Top five mistakes scientists should avoid when writing a commercial CV

By Kim Nilsson, PhD

I used to be a scientist and wrote pages and pages of job applications that included conferences attended, proposals granted, publications etc. Then I wanted to leave academia for business and the process of learning how to write a commercially-aimed CV started. It was a painful exercise of trying to fit into a smaller wrapping and emphasise new parts – sort of like an extreme make-over of the CV. Unfortunately there were no plastic CV surgeons to help me then, and now, as a director of a recruitment firm helping PhDs, I see the same mistakes repeated over and over again. So, here it goes: the top five mistakes that you do not have to repeat again.

1: Publication list
The by far most common, yet so easily corrected, mistake scientists make is that they leave their publication (or conference/proposal) list in. Unfortunately it is of no interest to recruiters. You will be assumed to have published your work if you have a background in science but exactly how many, in which journal and as which author does not matter at all. Easy fix: delete it all.
2: Too technical
Another, relatively easy improvement is to avoid being too technical in your descriptions of your work. First of all, acronyms are not allowed. Think of it this way, if your parents would not know the acronym then leave it out or explain what it means. The only exception is programming languages which are ok to leave as acronyms. You further need to translate your science work into plain language. Again, imagine that you are explaining what you do to your parents. If they could afterwards sort of explain to their friends what it is you do, you have done a good job. That is the way to go on your CV.
3: Tasks not achievements
So you sit down to write your CV, you come to the work experience section and you think, ‘what did I do in my current role?’. Then you start to write the tasks that you worked on. Not a good idea. Work experience descriptions sounding like a job spec are wasted on a recruiter. Why? Because anyone can do it. The better way is to talk about your achievements to show what you can do. What did you achieve in your role? Quantify if possible, did you save the company/institute time or money? Did you produce code that exceeded expectations? Did you get published, invited, cited, awarded, recognised etc.? You need to show the recruiter that you can add value to whatever task you do which you do by clearly demonstrating how you have performed to date. Not the easiest fix, but certainly the most valuable.
4: Listing too many roles
A lot of the time I get work experience lists containing entries down to the very first jobs out of college which is not very useful. You may think that you are a) being accurate and b) showing your work ethic but what the recruiter sees is a) a reason to think that you are too old and b) a cluttered CV that will take too much effort to comb through for the good bits. Keep it to the two or three most important/recent roles and either leave out or bundle the other ones. That gives you more space to focus on your achievements in the important roles and to personalise.
5: Personalise
People hire people, which is why it is not wrong to personalise your CV a little to show personality. There are two main ways I always suggest people to do this. First, you can write a little “personal statement” or “summary” at the top of your CV. This is just a few sentences summarising who you are, what your background is and why you are looking for a new career. Second, I always recommend adding three personal interests at the bottom. This could be sports, cooking, arts and crafts, anything really as long as it is interesting and catches the attention of the recruiter. Make yourself memorable, likeable and interesting.
To conclude, there is no guarantee that these tips will land you a new job. The recruiter may dismiss it due to the font you use, the University you went to or the taste of the coffee that morning. On the other hand, not following these tips are quite likely to cause a rejection. Good luck!