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I was offered a lecturer (assistant professor) position which I decided for personal/professional reasons not to take up. I therefore remain currently a postdoc. I have seen people listing such offers on their CV, with the addendum "not taken up". I guess the rationale is to convey the message to future prospective employers that "someone already deemed me good enough for this kind of job".

I was wondering if while I am a postdoc it is a good idea to list said lecturer offer on my CV, and if so, whether I should drop it once I manage to secure a lecturer (or equivalent) position elsewhere.

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    I am personally not a fan of this, but I have no idea how common it is. A more reasonable circumstance is when there is some award offered, but the award must be declined due to a conflict. In this case, you are noting the award, which is an achievement in itself. Although being offered a lecturer position is also a sort of achievement, it seems different to me.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Jul 10 '17 at 15:54
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    similar to academia.stackexchange.com/questions/91383/… (where it was about a postdoc position. Frankly, depending on what else is on the CV it might look a lot like a puffed up addition to me (i.e., and might lead to a slightly red flag feeling - do I have to figure out who I know to call at that institution so find out whether this is real or exaggerated). (but perhaps I am running across more CV's where there are red flags (talks called plenary that were not, invited talks that were actually someone elses invitation)
    – Carol
    Jul 10 '17 at 16:07
  • Listing the offer is not something I've seen on a CV, but I have seen CVs which list job talks in a section entitled "invited talks" (similar to what is discussed in this question and, specifically, this answer by user JeffE).
    – Mad Jack
    Jul 10 '17 at 17:24
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Personally, I wouldn't list jobs I hadn't taken up on my CV. Whilst it could give a prospective future employer confidence that you would be up to the job, I feel for me I would rather discuss this face to face in an interview where they can hear you out rather than let them make unnecessary and potentially false assumptions about you based on your CV alone.

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