Michael Rowe

Trying to get better at getting better

Claude, help me condense my CV

I’m listed as a co-researcher on a funding application, and I need to provide a condensed version of my CV as part of the process. This would typically take me a couple of hours to complete.

Claude did it in seconds, and I didn’t even have to edit the output before submitting.

I have to transform the attached CV into a 2-page version that only includes the most important information, for a funding application. Please use your judgement to decide what information to remove, what can be linked to (e.g. the list of publications can be a link to Google Scholar), what can be summarised (e.g. the number of postgraduate students), and so on. Take your time and think step by step. I want the final output to include a strong focus on my research and teaching accomplishments. Give the output in markdown.

There are obviously many ways to condense a CV, with none being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Which means that this is the kind of activity that generative AI is very good at. I obviously need the output to be correct; I don’t want Claude to hallucinate anything in my CV. But this is the kind of thing I can check very quickly.

Another point worth noting; in this context, I’m not being judged on my ability to condense a CV, and I’ve already done the actual work that’s presented in the CV. In other words, there should be zero concerns that this is ‘cheating’ in any way. This is a purely administrative exercise that ticks a box on an application form, and is therefore exactly the kind of thing that generative AI should be used for.


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