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Professor resume example

Lead with scholarly impact, not duties. The strongest professor resumes pair funded research and publication counts with teaching outcomes and the students you mentored to placement.

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Dr. Philippa Lauterbach

Professor of Psychology | Cognitive Neuroscience | $3.2M in Federal Research Grants

  • Ann Arbor, MI
  • philippa.lauterbach@example.com
  • +1 (734) 555-0168
  • linkedin.com/in/your-name

Summary

Tenured professor of psychology with 14 years advancing cognitive neuroscience research and undergraduate teaching. Has secured $3.2M in federal grants, published 47 peer-reviewed articles, and advised 9 doctoral candidates to on-time degree completion.

Work Experience

Professor of Psychology

Aug 2019 – Present

Lakeside State University · Ann Arbor, MI

  • Secured $2.1M in NIH and NSF funding across 3 grants, sustaining a research lab of 6 graduate students and 2 postdocs.
  • Published 22 peer-reviewed articles since promotion, raising the department's combined citation count by an estimated 18%.
  • Redesigned the cognitive neuroscience curriculum across 5 courses, lifting median student evaluation scores from 4.1 to 4.7 of 5.

Associate Professor of Psychology

Aug 2013 – Jul 2019

Cedar Valley College · Columbus, OH

  • Earned tenure on a record of 19 publications and $1.1M in external grants secured over a 6-year review period.
  • Mentored 9 doctoral candidates to degree completion, with 7 placed in tenure-track or postdoctoral positions within 12 months.
  • Chaired the undergraduate curriculum committee, launching a research-methods sequence that grew major enrollment 34%.

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Aug 2009 – Jul 2013

Riverbend University · Bloomington, IN

  • Built a behavioral research lab from the ground up, publishing 6 first-author studies across 4 years.
  • Taught 4 courses per year to 320+ students annually while maintaining a 4.3 of 5 instructor rating.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Cognitive Psychology

2004 – 2009

Brighton Hollow University

Skills

Core competencies

  • Research & Grant Funding
  • Curriculum Development
  • Doctoral Mentorship

Research & Technical

  • Grant Writing (NIH, NSF)
  • Quantitative Methods
  • Statistical Analysis (R, SPSS)
  • fMRI & EEG Analysis
  • Scholarly Publishing
  • IRB Protocol Design

Teaching & Service

  • Lecture & Seminar Instruction
  • Curriculum Design
  • Dissertation Advising
  • Peer Review
  • Faculty Governance
  • Program Accreditation

Certifications

  • Quality Matters (QM) Online Course Design Certification · Quality Matters, 2020
  • ACUE Certificate in Effective College Instruction · Association of College and University Educators, 2018

Languages

  • English · Native
  • German · Professional working proficiency

The full sample as text. Rendered in the Academic template, a layout applicant tracking systems read in order.

Fictional person: the name and contact details are invented. Any resemblance to a real person is coincidental.

Professor resume summary examples

Pick the one closest to your level and replace the specifics with your own.

  • Entry level

    Assistant professor candidate with a PhD in sociology and six peer-reviewed articles, including two in top-tier journals. Taught four undergraduate courses as sole instructor of record, with evaluations above departmental averages. Seeking a tenure-track position where mixed-methods research, student mentoring and community-engaged work are valued.

  • Mid level

    Associate professor of environmental engineering with 28 publications and 1,900 citations. Principal investigator on $1.6M in NSF and state funding, and director of a six-person lab. Teaches core and graduate courses, advises doctoral students, and serves on the curriculum committee, the faculty senate and two journal editorial boards.

  • Senior

    Full professor and department chair with twenty years in public health research. Leads a unit of 24 faculty and a $9M annual research portfolio. Author of 90 articles and two books, has mentored 18 doctoral graduates, and is skilled in faculty hiring, program accreditation and interdisciplinary partnerships.

Common mistakes on a professor resume

  • Using a generic resume for faculty jobs

    Fix: Faculty searches expect a full academic CV with education, appointments, publications, grants, teaching, advising and service. Use a one or two page resume only for industry, government or administrative applications.

  • Mixing up publication types

    Fix: Separate peer-reviewed articles, books, chapters, conference papers and under-review work, and mark accepted or in-press items clearly. List authors in published order and underline or bold your own name consistently.

  • Giving teaching only a course list

    Fix: Search committees look for teaching evidence. Add courses you designed, enrollment, student evaluation summaries, new pedagogy and the number of theses or dissertations you directed or served on.

  • Ignoring funding and service

    Fix: Grants show you can sustain a program. List agency, role (PI or co-PI), amount and dates, and record committee, journal review and department service so the reader can see your citizenship.

What should a professor resume include?

A professor resume should open with a two or three line summary of your focus, then show each role as results rather than duties. Name the skills the posting asks for, such as Peer-Reviewed Publications, Principal Investigator and Grant Writing. Start bullets with verbs like Published, Secured and Mentored, and give each one a number where you honestly have one. If you hold a credential such as Quality Matters (QM) Online Course Design Certification, list it in its own section.

Research & scholarship

  • Peer-Reviewed Publications
  • Principal Investigator
  • Grant Writing
  • Research Design
  • Mixed Methods
  • Systematic Review
  • IRB Protocols

Teaching & curriculum

  • Course Design
  • Syllabus Development
  • Active Learning
  • Online Instruction
  • Learning Outcomes Assessment
  • Canvas LMS
  • Course Evaluations

Mentoring & service

  • Doctoral Advising
  • Thesis Committees
  • Faculty Search Committee
  • Peer Review
  • Accreditation
  • Shared Governance

Funding & methods

  • NSF
  • NIH
  • Statistical Modeling
  • R
  • Python
  • Qualitative Coding (NVivo)

Action verbs

  • Published
  • Secured
  • Mentored
  • Lectured
  • Designed
  • Chaired

Certifications

  • Quality Matters (QM) Online Course Design Certification
  • ACUE Certificate in Effective College Instruction

Match these against the job posting you are applying to: the free resume checker shows which keywords your resume is missing.

Professor resume bullet examples

The numbers are illustrative. Keep the structure (verb, action, measurable result) and use figures you can back up.

  • Authored 14 peer-reviewed articles in six years, including seven as first or corresponding author.
  • Secured a $750,000 three-year NSF award as principal investigator to study urban heat adaptation.
  • Designed a new graduate research methods seminar now required for all master's students and taught it to cohorts of 25.
  • Advised 11 doctoral students to completion; eight now hold faculty or research scientist positions.
  • Raised average student evaluation scores in a large introductory course from 3.8 to 4.5 out of 5 after introducing active learning.
  • Directed an undergraduate research program that placed 30 students in labs and produced 12 conference presentations.
  • Served as associate editor for a field journal and reviewed 40 manuscripts for peer-reviewed publications.
  • Led a faculty search committee that hired three assistant professors and increased applicant pool diversity.
  • Coordinated an accreditation self-study and a curriculum revision approved by the college senate.
  • Built a cross-department collaboration that led to a joint $480,000 grant and a shared data lab.

Salary (official data)

Official pay statistics for the occupation that matches this role, copied exactly as each statistics office publishes them.

  • United States

    Median gross annual pay: $82,250 a year

    Middle half of earners: $62,500 to $125,700 · 10th to 90th percentile: $48,230 to $177,070

    Official occupation: Postsecondary Teachers (SOC 25-1000)

    Gross wages of employees in all industries, before deductions; excludes the self-employed.

    Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Public domain.

  • United Kingdom

    Median gross annual pay: £53,159 a year

    Middle half of earners: £41,724 to £67,158 · 10th to 90th percentile: £30,146 to £83,060

    Official occupation: Higher education teaching professionals (SOC 2020 2311)

    Gross annual pay of full-time employee jobs (employees on adult rates in the same job for more than a year).

    Provisional figures: the publisher revises them a year later.

    Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, tax year to 5 April 2026, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

  • Canada

    Median gross hourly pay: CA$ 47.84 an hour · Median gross weekly pay: CA$ 1,789 a week

    Official occupation group: Professional occupations in education services (NOC 2021 412)

    Usual gross wages of full-time employees (30 hours or more a week) at their main job, including tips, commissions and bonuses.

    Source: Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0417-01 Employee wages by occupation, annual, 2025. Reproduced and distributed on an "as is" basis with the permission of Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence). This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

  • Ireland

    Mean gross annual pay of the whole major group: €70,522 a year

    Major occupation group: Professionals (ISCO-08 2)

    Mean gross annual earnings, including bonuses, for the whole major occupation group in enterprises with 10 or more employees. Eurostat publishes no median by occupation.

    Source: Eurostat, Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_28), 2022, CC BY 4.0. Ruubu matched the role to an ISCO-08 major group; Eurostat is not responsible for this use of its data.

Figures cover everyone in the official occupation, at every experience level. They are not a job offer, a forecast or a Ruubu estimate. Ruubu matches each role to the closest official occupation. An official occupation can include related jobs.

How we choose and show official salary data

Professor resume questions

Should a professor use a resume or a CV?

Academia expects a full CV, so the longer format with publications and grants is standard. A condensed resume only fits industry, government, or non-faculty roles where one to two pages is the norm.

How do I quantify research and teaching impact?

Cite grant dollars secured, peer-reviewed publication and citation counts, course evaluation scores, enrollment growth, and the number of students or doctoral candidates you advised to completion.

Do certifications matter for a professor?

Tenure rests on research, teaching, and service, but teaching credentials like Quality Matters or ACUE strengthen the instruction section and signal pedagogical rigor for teaching-focused appointments.

How long can an academic CV be?

There is no strict limit. Early-career CVs often run three to five pages, and senior CVs can be much longer. Put the most relevant items first and keep the format consistent so committees can scan it.

Should I list publications under review?

Yes, in a separate section labeled "Under review" or "In preparation," and only if the manuscript exists. Mark accepted work as "forthcoming" or "in press" so the reader knows its status.

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