How to respond to a possible supervisor asking for a CV I don't have I'm a second-year graduate student in a large and well-known American physics department. For a variety of reasons, I've decided to &quot;jump&quot; sub-fields -- into biophysics, though I hadn't really started a project in the field I was initially interested in due to covid -- and am reaching out to faculty in the biology and biological engineering departments at my institution. One of these professors has asked me for a CV before we meet over Zoom.
This caught me off guard, because that question isn't usually posed in my department -- our presence here, and the mere fact of our inquiry, is taken to provide a presumption of competence and interest. We graduate students are encouraged to experiment in different groups if we are not yet sure about what we want to study. That, and the fact that I haven't done research in an academic setting for more than eight years now, when I was in high school, means that I haven't written a CV, and have very little to actually put on it.
I'm not asking about how to make one. There's plenty of pertinent advice both here and elsewhere on the internet. This professor has a relatively tight window of availability, though -- just today and tomorrow -- and I wonder whether I would make myself look ridiculous to admit that I don't have one prepared, and to ask to speak with him anyway.
The professor probably doesn't want to see your CV in order to determine your competence, but to see your previous research experience, to provide some structure for your conversation.
I'm a bit surprised you don't have a CV from your application to grad school, but regardless, it shouldn't take you more than a few hours to make one, and you'll probably need it in future anyway.