For Job-Seeking Scientists, Well-Wrought Resumes Are Key

Researchers used to writing grant proposals, journal articles, and other materials for the scientific community may need to take on a different mind-set when preparing their resumes, human- resources experts say. For one thing, the first person who reads a scientist's resume may not know that much about science. Joe Ruis, a technical recruiter with Tad Technical Services in King of Prussia, Pa., is an example. "I took chemistry so many times in school it was ridiculous," he says. Nonetheless, Ruis can play a key role in determining whether a chemist gets a chance to interview for a job analyzing a substance that Ruis might not even be able to spell. He scours through reams of resumes, looking for a "buzzword" or the name of a particular instrumentation technique that matches the staffing needs of a client. This approach to reviewing resumes, which may seem haphazard to job candidates, isn't limited to the initial screener. The scientific job market is so competitive now that even lab supervisors, inundated with hundreds of resumes for a single position, might dismiss a candidate after a few seconds if the resume doesn't pass muster. That's why scientists in all fields must look at their resumes with detachment. Human-resources experts advise job-seekers to keep in mind how the document is being evaluated by firms. The likelihood is that a scientist will need a resume many times in his or her career and that it will have to be revised on several occasions. For example, as their careers progress, some industrial researchers may aspire to rise in the corporate hierarchy; their new resumes thus should reflect managerial talents as well as scientific skills. According to employment counselors, most resumes should cover several general subject categories: career objective or professional interest, education, description of work history, military service, skills and accomplishments, professional certifications, professional affiliations, and patents and publications. However, the way in which the resume's basic material is arranged and emphasized should change through the years, career experts say. When a scientist first enters the job market, the most important thing may be how his or her career objective is expressed, particularly if the job-seeker is trying to match the resume to a particular position he or she knows is open. In that case, the applicant should gather as much information as possible about the company from such sources as annual reports, trade journal articles, and professional networks, says Mary Funke, manager of professional services for the American Chemical Society; those skills can then be emphasized on the resume. An alternative to objective is to list a simple "professional interest," such as "solid-state physics." "If the job description is highly technical, a professional interest can make it easier for the poor reader to figure out who [in the company to forward] it to," says Robert Weatherall, director of career services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Education, of course, takes a prominent place in an entry-level resume. Newly graduated scientists may want to include a detailed list of subjects studied, research projects in which they assisted, and names of prominent investigators under whose direction they worked. Weatherall suggests that scientists who attended prominent schools may want to note this near the top of their resume and then, farther down, list a separate education section that goes into the curriculum studied. A scientist's resume, like those of nonscientific job-seekers, should show achievement as the candidate's career progresses. James Burke, manager of research recruiting for Rohm and Haas Co. in Spring House, Pa., likes resume that suggest all the attributes that contribute to a successful scientist: imagination, drive, leadership, communication ability, interpersonal skills, and proficiency in a technical area. "Certainly, you don't put down a description like `productive' as a skill," says Burke. "You show that skill by stating your achievements. For example, if somebody getting out of graduate school already had 15 publications, I would conclude they're pretty productive." "The first mistake people make is not making enough effort to convey a sense of excitement about their research," says Mary Morris Heiberger, associate director of the Career Planning and Placement Center at the University of Pennsylvania. "They'll say they investigated the relationship between two things, but neglect to say if they found a relationship. They'll describe their research in terms of questions and not an answer. Or in the worst case they'll sound like a lab technician--`I used this technique and this technique'--without any sense of purpose." What should the scientist do instead? "Make an effort to answer the `so what?' question," says Hei-berger. "You did this research--so what? Why is the research important?" The information an applicant provides on a resume should be wedded to the needs of the hiring company or organization, career counselors say. Take, for example, how a thesis project might be described. In the case of an applicant for an academic position, the key words for the resume reviewer would be the subject area of the candidate's thesis, says Weatherall. For an industrial position, however, the recruiter might be looking for the name of the mathematical model that was used, says Weatherall. For those applying to work at a university whose main focus is undergraduate education, teaching experience, obviously, would be crucial. At other academic institutions, one's skills as a researcher or ability to attract grant money would be of higher concern, notes Maria Farnos, a senior research chemist at Mobil Research & Development Corp. in Paulsboro, N.J. As one's career progresses, expertise in, say, physics or chemistry may become secondary to managerial experience. People who review resumes say they look for an increasing level of responsibility in the handling of budgets, supervision of people, purchasing of equipment, or oversight of a research project with commercial applications. As their resume expand to three to five pages, scientists sometimes drop items from the document, such as instrumentation technique, that belong there. "A pompous person who has 15 years' experience may think everyone realizes they know how to use a certain instrumentation," says Ruis. "But what's wrong with listing instrumentation technique on the last page?" One good way to evaluate a resume is to let a variety of people review the document, according to Heiberger and other career experts. It's not enough to show the resume to people who are doing the same work. Ideally, job-seekers should obtain feedback from someone in their field, a scientist in another discipline, and a layperson. "Scientists, by virtue of spending so many years in such a small group, may need to work a little harder to gain perspective on how their resumes may look to others," says Heiberger. The length and content of the "publications" section of a resume is question on which human-resources professionals disagree. Scientists and lay readers examine this section differently, career counselors say. "At the companies I service, [people who examine resumes] may consider the most important part of this section to be who the scientist published with, and the narrow focus of their work may be important. But I'm looking for a good description," says Erwin Posner, president of Professional Advancement, a scientific recruiting firm in Southfield, Mich. Personal information should be carefully scrutinized before being included, experts advise. "Don't bare your soul in your resume," says MIT's Weatherall. For example, a resume isn't the place to stress you don't want to work in the defense industry, says Weatherall. "Just don't send the resume to places that do defense work," he says. A hobby that suggests a workplace benefit could be an exception, human-resources professionals say. "If you have very strong community involvement--something that shows leadership and people skills--industry will tend to give you more credit for that than academia when [you apply] for a job," says Heiberger. Upon reaching the middle stage and beyond in their careers, scientists may want to revise their resumes in order to de- emphasize certain things, such as age, periods of unemployment, or an attempt to change fields, according to Funke. In these cases, a scientist may want to abandon the "chronological resume," in which information is listed according to what he or she did most recently, and switch to a "skills resume." In a skills resume, one lists name, address, and career objective; identifies three to five major skill areas; and gives examples that show competence in those areas. "This type of resume is becoming more common, although most employers still prefer the chronological format," says Funke. A curriculum vitae (CV), which is used primarily for positions in academia, tends to be in chronological order. Unlike resumes, CVs list the most distant events first, rather than the most recent. "Often the first thing in a CV is the less important information," says Weatherall. CVs are also much longer than resumes. "CVs tend to be very much more autobiographical," says Funke. "A resume is more like a collection of clear, concise data." No matter what type of resume is used, it should be legible. "It's good to follow the conventions of the field," says Weatherall. "There is no benefit from appearing too idiosyncratic. What you want to come through is the inherent qualities of the resume, not that it's printed on an odd-color paper or typeface." A problem that scientists are prone to, resume reviewers say, is poor spelling and simple grammatical errors. "A lot of people in science are very intelligent, but they have no common sense," says Ruis. "On their resume, they'll have a chemical equation which no one understands written perfectly. But they'll forget `I before E except after C.' " Scientists, used to the passive style of writing that is common for scientific abstracts, should take care to use more vigorous, "action" words, says Mintzi Schramm, president of the Writer's Aid Service, a firm in Southfield, Mich., that assists with resume writing. These are verbs, such as "formulate," "establish," "compute," and "develop," that show the applicant taking action on some project. An applicant for a government position should usually stress the same qualities as for an industrial job, human-resources professionals suggest. While the content of information remains the same, the form is decidedly unique. For most government jobs, applicants need to fill out a SF-171 form. This four-page form covers most of the topics as a resume, but job-seekers have no leeway as to information is arranged. Some placement personnel recommend a computer program called Quick and Easy for the 171, put out by Datatech Distributors in Harrisburg, Pa. The program, which can be used only on an IBM-compatible system, allows users to expand the SF-171 form. No matter what the form, though, job-hunters should not forget what they want the resume to do, according to Burke of Rohm and Haas: "somehow convey the individual behind the resume and make you want to meet them." Joe Mullich is a freelance writer based in Norristown, Pa.

For Job-Seeking Scientists, Well-Wrought Resumes Are Key

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