What is the best way to write a resume?

Question

My field in biology, and I am looking to know what the best looking resume would be for my field.

Answer 1

List of Project experience, Accomplishments, papers, then put the companies you work for at the end.

Be sure to put your contact info on the resume (I have seen them without it-especially the ones online).

Answer 2

I have a background biochemistry and over the years and positions I started to find my resume being highly repetitive.

the classic style is the chronological method - this is good for an introductory level person - but when you've been "performing Western Blots with SCID mouse extract on daily basis" is mentioned on 5 different places in 4 different jobs - that's redundant.

One way I saw which was a very good technically based resume which reduced the size but very succint.

1. Contact Information: Name, Address, Phone, Cell
2. Biological Skills: RNA extract, Westerns, enzyme kinetic models, etc.
3. Instrument skills: mention exact names - Bruker NMR, BioRad 5200, Molecular Devices Gemini EM, Liquid Handling
4. VERY short chronological explaination of jobs:
a. Company name/university/instituion
b. location
c. dates of work
d. One sentence summary of project in italics
5. Publications/Presentations

Answer 3

avoid "I" statements

explain the outcome of your actions - ex: "assisted research for 4 major projects in 2006 which earned the department a $1 million grant" (no idea what kind of stuff you put on a biology resume, but you get the idea, right? much more effective than "assisted research on 4 major projects")

SPELL CHECK. SPELL CHECK. SPELL CHECK! and have a few friends read it for spelling errors again. I know many hiring managers who have thrown out the majority of the resumes they recieve for spelling errors.

Make sure it's neat and easy to read. Microsoft Word has templates - they are fine. or just use them as a guide and do it yourself. It's not hard, just take a few extra minutes.