Jobs @ Career Consulting Limited

Return to career-consulting-limited.com
Managing
People
Managing Your Career
CV Examples
Coaching
Cover Letter Examples
Pre-Employment Tests


How to Write a Scientific Resume


You're a scientist, you're very well educated, you're intelligent, and so writing your own résumé should be easy, correct? I mean, how hard could it be? Especially if you have written your own thesis or dissertation in the past, you may feel that you can save the $300 bucks (or however much it costs, even if it is a tax deduction!) and simply do it yourself. The answer to this may surprise you?

Sometimes you can write your own résumé, and write it well. From my experience as an industry recruiter, where I saw hundreds of scientific résumés every day, there would be maybe 1 or 2 résumés that were REALLY well written. Then there was the tier of résumés that you had to suffer through in order to find out the actual skills that the individual possessed. I will confess, there are times when I threw out a résumé because it was simply too jumbled, and it was just frustrating to read.

Here are some tips:

Step 1: What are the secrets to writing a great résumé? First, you need to have a plan. Get an actual written example of the position to which you are applying. Your résumé has to be tailored to this position, or your résumé ends up looking too general. I know there are times when you are a bit lost, and you don't know what kind of job you want. My advice? Find out. Unless you are a new graduate, a general résumé will only hurt more than help.

Step 2: Organize your abilities. Focus on skills, not research projects. I can't say this enough. The title of your dissertation is really not as interesting as the fact that you conducted small molecule scale up in a Medicinal Chemistry Department and have experience with HPLC and NMR. Don't be afraid to sell your most marketable skills!

Step 3: Know what a hiring manager wants to see and give it to them! This is where it becomes very hard, and it's a bit like playing Russian Roulette unless you know the industry, the market forecast, and recent downsizing / shifts within the industry. This is one of the main reasons why people use a Certified Professional Résumé Writers that has biotech / pharmaceutical industry experience (there are only a handful around the nation). It is invaluable to get that key "hiring manager perspective", simply because you may not know you are doing anything wrong in your résumé. Have you ever sent your résumé to a prospective employer, and it just seems like a black hole? There is zero feedback; it is almost as if you had never sent your résumé at all. The reason why this happens is that you may not be a match for the position, even if you feel like you are. It is amazing what red flags can go for a hiring manager just from your résumé, so you need to be very, very careful in how you word and structure your experience.

Step 4: You are ready to edit! And edit again, and edit again! Don't you dare hit the "SEND" button on your email until you have had at least 3 friends review your résumé. And those friends need to be harsh about their feedback, not nice! Your friendship may suffer for a week or so (but I sincerely hope not!), yet your résumé will be all the better for it, and honestly, this is the only way your résumé will improve. This is perhaps the most humbling part, because it is human nature to be offended when someone critiques your work. I'm not just talking about grammar, either, although this is probably the most popular offense. Your friends have to really be able to THINK like a hiring manager, and your résumé needs to reflect your strengths, highlight your true skills, and lowlight all those things you want to hide.

Yes, it is certainly easier to simply contract a Certified Professional Résumé Writer to write your resume. It saves you the headache, saves at least 10 hours of your time, and gives you the confidence that you end up with a legal document with which you can be proud. The downside of course, is that it will cost you money. Your resume may be tax deductible, however, so make sure you check with your financial advisor to see if this applies to you.

But if you don't have the money, make sure you have some good friends around, the kind that can withstand the rigors of editing!

Laura Innis Yaldo http://www.apexresumes.com/

Ms. Yaldo earned her Masters of Arts in Biology from Smith College and continued on to finish one year of doctoral studies in Biochemistry. After completing lab work in Europe, she worked at the Center for Aids Research (CFAR) in La Jolla, California, as a bench scientist. Ms. Yaldo was later recruited into a prestigious scientific recruiting firm, where she wrote, edited, and critiqued thousands of resumes, provided career coaching, and interviewed top candidates from around the nation. Her combined talents at recruiting, resume writing, career coaching, life coaching, and interviewing skills were directly responsible for placing people in positions that ranged from $30,000 to $150,000. Ms. Yaldo is one of only a handful of people in the United States that can write scientific and federal resumes, and she has a strong track record in career coaching.


MORE RESOURCES:
Careers at Prairie View A&M University  Prairie View A&M University


Corporate  Lowe's




Careers  Baxter


Commonwealth Job Fair  Governor Tom Wolf








Careers  ontarioca.gov




Careers | Home  USDA.gov



Employment opportunities  Department of Taxation and Finance

Jobs  City of Rochester (.gov)


Store Hourly Job Areas  Target Corporate


Careers at TWU  Texas Woman's University

Work at Butler  Butler University








Careers and Jobs at CRS  Catholic Relief Services

Work With Us  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Work for the City of St. Louis  City of St. Louis



Careers  BASF

Career Opportunities  Gilead Sciences



Job Seekers  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign


Careers  Washington State University

IOM career gateways  International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Careers  West Virginia Department of Education










UF Health Careers  UF Health - University of Florida Health

Student Employment  St John's University News

Careers  CrowdStrike





Current opportunities  Turner & Townsend

Job Opportunities  Bellevue School District

Careers  KPMG







Careers  S&P Global



Recorded Video Interviews  Target Corporate



Explore BCG locations around the world  Boston Consulting Group

WORK AT LVMH  LVMH





Work with us  JPMorgan Chase

Department of Public Health  City and County of San Francisco

Internship Opportunities | BCG  Boston Consulting Group

Highest-Paying Engineering Careers in 2024  University of North Dakota

Careers in  A&O Shearman


Students and graduates  JPMorgan Chase

Careers at Discovery Education  Discovery Education

Careers  Turner & Townsend

Careers at Sinai Health  Sinai Health


Employment Opportunities  Unity Health Toronto

Need More Information?
Site Home | Site Map | Links | Contact Us | Privacy Policy
© Career Consulting Limited.com 2011

tumblr visit counter