This is just out of curiosity really... Do you include a blurb (a few statements about you, your work, your ambitions, whatever) at the top of your CV before you put your education and roles etc?

I don't tend to but I am thinking of adding one...

Thoughts appreciated!

Hi. I think it goes in the cover letter. I would recommend you to meet with career advisor in uni. They helped me to filter out irrelevant stuff in my CV.
Another tip. Put your most attractive stuff first. For example your paper might be before work experience if you do not have much experience and so on.

I always have, under 'objectives'. I vary it from the cover letter and just try to get across my main career ambition (of the time!).

Thanks - this is useful to hear! I might do something similar with "objectives" - just to reinforce my personal statement. I also like the advice about putting the attractive stuff first. My publication record is almost non existent (but I think it is OK given that I haven't finished my PhD yet). And it feels so disappointing when that is the first thing I show. I kind of thought I had to with it being an academic CV. But maybe with me being so early career stage I could put my departmental activities and research experience first (I have more of that stuff - so the start of the CV won't look so meagre if I put that at the top - after education history of course).

Ps. I don't have time to see a careers advisor. I'm submitting an application for a really competitive fellowship pretty last minute. I know... ... .... but still - it's an experience and you never know!

Good luck. In this case, the most important is education history (starting with PhD of course). You may later go to career adviser for future improvement of the job application

Yes, I have a box for "summary", 3 lines long, which sums up who I am as a researcher and academic, my focus, detailed experience w/...etc. Under the summary, I have a box for "skills" which lists (with commas, not bullet points) the methods I use, software ability, language, etc.

cheers Engm I'm happy with my cv that I use for jobs. I am wanting to tweak this version quite a lot for the fellowship application. Cheers Nad75 - I think I will do something similar to that. I do want to showcase my research skills somehow, since I don't yet have much of a publication record. I like the idea of using commas instead of space consuming bullet points and new lines!