How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

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Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!!
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How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! »

Hey all!

I know for all us, quiz bowl has made up a significant time commitment - be it in the form of writing, editing, studying, organizing, directing, etc. I was curious for my resume, what aspects I should highlight about quiz bowl to make sure it comes across as a vital activity and part of my development as a person. I've already jotted a few things down about being able to research and write, but I'd love to get some feedback from the community on this, as well as create a space where we can all discuss.

Thanks!
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Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by Cheynem »

I would try to highlight what particular skills and/or duties you earned or mastered while in quizbowl (while trying to relate this to the types of jobs you're looking for). For example, if you wrote and edited things, you can highlight that you worked on time-sensitive goals, collaborating with others, and on tasks that emphasized clear, mechanically accurate prose. You could also highlight leadership positions, experience working with administration, leading and directing events, communication skills, etc. I think it's less important that your readers of your resume fully understand what quizbowl is but rather the types of impressive skills the activity taught you.
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Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by jinah »

Similarly to Mike’s point about transferable skills, Susan Ferrari has some points on how she used quizbowl in her own job search in her interview on the ACF blog.
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Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

You should be tailoring your resume to the position you are applying for. Figure out what it is that the people reading the resume want from an applicant, and then highlight the way that quizbowl shows you have that.

For instance, if it's a job where you will be managing a budget, talk about your experience managing the quizbowl team's budget. If it's a job where you will be making sure that projects get completed on time, talk about your experience getting a tournament written on time, etc.
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Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by SpanishSpy »

I have mine on an 'activities' section at the end of my resume; I'm hoping that in the off chance that my interviewer played the game once it'll help me stick out.
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Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by bolshevik »

I actually wrote my supplementary essay for my application to wustl on quizbowl! Specifically, I emphasized how it hugely helped me to develop curiosity about the world and how things within it connect, and also how I learned important skills like being part of a team, leadership, making connections with other people, the list goes on, you get the idea.
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Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

If people want to see what quizbowl looks like on a resume, feel free to look at mine below. Despite being forced into the lame Columbia format, it at least has the advantaged of having been reviewed by a bunch of career professionals and advisors from a business school, so it's probably a decent model for your resume as well.
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Sima Guang Hater
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Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by Sima Guang Hater »

Academic resume with quizbowl in it, though it was only reviewed by my PI and not a panel of people.
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Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by AGoodMan »

I think you can tailor your quiz bowl experience to the job you want to apply to. For example, I'm mostly looking at management consulting jobs right now, so the advice I got from Career Services was to highlight the work I've done by using numbers and data (this advice goes for anything on your resume, not just quiz bowl). I tried my best to express the work that I've done with quiz bowl in college through as many numbers as possible (you can see the snippet I've attached below). Sure, it might seem over the top, but I've had some success in recruiting using my current resume. Some interviewers have especially found my quiz bowl section interesting and asked me to talk about it more.

Furthermore, consulting (as well as many other jobs, I'm sure) asks behavioral questions along the lines of "Tell me about a time when you had to demonstrate leadership / think quickly on your feet / etc," and I was able to answer many of those questions by drawing on my experiences in collegiate quiz bowl, whether it's having to improvise during HFT, motivating people to write questions, etc.

If anyone has questions about how they might use quiz bowl experience to help with job recruiting, feel free to DM me, and I'd love to help in the limited amount of experience that I have (though by no means am I an expert - there are probably a ton of others in the community who can do it better than me, but I thought I'd throw my name out there).
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Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?

Post by Susan »

I'll echo the good advice that others have posted here. I put quizbowl on my resume during the time when I was transitioning out of academia and looking for other jobs in higher ed (in fields like career development, admissions, fundraising, academic affairs, and--where I ended up--grants/research admin). I didn't use it when I was looking for postdocs (didn't think it was likely to help), and I didn't use it once I could fill a page with relevant work experience. I've pasted below a version of the resume text I used for one of these job applications. What I emphasized (both in the resume and in interviews) depended upon the specific roles I was looking for--if the role involved copywriting, I'd emphasize writing and editing on a tight deadline, while if it was in alumni engagement, I'd talk about recruiting alumni and other volunteers, etc.

If you're going to include quizbowl on a resume, my strongest piece of advice is to recognize that few of the people who read your resume will be likely to know much about it. You should avoid jargon and make sure that your descriptions of your duties and achievements in your quizbowl role make it easy for people to get a sense of what transferable skills you've gained from quizbowl. It may be useful to remember that resumes (unlike CVs) aren't expected to be a complete accounting of everything you've ever done--they're supposed to be a tailored document that highlight the aspects of your background and achievements that make you a good fit for the particular employer or opportunity that you're targeting. Obviously, if you're writing resumes really early in your career, you probably ARE putting on a reasonably large percentage of what you've ever done--but you may still want to tailor how to describe your activities so that your audience can understand how your skills apply to their context.
my old resume wrote: LEADERSHIP AND VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES
Member, Editor, and Communications Officer, Academic Competition Federation, (2009-present)
  • Worked as part of a team to organize three national intercollegiate quiz tournaments.
    Wrote and edited questions for national intercollegiate quiz tournaments; provided feedback to student writers.
    Assisted in maintaining WordPress-based website and communicating rules, guidelines, and deadlines to players.
Administrator, Quizbowl Resource Center, (2009-present)
  • Moderated an internet forum used by high school students, college students, teachers, and coaches.
    Assisted users with technical problems, managed conflicts between users, and developed forum rules as part of a team.
Vice President, College Bowl Team, University of Chicago (2001-2004) (member 1999-2008)
  • Arranged travel and practices; coached team members in competition and in question-writing. Maintained Facebook page
    to communicate with team members. Represented the team at activities fairs for prospective and current students.
    Planned and facilitated five regional and two intramural tournaments, including recruiting team alumni as staff.
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