad to note this is re-opened. IMHO, we should discuss career related questions. This will be much useful for students, post-docs and job-seekers among us.