Ten Worst Things for a Law Prof Put on a CV

Over at the Chronicle Forums (here), readers are chiming in with the "Ten Worst Things to Put on Your CV," inspired by a similar general-business post over here at Yahoo Finance.  Here are some of my favorites from the Chron:

• Eagle scout
• MENSA Membership
• Photos
• Hobbies
• Job talks
• Marital status and names of kids
• Placement in recent athletic competitions
• Postings to fan-fiction sites
• List of grants applied for but denied or unfunded.

So what are some of the worst things for a law prof to put on a CV?  I'll incorporate by reference all of the above and add a few more:

• Pre-collegiate employment or volunteer activity
• Pre-collegiate anything, really
• Lists of blog postings
• Religious affiliation or membership.

Additions? Modifications? Clarifications?  How about American Bar Foundation Fellowship?  Service as an outside tenure reviewer?  What's on your list of "don'ts" for a law prof's CV?

Comments

[Former Law Review EIC]

Law school class rank. Especially putting that you finished in the top 11% of your law school class. Smacks of bitterness. Put top 15% if you put it at all. You're a law professor, everyone knows you've either done very well academically or went to Harvard/Yale/Stanford.

[Michael Lewyn]

Anything that makes the CV over two pages. When I was on a recruiting committee last year, all I really wanted to know about a candidate was:

1. Teaching experience- Has he/she taught (and if so, where- law school or other)?
2. Subject matter fit- What has he/she taught? Is it what we need?
3. Publications- Does he/she publish (and in particular, publish in law reviews or a reasonable fascimile thereof)?

The rest is just clutter.

I never felt like I needed extra stuff to keep interviews going, especially since we had a pretty large committee.

[Eric Muller]

Lateral offers declined. (I have actually seen this one.)

[Joe Lucas]

Harvard

[Dave Sidhu]

* Maury Povich Show, "You are NOT the Father" (repeated appearances) (stipend received)

Seriously: what about "lead article" with respect to one's scholarship?

[Girl Scout]

Honest question from a Girl Scout Gold Award recipient: does the Gold Award/Silver Award in Girl Scouts have the same stigma attached to it as the Eagle Scout Award? It's not on my resume but never thought it was stigmatized...

[Lance]

Substantive legal experience in a practice field relevant to real-world practice.

[anon]

Anything that demonstrates a concern for your students, or a queasiness about using fraudulent job placement statistics to trick them into destroying their lives with debt, so that you can earn a six figure salary by working 10 hours a week.

[Law Prof]

I don't see any problem with posting one's "religious affiliation or membership."

[Orin Kerr]

Federalist Society -- Chapter President.

[Anon]

Semi Finalist, Buncombe County Corn Queen Pageant.

[anon]

I'm with Dave - "lead article" always strikes me as being a little self-inflated and overblown. Okay, so you were the first to ask that journal to be the lead article - or perhaps you're actually one of the better articles being published by that journal in that issue or volume. So what? To me it signals hardly anything meaningful - except that the person (mistakenly) thinks this is a great accomplishment. And you actually see this from lots of more senior colleagues. Maybe I'm missing something.

[K. M. Jones]

Eagle Scout is a difficult accomplishment, and is something to be proud of. It shows dedication at an early age, a wide array of skills, and self modivation and determination. All are good skills in a job performance. I will continue to list my Eagle Scout accomplishment. I will also encourage my boys (both my own three, and the many boys in my scout troop) to proudly list Eagle Scout on as one of their greatest accomplishments. I have interviewed many people in my career. I have hired many Eagle Scouts. I have never been disappointed with the job performance of one of the Eagle Scouts that I have hired or with whom I have had the pleasure of working.

Sincerely,
An Eagle Scout, and Dedicated Scout Leader

[Mike Rich]

Lance:

Is there such a thing as substantive legal experience in a practice field that is irrelevant to real-world practice?

[James H]

I would think blog work on your CV would depend on the blog. Posting at Volokh Conspiracy? Cool. Posting at "I Think There's an Underpants Conspiracy?" Not so cool.

[Coleen Barger]

Class rank: Top 80%
(I've actually seen this.)

[anoprof]

When I was at a large firm, I saw a resume, from a very good applicant, which noted that she had won the swimsuit contest in her state beauty pageant.

[FOARP]

Percentage of your students who are now working as practicing lawyers - totally irrelevant to working as a law school prof.

[anon]

I've seen MENSA membership on one before....

[Bridget Crawford]

(Cross-posting my comment from Prawfs, elaborating on what I meant in saying that a law prof should not list religious affiliation or membership on an academic CV.)

For whatever it's worth, here is what I intended. I don't think it is ok to explicitly list one's marital status, race, religion, birthdate, or parenting status ("2 children: Jack and Jill") on one's academic CV. Or as Paul explained more clearly, I think it is inappropriate to "list one's religion as, say, a separate line on the resume under the heading of 'Religion,' just as one wouldn't have an entry for 'Marital Status' or 'Race.'" (Thanks, Paul!) As to listing activities/involvements/affiliations that tend to indicate any of those, I have no objection.