Victor Lee Utah CV

The title of this post is Victor Lee Utah CV because I expect those to be the likely search terms for someone looking for my CV. Instead, they get this blog post.

I am not a big fan of posting my CV. To be clear, if my job required it or highly expected it of all faculty, then I would go ahead and post it. However, if I can get out of posting it, then I will. Why? Here are a few reasons:

1. My CV has my home address. I could take that out, but many people do not. I do not want my home address on the internet, although I'm sure there are some weird sites that have the name 'lookup' or 'whereis' or something like that in their url that will offer to tell you where I lived/live for a nominal fee. Privacy is a weird thing, especially now. Chances are, you can find my home address and see that my lawn desperately needs mowing. However, if I can create an obstacle for that embarrassment of a lawn (and I would rather xeriscape but the cost right now is prohibitive and we hope to sell this house one day and invest in a future house) then I will leave that small obstacle.
2. On several occasions, I have seen people attend a talk at a conference, and with their laptops open, search for [presenter name] [possibly their institutional affiliation if the name is common] and "cv". Then I see (and hear) an immediate dismissal because they did not go to a certain graduate school or did not publish in particular places or do not have famous co-authors. I know that is the heuristic that we use to make quick judgments, but I have seen it happen enough and people make judgments (and sometimes switch over to fully paying attention to their email or get up and leave a presentation) because of that. That makes me sad. I have been fortunate to have had affiliation with some places that some people respect. I have worked with some people that people respect. I am lucky in that regard. I do not want to be judged on that. I want people to pay attention to what I have to say at the time and engage with me at that moment. Maybe I am selfish, naive, or not comfortable with boasting. I just feel like there is a lot of snap judgment that is enabled by publicly posting CVs.
3. Doesn't it seem a little weird that one's "life's work" (translation for curriculum vitae with words reversed) can be inspectable to anyone? Like if I was a famous composer and someone actually wanted to write my biography, then sure. But right now, my life's work is more than what is on my CV. My life's work is how my kids turn out, what people think of me after they talk with me, what the kids and students who interact with me in my work do and how they are impacted by the things I try to make happen. I can't list that in a publication entry or an awarded grant or in the name of a class I taught.
4. Depending on where you are in your career, CVs say different things. I have dropped stuff I would have included when I was a graduate student. I imagine I would drop stuff I have now in 10 years. I co-authored a grant at one point that got funded, but I felt it weird to list a grant on my CV that I co-authored but for which I am not listed as a PI so I have taken it off. Recently, I was given a little research award locally which was really thoughtful and nice for the moment and situation, but is not something that I think should be on my official CV, especially if I am being examined by a national or international group of professional peers.  I want the freedom to present myself as appropriate at the time as it is called for. We are different people depending on the circumstances, and I like to make sure I can fully be whichever version of me (and they are all me, but me in sweats is a little different than me in a suit) when I feel the situation demands.
5. Do you want to see my academic transcript too? It sort of feels like that. We have FERPA and some etiquette about talking about grades. Look, if you really want to know what grades I got in school, you can contact me directly and ask me. I'll probably tell you. I am not ashamed of my grades. (Well, there was that bout of senioritis one term where I wanted to do some other stuff and being nerdy, calculated exactly how hard I needed to work to get a grade I thought was acceptable and did exactly that because I felt I had more important fish to fry.) I just do not feel like advertising some stuff about what I have done, although I will not deny it if asked. Probably some internet snooping would show that I graduated from undergrad magna cum laude and had some academic accolades because those become newsletter things that never die on the internet. You can use your imagination for my exact GPA or what sorts of school and academic activities I did if you really want. But I don't really feel like leaving it out there for anybody to see at any time.
6. I like being mysterious. It makes it possible for me to mess with people more. I can have a wicked sense of humor (albeit a good-natured wicked sense of humor, as oxymoronic as that might sound).

Again, I would totally make my CV public if I needed to based on what my current institution required. (My home address would disappear, though!) However, given the option, I'll just keep my CV to myself and share if asked. You are welcome to ask me for it, and I probably would share it, so long as you and I have met at some point, and I know you aren't trying to be an internet scammer.

Peace out.