Writing a CV: Stanford Approach

Daria Levina

There are so many ways to write an effective CV, and one of my favorites is the Stanford approach. You can use it not only to write a CV for a job position, but also for your study applications.

The Stanford approach to CV and résumé writing consists of 4 steps. Let's discuss each of them in turn:

Step 1:

In Step 1, decide what you want your audience to know about you and your experience.

For maximum effectiveness in your writing, you need to be really clear about what you want to communicate about your skills and experience to your audience. To achieve this clarity, you'll need to understand two things:

1) what the position you are applying for entails, be it a job opening, a study program, or a scholarship,

and 2) what experiences will emphasize the fit between you and the position you're applying for.

Step 2:

In Step 2, organize the information you decided to communicate under descriptive headings that summarize your experiences.

Descriptive headings will help you draw attention to the information you want to highlight.

Examples of descriptive headings are:

  • Education
  • Research
  • Teaching Experience
  • Writing and Editing Experience
  • Nonprofit Experience
  • Government Experience
  • Project Management
  • Community Service
  • Leadership Experience
  • Consulting Experience
  • Business Development
  • Advertising and Marketing
  • Language Skills
  • Social Media
  • Customer Service
  • Communications
  • Computer Programming Experience

In contrast, examples of non-descriptive headings are:

  • Education
  • Professional Experience
  • Work Experience
  • Volunteer Experience
  • Extracurricular Activities
  • Other

The difference is that descriptive headings immediately give the reader an understanding of the type of work you did, while non-descriptive headings, being more general, require more effort on the reader's side in terms of understanding your background.

Step 3:

In Step 3, after you've organized your experiences under descriptive headings, describe each one of them. Focus on skills that demonstrate you are a good match for the position you are applying for.

Ask yourself: What do you want the reader to know about each of the experiences you've listed?

There are some skills that are valued pretty much universally and that you might want to highlight:

  • communication skills
  • analytical skills
  • computer/technical literacy
  • managing multiple priorities
  • leadership skills
  • cultural awareness and sensitivity
  • planning and organizing
  • problem-solving, reasoning, creativity
  • teamwork

When describing your experiences, you may find the C-A-R framework useful. The C-A-R acronym stands for:

C for Context:

  • Setting, if it does not follow from the name of the organization
  • Who did you work with, i.e. team or population served

A for accomplishments

  • Overall task, project, goal accomplished
  • Relevant skills, methods, tools utilized to accomplish task

R for results

  • Outcomes of actions OR
  • The purpose of the task, project, or goal

Following the C-A-R framework, I might describe my experiences as follows:

Before example:

Research and Government Experience

Higher School of Economics - National Research University, Moscow, Russia

Junior Research Fellow at the Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development, April 2015 - February 2016

  • Conducted research on the central counterparty and marginal requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives within the framework of the reform of the financial markets law by the Russian Central Bank

After example:

Higher School of Economics - National Research University, Moscow, Russia

Junior Research Fellow at the Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development, April 2015 - February 2016

  • Conducted research on the central counterparty and marginal requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives in Germany to develop recommendations for the Russian financial markets law. Produced two 50-page reports. In collaboration with a team of researchers designed a law reform proposal implemented by the Russian Central Bank and the Parliament.

Step 4:

In Step 4, format the document to highlight the important content.

After you've written everything down, look at your CV and ask yourself: What are the most important parts? The parts you want your reader to notice immediately, as they glance over your CV? Bold, italicize, or indent that information.

Consider highlighting the organization names and the position title.

You don't need to highlight country, city, or dates.

General formatting guidelines for CV remain the same:

  • 1 - 2 pages
  • 10 - 12 font size
  • 2 - 2,5 cm margins
  • font that is familiar to most people and easy to read, e.g. Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial, Garamond, Helvetica, Cambria.

If you'd like to learn more about it and look at examples of CV styled this way, here is the source: Stanford Career Guide.

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