Best Scientist Resume Examples for Your Application

Even if you’re the reincarnation of Charles Darwin or Nicola Tesla, an irresistible resume is mandatory to grow your career. Companies like Airbus, Tesla, or NASA, among many others, as well as research centers, have the most challenging professional requirements worldwide. Therefore, your first impression must be unparalleled.

And because there’s no room to mistake in this kind of application, we’ve created scientist resume examples to help you tailor an excellent document.

That said, let’s get started.

What’s the Best Format for Scientist Resumes?

As a scientist, your structure and organization are by themselves the first impression the recruiter will look through. Not necessarily the summary nor the skills sections. Likewise, your scientific resume must describe your experience, development, and most remarkable achievements. All in less than six seconds.

But why six seconds?

Tips to Reduce the length of Your Scientific Resume

Before we move on to the examples, we have three recommendations to help you build a brilliant resume:

• Reduce your segments with bullet points. All your text will be more readable at one glance with bullet-point lists. Replace paragraphs for clear sentences when possible.
• Avoid wordiness. Contrary to what most people think, a wordy text is not impressive; briefness it is. Not everyone can tell more with less, even in scientific workforces. Use that as an advantage.
• Prioritize. Unless the job opening demands all your work history, stick to your last and most important positions and achievements. Otherwise, you might overload your paper and overwhelm the recruiter.

We also have the best job search advice to help you land more interviews.

Summary Section of a Scientist Resume | Examples

The summary is your first and only chance to engage the recruiter and have them read on through your page. There, you must be crystal clear as to who you are and why you’re an excellent scientist specialist to consider.

Here’s where you describe yourself and your talents at one look. Here’s where you highlight your most remarkable traits, achievements as a strong introduction to your resume.

How? Let’s break it down!

CORRECT

Exhaustive scientist researcher for the Purdue University. Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology specialized in bacteriology. Created an innovative reactive that accelerated the study on anaerobic microorganisms up to 10%. Wrote 10 essays published in the Example Magazine that contributed to the development of three successful investigations on anaerobic specimens.

Let’s imagine this is your summary.

From the first sentence, you pointed out your position and the organization where you work, Also, you highlighted a significant trait (exhaustive) that differentiates you from the rest.

In the rest of the summary, you explained your degree, area of expertise, and relevant achievements.

Now, the recruiter knows you could be an excellent candidate and keeps engaged with the other sections.

For a bad example:

INCORRECT

Result-driven scientist researcher with vast experience in bacteriology. I have worked in various researches for the Purdue University, demonstrating efficiency and reliability in all the tasks performed.

Doing what? What’s your degree? How many years of experience do you have? What tasks are you talking about?

All these questions will pop-up in the recruiter’s mind immediately. Enough reason to pass on to the next resume, discarding yours.

Experience in a Scientist Resume

The best way to delve into your professional experience is by describing your job title and core responsibilities.

For instance:

Core Responsibilities

• Studying plant species and microorganisms in different ecosystems.
• Performing experiments on incumbent processes and
• Taking exhaustive records on experiments, results, and observations as to plants’ behavior and incumbent specimens.
• Leading research groups in the laboratory and fieldwork.

Scientists have to –or should– highlight core responsibilities, procedures, and best results in the experience segment. Use bullet points so that the recruiter can skim them and have a first glimpse of your work history and performance.

Four or five bullet points should be enough, depending on the template you choose and the number of positions you describe.

What Skills to Add for a Scientist Resume

The skills are mandatory when it comes to a scientist resume for a simple reason: you need to showcase all your technical experience.

As a scientist, whether researcher, manager, student, or apprentice, you must dispose of specialized knowledge in software, programs, equipment, procedures, and other technical areas.

Although you can highlight your soft skills, you should prioritize your hard skills and focus on the abilities demanded in the job opening.

And now, take a look at some examples of abilities you can use to reinforce your scientific resume.

Lab skills

• Laboratory maintenance
• Instruments
• Machinery
• Writing and organizational skills

Software skills

• Microsoft Office
• Database management
• Graphic
• Data analysis
• Programming languages (HTML, Python, CSS…)

Research skills

• Research methods
• Data structures
• Specialized procedures
• Additional nomenclatures

Soft skills

• Problem-solving
• Teamwork
• Communicational abilities
• Patience
• Decisiveness

And How to Know What Skills Are Best?

• Use the same skills as the job opening. Just by reading the requirements, you’ll have a good bunch of technical and non-technical abilities to boost your resume. If you don’t have the same skills, use relatable or transferable ones.
• In-depth research. Go further than the job opening and check the organization’s website. Also, check its members’ professional profiles on LI and see what recruiters expect from their candidates.

Education and Other Segments

Although your academic history is indispensable for scientific roles, you shouldn’t dwell upon in this part.

Instead, point out your college and degree rather than explaining all your background. Just like this:

Still, if you’re applying for an entry-level role, you can try to use your good academic average and other academic recognitions on your behalf.

Achievements

This section is, for some recruiters and job seekers, optional.

Why? Because you can highlight your accomplishments in both your summary and experience. However, if you have important+ awards or important recognitions to showcase, such as grants, awards, or publications, it’ll be an excellent plus for your scientist resume.

You can also include the following elements in this section:

• Published Articles
• Essays
• Projects

Other sections

Generally, applicants should make their applications as brief as possible. But we’re talking about scientist resume examples.

The scientific field is very competitive, selective, and challenging, even for the most skilled candidates. Therefore, as a devote of science, you can showcase other sections –as long as you stay relevant to the job opening– such as:

• Languages. Speaking another language makes you a candidate for higher positions and even international roles.
• Voluntary work. Believe it or not, this normally forgotten segment will help you shine and outshine. If you have a good background in voluntary work related to the company or position you seek, you’ll definitely stand out.

FAQs

Should A Scientist Resume Be Two-Pages Long?

Not necessarily. But, if the job description or the position itself requires in-depth job history, you may add more information, even if you surpass the one-page format.

What’s the Best Format for a Scientific Resume without Experience?

If you haven’t landed your first job, you can the chronological resume and exalt your academic and voluntary experience. Also, you can opt for a combination resume to prioritize your skills while showing your background.

When to Use a CV

The Curriculum Vitae, better known as CV, portraits all your work experience, from your last role to your first volunteer experience. In many cases, scientist researchers have to apply with a CV. Yet, this often happens with high positions and is specified in the job requirement. Otherwise, stick to the resume.