It has come to my attention since working in my new position that resume presentation and the standards and norms that go along with it are, in fact, cultural phenomenons. Since study abroad obviously deals with professors in other countries, I have been finding out that the cultural norm in other places (at least in academia) is to have resumes that average 4-10 pages in length. Some have cover pages. Others have photos. Others have listed publication after publication, seminars, conferences, doctoral candidates advised even going back to the 1970s.
The first time I opened a 9-page resume I gasped in shock. The shock-standards were raised considerably (actually they were yanked up by their bootstraps) last week during my project compiling all course syllabi and professor CVs for a site review of one of our international centers. One by one I opened the resumes to be sure they were formatted suitably. I took the liberty of abbreviating those that were longer than 10 pages, taking care to make a note on each one that it was abbreviated and that anyone was free to ask the center for a complete copy. All was going smashingly until I opened a resume that was 47 PAGES long. 47. 47!!
I sincerely hope that particular professor is 90 years old, but his list of accomplishment and collaboration, and experience, and advising, and teaching went on for days and days. With a little boldness I managed to wittle it down to 6 pages, but I may have started the Third World War. You might want to have an ear to the news during the end of May when the professors see what I've done.
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