As a chemist, you have to possess a vast amount of knowledge and a wide range of skills. A professional chemist needs to understand chemical phenomena, starting from single atoms to things like organic synthesis and how different elements react.
Indeed, a chemist job would require you to be proficient with many different chemical factors.
However, even the best of the best in the chemistry field might be hindered when it comes to showcasing their knowledge, skills, and expertise during their job search.
Not everyone knows how to successfully write a cover letter that will encompass a chemists' experiences and abilities in a marketable, interest-building way.
Lucky for you, we're here to help you write the best chemistry resume with the help of our chemist resume examples.
What to Include in Chemistry Resume
Writing a chemistry resume can be quite challenging. Not only do you need to present your knowledge and skills understandably and interestingly, but you also need to be concise and accurate about what you choose to include in the chemistry cover letter.
Like a chemical process, a chemistry resume needs several carefully implemented elements to turn out successfully. And by using the right elements together!
The difference between an effective and ineffective cover letter can be night and day and seriously affect your chances of being noticed by the hiring manager.
In this article, we will be focusing on several factors that can make or break your application—starting from the best formatting style and continuing with all the different sections that a chemist resume example should include.
Paying close attention to these factors will ensure success in your job search, guaranteed!
Before we get started, here's a list of all the resume sections you should include in your application and that we'll be covering:
Contact Info
Education Section
Work Experience Section
Certificates
Skills Section
A key chemist resume objective is to make the hiring manager believe you have the professional experience and relevant work history. We will show you exactly how to display this information.
How to Format Your Chemistry Resume Examples
Now that it’s time to begin your own resume, you might be wondering where to start?
Don't worry; we're here to guide you through your chemistry resume writing process every step of the way!
The first thing you need to consider is structuring your chemist resume; what kind of layout the different sections will have.
This is called formatting your resume. A chemist resume with a strong format can increase the chances of getting noticed by hiring managers by a significant amount.
Choosing the right resume format can be difficult, but that's why we're here. You're going to need to focus on the layout, font, and text size of the cover letter.
We recommend that you format your chemistry resume in the following ways:
Use Reverse Chronological formatting when writing your chemist resume sections. This simply means that the information you provide in your work history or education sections will begin from oldest to newest. This is the generally accepted format for chemistry applications.
Use a Professional Font consistent throughout when writing the content of your resume. We recommend around a 11 - 12 font size. This will make the information appear more professional.
We recommend keeping your chemistry resume within just one page. Usually, hiring managers don't read through the entirety of a resume, so making your cover letter longer won't be necessarily beneficial.
Include a minimum of 3 sections in your chemistry resume. These can include Contact Information, Education, Experience, Skills sections.
Save your resume as a PDF. This is the generally accepted file format of a chemistry application.
Start Your Chemist Resume Example with Contact Information
After you've planned out how you're going to format your chemist resume, it's time to get into the basics.
The reason why you're sending out resumes to different companies in the first place is to get noticed by a recruiter, get a call back for an interview, and finally, get that good job.
However, for these things to happen, not only do you need a powerful experience, education, and skills section, but your contact info also needs to be written clearly and professionally.
At the very top of your chemistry resume, the first step is to increase the font size of your name, make it appear a few sizes larger than the rest of the text.
Afterward, include your contact information below the name. Include things like your email address and your work phone number. Without this information, there is simply no way a reader could get in touch with you.
Here are some expert tips: include a professional-looking email instead of a funny-looking one. A chemistry application needs to look as solid and pro as possible. Adding a LinkedIn profile may also help, just in case, other applicants have done so too!
Don't forget to Include the Education Section in the Resume
After the contact info has been taken care of, it is time to focus on the part of your resume that will show your knowledge.
Including a section that will show your credentials without including past work experiences and abilities will greatly increase your chances of getting that chemist job you always wanted. You can do this through the education section.
Not only this, but companies nowadays will generally require a university degree for most chemist jobs.
Writing the education section might seem confusing at first. You might not know what sort of information to include in this part of your application to make it shine as much as possible.
A good way to structure the education section is by including your degree, school name, graduation start, and end date.
If applicable, we recommend that you include relevant extracurricular activities in this section through bullet points.
Remember to keep this section short and sweet!
Education Section Examples for a Chemistry Resume
Here's a chemist resume example:
Chemistry Resume Example - Education
Education
B.A. in Chemistry
St. Joseph's University
2015 - 2019
Pursued a passion for organic synthesis through elective lab work.
An active member of the Alchemists' Guild (chemistry and food science society).
This section, as mentioned earlier, needs to be short and effective. This chemistry resume example does the trick. You can add more information through bullet points.
Employment & Internship Experiences
Now that the education section has been taken care of, we'll be turning our attention to the main body of your chemistry resume - the experience section.
The experience section is the most important part of the application. It holds all of the key information about your past work history. The quality of the experience section can make or break a chemistry resume.
It is crucial to consider the key factors in making your experience section shine. If done correctly, you'll be getting a chemist job in no time.
For the work experience to come off as clear and effective as possible, you need to make sure that all of the information included is relevant to the job you're applying to.
Make sure to bolden the name of the position you held at the previous job. Write the name of the employing company and years worked below the name of the position.
Afterward, we recommend using bullet points to describe your job responsibilities and achievements. Bullet points will make it easier for the reader to understand your job description.
Additionally, as this is an application for a chemist job, try to include numerical and statistical information while describing your responsibilities—examples of how your work improved project efficiency or company earnings in percentages, for instance.
Examples
Here are two chemistry resume examples, an effective and ineffective job description:
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EXPERIENCE
Chemist
ChemCo Industries
06/2015 - 11/2018
New York, New York
Through process development techniques, successfully reduced costs of running tests on organic synthesis procedure by $25,000.
Analyzed and certified 20+ complex liquid and gas calibration standards using gas chromatography. Standards were based on the American Chemical Society.
Reduced product costs by an average of 8% by changing existing formulations.
This is an effective job chemistry job description. Here we can see all of the information about the responsibilities and achievements. There are even metrics here to offer better insight at the job and the applicant's abilities, such as organic synthesis, on top of industry jargon.
This chemistry resume example, on the other hand, is ineffective:
INCORRECT
EXPERIENCE
Chemist
ChemCo Industries
06/2015 - 11/2018
New York, New York
Reduced costs of running tests on organic synthesis procedure.
Analyzed and certified complex liquid and gas calibration standards
Performed quality control testing .
Reduced product costs.
This one doesn't say much.
Always Include Scholarships, Honors, and Awards in Your Resume
After finishing the experience section, you might be wondering how to increase the value of your application or how to make it look more desirable to a hiring manager?
You can make your chemist cover letter shine even further by adding a section for certificates and awards you've received. Doing so will undoubtedly increase the eligibility of your chemist resume and add additional information about your chemistry expertise.
In today's job market, many of your competition will also possess some sort of relevant degree. A good way to stand out is by getting certifications or awards for doing projects. This will separate you from the rest of the applicant pool.
Certifications show that you have taken time to improve the depth of your knowledge and skills as a professional and understand the subject better than non-certified chemists.
Here's a list of our recommended certifications for a certified chemist:
After finishing up all of the sections we've discussed, now what do you do? The answer is to add another important, value-building section to your chemistry resume.
Your chemistry resume doesn't stop at the certificates. You can further enhance your cover letter by adding a skills section.
The skills section is a perfect way to showcase your abilities and chemistry skills to the reader if you haven't already done so or mentioned them in the other sections.
This section should be a list of all the relevant, right chemistry skills that match the job ad you're applying for.
Make sure to create a list of 5-10 hard and soft skills. These hard and soft skills need to match the job ad description, so make sure you read through the requirements carefully before writing down your list of right skills.
Here's our list of top skills you can include in a chemistry resume:
Hard Skills :
Documentation
Apparatus preparation
Protocol optimization
Organic synthesis
Chemical analysis
Hazardous waste handling and disposal
Wet chemistry
Statistical analysis
Computer skills
Data Entry
Soft Skills :
Critical thinking
Interpersonal skills
Time management
Database management
Communication
Training others
Collaboration
Positive attitude
Deductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning
Chemistry Resume: Dos and Don'ts
Now that we've covered all of the essential sections that can add your chemistry resume effectiveness and clarity, it is time that we go through some further, essential recommendations.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the overall employment of chemists is projected to grow 5 percent from 2019 to 2029, faster than the average for all occupations.
Due to the fact that companies receive countless applications on a daily basis, the potential employer will opt to filter the resumes they receive. Once filtered, if your application is chosen, the recruiters will usually skim through your resume initially.
Indeed, potential employers tend to use scanning programs to filter through resumes they receive. These Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are designed to choose cover letters with the highest amount of keywords.
It is crucial to create a balance of action verbs, keywords, and industry terms related to the business you're applying to and regular words. Please don't overload your work experience section with jargon; it still has to be readable.
Making sure that your resume only holds valuable information, as well as keywords and chemist terminology, is key to writing a perfect chemistry resume.
Key Takeaways
The key points for creating the best chemist resume are the following:
Design your resume specifically for the chemist job you're applying for.
Implement relevant experience, keywords and industry jargon into your resume sections without overloading the content.
Demonstrate value by touching on key points and achievements from your past jobs.
Write your work experiences in a Reverse-Chronological format order.
Link your skills and chemist experience to the job in an appropriate way.
Add certifications to your resume to increase chemist resume effectiveness.
Frequently Asked Questions from Chemistrians
How to write a chemist job description?
Try to create a list of your most important and relevant responsibilities and achievements at a specific job. You can list this information with bullet points.
Do I need a degree to become a chemist?
A chemist job requires at least a four-year college bachelor’s degree, although there are benefits to pursuing higher levels of education.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , Chemists who have an advanced degree, particularly a Ph.D., are expected to have the best opportunities.
How long should a chemist resume be?
We recommend that you format your chemist resume sample for the most effective chemistry resume to fit on a single page. Recruiters tend to prefer reading through page-long resumes.
Find the perfect CV template made by a career expert here .
How to put chemistry research in a resume?
You can add this information in the job description section, in one or several of the bullet points.
CORRECT
INCORRECT
