Job Skills Converting a CV to a Resume (from Academia to Industry)

[Hepth]

Does anyone have any good suggestions on what I should or should not include if I intend to apply to some industry-oriented jobs, coming from academia?

When I was an engineer my resume had a lot more detail about the individual experiences of each job. That's fine and dandy, but what about my "new since then" lists of publications, conference attendance, invited talks, workshops, teaching awards, etc, that basically fill my CV now, and show what I've been doing for the past XX years. Do I leave them out and focus on experience and talents? Include them as extra pages (don't they hate that?)? I know the length really has to get cut down for it to be acceptable.

Just wondering what the opinions are on how one should work these things into an industry (advanced engineering) targeted resume.

Thanks!

 

[lazypast]

I can offer some of my thoughts regarding applying for a job in industry. Keep everything in your CV relevant to the job you are applying to. It might be impressive the conferences you've been to and your publications, but I believe a popular position will have too many applicants for a recruiter to give any attention to non relevant work and experience.

If you can relate to the job well, perhaps go into a lot of detail without droning on too much. I'd briefly mention the duties you had in academia, but kept really to the point. Also split your CV into work history first (Im guessing the recruiter could relate more to your duties in industry than in academia), and then academia after.

 

[tygerdawg]

I had the opposite challenge: going from industry to academia (field of Engineering). My impression of what's important in academia is scholarly activities (as you describe) and proof thereof. Generally this is not important in industry and looked upon as weak because you "haven't DONE anything." It is more important "what have you done & accomplished and how can you prove it so that I may use your skills as a resource to accomplish my corporate goals?" And another would be "What skill sets do you bring to my table so that I may use you as a resource etc.?" All topped off with the sense of urgency thing "...and make it snappy, I'm a busy manager with things to do!"

Typical "pages & pages" of academic CV gets tossed in the can as "too much." I instruct my students in lab reports, presentations, and interviewing techniques: you must assume "the Boss" is busy running a company and has 17 milliseconds to review your resume or report, hear your results summary, or listen to your proposal pitch. My last resume was limited to two pages but was very explicit on the first page of accomplishments and skills that they could use, and each resume was tailored to the company. The second page was "selected accomplishments" to emphasize skills and then finally summarized work history.