Revive Your Resume For The Post-Vaccine Hiring Rush (12 Updates)

Join Isaiah as he reveals why resume updates are important for PhDs to get hired in industry jobs 

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah discuss the importance of investing in your resume 
• Next, he enlists the importance of resume structure 
• Finally, Isaiah reveals 12 mandatory resume updates every PhD must follow in order to get hired in industry.

From This Week’s Show… 

Why PhDs Need To Work On Their Resume Updates

Everybody wants to know what to do with their resume, why they cannot get hired by uploading their current resume. If you are a PhD looking for your first industry transition, you probably have found this by getting no response to uploading your current resume. Maybe it is even your academic CV with five to six pages and gets you no response. You thought it would be easier than this, but it is much harder. 

Job search for industry jobs unlike academia does not rely solely on the letter of recommendation from the professor, PI, or advisor. They are not looking for a detailed chronological description of your duties or work history in your resume.

It is not like a lengthy peer review journal article. Rather, they want to see a very short synopsis —a one to two page document— selling yourself. Emphasizing on why they should hire you. It is really a marketing document. You have to position yourself correctly for the position that you want. Always keep your resume up to date. Even though the resume is a one to two page document in industry, you need to keep it up to date. 

Your resume is going to stay with you so invest in it.

Importance Of Resume Structure

When I got into industry, I was able to get a promotion within six months. The only reason I was able to do that is because I documented my progress at that company and the results I was achieving. I leveraged that to get a promotion. 

I saw several resumes where education was the main section. Everything was really pointing to their education. Couple of them had an objective statement and contact information but the majority was education.  

When asked about their skills PhDs immediately talk about their technical skills. What they were doing in academia. STEM and non-STEM PhDs from Life sciences, chemistry, agricultural social sciences, humanities, all of them focused on their technical work. I have worked in industry and know what is out there. We know that while you might be pipetting or doing something that is leading edge in academia: very likely in an industry, advanced robotics are doing it or a slew of technicians, or it is being outsourced to a CRO.

12 Resume Updates Needed For Getting Hired In Industry Jobs

If you are hired but have not updated your resume at all. You can be let go tomorrow and have to start from your job search from scratch again. You have had the experience of a job search before, you have the idea where to start, but you are forgetting all of the results that you achieved. You need to document those on a daily basis. You know that the resume gets pulled out with the hiring committee and they review it. When they come back to your candidacy, the higher the quality of the resume, the better off you will be. If you negotiate, your good resume will help your case. You’ll be paid more. 

Take the time to write your resume in the best possible way. Many PhDs sink into the comfort of what they are used to doing; they don’t like to sit there in the discomfort of writing their resume. It is painful to write a resume, like trying to write your first book; takes a lot of work. The reason it is painful is because you have to actually think about the results you have achieved. It is all about how you sell yourself as the most successful candidate to the recruiters.

Do you even know what results you have achieved? It is easy to just blank out and say, I have not achieved any results. Don’t blame imposter syndrome. You have achieved results. You just have not quantified them because it is difficult. You have to activate that deeper part of your brain where it is not just a snap judgment. You have to actually brainstorm the results that you achieved. 

It is said that even if a good resume is not enough to get you hired in a high paying industry job, a bad resume is enough to keep you from getting hired in industry.

** for the full podcast, check out the audio player above.

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