What Information You Should Have in Your STEM CV/Resume

There are lots of different ways to write a CV/Resume and depending on your market or sector, you may need to write in a certain way. Today we are going to look at how to write a CV for the STEM sector, this should be applicable to people in the science, IT and Engineering fields.

As someone who has successfully recruited in all those fields, here is what I am looking for when I am looking to successfully introduce a candidate to a client. In this order:

• Introduction

• Technical Skills

• Career History

• Education

• Certifications

• Publications

• Memberships

• References Upon Request

Introduction

When I look at an introduction, I am looking for a few different things. First is, is this person located where I need them to be? Many of the manufacturing roles that I have worked on are not remote and so location is important. I always advise people just to put the city/town and country that they are living in for their address. This should satisfy this requirement while also protecting your privacy. I shouldn’t be able to walk right up to your door after receiving your CV/Resume for the first time.

Make sure that there is a phone number attached and ideally some times that you are contactable. This is especially important if you work in a regulated environment like GMP where you may not have access to your phone. It can be frustrating to keep missing calls and can save both you and the recruiter a lot of headaches.

In your actual introduction, I am looking for that spark of who this candidate is. What drives them? Who are they at their essence? Many of our roles in STEM don’t lean towards soft skills and the introduction is a fantastic way to help show recruiters and hiring managers your values and communication style.

Technical Skills

This part is often overlooked completely. As a recruiter, it doesn’t matter how well you come across when I am reading your Introduction, if you don’t have the technical skills that a client needs for this role, unfortunately I am moving on. So, make it as easy as possible for a recruiter to see that you have those skills by having a Technical Skills section.

Also, assume that the person who is reading your technical skills section is a junior recruiter. They will likely just be keywork matching so make sur that your technical skills reflect the types of roles that you are applying for. I always advise my CV/Resume clients that this section will be most in flux when applying to different roles and often this part you will add and change pieces for different roles.

Career History

This is where the real meat of your CV/Resume should be. If you have done your due diligence with the Technical Skills section, you should have the recruiter or hiring manager excited and looking to see where you have implemented the technical skills you have spoken about.

Make sure that you date your roles appropriately. This means at a minimum, month/year. If you just have the year, the standard practice in recruitment is to assume it’s a month. I have had many CV/Resume clients express shock at this and so consider this a PSA to make sure that you are putting the right dates on your CV/Resume.

Be thorough in this section. Often CV/Resume clients of mine go into too much detail on some parts of their CV/Resume and not enough on others. Think about what the recruiter or hiring manager wants to read. Do you think they want to know about “taking care of ad hoc duties as required”? Of course not. You are looking to sell your skills and labour, make sure that every single word on your CV/Resume serves that purpose. Make no mistake, your CV/Resume is a sales document and if you treat it as such, it can be a fantastic tool to help advance your career.

Education

Education and Career History have a dynamic relationship. Generally speaking, your education should come after your Career History. However, if you are a fresh graduate student who has no career history in the field that you are looking to work in or if you recently finished some form of education that has direct implications for the roles you are applying for, then your Education Section would come first.

In the case that your Career History comes first, you want to keep the details of your education to a minimum. You will want the name of the institution, the dates you were there, the degree awarded, and the grade achieved.

When you want to highlight your Education section, you will want to go into more detail. You will have the above as well as the modules you have covered. You will want to treat this as a job, especially in the case of someone who has just graduated. I have an article here on how to plan a career in STEM if you want to go into more detail.

Certifications

I would treat this very similar to Education however the reason that I would have them as a separate section on your CV/Resume is because if it is mixed in with your Education section, it can get very messy very quickly. Coming back to my point about the Technical Skills section, the purpose of this section is to help the reader understand what certifications you have that could be useful/essential to the role that you have a applied for.

Publications

I have worked with lots of people who are looking to transition from academia to industry and have an entire article on how to do just that here. However, when I am looking at publications, I am looking more so at the techniques that are used and the subject matter. For example, if I am working with a biologics company who is looking for a protein purifier, I am looking for publications that have shown this. It is important to realise that when you are talking about your publications for industry, the what and how are much more important than the why.

Memberships

This is very individualistic I find. Engineers in particular often find themselves part of different memberships and like to highlight this. As a recruiter, I tend to place little importance on this. However, this can be a great way to start an interview with a new company where the hiring manager may be part of the same membership.

References Upon Request

Please, please, please, please do not put your references on your CV/Resume. There are many shady recruiters out there who will use that information to call your references and pretend to be taking your references in the hope that they can get them on as a client. As you can imagine, this would lead to your references getting irritated and may eventually say that they no longer want to be your reference.