bE KY SCJENTIST CV'S AND RESUMESWHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 5 KEY ELEMENTS ACVis used by members of the scientific, academic, and medical communities to detail job applicant's professional experiences. They are lengthy (often up to ten pages), thorough, and feature the applicant's education and publications. Résumés, on the other hand, are short sales pieces. Instead of chronicling experience in detailed lists, résumés are sales pieces which only present the most pertinent information, and often focus on the job applicant's professional accomplishments and responsibilities. When writing a résumé, you must consider your audiences needs, and sell yourself to them by promising to solve their problems by showing how you have solved similar problems in the past. Use a résumé if your target job responsibilities include business development, sales, interacting with clients, leading teams, and developing strategies. ‘There are five key elements to a powerful résumé: 1. A STRONG VISUAL CENTER The visual center of your résumé starts at 2" from the top of the page, ends 2! below that, and is your main selling focus, The visual center should be emphasized with graphics, such as textboxes, bullets, and bold fonts. Just by glancing at the visual center, the reader should be able to tell what position you are aiming for. Load the visual center of your résumé with the value that you offer to potential clients, such as across-the-board accomplishments, industry-specific skills, a summary of a highly successful project you led, or even a clipping from a recommendation letter (if you are a recent graduate with minimal professional experience) or a news article about your work (if you own your own business or practice). If your visual center is interesting and catches the reader’s eye, your résumé will be read a lot more carefully than it would be otherwise. If your visual center jumps right to your education or your professional experience, your résumé will get a meager skim-through. CV’S AND RESUMESHere is an example: © Biomedical Scientist with 5+ year record of leading a biotechnical labs to solve tough technical problems, create a productive, employee-friendly work. culture, and develop biochemicals with a competitive edge ($KK+ in grant revenue). ‘* Helped Company 1 recognize over $20K in grants by skillfully leading 40+ biotechnical engineers and technicians to complete all projects and studies ‘on time, resulting in grant renewal every single year. ‘+ Experimentally demonstrated that wireless stimulation is feasible even if devices get out of focus, fling 10+ patent applications within budget while managing joint-development lab at Company 3. * Innovative leader with 80+ patents and 50+ papers published. CV vs Resume Notice how instead of listing all patents and publications, the above job applicant summarizes her experience with a simple “80+ patents and 50+ papers Published.” A GV, on the other hand, would list all or most of these. ACV will also detail all of the responsibilities that go behind each of these bullets. without including any “results” of the applicant's actions. Instead of * Helped Company 1 recognize over $20K in grants by skillfully leading 40+ biomedical scientists and technicians to complete all projects and studies on time, resulting in grant renewal every single year. for example, a CV would say ‘* Research focused in developing both fundamentally new carbanionic aromatic methodology and chiral mesoporous organosilicates for use in both catalysis and chromatography. Notice how the CV details very specific technical procedures, while the résumé ‘summarizes these and describes the effects of the applicant's efforts, CV’S AND RESUMES2. ACCOMPLISHMENT ‘A good résumé is always accomplishment-focused. This means that just by glancing through your résumé, the reader will be able to see that the RO! (return on investment) for hiring you is higher than the salary you are asking for. You must demonstrate that you can save/make your potential employers time, money, customers, and image by showing what you have accomplished for Previous employers. In the example listed above, the client clearly demonstrates that she has successfully led large-scale projects and boosted the company's revenue: ‘* Helped Company 1 recognize over $20K in grants by skillfully leading 40+ biotechnical engineers and technicians to complete all projects and studies on time, resulting in grant renewal every single year. Executive applicants, in particular, must describe the strategies they successfully established to improve a company’s standing 3. KEYWORDS. Keywords are an important part of the modern résumé, not only because they boost up rankings on Applicant Tracking Software (ATS), but also because they help bring focus to a résumé, You can write targeted, focused résumés for several different industries simply by tailoring the keywords you use throughout your résumé. Figure out which keywords to use in your résumé by reading your target job listing carefully. In the previous example, the job listing which the applicant was targeting requested someone with extensive experience managing jcint-development programs. She took care to mention that she helped secure savings (an accomplishment) while managing a joint-development program: ‘+ Experimentally demonstrated that wireless stimulation is feasible even if devices get out of focus, fling 10+ patent applications within budget while managing joint-development lab at Company 3. CV’S AND RESUMESYou can emphasize keywords throughout your résumé by bolding them. A highly effective way to incorporate keywords into your résumé is by creating a “skills” table that mimics the language found in your target listing. Here’s an example: © Device modeling * Optical beam inspection systems ‘* Semiconductor, LED, & other nanoelectronics © Ete All of these “skills” were pulled from the targeted listing. A good “skills” table should have 12-15 entries. Beware of using “soft” skills in your résumé, which cannot be quantified or measured, like “Good communication skills.” If you must mention a “soft” skil, make sure to back it up with a “hard” accomplishment like the following example: ‘* Superior presentation, verbal, and written skills: Networked with other scientists and built partnerships to ensure our materials were state-of-the-art and uitra-effective, resutting in lab materials savings of $10K monthly. AESTHETIC APPEAL You are encouraged to dress professionally to interviews. Similarly, dressing your résumé up professionally with some interesting fonts, colored bullets, and neatly formatted textboxes will get your résumé noticed in the critical 6-second period when the reader is deciding whether to toss your résumé or read it carefully. This artistry is frequently the missing link in a résumé’s evolution from average to outstanding. Make sure to have a consistent font scheme, alignment for your bullets, and color scheme throughout your résumé. Hint: Break up blocks of texts that are larger than 6 lines by grouping similar ideas together and using white space between to give the reader a visual rest and maintain their attention. CV’S AND RESUMES5. PUNCHINESS Your résumé is a sales document. As such, ithas six seconds to sell you before your potential employers lose interest in working with you. Just as commercials are short and punchy, your résumé needs to sell you without repeating information, taking up too much space, or discouraging the reader from reading on. Make sure to use short, easily “digestible” sentences throughout your résumé and put your accomplishments (big number game changers) towards the front of the bullet. CV’S AND RESUMES