Alternative Science Careers

This article reveals several key secrets shared by various HR personnel (those that often make the hiring decisions) about resumes, interviews, and salary negotiations. Today’s post covers the first part of the article.

What you should know about resumes:

• “Once you’re unemployed more than six months, you’re considered pretty much unemployable. We assume that other people have already passed you over, so we don’t want anything to do with you.” –Cynthia Shapiro, former human resources executive and author of Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know

• “When it comes to getting a job, who you know really does matter. No matter how nice your résumé is or how great your experience may be, it’s all about connections.” –HR director at a health-care facility

• “If you’re trying to get a job at a specific company, often the best thing to do is to avoid HR entirely. Find someone at the company you know, or go straight to the hiring manager.” –Shauna Moerke, an HR administrator in Alabama who blogs at hrminion.com

• “People assume someone’s reading their cover letter. I haven’t read one in 11 years.” –HR director at a financial services firm

• “We will judge you based on your e-mail address. Especially if it’s something inappropriate like kinkyboots101@hotmail.com or johnnylikestodrink@gmail.com.” –Rich DeMatteo, a recruiting consultant in Philadelphia

• “If you’re in your 50s or 60s, don’t put the year you graduated on your résumé.” –HR professional at a midsize firm in North Carolina

• “There’s a myth out there that a résumé has to be one page. So people send their résumé in a two-point font. Nobody is going to read that.” –HR director at a financial services firm

• “I always read résumés from the bottom up. And I have no problem with a two-page résumé, but three pages is pushing it.” –Sharlyn Lauby, HR consultant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

• “Most of us use applicant-tracking systems that scan résumés for key words. The secret to getting your résumé through the system is to pull key words directly from the job description and put them on. The more matches you have, the more likely your résumé will get picked and actually seen by a real person.” –Chris Ferdinandi, HR professional in the Boston area

• “Résumés don’t need color to stand out. When I see a little color, I smirk. And when I see a ton of color, I cringe. And walking in and dropping off your resume is no longer seen as a good thing. It’s actually a little creepy.” –Rich DeMatteo

The first CV Doctor column was published 10 years ago in the fall of 1999. Over the years we have tried to look critically at the vitae submitted by readers and point out ways to make the documents more effective. This year, because state budget cuts have made this hiring season even more difficult than usual for Ph.D.’s, we decided to take a different approach to the CV Doctor.

Many of the doctoral students and postdocs we’ve talked with say they are pursuing dual job searches this year, looking for both academic and nonacademic positions. With that in mind, we decided to help two candidates prepare both strong academic CV’s and résumés for nonacademic positions. We evaluated their documents and asked them to make changes. Here are the Before and After versions, with commentary.

CV’s and résumés are very different documents. However, a good CV or résumé always has the following:

• It is tailored to the type of job you are applying for. For example, if you are focusing your search on liberal-arts colleges, you would not want your teaching experience to appear on the third page.

• It has consistent formatting, and its wording is clear and concise, with no spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.

When turning a CV into a résumé, you should should be sensitive to a few things:

• Length: A CV often lists all or most of your academic achievements. A résumé geared to a nonacademic audience will generally not include long lists of honors and awards, or a lengthy education section.

• Language: Résumés are best written using bullet points, active verbs, and language that demonstrates your achievements.

• Numbers: Quantifying your achievements often helps in writing a strong résumé — “Raised $1,000 in funds for student group” or “Developed a procedure that increased lab efficiency by 15 percent.”

• Translation: A good résumé will help translate your academic experience to a nonacademic audience. Some people in the “real world” will not understand what it means to be a teaching assistant, a postdoc, or a research assistant. Show them. Rather than write, “taught history,” write “taught undergraduate courses on topics ranging from U.S. History to Europe in the 20th Century.” And avoid using jargon that is specific to your field.

• Audience: Who is the audience for your nonacademic résumé? The answer to that question should guide you as you describe the work that you’ve done. You wouldn’t want to use highly technical terms to describe your work if your audience is unlikely to understand them.

Both résumés and CV’s are documents that constantly evolve. The final versions we show here are the result of a dialogue between us and the two readers. They listened to our advice and suggestions, incorporated them into their revised documents, and made the final decisions as to what they felt highlighted their qualifications most effectively. We hope that readers find these documents, and our comments, helpful in preparing their own materials.