cannyben

In many courses, the days after the first exam can be stressful. Some students might feel worried about the results, or even doubt their abilities. So at the end of one challenging exam, a professor took a few minutes of class time to reassure the students.  Her brief remarks led to the kind of email that every faculty member should want to receive:  “The speech you gave post-exam was something I needed to hear. Thank you for reminding me that I belong here and have the potential to succeed.”  The student’s words tell you a lot about the instructor’s teaching style. Besides teaching content and skills in your discipline, your role is to help students learn. And not just some students. The changing demographics of higher education mean that undergraduates come to you with a wide variety of experiences, cultures, abilities, skills, and personalities. You have an opportunity to take that mix and produce a diverse set of thinkers and problem-solvers. Teaching inclusiv...

Your CV — as its full name, "curriculum vitae," suggests — is the record of your academic life. But it’s also a passport through that life, and one you’ll have to show to gatekeepers over and over. Of course a strong CV is built on strong achievements. But you also have to present your record in an interesting and impressive way. And that’s where many aspiring candidates fall short. What follows are eight tips to improve your CV. But first, understand the difference between a CV and a résumé. There’s plenty of overlap between the two — it’s fair to describe a CV as an academic résumé. But the differences are salient. A résumé tends to be directly purpose-driven. It might start out with an explicit career objective ("a public-relations position that combines analysis and customer relations"), while a CV rarely features that kind of rhetoric. CVs have specific purposes, too — they’re more implicit, that’s all.  You have to design a CV for the audience it wil...