Bioinformatics Resume: Examples, Template, and Resume Tips
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Bioinformatics is quite a niche field of study if you ask me. It’s an interdisciplinary field of science that combines biology, computer science, mathematics, information engineering all to analyze and interpret biological data.
A bioinformatician’s job is to create data of algorithms and specialized software which is then used to identify and classify components of a biological system.
This is implemented in all kinds of fields of study such as cancer research, DNA analysis, and protein sequences.
But a bioinformatician can also work in other fields such as biostatistics, biochemistry, computational biology or even biophysics.
Also, a bioinformatician is required to have at least a PhD and in some cases even a medical degree to be qualified for a specific job title.
As you can see, there are a lot of jobs and a wide range of fields where bioinformatics are being implemented, so there is no surprise why the need for a bioinformatician is so high.
Today, we are going to show you how to write your resume for this field of study and we will start by giving you two practical examples so that we can explain later all the sections one at the time and guide you towards your perfect resume.
If you happen to have any problems or further questions regarding how to write your resume, we invite you to take a look at our resume builder where you will have detailed information and also a quick way to delete or add any section you need in your resume.
Let’s begin!
Bioinformatics Analyst Resume Example
Biostatistician Resume Example
WRITING YOUR PERSONAL INFO SECTION LIKE A PRO
Now that you know how your resume should approximately look like we are ready to talk about each section at a time and to no surprise first up is the personal info section.
This section should contain the information you would normally put on your business card because you will have to list a few things so that your employer or hiring agent can contact you.
Some of the information isn’t mandatory but it’s not a bad idea to write it anyways and we will explain along the way the most important parts of this section.
Full Name
Writing your full name should be easy as pie but some people do not understand that you need to provide your real, birth name and not a nickname that everyone calls you by.
As you can already tell, that is highly unprofessional and will never work on a resume.
So don’t ever write Sammy, Liz, Bobby and so on, unless, God forbid, your parents named you that and that name is on your birth certificate.
If you’ve recently changed your name but don’t still don’t have the proper documentation, you should use your previous name until you get things sorted out but be sure to notify your employer on time.
Profession
Because bioinformatics covers a wide range of other subjects, you don’t necessarily need to write that you’re a bioinformatician.
You can use other callings, such as a biostatistician, bioengineer, biometrician, and so on.
Also, if you need a bit of help, you can write the profession on which you’ve got your PhD or even from a previous job title.
Photo
Photographs on a resume aren’t mandatory but you might be asked to provide one so if that is the case do pay attention to be presentable in your photograph.
Go to a photo booth or a professional studio and dress professionally for the photo.
That way you’re not just providing a good-looking photo of yourself but you are also giving your employer the notion that you know how to carry yourself as a true professional.
Phone Number
A phone number is pretty much mandatory because even though you will send your resume via E-Mail and will usually get a reply there as well, you need to provide your employer with an alternative way of contacting you.
Be sure to provide your mobile phone number and not your landline number because you want to be available at any point of the day and not just when you’re at your home.
Address
No employer can lawfully ask you to provide your address but it’s highly recommended that you provide one in the case that the company needs to send you some equipment or if they want to organize daily transportation from your house to the workplace.
E-Mail Address
You will need to write your E-Mail address in the personal info section mainly because you will also have to send your resume from that same address and it’s highly likely that you will receive a reply there as well.
Most professional people have at least two E-Mail addresses – one private and one for business.
And they do it for good reason. You don’t ever want to use your E-Mail address because you don’t want your business E-Mails to be mixed with your ones and also the address itself must appear somewhat professional.
No strange nicknames, numbers, symbols or acronyms should be in your E-Mail address. Instead, you should opt for your full name and surname and if it’s already taken, you can implement even a middle name or just the initials.
Social Media
Social media is a really good way to present your other skills, achievements and even other branches of work which haven’t gotten the chance to be listed on your resume.
Your go-to social media for this purpose is, of course, LinkedIn and nearly all professionals from all kinds of lines of work got their profile so there is no reason not to open one.
LinkedIn is also a great way to promote your career achievements to people who are in the same field of study and you can then “link” together and communicate.
Apart from LinkedIn, you can also list your Twitter and Facebook account but as a bioinformatician, you don’t have much use of those social media platforms.
THIS SUMMARY WILL GET YOUR EMPLOYER’S ATTENTION
Every good summary is always short but direct and there are two rules which you need to follow word for word to get your employer’s attention.
These rules are:
- Write just two or three sentences because you don’t want your employer to die from bored by reading a whole block of text but you also don’t want to just write “Hire me please”.
- You should mention how much experience you have in this field of work, your past work experience, your work ethics and the overall reason why you think you should be hired.
If you are having trouble with writing your summary, just leave it for the end of the resume once you’ve already finished the other sections.
This way you know exactly what to mention in your resume and you are avoiding the probability of writing something which doesn’t appear to be shown on your resume.
Lastly, never bargain with your employer, meaning you should never write that you think you should be hired or that you will be a valuable asset to his company, instead let your past work experience, education and skills do the talking for you.
If you want to make a good first impression, and by the way, there is only one chance for a first impression, your summary section should look something like this:
THE KEY TO A PERFECT RESUME IS A FLAWLESS EXPERIENCE SECTION
As a professional bioinformatician, your experience section is your bread and butter for several reasons.
First of all, you need to show to your employer that you have experience working in this field and what better way to show it than to explain your responsibilities but also achievements in previous companies.
What we mean by that is don’t just write your responsibilities because your employer certainly already knows what responsibilities your job title requires you to take up.
To really “wow” your employer or hiring agent you need to write exactly what you’ve done in your career which improved the overall workflow of a company and also made the topics of your research clearer to both the academic community and the public.
Also, you should always write your past work experience reverse-chronologically, starting from your most recent job to your very first one in this field.
Please note that you don’t need to list jobs that aren’t related to your line of work because no one is interested in the fact that you’ve worked at KFC when you were a grad student.
Lastly, you should always put in from what year you worked for which company so that your employer can see that you have as much experience as you claim in your summary.
HERE’S HOW TO WRITE YOUR EDUCATION SECTION THE RIGHT WAY
Because bioinformatics is such a complex subject, there is no surprise why people from this field of study are required to have a rich academic portfolio.
I mean researching cancer genomes and protein chains isn’t a job for a sophomore college student and that’s why you must write your education section the right way.
First things first, as with the experience section you should always write your education section reverse-chronologically so that you show you the latest and most important academic achievement first.
Second, if you have a Ph.D., always write on which thesis you have acquired your diploma so that you appear more eligible.
Lastly, you can always mention your extra-curriculum activities, GPA score and so on if you want to make a better impression.
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF A PERFECT SKILLS SECTION
Your skills section is one of the most important sections of the whole resume, and your skills can set you apart from other people who also applied for the same job position.
Writing a great skills section isn’t that hard if you know how to divide the skills of your professions from your other useful skills because most of the time unless you work in management which you don’t, those two skillsets do not correlate.
In your “bioinformatics skills” section you should write which programming languages are you familiar with and at which degree as well as other skills such as the ability to work with databases, developing and implementing algorithms and so on.
In your “other skills” section you should focus on emphasizing your overall work ethics and explain how good are your communication skills, are you capable of leading projects, do you cooperate with others, etc.
Also, you should write another section concerning your knowledge of foreign languages and to what degree.
Things to avoid in your skills sections are generic skills that don’t have anything to do with the job position you’re applying for.
USEFUL TIPS WHICH WILL SET YOUR RESUME APART FROM OTHER’S
1. Length of your resume
There has always been a debate about resume length but you should keep in mind that a maximum of 2 pages is the standard deal.
A one-page resume is ideal, but if you can’t pull it off then you can write 2 pages.
2. Bulleting
Because most employers and hiring agents don’t spend a lot of time reading your resume you should use bullet points to list your most important achievements you want to emphasize.
That way, they are more visible than in a single block of text.
3. Proofreading your resume
You should always send your resume to a proofreader so that he can alter any possible grammatical errors and maybe make a suggestion about changing something about your resume and be sure to take his professional advice before you send it to your employer.
4. Formatting
Formatting is also a very important thing to remember because many resume reading software (and be sure that your resume will go through one) reads just a few more common text formats.
Your best bet is to use the PDF format and avoid formats such as TXT and PS.
5. Never write the same resume twice
As your job position that you are applying for changes, also is the case with your resume.
Because not all job positions require the same skills or past work experience, you should always adapt your resume to the current job position.
6. E-Mail
Always check your E-Mail at least twice a day because you don’t want to miss out if you are called for a job interview.
Most employers won’t just call you on the phone and that’s why it’s so important to check your E-Mail. Also, check the spam folder because some E-Mails might get filtered out.
7. Resume template builder
If you have any other questions concerning your resume, please go to our resume template builder to not only get further information but also to choose your resume template and adjust it to your needs.
CONCLUSION
We’ve reached the end of our resume guide. We hope that you’ve found this article helpful and that we’ve answered some of the burning questions you might have about writing your resume.
Be sure to check out our resume template builder to choose a template that will fit your resume perfectly and make it look more professional.
Many people have replied to us that it helped them out a lot and makes the whole process a lot easier and quicker.
Good luck on your job interview, we know you’re going to be hired!
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