Ok so what is the rule when I am listing my skills?
I basically have 3 tiers of expertise
Things I can walk into a lab/job and start doing with expertise from day one.
Techniques I used years ago and since I last used them have been updated, but with a small amount of training I could easily get this up to a tier 1.
I also have a variety of techniques that as a Teaching assistant I have taught to undergrads but never actually utilized myself outside the class room i.e. I have used them under optimal conditions and with a prep staff to help if something goes wrong (I understand the theoretical workings of these techniques but would definitely need more training before I would be able to use them independently). Probably not a lot of training though and considerably less than if you had to train someone from scratch.
Obviously list things in the First tier, but what about the second and third tiers? My initial thought is to list them then if/when I get an interview if the second and third tier skills are essential to the job explain the situation to the interviewer. That being said I don’t want to get to the interview and then have the interviewer thinking I purposefully misrepresented myself.
Ok so what is the rule when I am listing my skills?
I basically have 3 tiers of expertise
Things I can walk into a lab/job and start doing with expertise from day one.
Techniques I used years ago and since I last used them have been updated, but with a small amount of training I could easily get this up to a tier 1.
I also have a variety of techniques that as a Teaching assistant I have taught to undergrads but never actually utilized myself outside the class room i.e. I have used them under optimal conditions and with a prep staff to help if something goes wrong (I understand the theoretical workings of these techniques but would definitely need more training before I would be able to use them independently). Probably not a lot of training though and considerably less than if you had to train someone from scratch.
Obviously list things in the First tier, but what about the second and third tiers? My initial thought is to list them then if/when I get an interview if the second and third tier skills are essential to the job explain the situation to the interviewer. That being said I don’t want to get to the interview and then have the interviewer thinking I purposefully misrepresented myself.
The way I do it on my CV (Although I haven’t done any job seeking in 10 years, so no updates recently) is to list the relevant skill with a rating of expertise. For example, under Programming languages known, I list Clipper (10/10), Pascal (4/10), etc etc. If you have room, I’d list the 1 and 2’s for sure.
Ok so what is the rule when I am listing my skills?
I basically have 3 tiers of expertise
I would list all three and categorize them by saying
I have expertise in XXX (your 1s)
I have previous experience in YYY (your 2s)
and I have limited exp in ZZZ
Even if the company is looking for the Z’s, It’s better to have some experience with it than not listing any at all. Gives them the opportunity to question you about it and you the opportunity to convince them how quickly you could come up to speed on it.
A resume should stress accomplishments rather than skills or tasks. Your expertise will be apparent from the magnitude of your accomplishments. If you have past experience, employers usually know what duties and skills go along with a job title. You want your resume to show what you can do over and above the norm. It’s also a good idea to tailor the resume to the job that your applying for. That way you can emphasize the things that the employer is asking for.
I’d agree with Larry that how you format and what you include depends mostly on what kind of job you’re appying for.
If academic, the format is fairly standard. Education, training, current appointment, professional organizations, committee service, honors and awards, teaching information, grant support, publications, invited talks, service. Academic CVs are as long as your arm, and in my expereince are judged mainly by weight.
A resume for a job should list your contact information, education, pertinent work history, and maybe some career path objectives (but avoid the obvious “to obtain a position in X industry” kind of objectives). If you’re just out of school, a job resume shouldn’t be more than a couple of pages, should be in a strong, conservative but easily readable font, and should be on watermarked bond paper.
The main objective of either is to tell the prospective employer why they should be interested in you. Keep that in mind with regard to each item you include. What would they want to know about your lab experience, your career goals, etc?