Resumes

By the time I received my PhD, I had never held an industry job. I had never been trained in how to create a resume or cover letter.  After college, I watched those going into industry struggle to get jobs, but I was at ease with my PhD lab already picked out, my future was set. I followed these friends on social media as they got jobs…found spouses…started to have children. Meanwhile, I was still glued to my bench trying to squeeze my stipend into a survivable income. I was no longer at ease. I was stuck and uncertain about…

My very first video resume was embarrassing. At the time, I thought it was pretty good. I had some music going in the background because it seemed like a way to add personality. Bad idea. After reviewing my recording, I noticed there was also a dog barking somewhere in the background. On top of that, the lighting wasn’t very good in the room where I filmed myself. I had shadows on my face, and it made my eyes look a little sunken… However, this seemed fine to me – after all, I was applying for a PhD-level position not a…

Before Cheeky Scientist, 6-to-12-month contracts were the best I could get.  Ultimately, my industry transition process took about 2 years and 1000 applications. After joining the Cheeky Scientist Association, it took only 3 months to land my dream job. Talk about a difference. The resume template was, I am quite sure,  a major factor in this process.  There was this thing called a “functional resume” where I could highlight all the relevant skills I learned as a graduate student – instead of showing that my only experience had been as a graduate student. This made a huge difference. Most of…

Finding the right position with the right job search strategy was one of my biggest challenges once I decided to move into industry.  I had plenty of academic experience, but I didn’t know if that was valuable in industry. A lot of people told me that it would be difficult to apply for industry roles without relevant experience. At first, I made some major mistakes. My advisor told me to list my technical skills at the top of my resume. He told me to emphasize my education section – surely, this would impress employers, right? It didn’t, and now I…

I want to help you avoid one of the biggest mistakes that I see right now from PhDs, especially while we are in a recession. A lot of them are trying to either get a job in industry or just protect their current job. They had a job search strategy that was working for them back in January, and now the same job search methodologies are not working.  That’s because things have changed, and you have to adapt. If you have not updated your resume and LinkedIn profile since the pandemic began, you need to do it now. PhDs need…

There is no denying the fact that cover letters are becoming less and less popular. According to a survey in Jobvite, 55% of hiring managers say that while cover letters are not important in their job search process, they still recommend that you learn how to nail them. With the advent of social media, recruiters and hiring managers can easily vet a candidate on LinkedIn without even looking at their resume. But here’s the thing… You never know exactly what the hiring manager wants to see, and it can be a huge misstep if you forget this. In a recent…

Many PhDs spend countless hours on their resume, listing endless accomplishments, responsibilities, publications, presentations, and other information that practically bore industry employers to death. They mass-upload this ridiculous document to online job postings and wait for the job offers to roll in like red carpet on their way to industry success. These PhDs--otherwise sharp and creative people--are shocked when they never hear anything back. The reality is that your resume is probably never even seen by another human being, let alone rejected. Your resume is being rejected by a computer program. JobScan reports that more than 90% of Fortune 500…

The key to making a successful transition to industry is through developing and highlighting your transferable skills. And yes, as a PhD you already have the transferable skills you need for your future career. Now you must learn to leverage these skills to build a career in industry. Your potential employer knows that you have deep technical skills in your field, what they need to see is that you have the ‘soft-skills’ they are looking for in their next hire. You need to show to potential employers that you are a well-rounded individual with the transferable skills needed to be…

Are you submitting your resume to online job postings? You might be surprised to learn that your resume is never even seen by a human being. 98% of Fortune 500 companies use applicant tracking software, according to Jobscan. Large-size firms (those that employ more than 500 individuals) receive many thousands of resumes every week. The only way their hiring departments can be functional is by using tracking software to weed out unqualified candidates. This puts applicants in kind of a tough spot - optimize your resume to get through the tracking software or get used to rejection. Even highly qualified…

A perfect resume is not enough to get you a job, but a bad resume will prevent you from getting one. As a PhD you might think, if I just get this resume perfect, if I show that I have all the skills, I will get hired. You’re wrong.

According to LinkedIn there are 25 hard and 5 soft skills that employers are really looking for in candidates this year. These in demand skills are what hiring managers will be looking for on your resume. It doesn’t matter if you gained that skill as a postdoc or as a graduate student, that is not the important part. The important part is your skill - and that’s why a functional resume is a great option for PhDs transitioning out of academia. Additionally, the functional resume is great for getting past Applicant Tracking Software (ATS). Jobscan reported that 98% of Fortune…

No one is coming to knock on the door of your lab and offer you a job. Getting a job requires strategy. Large companies, like Google, Microsoft, Pfizer, etc get 1,000s of applications per job opening. If you are relying on luck to make you the 1:1,000 that gets hired, you are going to be waiting a long time. Instead, you should be strategic. Realize that, according to JobScan, 98% of Fortune 500 companies use applicant tracking software to screen resumes. And understand that employers care more about your soft skills than they do about your specific technical skills. Inside…