Preparing Your Résumé You can include the following characteristics in your résumé, which you should prepare and have available. You’ll need your résumé for career fairs and actual job interviews. You can find entire books on creating a winning résumé. Consider these suggestions:
◆ Include all your pertinent contact information.
◆ Rather than list your career objective (the job you seek) at the top, begin with a strong selling point, a list of your key skills andexperiences. Highlight your key knowledge, experiences, and characteristics. Summarize why someone should hire you. Succinctly include in a short list what you have to offer.
◆ Highlight any biology-related experience, including internships, mentoring, volunteer work, and so on. Don’t just list your experience, “Designed Independent Research Study, September 2003 to September 2004.” Go beyond the specifics of the title and dates and explain what you did. Show what skills you learned or practiced from this experience, such as “Wrote Methodology Section of published paper and performed statistical data analysis to determine significance.”
◆ Be sure to sell all your activities, not just those related directly to biology. Think of how you spent your time and whether during your college career there’s anything else worth mentioning. For instance, perhaps during the summer you organized and volunteered at a charity golf outing. Or perhaps during elections you worked with a political party or candidate. Don’t just focus on the obvious.
◆ Include any and all relevant work experiences in addition to college. Although some jobs may seem to have nothing to offer (perhaps your first job was selling ice cream at the mall), perhaps the fact that you started working at 15 to pay for your private high school education makes mentioning that job worthwhile.
◆ When you think of job tasks, recast them in business terms, which even laboratories relate to. In general, it’s a good idea to tie the job experience to the field of biology or science. For instance, suppose that you created a kiddie newsletter as your job as summer camp counselor; you could include the ability to create and publish appropriate, informative types of communication. This information would be useful if you are applying for a job that will require that you write research reports.
◆ Use the resources at your career center to prepare your resume. They not only are likely to have several books and examples in their library, but also should have career counselors that can critique and provide feedback on your resume.
You might also consider having business cards printed up with your name and contact information. These are easy to pass out, especially when networking.
Sample/ example Cover letters for Biology/ Life science candidates
Cover letter sample for Molecular Biologist to Biotechnology company
Cover letter for Research Associate position Biology
Cover letter sample Assistant professor in Molecular Biology
◆ Include all your pertinent contact information.
◆ Rather than list your career objective (the job you seek) at the top, begin with a strong selling point, a list of your key skills andexperiences. Highlight your key knowledge, experiences, and characteristics. Summarize why someone should hire you. Succinctly include in a short list what you have to offer.
◆ Highlight any biology-related experience, including internships, mentoring, volunteer work, and so on. Don’t just list your experience, “Designed Independent Research Study, September 2003 to September 2004.” Go beyond the specifics of the title and dates and explain what you did. Show what skills you learned or practiced from this experience, such as “Wrote Methodology Section of published paper and performed statistical data analysis to determine significance.”
◆ Be sure to sell all your activities, not just those related directly to biology. Think of how you spent your time and whether during your college career there’s anything else worth mentioning. For instance, perhaps during the summer you organized and volunteered at a charity golf outing. Or perhaps during elections you worked with a political party or candidate. Don’t just focus on the obvious.
◆ Include any and all relevant work experiences in addition to college. Although some jobs may seem to have nothing to offer (perhaps your first job was selling ice cream at the mall), perhaps the fact that you started working at 15 to pay for your private high school education makes mentioning that job worthwhile.
◆ When you think of job tasks, recast them in business terms, which even laboratories relate to. In general, it’s a good idea to tie the job experience to the field of biology or science. For instance, suppose that you created a kiddie newsletter as your job as summer camp counselor; you could include the ability to create and publish appropriate, informative types of communication. This information would be useful if you are applying for a job that will require that you write research reports.
◆ Use the resources at your career center to prepare your resume. They not only are likely to have several books and examples in their library, but also should have career counselors that can critique and provide feedback on your resume.
You might also consider having business cards printed up with your name and contact information. These are easy to pass out, especially when networking.
Sample/ example Cover letters for Biology/ Life science candidates
Cover letter sample for Molecular Biologist to Biotechnology company
Cover letter for Research Associate position Biology
Cover letter sample Assistant professor in Molecular Biology
