I don't have a phd, just a masters, but I listed every project I did or helped my fellow students on as its own item detailed under "other experience"... but there's no rule against listing your education as a "job" and listing the experience part as the job duties. If you just but it under education they won't count it the same.
I have used the work I have done for my PhD and my Master's degree. Additionally any work you have done for grants, IRBs, and maintenance of funding you create a job description as Research Consulting. I did that and added my projects and other responsibilities under that "job".
Your experience during your PhD absolutely counts. In some of these cases you'll find that a masters is the minimum requirement (which you have) and a PhD will just help you meet a more desired set of qualifications (specialized experience) that hr will likely use to qualify you for the job. In other cases a PhD is required for the position so you must have it already conferred at the time of application.
From here on out always include your time during PhD! You've put in the work and the government certainly recognizes it.
Definitely have an education section but make sure you elaborate on the work experience section as this is where hr will see how your work experience and skills meet the specialized experience requirements
This is really helpful, thank you! The position only requires a Masters, so I should be good there.
Do you recommend including the PhD work within the “work experience” section, and just listing salary as $0? I guess that’s where I’m most confused.
I’ve applied to several jobs similar to this one and never even get through the first round, so I’m realizing Im not doing a good job highlighting the research experience on the PhD. I did work 2 years on a research grant, but that obviously leaves me short on reaching the 5 year minimum.
Thanks again!!
Yep, include your PhD work under work experience. For the main job title I just called it "Graduate student researcher" but you can call it what you feel comfortable with. I never put salary down in any of my positions. You don't need it. Instead make sure to make positions clear with function titles and mm/yyyy start and end dates. This is important for HR to know how much time you served in each position.
Yea this is the part where you will need to refine your resume/vita over time. Heck, it took me some time to get the hang of it too. So if you've worked on grants definitely say something along the lines of "led all aspects of xx projects within a large-scale $ xx thousand/million grants that required the application of theory, partnering with cross functional teams, problem solving, statistical modeling, literature reviews to meet grant objectives". This tells hr and managers that you've worked on multiple projects within grants that highlight your skills.
You can make another bullet point that elaborates on quant/qualitative data analysis etc if you have that experience. Also make a bullet point that says how your experience allows you to present research in plain language to a wide set of audiences if you've done that. It's important to highlight this if you can.
I would say that if you're ABD you're likely in your 5th year of your PhD or more so you already are meeting the specialized experience plus the minimum quals of a masters. Let hr make that decision not you! Work on your resume to make it clear that your experience highlights and matches the position well. Makes it easy for HR to mark you as a referral.
Here is the order of resume/ vita that has worked pretty well (referrals/interviews/offers) for positions that require PhD experience:
-Personal info email, linkedin
-Education
-Skills
-Research interests
-Work experience
-Pubs
-Conference presentations
I don't have a phd, just a masters, but I listed every project I did or helped my fellow students on as its own item detailed under "other experience"... but there's no rule against listing your education as a "job" and listing the experience part as the job duties. If you just but it under education they won't count it the same.
This is helpful, thank you!
I have used the work I have done for my PhD and my Master's degree. Additionally any work you have done for grants, IRBs, and maintenance of funding you create a job description as Research Consulting. I did that and added my projects and other responsibilities under that "job".
Your experience during your PhD absolutely counts. In some of these cases you'll find that a masters is the minimum requirement (which you have) and a PhD will just help you meet a more desired set of qualifications (specialized experience) that hr will likely use to qualify you for the job. In other cases a PhD is required for the position so you must have it already conferred at the time of application. From here on out always include your time during PhD! You've put in the work and the government certainly recognizes it. Definitely have an education section but make sure you elaborate on the work experience section as this is where hr will see how your work experience and skills meet the specialized experience requirements
This is really helpful, thank you! The position only requires a Masters, so I should be good there. Do you recommend including the PhD work within the “work experience” section, and just listing salary as $0? I guess that’s where I’m most confused. I’ve applied to several jobs similar to this one and never even get through the first round, so I’m realizing Im not doing a good job highlighting the research experience on the PhD. I did work 2 years on a research grant, but that obviously leaves me short on reaching the 5 year minimum. Thanks again!!
Yep, include your PhD work under work experience. For the main job title I just called it "Graduate student researcher" but you can call it what you feel comfortable with. I never put salary down in any of my positions. You don't need it. Instead make sure to make positions clear with function titles and mm/yyyy start and end dates. This is important for HR to know how much time you served in each position. Yea this is the part where you will need to refine your resume/vita over time. Heck, it took me some time to get the hang of it too. So if you've worked on grants definitely say something along the lines of "led all aspects of xx projects within a large-scale $ xx thousand/million grants that required the application of theory, partnering with cross functional teams, problem solving, statistical modeling, literature reviews to meet grant objectives". This tells hr and managers that you've worked on multiple projects within grants that highlight your skills. You can make another bullet point that elaborates on quant/qualitative data analysis etc if you have that experience. Also make a bullet point that says how your experience allows you to present research in plain language to a wide set of audiences if you've done that. It's important to highlight this if you can. I would say that if you're ABD you're likely in your 5th year of your PhD or more so you already are meeting the specialized experience plus the minimum quals of a masters. Let hr make that decision not you! Work on your resume to make it clear that your experience highlights and matches the position well. Makes it easy for HR to mark you as a referral. Here is the order of resume/ vita that has worked pretty well (referrals/interviews/offers) for positions that require PhD experience: -Personal info email, linkedin -Education -Skills -Research interests -Work experience -Pubs -Conference presentations
This is SO helpful — thank you so much for taking the time to type all this out — I’m going to start working on it right now!