Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

I hear you. I worked retail and other minimum wage jobs through HS and college, too. But I think many now are getting advice not to share that. And the honest truth is that sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad. Hard to give universal guidance.

If students are getting this advice, I would question where it comes from and to what aim. The fact is that few students from underprivileged backgrounds can afford to do unpaid internships or have connections to get into early research programs to have "pure science" experience

I was definitely told to take anything not related to my field off my CV even other research experiences. Any part time jobs I held or leadership positions I was told to remove as well.

Grrr this makes me really angry! If you can share this - was it careers advice workers at your university or senior academics/ supervisors or the job advertisers/recruiters saying this? The gall of telling ECR to omit part-time jobs & leadership roles from their CV!

Basically they told me my cv was too long and that stuff was irrelevant. If I added back part time jobs and non micro related research I’d have a solid extra 2-3 pages. I held 2 jobs at all times in undergrad.

1/ There's a lot here to unpack and thanks for sharing! First, yes, CVs should be brief, but there are ways to list non-academic roles without cutting altogether. E.g. Under management section with role only, or listing a selection & then pointing to a website for more detail.

Agreed. A great thing to think about - should you list “non-academic” experience? How to show its positive impact? And then how to shift culture to be inclusive,understanding and appreciative if some are programmed otherwise?

Sorry - don’t mean to talk over you @OtherSociology - I’m just glad we talked about this tonight! I think it is an important area to get in open.