A typical challenge when finishing our education is getting that first job. For many of us, our resume is one of the keys for landing that first job that we want so badly. Early career resumes can be difficult to write though, because we may not have too much content yet, and there is a lot of white space on that page. What considerations do we need to make when writing these early resumes?

I think it’s always a good idea to think about who will read your writing. My background is in tech and pharma, so let that background color this conversation. To me a resume is usually read by three audiences: recruiters, hiring managers, and interviewers. What are these different groups looking for?

The recruiter works as a first pass filter, so no matter how well you write for the other audiences, it probably won’t matter much if you don’t give the recruiter what they need. What does the recruiter need to know? Whether you could do the job. Can the recruiter do the job? No. So they are mostly going to look at the set of requirements the hiring manager has laid out, and see if many of them show up in your resume. While they could call you to check, given that you have time to present yourself in advance, you should try to have the information here. What types of things are they going to look for? Depends on the job, but education, basics of types of coursework/ data you have experience with (even in coursework), and programming experience. If you are submitting a resume to a specific job, and you can check off requirements for the job, be sure to include them on your resume!

What about the hiring manager? They want to protect their company from a lot of unnecessary interviews which take considerable time, even if conducted remotely. For many hiring managers, they will often form a ranked list of resumes, and when they hit some target number in the acceptable category. So if we want this job, we want to give ourselves the best chance to get in that top set of resumes.

For the interviewing panel, the process depends on the company. In some places, your resume may not matter, as they may have a fully formal interview process that is already scripted out. But typically, the panel will look at the resume, and are likely to ask questions from it. Some interviewers (I’m looking at myself here) will mostly base the interview off of the resume. If a bad hire is made, the interview panel can look bad, so they will typically overcompensate to prevent a bad hire from being made.

What do these three audiences suggest for an online resume? To make the recruiter happy, include general skills that you hold (R programming, Biostatistics etc). Keeping the resume clear, organized, succinct and descriptive of your skills will be good for the hiring manager. For the interviewing committee, be honest of your skill set, exaggerations can get caught and lead to awkward interviews.