Do you know there’s a difference between an academic CV and a job CV?
Chinedu applied for four scholarships this year. Each time he attached the same two-page CV he uses for job applications, and each time he got a rejection or heard nothing at all. He blamed his grades, but his grades were fine. The CV was the problem.
A job CV and an academic CV look alike at a glance. But they answer different questions, though, and a scholarship panel is asking the second one.
What Is a Job CV?
A job CV is written for an employer who wants to know whether you can do a specific task from your first week. It opens with work experience, lists your skills and measures you by results: revenue grown, a system built, a team led. It stays short, usually one or two pages, because a recruiter may give it thirty seconds. Anything that doesn't serve the role gets cut.
What Is an Academic CV?
An academic CV is written for a panel that wants to know whether you can succeed in a course of study or a research project. It opens with education. It provides real space for research, publications, conference presentations, awards, teaching, and academic service. Length follows what you have done. A graduate with a first degree and one research project may fill two pages. A lecturer with ten years of research will need five or more.
Country and opportunity change the rules. A Commonwealth reviewer in the UK expects something different from a German professor reading a PhD enquiry. Read the scholarship guidelines before you open a blank document, since some set a page limit and some ask for a specific format.
A job CV is judged on what you delivered at work. An academic CV is judged on what you have studied and produced. The bank job from your gap year still belongs on the page, but it gets one line, and your final year project gets a paragraph.
Panels read dozens of these in a sitting. They look for your degree class, your research, your referees and any sign that you finish what you start. If those things sit on page three behind a long list of office duties, many readers never reach them.
The rest of this article covers academic CVs only.
A sample academic CV
Here is a simplified layout for a fresh graduate. Every name in it is made up.
CHINEDU OKAFOR
Lagos, Nigeria | [email protected] | +234 800 000 0000
Research interests
Sociolinguistics, code-switching, language and media in West Africa
Education
BSc English and Literary Studies, University of Ibadan, 2021 to 2025
First Class Honours, CGPA 4.72/5.00
Final year project: "Code-switching in Nigerian campus radio broadcasts"
Supervisor: Dr A. Bello
Research experience
Research assistant, Department of English, University of Ibadan, 2024
Transcribed and coded 30 hours of radio recordings for a staff study on language choice in broadcasting.
Publications and presentations
Okafor, C. (2025). Switching codes on air: Evidence from three campus stations. Paper presented at the Nigerian English Studies Conference, Abuja.
Okafor, C. and Bello, A. (under review). Language choice in student broadcasting.
Teaching experience
Tutor, GST 101 Use of English, University of Ibadan, 2023 to 2025
Taught weekly tutorials to groups of 40 first-year students.
Awards and scholarships
Departmental Prize for Best Graduating Student, 2025
University Merit Scholarship, 2022 to 2024
Skills
Languages: English (fluent), Igbo (fluent), Yoruba (intermediate)
Software: NVivo, SPSS, Praat
Referees
Dr A. Bello, Department of English, University of Ibadan, [email protected]
Prof. N. Eze, Department of Linguistics, University of Ibadan, [email protected]
Tips for writing yours
- Put education first. Give the degree, the institution, the dates, your grade and your thesis or project title. If you have a supervisor, name them. Panels use this section to place you quickly.
- Add a short research interests line under your name. One line is enough, and it should match the field of the scholarship you are applying to. Change it each time you apply.
- Describe research in a sentence or two. Say what you studied and what you did. "Transcribed and coded 30 hours of radio recordings" tells a reader far more than "assisted with research."
- List everything newest first within each section. Readers want your latest work before your oldest.
- Pick one citation style and use it for every publication or presentation. APA works for most social science and humanities fields, but follow whatever your field uses. If a paper is under review, write "under review" next to it. Never present it as published. Panels check, and a small stretch costs you the whole application.
- Include non-academic work only when it connects to your study. Tutoring, lab work and volunteering with a research group earn space. A shop assistant job from 2019 can go in a single line or stay out.
- Choose academic referees. Two lecturers or supervisors who know your work well are better than a famous name who barely remembers you. Ask them before you list them, and send them the scholarship details so their letters match your application.
- Leave out the personal details that job CVs sometimes carry. A photo, your date of birth and your marital status have no place here unless the application form asks for them.
- Keep the layout plain. A clean font, clear headings and consistent spacing do more for you than colour or graphics. Save the file as a PDF so nothing shifts when the panel opens it, and name it properly, something like Chinedu_Okafor_Academic_CV.pdf. A file called "CV final 2 new" tells the reader how much care went into the rest.
