Ever wondered what it takes to craft the perfect CV for the pharmaceutical, food science and MedTech industries? Step forward Ann Ryan, Career Coach with Innopharma. Ann works with our students during their career development module, coaching them on CV preparation and interview skills. \u201cMy role involves working with students in career and professional development,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe really focus on their employability within the food, pharma and MedTech sectors, with emphasis on transferable skills, past experience, developing a really professional CV, and getting them ready for a competency-based interview. It\u2019s about developing those skills to prepare them for the next step of getting into the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ann\u2019s coaching has certainly played a part in our enviable success rate, with 70% of our students gaining employment or advancing their careers after completing an Innopharma course. Here, she shares some stellar advice to help you craft a CV that will get you noticed in these industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First impressions count, and that\u2019s true of your CV too. it\u2019s the first contact an employer will have with you and it should send a strong message that you have the skills and experience that the employer is looking for. \u201cHow you lay out and structure your CV is really important,\u201d says Ann. \u201cOften we see failure to put a strong professional profile at the top of the CV. Many of them will link to softer skills like good team leadership or communication ability,\u201d she notes. \u201cYou have to really align your skills to the job description, and that should be in the first section.\u201d Ann\u2019s advice? \u201cAnalyse the job description and link your CV to the job \u2013 it\u2019s not one size fits all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Helping our students identify their transferable skills is a crucial part of Ann\u2019s approach.\u201cThey might never have worked in the pharma industry, but they may have very solid transferable skills that they\u2019re not aware of,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ann works with the students to identify those abilities and communicate them for the specific needs of pharma and MedTech. \u201cDifferent industries use different language,\u201d she notes. \u201cIf you\u2019ve experience with health and safety where you\u2019ve done safe plans of action, you may use different terminology than the pharma industry. Take the term \u2018risk assessment\u2019, for example. If you followed procedures and protocols in a different sector, but then moved to pharma, it\u2019s called an SOP \u2013 Standard Operating Procedure.\u201d These would be very similar tasks and approaches, but they\u2019re identified using different language. \u201cThat can be a bit of a challenge to decipher,\u201d says Ann, Many of our students are surprised at how much skill and experience they can transfer into Pharma or MedTech, but just didn\u2019t identify it or think it was relevant before participating in our program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the more common CV mistakes Ann sees is underselling achievements and skimping on detail. \u201cThe CV might say, \u2018I was responsible for the day-to-day management of a warehouse,\u2019\u201d she says, \u201cbut fails to articulate the candidate\u2019s achievement, or use metrics or qualify it. It\u2019s better to say something like, \u2018Full day-to-day responsibility of a warehouse with a stock line of over 20,000, and supervision of up to ten team members.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to your CV, the more succinct, the better. \u201cTwo pages is the absolute max\u201d, says Ann. \u201cIf you can\u2019t do it in two pages, you need to go back to the drawing board and revise.\u201d And remember detail matters. \u201cYour CV should be the finest form of written communication that you prepare. Spelling mistakes are an absolute no-no.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s important to make your CV stand out \u2013 and we\u2019re not talking about using a jazzy font or colour. \u201cEmployers and agencies get hundreds of CVs at a time\u201d Ann explains. \u201cThey need to be able to skim yours in 20 seconds and get a good overview of your skills and competencies. Outlining them in your profile first, then bullet points them out underneath. Particularly list hard skills, for example, if you\u2019ve used like SAP or PLC systems. Also, experience such as working in other manufacturing environments, quality, health & safety, documentation or warehouse experience should be included there too.\u201d \u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Want to Find Out More?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Career coaching is just one of the ways we help give our students the best possible chance of landing their ideal job. From our strong industry ties to excellent lecturers, find out more about why Innopharma is the perfect place to grow your career<\/a>, give us a call on 01 485 3346 to chat about your options or email our admissions team here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ever wondered what it takes to craft the perfect CV for the pharmaceutical, food science and MedTech industries? Step forward Ann Ryan, Career Coach with Innopharma. Ann works with our students during their career development module, coaching them on CV preparation and interview skills. \u201cMy role involves working with students in career and professional development,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-career-progression"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innopharmaeducation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}