The curriculum vitae (CV) is a living document, a record of your educational background, output, professional work experience, service activities, skills, etc. In an ideal world, you should always have one Master CV that you update at regular intervals (e.g., once per month) so that all relevant information is at the ready.

This master CV is not what you submit to applications, however. Instead, you will reorganize (and sometimes cut down) your CV based on what a particular funder is looking for. For example, if an agency is looking to fund area studies experts, you will want to place your area studies coursework, language skills, and/or travel abroad experiences closer to the top of the CV. However, if the agency is interested in funding students who are on a path toward tenure-track professorships at R1 institutions, you will instead highlight publications and teaching experience (usually in that order) before anything else.

Many applications do not require CVs but instead have biographical sections in which you fill in text boxes with information from your CV. These sections can be time-consuming, and space limits sometimes require you to pick and choose certain line items over others, so please be sure to allow yourself time to fill these out.