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Are you putting together your resume for a chemist position? Here are some common dos and don’ts for the industry to give yourself a better chance at landing an interview.

Don’t Let Your Key Skills Get Buried

If you’ve worked several jobs over the past few years, chances are your chronologically formatted resume might be getting pretty long. This is a problem because resumes are your chance to quickly and clearly communicate your value to a potential employer.

Do Clear Out the Clutter

Resumes need to be short and sweet to show readers exactly what they want to know in less than 10 seconds. If your resume is too long, you run the risk of losing the reader’s attention. Instead of simply listing all your skills and experience you have garnered over the past decade or two, focus on the most relevant information that will help win you the job. If a chronological format isn’t cutting it for you, try a skills-based format. Bring those real-world chemist experiences front and center so employers know what you bring to the table.

Don’t Think that a Template Resume Will Be Enough

In this day and age of digital job applications, it is even more critical your resume is custom tailored to the specific job description you are applying to. A template resume will easily get overlooked unless it happens to have the unique keywords recruiting programs are scanning for.

Do Customize Your Resume

Rather than creating one resume and blasting employers with a document that is a poor representation of what you and only you can bring to a position, take the time to fine-tune your resume. Highlight key qualifications and skills that matter for the position in question. Make sure you are highly relevant to their search to make it to the next step in the hiring process.

Don’t Think That Your Resume Doesn’t Matter

Resumes are your calling card. They are the first introduction to who you are and who you could be as an employee. Make sure you put your best foot forward when crafting your resume. Triple check for spelling errors or typos. Check your formatting and how it comes across in different reader programs and views.

Do What Makes Sense For You

At the end of the day, your resume should be a good representation of the great work you have done and what you can bring to a new job. Try out a couple different resume formats to see which one presents your career in a more compelling (and concise) light. Remember, the average employer looks at a resume for just a few seconds before deciding whether to follow up with a candidate. So, whatever you choose, make sure that it gets the point across quickly and effectively.

To see what more you can do to land that chemist job of your dreams, contact a recruiter at Verum Technical today.