Analytical chemist CV examples...please help

Off-topic conversations and chit-chat.

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I am about to start to write up my CV again after completing my masters previously i had worked for 5-6 years. Just wondering can you post or send me (seamoro@yahoo.com) your CV so that i can i can have an idea of how to structure it. obviously you can take out your personal information1...im not an identity theft kinda person...lol...please help!!
You probably shouldn't have started a new thread, given that you've already posted your request. Can we get a mod to merge the two threads?

Congratulations on earning your Masters degree, by the way.

My CV has morphed over the years. The biggest change was when I took off all of my college courses and had work history only. I split it up into two areas: relevant and additional. Relevant was all my industry stuff. Additional was things like the years I spent working at the gas station. You'd be amazed how much people sit up and take notice once they realise you were responsible for $10,000 every day.

I've been through a few job changes in the recent past. I was finally able to take off the Additional work experience and focus solely on career-related jobs. What I've done is to list the company, city & state, title, and dates worked. Some people recommend not putting titles as they can vary so much from place to place, but it can show growth and it's a must to include if you've been promoted within the company. Below that, I use bullet points to detail the different aspects of the job.

Example:

XYZ Corp Smalltown, USA Widget Analyst: April 2007 to Current
* Responsible for routine release testing of manufactured widgets by HPLC, KF, and GC-MA. Perform investigations into OOS results.
* Managed stability program. Wrote stability protocols, performed all pulls, and trended data.
* Trained inter- and intra-departmental personnel.
* Write and revise Standard Operating Procedures, Test Methods, and Validation Protocols.

And so on...
Hi, I am prepare for mine CV, too. I've search somewhere for a sample and I think that this one is reliable:

Image

Hope this helpful! :)
Having been on the receiving side of resumes, let me add some ideas for you. When I read your resume I want to know where you are going professionally, and that you have the skills, interests and dive to do the job for which my company is hiring.

I’ll pick on the sample resume Susan12 posted. I like the format – it looks much like the one I have used. And, I have seen other formats which work well also. Keep it organized and like a research paper – the important stuff at the top and develop it down the page. Clean and neat. For the sciences, no need for fancy colors and fonts.

Also, remember that I read resumes to exclude candidates – perhaps a bit unfair, but an important function on the job is communication and if you are communicating the wrong stuff to me in the resume (which really, really counts) how will you do with day to day information? So, if you cannot write complete sentences, use spell check, or organize information on this life time critical document, I don’t want to have to be addressing these issues day by day on each and every report or memo you write. (If I agree that you are a good candidate and you are hired, what you do reflects on me.)

That short summary statement just above professional experience: In 25 words or less tell me what makes you the outstanding candidate for the job. What is it that you do that you will do for me? Relate that summary to the job at hand – yes, this may mean tailoring a resume to a specific job opening. I have seen too many "I am looking wor a position where I can develop as a..." Feel free to take a job where you can develop, but the lab has to turn out results to stay in business -- how are you going to help me do that?

The example shown is listed in chronological order. I like this. This helps see the flow of the career. It is great to see increasing responsibilities. Or at least level performance. I have seen a resume where the order was set by some other agenda – and dates were mixed up. A quick scan down the page indicated that there were some gaps. While the candidate was at lunch with the appointed team member or two, a couple of the rest of the team sorted out the dates on the resume and the candidate returned from lunch to see a timeline of his life on the board – and a two year gap in work history. He gave an explanation of a break for family matters or such. And it could have been – but something left us to suspect the resume was jumbled to obscure the 2 year gap. (That was beforethe days of the Internet where thnings are more easily checked.)

And, if you are going to obscure something easy to find, what are you going to do when you accidentally spike all the samples with the wrong internal standard solution – and we have no results. It is a lot easier to work with someone who is open than someone who will hide stuff and make others dig it out. I'd rather have someone with weak technical skills and honesty than a liar with all the skills in the world.

On those bullet points under the positions – give us an idea of the scope of your responsibilities and the impact on the organization. “Wrote Analytical chemistry essays…” sounds like an assignment that has been given to a senior manager’s personal friend – the assignment made to give “responsibility” and keep said friend from damaging instruments. What was the impact? How did this advance the company? (And if this is an indication of a publications list - a publications is added on a separate page.)

“Created new ways of finding components…” -- for example what?

Further down, “Gained extensive knowledge of … techniques” can be interpreted as “took a class” -- What did you do with it? How did it benefit the employer?
“Assisted senior chemist…” What did you do with findings reports and essays? (Bringing coffee while said chemist worked is assisting – but I assume you did more.)

Now given that the experience is hypothetical, it may be unfair to pick on the example. I have seen worse representation of a real live person. Thus the point – put down information that shows that you did more than show up and do stuff. I want someone who can make useful contributions – and make my lab excel.

Education – I am of the mindset – even if it was 30 years ago, leave it in. Even if you are published with your picture on the cover of professional magazines, HR will ask the question. Make me comfortable that there is an answer. Professional awards are good to list as well.

A list of skills – I am of the mindset to say no. You have described the things you do in the bullet points above. From experience, I have learned that this list is things seen in classes or instruments that were in a lab somewhere and you may have even touched. If the job posting looks for a person with experience on a Wombat 2000 LC/MS/MS – it can be addressed in the cover letter. And if it was a major job responsibility, it will be in the bullet points as well. (And, if I am asking for an experienced operator of a Wombat 2000, expect to be asked questions that can not be answered by someone who has just walked past the instrument and read the sales literature.)

Hobbies and outside activities – only if they 1) show professional development and 2) don’t show that you have outside stuff that will distract you from your job and work the copy machine to death making fliers for your outside events. It may be great that you like hiking and camping, but unless you are applying for a job requiring field work or for a company that makes supplies for the hobbies, it may not add much.

A big item – Don’t inflate achievements or put in false information. Never, never, never. Yes, some people do this and appear to get away with it. Most of the time we are aware of it is when someone gets caught (hint). I love it when someone has “experience” developing methods on a GC – so I ask a question about injection technique. And the answer is something like “Inlet Liner? I don’t think we used one of them. We had just regular gas regulators.” That method development experience was at best —shall we say limited?

The resume should allow me to see that you have relevant experience to the position that is to be filled. It should show appropriate professional development – even if it is projects undertaken while in school. It will be the basis for questions when I verify experience with references. And if I do not see relevant experience - or reading it indicates fluff, my recommendation to the team is to not make the telephone interview or call the candidate in.

I mentioned cover letter. This is critically important. When responding to a job posting or any inquiry in which you have a description of the job for which you are applying – write a cover letter. Tell them the position that you are applying for and match up your experience with each of the items in the job description. (The hiring manager will do this…). This is the place where you make it clear that you are the perfect match for the position. Enclose your resume – it will have some of the information you have given, but will put that experience in context of your professional development (who you are professionally).
I like to see short, but concrete examples. Susan's example is clearly a generic template, so I intend no criticism, but I'd expect "Created new ways of finding..." to be replaced with something that I can relate to a particular skill. "Developed an LC-MS fingerprinting technique to distinguish between pigeon droppings and rhinoceros toenails" is far more interesting, impressive and convincing.

Avoid cluttering the CV with obvious space-fillers. "Recorded all findings..." is a bit trivial. I'd expect the subject of recording experimental results to have been dealt with adequately at age 13 (or possibly younger nowadays!). If, on the other hand, it's obvious from the job description that you'll be working in a highly-regulated environment, with electronic lab notebook/LIMS systems, and you're familiar with this sort of requirement, then it's worth saying.

Try to show personal interest in the company to whom you are applying. The CV may not be the place for this, but the covering letter matters. If Dr Brown works on jelly-fish toxins, telling Dr Brown that you have lots of relevant technical skills, you admire his publications and you're keen to develop your skills in the context of marine biochemistry is more likely to impress than writing to Prof Brown to tell him you would like to be considered for a project in his lab (ummm... and how many other people have received exactly the same covering-letter? Do you really want to be in my lab, or just any lab, anywhere... ).

Remember, CVs are read by human resource departments who have to wade through 100 of them to pick 6 interview candidates. They don't know anything much about the job, so they need to pick out the key-words easily: GC-MS, bioinformatics, MSc in analytical chemistry - the sorts of things that are likely to be used as a hurdle to weed out the unsuitable. The next stage is that someone who actually knows the job is going to have to feel enthusiastic about you, and they need just enough detail to arouse an interest, and make them want to ask you something. If they read your CV and think "I really want to know this: How, exactly, did she distinguish between pigeon-droppings and toe-nails, and what on earth was the point?", then you're half-way there.
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