📄 CV, Research Statement & Portfolio

Your academic CV and research statement are the primary instruments by which the world forms its first impression of you as a researcher. Invest in them proportionally.

1. The Academic CV vs. Industry Résumé

These are fundamentally different documents with different audiences and purposes.

Dimension Academic CV Industry Résumé
Length 2–10+ pages (grows with career) 1–2 pages maximum
Goal Document complete scholarly record Demonstrate impact and fit in 6 seconds
Publications Full section, all papers listed Selected; may summarize
Teaching Dedicated section Usually omitted
Grants Dedicated section Usually omitted
Format Chronological, dense Scannable, achievement-focused
Objective Establish scholarly identity Pass ATS filters, impress hiring manager

2. Academic CV Structure

Standard Section Order

1. Header (Name, contact info, website, Google Scholar, GitHub)
2. Research Interests (2–4 keywords or phrases)
3. Education (reverse chronological, GPA optional)
4. Publications
   4a. Peer-reviewed Conference Papers
   4b. Journal Articles
   4c. Workshop Papers / Extended Abstracts
   4d. Preprints / Under Review
5. Awards and Honors
6. Research Experience
7. Teaching Experience
8. Invited Talks and Presentations
9. Professional Service (reviewing, organizing)
10. Skills (languages, frameworks — brief)
11. References

Publications Section Formatting

Follow the standard in your community. Most CS academics use:

\textbf{Your Name}, Co-author A, Co-author B.
``Paper Title.''
\textit{Proceedings of Conference Name (VENUE)}, Year.
[\href{https://arxiv.org/abs/...}{PDF}]
[\href{https://github.com/...}{Code}]

Bold your name in every author list. Include direct links to PDFs and code.

3. Writing the Research Statement

A research statement is a 2–5 page narrative document required for faculty job applications and some graduate fellowships. It answers three questions:

  1. What problems do you work on, and why do they matter?
  2. What have you accomplished so far?
  3. Where is your research going?

Structure Template

Introduction (0.5 page)
— Hook: compelling motivation for your research area
— Your positioning: what makes your approach distinctive
— Explicit statement of 2–3 research thrusts

Research Thrust 1 (0.75–1 page)
— Problem
— Your approach
— Key result (with numbers)
— Publication reference

Research Thrust 2 (0.75–1 page)
— Same structure

Research Thrust 3 (0.75–1 page)
— Same structure

Future Work (0.5–1 page)
— Near-term: 1–2 year concrete goals
— Long-term: 5-year vision for the research program

[Optional] Teaching/Mentoring Philosophy (0.5 page for faculty applications)

[!IMPORTANT] Every factual claim must be backed by a publication or a concrete result. “My research improves efficiency” is weak. “My work reduces inference latency by 3.2× on standard benchmarks (VENUE 2024)” is strong.

4. Building a Research Portfolio Website

Your personal website is the public face of your research identity. A researcher without a website is invisible.

Minimal Required Content

  • Name and current affiliation
  • Professional photo
  • Research interests (2–3 sentences)
  • Publications list with PDF/code links
  • CV download link
  • Contact information
Template Framework Demo
al-folio Jekyll Most popular in ML community
Academic Pages Jekyll Easy GitHub Pages setup
Hugo Academic (Blox) Hugo Fast, clean, flexible
Quarto Quarto Integrates code and publications

Google Scholar Profile Setup

  1. Go to scholar.google.com and create a profile.
  2. Set your profile to public.
  3. Add your institution.
  4. Verify all your papers are correctly attributed.
  5. Set up citation alerts for your own papers.

5. Industry-Facing CV and Portfolio

When targeting industry roles (even research roles), adapt your presentation:

Key Differences

  • Lead with impact: “Reduced model training time by 40%” beats “Developed new training algorithm”
  • Quantify everything: Users, latency, accuracy, scale
  • Emphasize code: GitHub links, open-source contributions are taken seriously
  • Trim publications: List only top venues; industry cares about NeurIPS, not your workshop
  • Show systems thinking: Describe deployed systems, not just academic results

GitHub as Portfolio

Your GitHub profile is your engineering portfolio:

  • Pin your best 6 repositories
  • Each repo should have a clean README with: What it does, how to install, how to run, results
  • Include at least one implementation of a key paper
  • Maintain consistent commit history (irregular commits signal low engagement)

6. LaTeX CV Templates

% Minimal professional CV header
\begin{center}
  {\LARGE \textbf{Your Name}} \\[0.5em]
  \href{mailto:you@university.edu}{you@university.edu} $\cdot$
  \href{https://yourwebsite.com}{yourwebsite.com} $\cdot$
  \href{https://github.com/you}{github.com/you} $\cdot$
  \href{https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=...}{Google Scholar}
\end{center}

Recommended LaTeX CV packages:

  • moderncv — Professional, clean; multiple style options
  • awesome-cv — Visually distinctive; great for industry applications
  • altacv — Modern two-column layout

Further Reading