Speaker 1: Hi everyone and welcome back to my channel. For those of you that are new here, my name is Ellie Slythome and I've just finished my degree at the University of Leeds and I will be going on to study a Masters in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge in September. So today I thought I would walk you through my CV, which is the CV that I applied to for both Cambridge and Oxford and I was fortunate enough to receive offers from both universities. So this is for postgraduate study. I appreciate if you are applying at undergrad you won't need to submit a CV, but if you are applying at postgraduate then you do need to submit a CV and it's an academic CV. So I appreciate some people may not know the difference between an academic CV and a personal kind of CV that you would apply ordinarily for a job, which is why I'm just going to walk you through exactly what I put on my CV for both Cambridge and Oxford and talk you through everything that I've put on there and why I've included it. Before I dive in and show you my CV, I just want to say that... anything that is included in here, do not copy. They will know, they will have records of previous applicants and they will know if you have copied. So I'm putting this out there showing you kind of a rough idea of what you can put in your CV, but please don't copy it word for word. Please be kind of imaginative with your own CV and don't write exactly everything that I've put in here. You can follow the structure, but please don't copy anything because they will know and you will definitely not get an offer if they know you've copied from somebody else. So I guess we'll get stuck into that. So let's jump into the video and I will move you onto my screen where you can see my CV. Okay, so this is my CV. The reason for this big red kind of thing here is I just put my address there along with my email. I think it was that I put there. Oh, and my telephone number. And I've kept these two little bits here just because if you want to check out my LinkedIn, then here it is. More than welcome to check it out. And I thought it was quite important to include LinkedIn because sometimes you post things on LinkedIn that you necessarily don't post on your on your academic CV. And my academic CV is obviously more towards academia. You know, quite intuitively, it's less likely the stuff that you have done in your spare time. So less likely jobs that you've done. I did include a couple on here just because at third year, you don't really have a lot of academic achievements really other than what you've done at university. So your grades. So it's always important that if you are an active member of LinkedIn and you post on LinkedIn and equally GitHub, which is where I put my code. This code account anymore, I use my other code of the future account, which is where I teach people how to code if you're interested in that little side note. But it's always important to just add a couple of links onto your CV, because then the people that are looking at your CV can explore a little bit more about you. So obviously, my CV has a lot more on here than what my academic CV would do. Okay, so the first thing that I did was I added a personal profile. So I'll just read it out to you a self motivated and passionate individual looking to pursue a master's in mathematical and theoretical physics. I'll stop there and just say that this was the CV that I applied for Oxford. So obviously, when I applied for Cambridge, I just altered my master's to the appropriate course I was applying to a current summer research intern and university student with a palpable desire to research into fluid dynamics, specifically the astrophysical area, extensive drive and ambition to research, which was further amplified after obtaining the highest mark in the fluid dynamics module in a class of over 130 mathematics and physics students, and ranking within the top 5% of my second year cohort, experiencing mathematics and physical research, as well as presenting at conferences and constructing research papers. So that's a little bit of a summary of kind of what I have done academic wise. So obviously, I love fluid dynamics, I put that in there straight away, because that's what I want to specialise in on both the courses, I then kind of talked about what academic achievements I have according, you know, with that, at this point, it was after my second year. So the only kind of module I'd done to do with fluid dynamics was one module, and I attained the highest mark in it. After I submitted, I did my second year, and I did my second year, and I did my second year, and I did my second year, and I did my second year, and I did my second year, and I did my second year, and I did my second year, and I did my second year, this I was able to actually attain the highest mark in fluid dynamics too, which was pretty cool. It's kind of a shame I wasn't able to include it on here. But obviously, it would have been too late to apply by then when I got my result for it. And then finally, I just added in here that I've kind of had experience presenting, you know, I've got good communicational skills, and also research papers. So I did that as part of my research internship. And that I think is quite important that I've had experience with that. Because as part of the master's on both courses, you could do a dissertation kind of research project. So if you've had experience constructing research papers, then it's always helpful that so that will help you towards the master's. Okay, so the next thing that I included was my education. So I didn't want to kind of bombard the reader with loads, like all of my modules, I did that on my CV before. And I think it's great that they can see that. But equally on my LinkedIn, if you go on on my LinkedIn, if they're really, really interested, and I go down to my University of Leeds, I literally put all of my grades on here. And also, as part of your application, you submit a transcript, so they can see literally every module that you've done, or already and the grades that you've got with it. So all I did was I just said what my grade was expected. So a first class, I put down my average for my second year and my first year, I put second year first, obviously, because second year counts, first year doesn't, I put the date, so they know when I'm graduating, obviously, the university and the course title. And then I just added the relevant modules. So here, I just basically said, obviously, fluid dynamics one, two, hydrodynamic stability, vector calculus, all of these kind of modules. So I just decided to put relevant modules, so they know that I have got the prerequisites. You know, I'm studying modules that will help me towards the master's that is. Okay, so that was kind of a summary of my education. I thought they've got my transcript, they know how my grades have gone. There's not much else I can really talk about that. So next was research experience. So obviously, this is a big part of an academic CV is what research you have done. And don't worry, most people haven't done any research. When I was applying, obviously, COVID had ruined a lot of things, a lot of internships got cancelled, and you're more likely to get an internship in your second year. So I was very fortunate that mine still went ahead. So obviously, for my research experience, I put down my internship, which was this. So it was sensors and atmospheric science research intern. I'll read all this out. So I was a sensors and atmospheric science research intern, and it was part of the UK Space Agency's project. It was funded by the UK Space Agency. I put the date as usual, so they know that I've recently done it. And then I'll read out exactly what I've put here. One of the 50 space research interns selected to work on space flight and satellite research projects funded by the UK Space Agency. So that's essentially an overview of what the internships were. Researching into specifics of FMCW Doppler radar data processing, specifically how range and Doppler velocity are extracted from observations. Spectra. That's what I did on my internship. Then I put programming code for creating velocity intensity diagrams by range and displaying these appropriately through Python, which enhanced my ability to apply scientific and mathematical theory to quantitative data. So what I've done here is I've said, this is what I did and how it has enhanced my ability. So I've said it's enhanced my scientific and maths ability, which obviously they're looking for because they want someone that's done an internship that has taught them things, not someone that's done an internship and that's it. You know, I was able to do this internship and it's helped enhance my science and maths and research and things like that. Then researching the scattering of electromagnetic radiation at hydrometers, as well as the relationship between terminal fall velocity of hydrometers with droplet size. So this was something that I kind of did later on towards the end of my internship. It sounds very, you know, in depth. I must admit it was quite, it was an okay aspect of my project and I really, I did really enjoy it. And then I said programming code to create profiles of the droplet size distribution and profiles of information derived from these, such as liquid water content and displaying appropriately through Python. Okay, so you can see that this research internship was very much kind of coding, but equally I've applied some maths to it. And that's the reason why I included it because it was a research internship and I was able to write a research paper on top of it, which I did towards the later stage of my internship, which was really, really cool. Now this second part, this was something that... changed slightly. The University of Leeds, we apply for a kind of research project and my research project actually got changed, unfortunately. So the stuff that I included here was different to what I'd actually done in my research project. But similarly, it's very similar stuff. In fact, if not more physics related, it was still computational applied maths. It was just a different research project. As long as you've done some form of research and dissertation on something that's appropriate, I think they're happy with that. So what I would say is include your dissertation. You may not know what it's on already, but just include it. Say you will be doing research on that, and this is what you're going to be researching on. Similarly, if you're at master's level and you just want to do an extra master's or whatever, put down what you've done at master's and just any research that you've done in your university. So that's why I included here kind of the dissertation aspect of things so they can see that that was running that the year that I applied. And then obviously, because I'm only a third year, I didn't have any more research experience. I... You know, you... There's not a lot you can do when you do apply. An academic CV is very hard to write when you are a uni student that hasn't had much experience, especially you apply in your end of second year, and most people don't get internships in their first year. It's very kind of unheard of just because most people don't apply, you know, offer people experience in first year. I was able to get some work experience in something completely different, which I'll talk about in just a second. So don't worry if you don't have any research experience. Just write down your... If you've done any research at all. At university, or if you've done any in terms of internships or anything else, and definitely put your dissertation down because that will help, you know, them understand that you are doing a dissertation. So then additional experience. So this is kind of just stuff that I wanted to include because it's... It shows that I do get up to things outside of university and I've been proactive. So obviously, first year summer, I did some work experience with an audit company, so BDO, which is the fifth largest accountancy. First year summer, I did some work experience with an audit company, so BDO, which is the fifth largest accountancy. First year summer, I did some work experience with an audit company, so BDO, which is the fifth largest accountancy. And I worked on the audit of Manchester City Football Club, which was quite cool. I must admit, I saw Pepe, I think it was, who was the manager, and it was quite a... Definitely a surreal experience. I don't know much about football, so sorry if I've got that wrong, but it was quite a cool experience. So I put that in there. So I did some, obviously, experience then. And then I did this intern... And then I did this insight week, which was really cool. It just showed you a little bit more about being a software engineer and coding. So I guess my CV has quite a lot of coding in there, but, you know, coding and maths go hand in hand really, really well, which is always good. So I did that. These were little kind of things I'd done. Obviously, I had done other things, you know, other experience, which if you look at my LinkedIn, I've kind of done quite a few things on here. I just didn't include them because they weren't as appropriate, I guess. At this point, this was before I'd set up any of my coding channel and things like that. Then I went on. And then I went on to talk about my relevant research skills. So this is how, so this is kind of when I do come on to do the masters, I'll be able to do the research project quite well, because I've got good research skills. And I suppose these do apply to just studying anyway, because if you can research well, then you can research outside of the lecture material. So I'll read out what I did. Programming knowledge in languages such as Python, R and LaTeX, undertaking a molecular simulation module through the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, which will further enhance my programming ability in the physical sciences. Then tenacity. And diligence for developing research projects, because obviously I've done research projects, meticulous and thorough when approaching mathematical problems, which is just, you know, that's me all over, I guess, ability to analyze research literature to an outstanding standard. And I was actually told on my dissertation that my kind of research was outstanding. So I guess that, you know, that kind of went quite well. And then I did my achievements and funding. So this is stuff that I'd kind of achieved outside of, I suppose, uni and also inside of uni. So obviously I got my internship that was funded by. The UK Space Agency, I got the highest grade in my fluid dynamics module with 96 percent, I ranked within the top five percent of my of the undergraduate students at second year in second year, I raised over two thousand three hundred pounds for the Great Northern Ambulance Service by cycling the length of England in six weeks, I was a previous British motocross champion and sponsored rider for Honda and I was interviewed for national television, radio and newspapers, including ITV, BBC, STV in regard to my fundraising and motocross accomplishments. So that's that. So I thought I'd mix things up there. Obviously, normally in an academic CV, it's more of a kind of what funding you've had, what kind of academic achievement. So if you've got any awards at the university, if you've got the top 10, if you've been top of a class, top of a module like I put there, more so that. But I thought I would include my other extracurricular things just to show that I'm just to show that I'm a well-rounded person and I've got things outside of academia. Then this is additional courses. So this is what I've kind of done. In my spare times during the summer, I was really interested in astrophysical fluidomics and I got the lecture notes and I kind of went through the lecture notes and found it really, really interesting. So I thought I would put that in there and just talk about how I had, you know, learned more around the area that I was interested in here. I did an introduction to web development course. The reason I included this was just because it shows teamwork. You know, I'm able to work with random university students that I was just put together with. And also, you know, just, I guess, shows that I. Do you want to learn things outside of what I do? And then similarly here, I did a kind of virtual experience and this was just to do with coding again. So during my second year, I kind of was like, oh, maybe I want to do software engineering as a job. And then I realised that I just love math so much and thought maybe not. So there's a lot more coding in this. I think it's always nice to include things that you kind of enjoy outside. But obviously here I talked about my interest in fluid dynamics. So that was always good. And then these. Just memberships of professional societies. So these are, these are societies that I'm a part of. So UK SEDS, if any of you enjoy space, you probably will have heard of UK SEDS. I'm part of that society, Royal Aeronautical Society, Women Techmakers. And then these are just the societies I'm at at the University of Leeds. And they've kind of since changed, but I put them on there anyway because I've previously been members of them. And then conference presentations and posters. So usually this is, you usually have like a section for your publications if you've published anything, but obviously it's very unlikely that third year students will have had a publication unless you've done research over the summer. So I did my conference presentation, which was essentially just what I did at my internship. And it was moved remote, unfortunately, but it was part of like this space conference thing. And then finally, my references. I've blurred out the kind of contact details, but I had two people, my academic references to a professor and a doctor from the Department of Maths. And then I had my. Internship supervisor who was a physicist and test and development engineer. So that is my CV. I would say that it's it's definitely a little bit different to, I suppose, a CV for an academic CV for someone who is a postdoctoral, who's had publications, who's had different areas of research. If you type in an academic CV online, it will probably look very different. And you probably think, how do I tailor that to me when I literally haven't done much research? And I guess that's why I've decided to. Show you this, because I've shown you how you can alter it slightly for someone who doesn't have that experience. You know, a lot of people apply with academic CVs with 10 years experience. We have none, essentially. So so I hope you enjoyed this video. As I said at the beginning of the video, please don't copy anything in this. I would hate for you to get kicked out of this application because you've copied somebody else. It's plagiarism. They will test your CV against others that they've had in the system prior to that. So please don't copy. I hope the video has been useful and you've kind of got an idea of how to structure it if you are going to write a CV or if you just want help with an academic CV generally. If you did enjoy it, then please like, subscribe and comment. And don't forget to hit the bell button as well, because I'm releasing so many more videos like this. This summer is going to be hectic because I've got so many videos planned. So, yeah, make sure you hit the bell button so you don't miss out on any of those videos. And I will see you all in the next video.