Ask a Career Consultant
Hi there! Every week, the Career Development Team for Researchers at the Office of Career and Professional Development answers an anonymized career development question from the UCSF community. You can also visit the archive of all of our past columns. To submit your own question, email it to [email protected] with the subject line 'ASKOCPD.'
A third-year PhD student asks—
When an internship posting does not explicitly request a resume or CV, which one should I submit?
Which kind of document is best suited to describe your candidacy depends on what kind of work environment it's for. For internships in research-focused roles or academic environments, we recommend submitting a CV. CVs are expected for roles where seeing your entire academic history is helpful, which is pretty much just research-intensive and/or teaching positions. For internships in any other kind of role or environment, we recommend submitting a resume. Resumes are the expected application document for most roles. Because they are curated to only include the most relevant information, they are the most efficient way to communicate your fit for a given role.
-Ray Care, Program Director, Career Development Team for Researchers