A hiring principal investigator reads your postdoc CV to answer one question: can this person advance the research already running in the lab? Every formatting choice should shorten the time it takes them to say yes. Lead with what you have produced, not with where you have been.
Put research first, teaching second
Unlike a faculty CV, a postdoc CV is weighted toward output. After your name and contact block, place Education, then a Research Experience section that names each project, the PI, the method, and the finding. Teaching, service, and outreach come later. A postdoc committee wants to see that you can run experiments independently and finish them, so foreground the work that ended in a result or a manuscript.
Make publications and skills unmissable
Publications are the currency of the transition, so give them a dedicated section with a consistent citation style and your name bolded in each author list. Distinguish published, in press, and under review honestly.
- Publications: full citations, newest first, with DOIs where available.
- Techniques: the bench, computational, or field methods you can run unsupervised.
- Funding: fellowships and grants you held or co-wrote, with amounts.
- Presentations: invited talks separated from contributed posters.
Keep the layout scannable and consistent
Length is not a virtue on its own. Two to four pages is normal for a postdoc, but every line should earn its place. Use a single column, one legible serif or sans-serif font, and identical formatting for every entry of the same type. Avoid tables, columns, and graphics that break when a file is converted. A reviewer skimming forty applications in an afternoon will reward the CV that never makes them stop to decode it.
Draft the structure with our CV guide, then build a clean version in the CV maker. If you are moving between a resume and an academic CV, resume vs CV clarifies what changes.