curriculum vitae – “course of life”

CV
resume

Iyad Ayoub, PhD

November 28, 2016
 Why do I need a CV

• To apply for a job

• Requested by your company for compliance or
documentation purposes
• To join a committee
• Applying for graduate or professional
programs
• Independent consulting
• Application for fellowships, internships, grants
 CV basics
• Name and Contact Details
• Objective
• Experience
• Education
• Professional Memberships
• Interests
• References
 Name and Address
• Written clearly at the top
- name
- address
- phone number
- email address
• Give a good impression
– full name
– professional sounding email address - DON’T USE
so_kiss_me@hotmilk.com , love_devil@yahoo.com
One survey: 76% of CVs with unprofessional email
addresses are ignored
• You are not required to provide your picture*, marital status,
date of birth
 Objective
• Tell the employer the type of position you
are seeking
• Can include the specific position you are
seeking, skills you wish to use on the job,
organization type or field to which you are
applying, or a combination of all of the above
 Personal Profile (optional)
• This is a short statement at the beginning of
your CV.
• Fact based NOT “I am a dynamic team player”
• Detail your core experience, your skills, what
industry you have operated in
• Include positive words : ‘competent’,
‘adaptable’ etc.
 Education
• Name of degree-granting institutions, listing most
recent first
• Degree received and major
• Graduation date or projected graduation date, or
dates of attendance if a degree was not completed
• Use bold for university names
• Courses or certifications relevant to the position
for which you are applying
• Honors and GPA (if they are a strong selling point)
– indicate GPA based on a 4.0 scale
 Experience
Summary of experience and/or accomplishments.
• List most recent experience first. You should include:
– Title of the position
– Name of the organization and location (city and country)
– Dates - month and year
– Bullet descriptions of responsibilities beginning with action
verbs eg. “Managed (avoid phrases like "duties included")
– Believable and verifiable accomplishments
– Be specific in your descriptions and quantify with numbers
wherever possible eg. budget of $30,000
– Use bold for job titles
 Publications/presentations*
• Include publications, abstracts, relevant
presentations
• Use proper formats for publications/abstracts
• For important presentations should include
title, location, date
Professional memberships, interests, skills,
languages etc
• Mention relevant ones to position
• Include professional memberships, dates
became members
• We all know how to internet browse
• Using MSword or internet is not a skill
anymore!
• Don’t care if you like “walking”
• Remove religious references
 References
• Choose them carefully. Will need min 3
– Credible and appropriate (we will call them!)
• Don’t include their details
• “References Available Upon Request”
• Will ask them
– Length of employment
– Job title
– Details of responsibility
– Overall performance
– Time-keeping and attendance
– Reason for leaving
 PLEASE do the following
• New graduate's CV should be no more than two sides of
A4 paper (1 is the best!!!)
• List items in reverse chronological order
• Use bullets to summarize your experiences.      
• Use an effective format and be consistent.
• Strategically use bolds, italics, underlines, and
capitalization
• Use a simple layout and easy-to-read fonts
• PROOF READ IT CAREFULLY. Ask others to review it for
you. Even one grammatical or spelling error may
invalidate your CV to most employers
• PAY ATTENTION TO ALL DETAILS
 PLEASE do the following
• Tailor it specific position – READ WHAT
POSITION YOUR APPLYING FOR
• Place the name of the position, title, award, or
institution on the left side of the page and
associated dates or years on the right. The
position, not the date, is the most important
information
• PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE spell check – its free!
 Emailing Format

– 63% preferred MS Office Word format .doc

– 36% preferred Adobe Acrobat format .pdf
– 1% preferred rich-text format .rtf
– 0% preferred text format .txt
– 0% preferred web page format .html
 Fonts
• TIMES NEW ROMAN (windows standard)
• CAMBRIA (designed for screen readability)
• VERDANA or LUCIDA SANS (wider letters than
most fonts and screen readability )
• CALIBRI (MS word standard)
• DON’T use COMIC SANS
• 10-12 pts text, 12-14 pts subheadings, name 18pts
• Use bold and italics carefully
 Important Aspects
• 45% Previous related work experience
• 35% Qualifications & skills
• 25% Easy to read
• 16% Accomplishments
• 14% Spelling & grammar
• 9% Education (these were not just graduate recruiters or
this score would be much higher!)
• 9% Intangibles: individuality/desire to succeed
• 3% Clear objective
• 2% Keywords added
• 1% Contact information
• 1% Personal experiences
• 1% Computer skills
 I reject CVs that are…
• Too long (35% preferred a one page CV and
19% a two page CV)
• No attention to details/sloppy
• Spelling mistakes
• Layout and design
• If half CV is about activities, personal info
• Applying for lab technician position and
you have a degree electrical engineering
 Tell the truth
- 63% of applicants provide incorrect
information
- 38% exaggerated or lied about their education
- 35% included incorrect details in their
employment history
- 31% made false statements about professional
qualifications and memberships
 First Graduate Job Seekers
• Sent 25 letters per interview gained
• Sends out about 70 CVs
• 7 responses ; 3- 4 rejections ; remainder for an interview
• more CVs you sent = more interviews
• Cover letter with CV = 10% more likely to get a reply
• 60% of CVs are mailed to the wrong person (ie. managing
director)
• Addressing to correct named person = 15% more likely to get
acknowledgement letter; 5% more likely to get an interview
• CVs and letters without spelling mistakes
• 61% more likely to get a reply
• 26% more likely to get an interview
 Cover Letter
• The covering letter is vital to your CV. This is why it is
the first page and not an addition. "Please find
enclosed my CV" won't get you very far.
• Your covering letter demonstrates your writing style
better than your CV (CV more brief and factual)
• One page
• Points out to the employer the information showing
that you have the qualities the job calls for, and makes
a statement about yourself and your suitability for the
job.
• Be concise
 Cover letter
• If you don't know the name of the person you are
writing to use the formal Dear Sir or Madam and to
sign off Yours Sincerely or Yours Faithfully
• Get company's name right. Don’t leave name of the
organization that they had previously applied to.
• “those who can write a relevant cover letter and CV
stand out like diamonds and are a joy to shortlist."
 Cover letter
First Paragraph
• State the job you’re applying for.
• Where you found out about it (eg. Akhtaboot, Al-
ghad, company website)
• When you're available to start work (and end if it's a
placement)

Second Paragraph
• Why you're interested in that type of work
• Why the company attracts you (if it's a small
company say you prefer to work for a small friendly
company)
 Cover letter
Third Paragraph
• Summarize your strengths and how they might be an
advantage to the organization.
• Relate your skills to those required in the job.

Last Paragraph
• Mention any dates that you won't be available for
interview
• Thank the employer and say you look forward to
hearing from them soon.
 A Good Cover Letter

1. Tailored skills from the job description

2. Clarity (well-written, formatted, specifying job applied
to)
3. Details from your CV (additional accomplishments,
explanation of any gaps, etc.)
4. Your value - why we should hire you
5. Spelling & grammar
6. Personal vision & uniqueness
7. Concise
Mary Martin
221 Peachtree Street
Seattle, WA 98105
(206) 555-5555
mlmartin@aol.net

April 22, 2013

Ms Stephanie Everly
Managing Editor
Dickinson Press
12 Main Street
Amherst, MA 11001

Re: Editorial assistant position

Dear Ms Everly:

I am writing to express my keen interest in the editorial assistant position you advertised with the University of Washington's Career Center. I will
be receiving my bachelor of arts degree in English in June 2012, and I am eager to join a small publishing house where I can use my skills in
writing, editing, proofreading, research, and critical anaylsis. Based on my knowledge of Dickinson Press publications and objectives, I believe
that my educational background and abilities would be an excellent match for the editorial position.

Through my academic work in English language, literature, and writing, I am prepared to make meaningful contributions to editorial discussions
and to function as a member of your editorial team. In addition to my university training, I have held editorial positions with Bricolage, the
University of Washington's undergraduate literary journal, and with Steubing Press, a small publishing house specializing in non fiction and
regional publications in the Pacific Northwest. These intern positions have provided me with experience in editing, proofreading, fact checking,
production scheduling, working with off-site vendors, sales, marketing, and customer service. My positions with a small publication and a small
press have taught me to manage my time effectively, adapt readily to new responsibilities, work as a team member, and function well under
pressure. The writing skills I developed through my background as an English major have been further refined in both of these positions, where I
learned to write concise, persuasive prose for press releases, catalog statements, and website content. Both positions afforded me an in-depth
understanding of the important and varied behind-the-scenes work involved in book publishing.

I hope you'll agree that the combination of my academic training and my internship work in publishing has provided me with excellent
preparation for the demands of a literary editorial position with Dickinson Press. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to
meeting with you to discuss this opportunity in greater detail.

Sincerely,

Mary L. Martin
 Career Questions
Definition: an occupation undertaken for a
significant period of a person's life and with
opportunities for progress
 Research
• Medical research scientists devise and conduct
experiments in order to increase the body of scientific
and medical knowledge
• Develop new or improve existing drugs, treatments or
other medically related products
• Investigate underlying basis of health or disease, to
conducting clinical research and developing methods of
prevention, diagnosis and treatment
– higher education institutions
– research institutes
– hospitals
– industry (pharma, vaccination, veterinary, marketing)
 Pharmacovigilance
• Managing and reporting drug safety by assessing the
risk/benefit and patient safety of pharmaceutical
product (signal detection)
– Small pharma companies  
– Sites with global activities
– Generics companies
– Regulatory and drug safety consultancies
– Health authorities (eg. FDA, European Medicines Agency
(EMA), Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory
Agency (MHRA)) 
• Audits, SOPs, drug recall, QA, storage, transportation
 Intellectual Property
• Biopharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) provides
patents and data protection
• Usually requires law degree but patent-related careers
may work as technology specialists or agents
• Provide:
– fair and effective incentives for innovation
– innovator protection certainty regarding their rights
– strong enforcement tools for defending infringed patents 
• Biotechnology patent laws (ie. Biosimilars) are complex
and requires continuous patent protection follow-up
 Health Informatics
• Commonly required to update systems and facilitate record
keeping for nurses, doctors, pharmacists and management
staff
• Create electronic system to document all patient medical
information - electronic medical records or EMR
• Should be knowledgeable of health information system
architecture (ie. software construction and link) - data
storage, information retrieval to make patient decisions,
security, confidentiality, ethical and legal issues
• Can work in :
– local medical offices
– larger hospitals
– healthcare administrative organizations
– data management companies
 Marketing or Sales
Marketing
• Commonly requires a MS marketing, business
or risk management
• Usually 3-5 years sales experience
Sales
• Can be hired directly after graduation
• Career pathway with multinational company
 Regulatory Affairs
• Officers ensure that products such as cosmetics,
pharmaceuticals, and veterinary medicines meet
legislative requirements for appropriate licensing,
manufacturing and marketing
• Responsibilities
– studying scientific and legal documents
– gather, evaluate and organize information in various
formats required for regulatory approval and audits
• Majority of time spent with regulatory authorities
(e.g., JFDA)
 The Interview
• Dress code – professional, dark suit colors (its
not a party!)
• Confidence – don’t be intimidated by interviewer
• Don’t be late! – 30 mins before (impress)
• Know industry, company, position applying for
(ask your friends, family, research internet….)
• Be ready for questions (e.g., “what do you think
your biggest weakness is?”, “how do you think
you could be an asset to the company?”)
 Keys for a Successful Career
• On-time – work is from 9 to 5 not 9:20 to 4:56!
• Consistency
• Innovation – surprise me!!
• Time management
• “emotional intelligence”
• Accept and learn from criticism
• Perform any assignment - especially early career
• Good communication and social skills
• Research – spend time learning more on your own
 Applying Your University Knowledge

• Higher education builds character

• Critical thinking and analytical skills
• Knowledge from your classes will provide the
general information to give you guidance
• Experience….experience….experience guides
your career pathway
 How to Keep Updated
• Read…and read
• Attend conferences, workshops, lectures,
student presentations, webinars, research
projects, etc
• Participate in workplace meetings or work
groups
 Internships
• Intern with organizations in the same area you
plan to work in (not just to get university credit)
• Learn as much as possible from the opportunity
and ask lots of questions
• Usually 4th year (in the region)
• Take it seriously because they may hire you
after you graduate
• Challenging to get and usually they prefer not
to pay – companies spend lots of time teaching