THE PURPOSE OF YOUR RESUME
Your resume is your first chance to make an impression on a potential employer. Careful thought should be put into this very important document. Your resume not only informs the employer about your background, but also your communication style, writing (and spelling) ability, organizational skills, and ability to briefly and concisely convey information.
It is also important to be truthful on your resume. Your industry is smaller than you might think and you may run into people with whom you have worked at other companies. They might even be someone with whom you worked on a project and knows your contributions, or knows someone that has worked with you in the past. Either way, if you have lied or exaggerated about your level of contribution, you will be found out and your reputation ruined. Also, with the number of companies doing background and education verification checks, it isn’t worth the humiliation of being caught in a lie and ruining your reputation for solid, quality work. Be proud of your accomplishments and state them honestly.
SETTING UP YOUR RESUME FOR MORE IMPACT
Now, about the layout of your resume: I’m sure you have been told that your resume should only be 1 or 2 pages. That is only partially true. If you have 5 years or less of experience, yes, it should only be a 1-2-pager. If you have more experience than that, you may short-change yourself by trying to keep it to 2 pages. It is better to give your potential employer (or Recruiter) a good idea of what you have done, and are capable of doing, than to have a short resume. Under no circumstances should you go over 4 pages. Beyond that and you risk having your resume find the bottom of the pile to be read “when they have time”. The key is to make sure EVERYTHING on your resume sells you to a potential employer, and gives them a clear picture of what you are capable of doing for them.
If you are someone who has done a number of publications or presentations, you can simply state on your resume: “Extensive publication and presentations experience. A detailed list is available upon request”, and place it under a heading of “Publications and Presentations”.
Most hiring managers and recruiters focus on your most recent 3-5 years of experience. For positions held within that time period, you should make sure to put your most relevant bullet points to describe what you’ve done. For position beyond the 5 year mark, try to pick the most important 3-5 bullet points to list. This will help keep your resume more concise without filing it with information that is not as relevant to the reader.
Also try to eliminate any date gaps in your resume. If you have taken an extended leave, or have been unemployed for more than 6 months, you may need to list this time gap on your resume. Many employers become suspicious of big time gaps and may wonder what you are hiding. If they are wondering about these gaps, they are not concentrating on your accomplishments. If what they remember about your resume is that it had “curious” time gaps, you may not fare too well against your competition.
I have collected thousands of resumes during my Recruiting career. Some layouts are very difficult to follow and read, and leave the reader confused about what the job candidate has done, or can do. A chronological resume layout is easier to follow as it uses bullet points to highlight accomplishments and responsibilities. This is the format used by a majority of the people in the market, and is very good, but there are options to help you stand out as well.
A key component to any effective resume is having a “Skills Summary” or “Significant Accomplishments” section at the very top of the first page. This is your chance to shine and get your reader’s attention right off the bat. Most people write their resumes like a job description; listing how they spent time during their days. Employers don’t hire people to come in and spend time, they hire them to get things done and accomplish something. That’s what your resume needs to list.
Anything you can list that had a big impact on your group or company should be listed in your Skills Summary or Significant Accomplishments section. If you streamlined a process, completed a project ahead of schedule, or got a submission in and approved quickly, those are the kind of things a hiring manager wants to know about. You may be uncomfortable bragging about your accomplishments, but if you don’t brag a little, the reader of your resume will never know how good you are.
A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT RESUME
Using the same chronological layout, you can take it one step further to really give your resume some impact. This extra step is the information we can use as recruiters to really get the attention of the hiring manager, and will set you way ahead of other resumes/job candidates they are considering.
This is a step using the PPR approach. PPR stands for Project, Participation, and Results. The Projects portion is simply facts about significant projects you’ve worked on. This part should be pretty easy since that is what resumes are made up of anyway. The Participation portion lists significant, measurable results you personally achieved on these projects in your previous positions, and the Results portion specifies what this project achieved for the company, and let’s the potential employer know what you think you can do for them if they hire you, based on what you’ve done in the past. Here’s an example of how that might look.
2007-2010
Senior Manager, Regulatory/Clinical Affairs, 123 Surgical, San Jose, CA
Provide leadership for regulatory policy and strategy through example, guidance, internal communication, follow-up and verification for corporate operations and operations of corporate partners. Formulate global clinical development plans, monitor clinical trials and manage the Clinical Research Department.
Project
My Role
Results
Develop content for regulatory filings, ensuring quality of content,
approving minor or routine submissions and meeting predetermined timelines for all submissions.
Consistently met all deadlines
Project
My Role
Results
Manage Clinical Trials
Responsible for all facets of development including discovery, development and clinical trials
CTrial approved by the FDA on the first pass, including 25 sites in the US and 5 in Europe; enrollment completed 9 months ahead of schedule.
By doing this you are answering the basic question of the hiring manager that is at the core of the entire interviewing process: What’s in it for me? The potential employer is looking at your resume to decide what’s in it for them to bring you on board. The hiring manager is trying to fill a position to solve a problem they have, and they are looking at your background and capabilities to see if you are someone that can help them accomplish the goals they have for their department. That’s what’s in it for them.
As the process continues, and you learn more about the opportunity, you can determine what’s in it for you. Once you get in the door to interview, you can learn a lot more about the company, culture, and people you would be working with. This information can turn a pretty good opportunity into a great one, or let you know it might not be quite right for you. But unless you can get in the door to interview, and eventually get an offer, you will never know what’s in it for you.
As Recruiters, it is our job to present you in the best possible light, and to do a first stage screening to make sure you have the background the employer is looking for. That is a service we provide our client companies, and they have come to expect from us. Your resume is still a very key component. We can give our contacts within the company a lot of detailed information about you to entice them to look further at your background, but resumes get passed internally to other members of the interviewing team to see if it’s worth bringing you in. Since we are not part of these conversations, your resume needs to stand on its own.
One last note. You should also review your social media accounts to make sure there is nothing on them that a potential employer may see and get a negative impression of you. You can either delete the material that may give a bad impression, or change your settings as to who has access to view your account. Employers are increasingly checking social media pages of job applicants to get a better idea of the individual.
We hope this information and the following sample resume is helpful in giving you the best resume possible to help you advance in your career. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
