7 More Resume Tips for Early Career Analytics Professionals
This post is contributed by Burtch Works’ data science & analytics recruiting team.
A few years ago, we wrote a blog post with some of our resume tips for early career analytics professionals, and since it is such an important topic we thought we’d revisit it with some additional points!When crafting a resume, it’s important to keep in mind that this is often your opportunity to land a strong first impression. Paying attention to the details are key, so even though some of these points seem like common sense, it can be easy to overlook them when you’re busy applying to many different jobs.Here are some key points to review before you submit your resume – we recommend keeping a checklist!
Analytics Resume Tips
1. What to Include for Contact Information
Since your resume might be the only document that human resources or a hiring manager will use to get in touch with you, it’s important to include everything they would need to reach you. Your full, legal name, the best phone number to reach you, professional email address, and physical address (including city and state).
2. Don’t Include Your Picture
You don’t need to include your photo on your resume, however, do make sure that your LinkedIn photo is professional. It doesn’t need to be an official headshot – a work-appropriate selfie is fine!
3. Pay Attention to Formatting
Unless you’re applying to a role that has a design element, we recommend saving fancy formatting and visualization elements for your interview presentation (which many interviews for analytics positions require now). Showing your work experience in chronological order is generally well understood, and make sure you’re using consistent fonts and font sizes for your headings, bullets, and other sections.
4. Communicate Your Analytics Experience Efficiently
Including a list of technical skills can be a great way to highlight tools that you’ve used (such as Python, SAS, or SQL), but make sure everything you mention is supported somewhere on your resume. Include relevant work experience or coursework/school projects/internships if you graduated relatively recently. You can also add personal data projects such as Kaggle competitions or fantasy football analysis, since this can show how passionate you are about quantitative work!Once everything is written out, make sure you’re explaining your experience concisely, and using white space to break up large paragraphs of text, this will make your resume easier for hiring managers to read at a glance!
5. How to Write Resume Bullets for Analytics Roles
Throughout your resume, you should be speaking in the first person (i.e. using “I” statements instead of referring to yourself by your first name), and using the same verb tense (usually past tense). We’ve talked before about how to create actionable resume bullets, but the key is to show your impact on the business project. Many employers are looking for analytics professionals who have both technical knowledge and a strategic mindset, and the best way to show this is to talk about the business problem you tackled, how you tackled it (methodologies employed, data sources used, etc.), as well as the outcome. You can learn more about how to emphasize your quantitative and strategic focus in interviews here.
6. Be Careful with Quirky Additions
Communicating your personality and interests in resume format can be tricky, and there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. While including relevant interests and hobbies (sports statistics, Fitbit data analysis, etc.) can add a lot of character to your resume, we’ve also seen professionals include more… interesting choices such as celebrity crushes, which we’d caution against.When including interests, it can often depend on the specific company you’re applying to. For example, mentioning that you like to play video games can be a great addition if you’re looking to work for a video game publisher, same with mentioning your love of travel if you’re applying for a position at a travel company! Looking to work for a tech company? Mention that app you programmed!
7. Send the Correct Resume Version
When we say that details are important, that includes things like file names and document type! After you’ve run spellcheck on your resume, converting the file to a PDF can ensure the document is finalized. Additionally, we usually recommend that professionals save the document with their full name so that it can be found easily. If you want to include the date or job title you’re applying for to keep your resume versions organized, just make sure you’re keeping the date current and sending the resume with the correct job title (especially if you’re using a similar resume to apply to multiple roles).Resume advice is always a hot topic, but we’ve also covered topics like how to approach Skype or video interviews as well as career growth advice for analytics professionals and data scientists looking to take a proactive approach to their careers. Over the next few months we’ll be continuing this series with our advice on interviews and post-interview follow-up, so keep your eyes on the blog for additional insights!We hope you found this information helpful! Want to know if we have roles that might fit your experience? You’re welcome to connect with us.
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