Less is more in science recruitment

As scientists we all attend a lot of conferences, events and courses ­– but can it all be reflected in a CV… and should we even attempt to do so? Dr Matthew Partridge has some job seeking answers…

When I was about 13 I started at a new school. Starting a school aged 13 you don't get a lot of choices about what you get to do. But one thing I did get to choose was my Thursday afternoon activity, which was a choice of either doing Duke of Edinburgh (D of E) or Combined Cadet Force (CCF).

For those not part of the British school system D of E is essentially a walking club and CCF is pretend army for kids. I chose D of E because I was more of a 'yeah but why?' kid which I'm pretty sure isn't something that's greatly appreciated in pretend army. Also I kept calling it “pretend army” which I'm pretty sure made anyone that did CCF grate their teeth.

Why am I talking about all this? Well, this was the earliest occasion at which I was told by someone (…the head of D of E) that doing it would be "good for your CV". Subsequently, it was something I have never – ever – included on my CV.

Since then basically everything I've been able to enrol on, volunteer for or just attend has, at some point, involved someone saying "…and this will be good for your CV". If I were to conservatively estimate the length of my CV if I included everything which was sold to me with "this will be good for your CV" then my CV would be in danger of reaching the built-in page limit in Word (~5000 pages). But obviously I'm being conservative.

Since then basically everything I've been able to enrol on, volunteer for or just attend has, at some point, involved someone saying "…and this will be good for your CV"

Some examples of these 'vital' CV content include: being social secretary of the biological society, attending a one day talk on CE regulations, and being a 'preferred customer' of a large lab sales company (I actually didn't really understand that one).

Now some things I've been told will be CV headliners were clearly things that at the time were really worth including on my CV. University admissions and interviewers want to see what part time jobs you had, what hobbies you have and what you might be passionate about. The trick, however, is selectivity ­– even now there are plenty of things I include on my CV for some jobs but not on others. If I'm applying for work as a cartoonist I rarely include lots about how I can write Python software or have gone on several LabVIEW training courses, people that want me to draw cartoons about mouse farts rarely care about that.

Vice versa, when I'm applying for research positions I often mention that I do cartoons as form of outreach but don't talk about contract work I've done cartooning or the types of cartoons I make or the awards I've won (partly because the only ones I've won are the imaginary ones in my head).

So yes, lots of things will look good on my CV, but statistically (and because of the 2 page limit for most applications) it's not going to be the course I'm currently taking on 16th century basket weaving. What is and isn't good for my CV is less about the quality or the topic and a LOT more to do with what job I'm applying to.

So course conveners and training facilitators, stop saying it. Your training course has lots of value as it is because we're all sitting here, don't pretend that it's the pinnacle of our future job application paperwork... Unless it's a course on CV writing, in which case carry on.

[caption id="attachment_39565" align="alignnone" width="200"] Dr Matthew Partridge currently works as a Research Fellow within Engineering Photonics at Cranfield University but describes himself as a biochemist who has accidentally ended up working with optical sensor systems. He also runs an open science blog http://errantscience.com/ aimed at disseminating complex science to a wider audience.[/caption]