Overview
Committees often skim a CV in under a minute before deciding whether to read the letter and writing sample closely. What they look for first varies: a research-intensive department wants publications, work in progress and funding near the top; a teaching-focused college looks for courses taught as instructor of record; a UK panel reads the CV alongside a person specification; a European funder may ask for a narrative CV with no publication list at all. The same content can succeed or fail depending on how it is arranged.
We review your existing CV against the specific posting or scheme, then return a marked-up version with a proposed section order, suggested headings, and comments explaining each change. You decide what to keep. Nothing is added that you have not done: our work is about making real achievements visible, consistent and correctly categorized — for example, separating peer-reviewed articles from working papers and under-review manuscripts so no reader suspects inflation.
If you are applying across systems — say, US tenure-track jobs and UK lectureships in the same cycle — we help you build a master CV and two or three tailored versions, so you are not rewriting from scratch for every deadline.
Who it’s for and the problems it solves
This is for you if you are…
- PhD candidates preparing a first faculty or postdoc CV from a graduate-school CV
- Postdocs and fixed-term researchers moving from one country's hiring system to another
- Early-career faculty preparing CVs for a move, a fellowship or a promotion file
- Researchers asked for a narrative CV (for example UKRI's Résumé for Research and Innovation) for a grant or fellowship
- Clinicians, practitioners and industry researchers returning to academic roles
Common problems we help with
- Your CV is organized chronologically like a résumé, so your strongest publication is on page three
- Working papers, preprints and accepted articles are mixed together, which can look like padding
- You have substantial teaching experience but it appears as a one-line list of course codes
- A funder wants a narrative CV and you do not know what to write in each module
- You are unsure whether to list journal impact factors, h-index or citation counts
What’s included — and what isn’t
Included
- Review of your current CV against one target posting, scheme or country convention
- Recommended section order for your stage: education, appointments, publications, grants and awards, presentations, teaching, supervision, service, and skills
- Publication list clean-up: consistent citation style, clear status labels (published, forthcoming, revise and resubmit, under review, working paper), and marking of student co-authors if your field does so
- Teaching section restructured to show your role (instructor of record, teaching assistant, guest lecturer), level, enrollment and any course design
- Guidance on US CV versus UK academic CV conventions, including length, personal details and whether to add a research profile summary
- Adaptation into a narrative CV format such as UKRI R4RI, with feedback on evidence for each module
- DORA-aware advice on presenting research impact without relying on journal impact factors
- One revision round on your updated draft
Not included
- Adding publications, grants, roles or dates you cannot document — every entry must be accurate
- Choosing references for you or contacting referees
- Formatting a CV into a specific institution's online application system on your behalf
- Any promise of interviews or offers; committees weigh many factors beyond the CV
What you receive
- Annotated CV
- Your CV with tracked changes and margin comments explaining each suggested move, cut or relabel.
- Section-order recommendation
- A short note setting out the order we recommend for your target role and why, with alternatives for other applications in your cycle.
- Tailored versions (if requested)
- Up to two variants from one master CV — for example a US research-intensive version and a UK lectureship version.
- Narrative CV feedback (if requested)
- Module-by-module comments on a narrative CV draft, flagging claims that need evidence and entries that belong elsewhere.
How it works
Send CV and target
You share your current CV, the posting or scheme you are targeting, and any institutional template you must follow.
Diagnostic read
We read it the way a committee member would, noting what is visible in the first minute and what is hidden or unclear.
Restructure and annotate
We return tracked changes with comments. Larger questions (for example, whether to list conference talks separately from invited talks) are raised as options, not silent changes.
Your revision
You accept, reject or rewrite. We then review the updated version once, checking consistency of styles, dates and labels.
Formats and conventions we work with
- US academic CV
- No fixed length; grows over a career. Usually no photo, date of birth or marital status. Publications, grants and teaching are listed comprehensively, with the most relevant sections placed earliest.
- UK academic CV
- Typically read against a person specification, so a concise research profile at the top and clear evidence of teaching, funding and citizenship help panels score you. Often shorter for early-career applicants.
- European and other national conventions
- Some countries expect personal details or a photo that US and UK readers would find unusual. We follow the posting and the institution's own guidance rather than a single template.
- Narrative CVs (UKRI R4RI and similar)
- R4RI asks for contributions to knowledge, to the development of others, to the research community and to broader society, with an optional section for context such as career breaks. Word limits are set by each funding call.
- DORA and responsible metrics
- The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment asks that research be judged on content rather than journal impact factors. We help you describe the significance of outputs, including datasets and software, instead of relying on venue metrics.
- LaTeX and Overleaf CVs
- We can comment directly on LaTeX source, or on a PDF export if you prefer to make changes yourself.
Order by career stage, not habit
A doctoral candidate's CV usually opens with education (including dissertation title and committee or supervisors), then publications and work in progress, then teaching. By the postdoc stage, appointments move up and funding becomes its own section. For mid-career moves, grants, supervision of doctoral students and leadership roles carry more weight and may deserve positions above teaching.
Within each section, reverse chronological order is standard. What changes is which sections come first and how much detail they carry. We suggest an order that puts your strongest, most relevant evidence on page one for the specific job.
Labeling publications honestly
Committees read status labels carefully. "Forthcoming" should mean accepted. "Revise and resubmit" should name the journal only if your field does so. Manuscripts under review are usually listed without the journal name in many disciplines. Separate headings for peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, reports and non-academic writing help a reader see your record without doubt.
- Keep one citation style throughout and bold your own name if that is the convention in your field
- Mark equal-contribution or corresponding authorship in the way your discipline expects
- List datasets, software and preprints where they are genuine research outputs
When a funder asks for a narrative CV
Narrative formats ask you to explain contributions in prose rather than list them. The common mistake is to paste a publication list into the first module. Instead, each module should pick a few examples and explain your role, the outcome and why it mattered — mentoring a student through their first paper, building a shared dataset, advising a policy body. We help you choose examples that cover all modules and keep within the call's word count.
What the work can look like
Illustrative example — fictional data
Illustrative before-and-after: a postdoc's first page
A fictional postdoc in sociology is applying to US assistant professor roles at research-intensive universities. Her CV opens with two pages of conference presentations, and her two journal articles appear on page three.
Before
Education → Conference presentations (22 entries) → Teaching (course codes only) → Publications (2 articles, 3 working papers mixed together) → Service.
After
Education and current appointment → Peer-reviewed publications (2) → Work in progress (1 revise-and-resubmit, 2 working papers, labeled separately) → Grants and fellowships → Teaching (instructor of record for two courses, with levels and enrollment) → Selected presentations (invited talks first) → Service.
Why
Research output and trajectory are now visible in the first screen. Presentations are trimmed to the most relevant, and teaching entries show responsibility rather than just course numbers.
Illustrative example only; the person and details are invented. Actual recommendations depend on your field, target institutions and record.
What you’ll need to provide
- Your current CV in an editable format (Word, Google Docs or LaTeX source)
- The job posting, fellowship call or funder guidance you are targeting
- Publication status for each manuscript, so labels are accurate
- Details of teaching roles that the CV currently abbreviates
- Any mandatory template or length limit
You don’t need everything ready to ask for a quote — tell us what you have and we’ll say what’s missing.
What affects price and turnaround
Price depends on
- Length and complexity of your current CV
- Number of tailored versions required
- Whether a narrative CV is included alongside a traditional one
- Whether you need comments only or also a restructured draft
Turnaround depends on
- Application deadline and how many documents are due at the same time
- How quickly you can confirm publication statuses and teaching details we query
Every project is quoted individually. How we price our work.
Questions people ask before starting
How long should my academic CV be?
There is no universal length. US academic CVs grow with your record and are not trimmed to two pages. UK early-career applicants often keep them shorter and more focused because they are read against a person specification. Always follow any limit stated in a posting or funding call.
Should I include my h-index or journal impact factors?
Many institutions and funders have signed DORA or CoARA commitments that discourage relying on journal impact factors. Some fields still expect citation counts. We help you decide based on your discipline and the target, and usually recommend describing why a piece of work mattered rather than listing venue metrics.
Can you make my CV look stronger?
We can make genuine achievements easier to see — reordering sections, clarifying roles and removing clutter. We will not add, inflate or relabel anything inaccurately. Search committees check, and inaccurate CVs can end candidacies.
Do you work with LaTeX CVs?
Yes. Send the source or share an Overleaf project with comment access, or send a PDF and apply changes yourself from our annotated copy.
I am applying in both the US and the UK. Do I need two CVs?
Usually yes, or at least two versions of one master document. The content overlaps but the emphasis, length and front-page summary often differ. We can set up a master CV so that tailoring is quick.