There are plenty of guidelines about how to write a good CV online, but we want to focus on what Evolve does best – to provide actionable advice for talent looking to build a career in Life Sciences, MedTech, Medical Sales and the wider Pharmaceutical sector.
The recent proliferation of digital tools, portfolios and online resumes has threatened to push the humble CV into the dustbin of recruitment history. But CVs are timeless pieces of professional documentation because they serve one key purpose - to inspire your prospective employer.
CVs offer a concise, clearly communicated window into your career, your passions, your drives and your experience, and their relative simplicity (in form, layout, order, and design) creates a level playing field for every applicant to be judged equally.
As of yet, no one has created a fairer or simpler way to summarise a career.
Let’s get some of the basics right.
In our industry, as in any other industry, a CV needs to have order, but that order serves a purpose - to tell your story.
When considering the scale of recent UK Life Science investment, and the predicted rise in wearable tech, digital transformation, biotech, data science and privacy and drug creation, there has never been a better time to hone in on this amazing industry - and your CV offers a unique, personal way of communicating your interest in this growing industry.
Further to that, remember that every interaction you have with a potential employer will either increase or decrease their desire to take you further up the recruitment ladder - and your CV is one of the most effective ways of turning an employer’s head.
Here are our key guidelines for writing the perfect Life Sciences, MedTech and Pharma CV:
● Your CV ideally needs to be no longer than 2 pages, and should only be 3 pages or more if there are requirements to attach particular proof of certifications or longer personal statements as per application requirements.
The order of your CV should be the following:
● Your name.
● Your contact information.
● A key summary - 5 or 6 key points that summarise your career to date. For example: * Passionate MedTech Sales Manager * 5 Years’ Experience * Multinational Account Manager * YoY X% Sales Uplift * Specialist in Clinician Business Development * or something of that ilk.
● Personal statement - the why in your application: what drew you to the job, and why you think you’d be the best hire.
● Career to Date - in chronological order, from most recent to oldest. Note: if you are a seasoned careerist with over 10 years of experience, we suggest limiting your career details to only the last decade, to stop your CV sprawling into pages and pages of text.
● Qualifications and Certifications (highlighting the most relevant for the role).
● Reference details (2 or 3 ideally).
And remember the basics really do matter.
● Your CV cannot be a jumble of information - your career, experience, certifications, education, and even your personal contact information needs to be represented in clear order.
● It shouldn’t be loud, bright, or full of graphics - keep your font choice standard (Times New Roman, Arial or similar), remove any multicoloured text and steer away from “enriching” your CV with graphics - keep it clean, and let your future employer’s focus be entirely on the story you’re telling.
● Keep it up to date - for obvious reasons, your CV needs to have all the right up-to-date information relevant for the application, including information about you, your career to date, your certifications, your experience, your references, and a small but detailed personal statement about your desire for a job.
● Finally, triple-check it! - you cannot afford to send a CV to a prospective employer with spelling errors, the wrong email address, or references with incorrect contact information. Triple check every detail, every line, every full stop. A lack of diligence shows a lack of detail or respect for the application or employer, and in the Life Sciences and Pharma sector that’s fatal for a job application.
For more information, contact Evolve
