Resumes / CVs of Undergraduate Students

Resumes / CVs

I don't seem to have one of those files on my current computers any more, but I know that my CV as an undergraduate looked something like this:

Name
Address

Picture taken by professional photographer while I was wearing a formal jacket and perhaps a tie

Formation

Studying biology at [university], 1996 - now
Non-military service, 1995 - 1996
[Public grammar school] (high school & college in one), 1988 - 1997
[Yet another public school], 1986 - 1988
[Public primary school], 1982 - 1986

Undergraduate scholarship of [foundation], 1997 - now

And... that was that. Black on white, Times New Roman size 11 point, 1.2 line spacing, one page, easy to see all relevant information at a glance.

Now, an Australian undergraduate's CV today appears to look something like the following:

Name
Address, e-mail

Either no picture (which is what is expected in Australia) or a selfie taken at a party

Personal details

My name is [name], I am 24 years old and live in Woolalla, New South Wales. I am currently in my third year at Ned Kelly University studying a combined degree Bachelor of Science / Bachelor of Arts majoring in biology and journalism. I hope to pursue a career in science and apply what I learned in university to better the world.

Personal attributes

Effective communicator
Reliable and trustworthy
Ability to work in team as well as independently
Hard worker
Leadership skills demonstrated by frying burgers at McDonalds
Organisation talent demonstrated during waitressing by correctly taking customer's orders

Skills

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Google

Employment history

Sales assistant at some supermarket, 2009 - now
Waitressing at Happy Hogan's bar, 2008-2012
Frying burgers at McDonalds, 2013 - now

Volunteer work and leadership

Friends of the State Zoo, 2011 - now
Church Youth, 2007 - 2009

Education

Ned Kelly University,  Bachelor of Science / Bachelor of Arts majoring in biology and journalism, 2014 - now
Catholic College of South-eastern Western North Sydney, 2012 - 2014
Little Sisters of Perpetual Misery Private Catholic High School, 2008 - 2012

Other activities

Raising money for YUZN charity
Wildlife rescue
Greening Australia
Surfing
Blood donor for Red Cross
Debate club

Achievements

Consistently excellent marks in university*
Award for high placement
Mentor for other students
Talent Award
Award for outstanding job as house head
President of debate club
Dean's letter of recommendation

They are often carefully formatted in a fancy sans serif font with about 50% white space, perhaps a red bar at the top or a blue bar along the left margin of the page. They are often three to four pages long.

A few thoughts. First, it is not as if we didn't have extracurricular activities and hobbies back then in Germany. It just would never have occurred to most of us that a potential employer or scholarship provider would care the least bit about our participation in a badminton club. And as far as I can tell they wouldn't have, and I certainly don't. This is wasted space that merely makes it harder to find the truly relevant information.

Second, the personal attributes also seem a bit pointless. Will anybody actually truthfully write "I am lazy" or "I am a poor communicator"? Presumably not, everybody will claim the positives, honestly or not. So this is wasted space that merely makes it harder to find the truly relevant information.

Third, I assume somebody tells Australian students to put all their work experience in there to demonstrate ... well, this is where it breaks down for me. That they will show up for work if you give them a contract? That's kind of a low hurdle to clear. But beyond that, how is flipping burgers or waiting tables a relevant qualification for a job or scholarship in science? I don't get it. This is wasted space that merely makes it harder to find the truly relevant information.

Fourth, all those achievements? When I was a school or university student in Germany, we did not have even just a tenth of those awards. Here half the students seem to have lists of awards that look seriously impressive; but given how many of them have lists like that I do wonder how easy they are to get. If there is no term like award inflation (in analogy to grade inflation) then we need to create it.

Of course, given the length of the time since I left I also wonder how German undergraduate students' CVs look these days. Do they now also mention every little thing they did, no matter how irrelevant to the job or scholarship they are applying for? Do they also now try to look as if they had been written by a graphic design graduate?

Footnote

*) From what I can tell the likelihood of somebody explicitly claiming to have consistently high marks in the achievement list seems negatively correlated with the actual quality of their marks. The people who actually have near-straight high distinctions tend to have only an understated line in the CV providing their point average.