When graduate students are ready to enter the job market, they usually come prepared with lengthy CVs that detail all of their academic experiences and achievements. But for students interested in working outside of academia and clinical settings, a CV is not the best tool to get them in the door. Instead, these employers want a short and concise resume.
Writing a resume is not an easy task for graduate students, says Katharine Brooks, PhD, executive director of personal and career development at Wake Forest University and author of the book “You Majored in What?: Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career” (2010). “Students get frustrated. They have developed this extensive experience and now they have to fit it all on one or two pages.”
Compared with a CV, a resume is much more of a marketing tool, says Beth Brown, a professional resume writer who co-authored “The Damn Good Resume Guide, Fifth Edition: A Crash Course in Resume Writing” (2012). “In marketing, the thing is to identify as clearly as possible who your target audience is and what they need to know.”
Once you do that, you can frame your skills and experience in a way that is relevant to what the employer needs, says Brown. “Everything on your resume should say, ‘Hey, employer, I’ve done this, I’m good at it and I want to do it for you.’”
CVs versus resumes
The biggest difference between resumes and CVs is length. While CVs might be longer than 10 pages, resumes should only be one or two pages at most.
The key to a short resume is to include only relevant experiences, which may mean customizing a resume for each job. It may be tempting to send out the same resume, but it’s better to create a new version that targets each job type, says Brown.
“The focus of resumes is on select experiences relevant to the position, instead of retelling your entire academic story,” says Elizabeth Morgan, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Springfield College in Massachusetts, and co-author of the book, “You’ve Earned Your Doctorate in Psychology…Now What?” (2012).
In CVs, students list the classes they’ve taught and describe the research they’ve conducted. In a resume, the focus is on the skills and abilities the student developed because of those experiences, says Morgan.
Unlike CVs, resumes often include a section at the top that summarizes qualifications and strengths, says Brown. This section can also include your career objectives, such as a lifelong passion for an industry or desire to help a company or organization achieve their goals.
“When you have a brief objective, it not only tells the reader immediately what you’re going for, it also helps you, the job seeker, identify what information you need to include in the resume,” says Brown.
Turning CVs into resumes
A common mistake students make in writing resumes is being too descriptive, says Morgan. “Rather than long, flowing sentences, be concise and pack a lot of information into a couple words.”
Also, be sure to tailor your experience so it’s pertinent to the employer. “If the topics you’ve researched aren’t relevant to the job, describe the research in terms of what you did,” says Brooks. “Focus on the behaviors instead of the research itself.”
For example, Brooks spoke with writing center tutors who described the skills they needed to be good tutors. “No one mentioned the obvious — being a good writer. Instead, they focused on skills such as being patient, a good listener and able to calm people’s nerves,” says Brooks. “When applying for positions outside the writing field, these additional skills could be ultimately more relevant than their writing skills.”
Avoid too much professional jargon, says Morgan. “People in human resources and future supervisors likely won’t be impressed by terms that are only relevant to highly specialized fields,” she says.
In addition, the titles of your thesis and dissertation might be too long and academic-sounding, says Brown. “Translate these titles into something for nonacademic audiences.”
When it comes to content, “Show the reader that you are ready to transition from the academic world into your professional life,” says Brown. “Highlight real-world experience whenever possible.” For example, if the target job needs you to work with the public and you’ve attended and presented at international conferences, your resume could state, “Prepared and delivered engaging information to international audiences,” she says.
Many employers don’t want to see a list of publications and conference presentations, says Morgan. “It’s better to include the skills you gained from writing and publishing those papers, such as reviewing, editing, going through the peer review process. Employers might not be excited about the publications, but they might be excited to know you have experience writing and publishing.”
Give it polish
Resumes should include key words from the job ad. “When applying to academic positions, the first set of eyes on your resume will be human. In larger companies, the first set of eyes on your resume will be a computer,” says Morgan. “The computer is programmed to look for key words that show you have the specific skills and abilities required for the job. If those words are not in your resume, the computer will pass you by and no one will see it.”
Take those key words and then paint a picture of your accomplishments in a vibrant way, says Brown. You might describe a problem you solved or research you conducted with a positive outcome. Don’t be afraid to use numbers to show success, she says. “Using numbers helps the reader understand the scope and depth of what you’ve done and nails it down in concrete terms.” For example, if applying for a job administering surveys say, “To conduct research, I gathered survey data from over 90 students.”
A part of marketing is to make sure the reader wants to read your resume, says Brooks. Present a reader-friendly, polished resume that uses a consistent 11-point or larger font and the same format throughout. “Consistency is king. For example, don’t list dates as ‘2011–2012’ in one place and ‘2012 to 2013’ in another.”
Be sure to proofread your resume for grammar and spelling errors and have another person review it, says Morgan. “Find someone who knows what a resume should look like, especially someone in the industry to which you are applying.”
Trimming some of your hard-earned experience from your CV can be difficult, admits Brooks. “When switching from CV to resume, you have to take out things you love that just aren’t relevant. It’s not about what you want to tell, but what the audience wants or needs to hear.”