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Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:58 pm
by PissedOffFeminist
Alright hopefully I'm posting this in the right section and that this isn't a completely asinine question...

I'm working on my CV/resume at the moment and am stuck on whether or not to include something. My undergrad's newspaper published a full-page article about me about a year ago (had to do with my campus activism and what have you). I guess my question would be should I include this in my resume? In the extra-curriculars section or the honors section? Save it for the personal statement? Forget it entirely? I'm having quite the internal conflict here. :?

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:10 pm
by CanadianWolf
While the article may not be relevant, the underlying activity leading the paper to write the article may be worthy of inclusion on your resume.

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:33 pm
by PissedOffFeminist
CanadianWolf wrote:While the article may not be relevant, the underlying activity leading the paper to write the article may be worthy of inclusion on your resume.
That was my thinking as well. Would it be pretentious of me to just make a "press/media/public appearances" section? I only ask because I've been featured/quoted in several media outlets and given presentations on such activism activities. Hypothetically, if I were to include something to that effect, would I also include things like photos of me participating in activism events? (for example, such photos appeared on the cover of NYT and USA Today). I'm just thinking of this stuff for purposes of illustrating my extracurricular activities.

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:36 pm
by delusional
By the time I got to my CV, I was sick of the whole TLS rigidity. It will not kill someone to read a couple lines that were not strictly necessary. What I did was, i included a section after each job listing on "highlights" where I wrote about particularly successful details in that job. If I get blacklisted because of this, I'll let you know, but it gave me a little room to introduce myself without having to pretend I want to specialize in (insert particular school's specialty here).

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:59 pm
by PissedOffFeminist
delusional wrote:By the time I got to my CV, I was sick of the whole TLS rigidity. It will not kill someone to read a couple lines that were not strictly necessary. What I did was, i included a section after each job listing on "highlights" where I wrote about particularly successful details in that job.

That makes sense. I feel like as long as I don't go overboard with a bunch of irrelevant detail, it's probably worth including. The way I have it set up now is, under my extracurricular activities section, I have my various clubs/organizations and my positions (president of such and such, committee chair of bla bla bla, etc.) Then, I have another section for "media, press, and public appearances," which includes things like "featured in university newspaper, article title, date," "protest participation depicted in NYT, article title, date," "presented to students on such and such issue," "organized protest at this place and time," things like that.

I mean, the point of a CV is to brag about the stuff you've been involved in, right? I suppose it's easy for people like journalists who can cite their articles being published or whatever, whereas applicants like me have to show this kind of stuff by citing examples of people publicly saying "look at what those hippies are up to now." :wink:

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:03 pm
by Lasker
delusional wrote:By the time I got to my CV, I was sick of the whole TLS rigidity. It will not kill someone to read a couple lines that were not strictly necessary. What I did was, i included a section after each job listing on "highlights" where I wrote about particularly successful details in that job. If I get blacklisted because of this, I'll let you know, but it gave me a little room to introduce myself without having to pretend I want to specialize in (insert particular school's specialty here).
While I realize that you are not talking about exactly the same thing, I feel that this partial answer from one of the TLS admissions dean interviews suggests that you made a good choice:

"It’s not really the first line of the resume that’s important to us. It’s the description of what comes after that first line. I’ve seen a lot of wonderful looking titles, but then when you drill down deeper, there’s really not much there."

Perhaps, for the OP, the information about the media attention, if included, would be best placed in a subheading under the item that led to the media attention.

EDIT: After seeing your new post, I suppose it could be weird to have a similar "media attention" bullet point under each activity. If you went that route you would probably need to pick only the most important ones.

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:08 pm
by lawschooliseasy
delusional wrote:What I did was, i included a section after each job listing on "highlights" where I wrote about particularly successful details in that job.
I hope you didn't actually use the phrase "highlights." Including a few short bullet points on each position you've had is a good idea though.

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:10 pm
by PissedOffFeminist
Lasker wrote:
"It’s not really the first line of the resume that’s important to us. It’s the description of what comes after that first line. I’ve seen a lot of wonderful looking titles, but then when you drill down deeper, there’s really not much there."

Perhaps, for the OP, the information about the media attention, if included, would be best placed in a subheading under the item that led to the media attention.

EDIT: After seeing your new post, I suppose it could be weird to have a similar "media attention" bullet point under each activity. If you went that route you would probably need to pick only the most important ones.
Yeah, that's where I'm now conflicted. After reading the responses to my original post, I've pretty much settled on the notion that it's better to include that type of stuff than to leave it out.

Now my concern is how to integrate all of that into my CV. Do y'all think the whole "press, media, public appearances" section is a viable option?

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:55 pm
by ladybug89
I think it depends. You say "CV/resume," but which is it? Since CVs are much longer and include publications and such, a media section would be fine and not out of place if you're a few years out of school and using one of those. But if it's just a resume, I think you'd be better served by mentioning the appearances as part of the description of the particular jobs. That sort of thing doesn't usually appear on a short resume and separating media appearances might come off as a little too arrogant, even if that's not your intention. (obviously a little arrogance is necessary.)

but that's just my take.

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:03 pm
by delusional
lawschooliseasy wrote:
delusional wrote:What I did was, i included a section after each job listing on "highlights" where I wrote about particularly successful details in that job.
I hope you didn't actually use the phrase "highlights." Including a few short bullet points on each position you've had is a good idea though.
oops.

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:41 am
by lawschooliseasy
delusional wrote:
lawschooliseasy wrote:
delusional wrote:What I did was, i included a section after each job listing on "highlights" where I wrote about particularly successful details in that job.
I hope you didn't actually use the phrase "highlights." Including a few short bullet points on each position you've had is a good idea though.
oops.
Lol. I'm sure its not a big deal, just sounds a bit tacky.

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:44 am
by ATR
I was going to try to help, but then I saw OP's username.

Re: Super random CV/resume question

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:46 am
by lawschooliseasy
atresia wrote:I was going to try to help, but then I saw OP's username.
Perhaps she shouldn't go to law school. And should make me a sandwich instead.

/Joke in poor taste.