Writing a CV makes me paranoid that I'm failing to abide by unwritten rules. Of course CVs are flexible to capture the diversity of accomplishments someone might have. But there must be plenty of things a hiring committee absolutely expects. So I'm interested in anything that must be on a CV — whose omission would raise a red flag — of a mathematician looking for an academic job.
"Obvious" answers are welcome. Even things which sound obvious like "your name." What is obvious to someone who has read and evaluated lots of CVs is different from someone preparing one for the first time. In your answer, please also be fairly specific about scope: have you served on hiring committees? for what types of positions? in the US or Europe or?
(Note: As suggested in the comments, it is very good to ask people "in the know" directly for such career advice. One reason for asking this question on MO is to have more open, less clubby answers — there is an echo chamber effect when you ask a bunch of people in the same subcommunity.)
Best Answer
From my perspective, the critical question isn't what must be included on your CV, but rather what mustn't, since that seems to be the more common problem (judging by the ones I see). What I'm about to describe is based on my experience at a U.S. research lab; I imagine it generalizes quite a bit beyond that, but I can't say how far, and it is certainly country-specific.
I'll discuss five rules below, with some overlap between them. Of course these rules are not absolute (except for the last one), but you certainly shouldn't break them without thinking carefully about it and deciding there's a good reason to do so.
(1) Your CV should represent you as a professional mathematician. Anything that is not relevant to your professional life should be left out. For example, you should generally not describe non-math-related summer or part-time jobs, hobbies, side interests outside of mathematics and related fields, etc. If there's something unusually interesting or impressive (you published a novel or are a chess champion) or that displays relevant skills (you write free software in your spare time), it's OK to mention it, but just briefly and not in a prominent position.
I've seen some hair-raising violations of this rule, in which applicants devoted considerable space to things that have nothing to do with working as a mathematician. Nobody is going to reject your application just because you put something weird in your CV, but it's not good for your image as a professional.
(2) Your CV shouldn't include anything unless you think the search committee might need or want to know it. For example, contact information is valuable, as is anything that can legitimately help judge your application. However, in the U.S. you should not list your age or birthdate, your marital status, information about your children, or your religion (unless you are applying to a religious institution). I realize this is common in some countries, and of course people will be understanding about that, but it comes across strangely to give people information they don't want and shouldn't be influenced by.
(3) You should try not to seem desperate to impress, particularly with awards and distinctions. Some people provide enormous lists of very minor distinctions, sometimes with no relevance to research/teaching/service (for example, a college scholarship from a local business club). Coming across as insecure can make you seem less attractive: an ambitious department wants to hire people who are marginally too good for them, not people who are trying hard to be good enough. As a rule of thumb, when you get your Ph.D. and apply for your first job, it's OK to list any substantive distinction from grad school. You can list a few undergraduate honors, but only if they are impressive (Putnam fellow or major university-wide prize, yes; random scholarship, no). You shouldn't list high school honors at all (well, just maybe an IMO medal, but be careful not to look like you consider it your proudest achievement).
(4) Be sure not to give the impression you are trying to obfuscate anything. I don't just mean you should tell the truth, but also that you should be clear and straightforward. For example, people sometimes feel bad about not having enough items to list in their publication or talk sections, and it can be tempting to reorganize the CV to try to obscure this. For example, you could replace the "publications" section with a "research" section in which you list not just publications but also talks and poster presentations, or even current/future research topics. This is a bad idea, since it can look like you are trying to make the information less accessible, and then everything on your CV will be looked at more skeptically. Instead, you want to make it easy to understand your CV and easy to see that you aren't doing anything tricky.
(5) Don't lie. Don't say a paper will appear in a journal until it has been accepted, even if you are sure it will be. Don't say a paper is submitted until it is, even if you plan to submit it by the time the committee meets. Don't call something a preprint until it is written down and ready to distribute (you can say "in preparation" before then, but many people will ignore this since it is unverifiable). Don't say you have received a fellowship or prize if you haven't. You'd think all these things go without saying, but I've seen a couple of people get caught on one of them. You really don't want to be the person who gets asked for a copy of their preprint and can't produce one.