Data Scientist Resume

How Important is a Data Scientist Resume?

A resume is the first step before applying for any job application. To fill a position, organizations would expect a number of applicants to submit their resumes and cover letters, which will help them find the right set of people among all applicants for the data science interview process. So without a strong resume, getting any job in any industry is almost impossible.

Demand for Data Scientists has skyrocketed in the past few years, and it is also expected to grow in the next decade. However, there has been a shortage of data science professionals, in 2020, there were three times more job postings than job searches in the field of data science. So a strong and impactful Data Scientist's resume can help you get jobs that are the right fit for your skillset and experience.

Though, having the right and impressive Data Scientist resume can help you in many other ways.

Stand Out from the Crowd

As you now know that recruiters spend less than a few seconds on a given resume, by creating a strong resume, you can showcase why you are a perfect fit for this role by highlighting your skills and experience in the right way. This will help you stand out from the crowd and will leave a strong impression on the recruiter and hiring manager.

Drive Interview Conversation

In most of the interviews, interviewers start asking the conversation from your resume only, such as discussion on your past projects, questions about the skills you have mentioned, etc. By putting the right information in your resume, you can drive the interview conversation in the right direction, increasing your chances of getting selected.

Negotiate Competitive Pay

Though resumes generally don’t have any impact on the compensation. But by putting all the right skills and experience in your resume, you can make sure that the offered compensation reflects your value to the employer.

What to Include in Your Data Science Resume?

A few things recruiters look for in the resume while scanning it are its formatting, relevant work history, educational background, accomplishments, etc. So you need to include all information in the resume that will make it relevant and fit for the role.

This section will discuss what to include in your data science resume.

1. Name and Contact Information

• Name and contact information are must-include information as once your resume is shortlisted, the employer would want to reach out to you. As this is just functional information, so keep it concise and double-check that it is correct.
• Make sure you are including these pieces of information in your resume - your Name, Email ID, Phone Number, and LinkedIn or GitHub Profiles, if any.

2. Career Objective/Summary

• This section acts as the pitch of your resume. A well-written career objective/summary can help you catch the attention of the recruiter.

• If you are a student or fresh graduate with no professional experience, your career objective should describe what you want to accomplish at the job you are applying for. One of the good examples of a career objective is that I want to secure a responsible career opportunity to fully utilize my training and skills while making a significant contribution to the success of the company.

• In the cases of experienced professionals, you should include your professional summary describing your skills and work experiences. Few things you should keep in mind while writing your career objective/professional summary -

  • Mention the number of years of experience you have
  • Provide details of industries, roles,, etc. you have worked in the past
  • Keep it precise and not repetitive
  • Keep it aligned with the roles and responsibilities of the job you are applying for

3. Work Experience

• This is the most important section of your resume as practical applications are preferred most of the time over theoretical knowledge while applying for jobs in the Data Science field.
• If you are a fresh graduate, you must make sure to include the details of your internship, final year, or personal project details.
• If you are an experienced professional, make sure to include the below items to narrate your professional journey clearly -
  • Your work experience in reverse chronological order, i.e., your most recent work should appear at the top of this section
  • Mention your designation, name of the organization and team, and work duration
  • Summary of your responsibilities
  • Demonstrate your outcomes in a way that can be quantified. For example, I developed a consumer segmentation model which helped reduce customer churn by 10%.
  • Add any accomplishments such as rewards, recognitions, etc.

4. Projects

• This section would help you demonstrate your capabilities to the hiring manager or recruiter.
• You should consider the following while writing details about your projects-
  • Relevance - Even if you have worked on many projects, you should only include the projects which are most relevant to the job you are applying for
  • Objective - Make sure to mention the business objective of the project, i.e., what you are trying to achieve through this project. For example, the objective is to improve customer retention by building a customer churn model.
  • Technical Details - You must include all the tools and technologies, such as which ML models you implemented in the final solution, which programming languages you used, etc.
  • Impact/Outcome - Make sure to include the impact of your project, which is quantifiable. For example, I developed an object detection model with 95% precision and 80% recall.

Also Read: Data Science Projects That Must Be on Your Resume

5. Skills

• The first person who scans your resume is often a recruiter who does not have the right technical skills or expertise to evaluate your profile. Some employers also use automatic resume scanning systems to automate the screening process.
• Thus, it is important to put the right set of skills in this section to make your resume relevant for the role. You should keep this section short and include all the relevant skills for the job you are applying for.

6. Education

• You should mention all of your educational qualifications in reverse chronological order so that your master's or Ph.D. degrees must appear at the top, and make sure to include the year of graduation.
• If you have completed any certification in Data Science or related fields, you should also include them.

7. Awards or Recognitions

• Apart from your workplace-related recognitions, if you have other accomplishments such as paper or patent acceptance, Kaggle or other data science-related competition results, etc., you must include them in this section.

Tips to Write a Great Data Science Resume

Below are some tips that can help you in writing a great and impactful Data Science resume.

1. Keep Data Science Resumes Brief

• Make sure to write your resume in a short and concise manner. A good resume should be finished in one page unless you are very experienced or applying for a senior role.
• Remove all the information which is not relevant to the roles and responsibilities of the job you are applying for. So even if you have worked on many projects, you would be required to prioritize and showcase only the relevant ones.

2. Customize Each Resume to the Job Description and Company

• Though you can create a single Data Scientist resume and use it to apply for all the jobs, it is recommended to tweak your resume for each job you apply for to add a personalized touch.
• You won’t need to re-write the entire resume to make it customized. You can go through the job description and company profile and highlight or add the points which make your resume most relevant to it. For example, you might want to put the projects on the top which belong to the same domain as the company you are applying for. Another example could be highlighting your projects showcasing the relevant technical skills required for the job.

3. Choose a Good Template and Design

• To make your resume visually appealing, you should spend some time choosing the right template.
• You can look for free templates available online and choose the one that is unique to you.

Tips for Resume Formatting

You should consider the below points while formatting your Data Scientist resume -

• Keep your resume short, preferably to one page wherever possible. Save it as a PDF before sending it for the job application
• Keep font size to 10, 11, or 12 points.
• Do not use the word I or other first-person pronouns
• You should use past tense while describing your previous work experience and use present tense when describing current positions.
• Stick to a consistent date format in the entire resume
• Use bold, italics, and underlining formatting to break up the text
• Use bullet points to describe your work experience instead of writing paragraphs
• Choose an easy-to-read font for your resume. A few common examples of fonts used are - Times New Roman, Cambria, Georgia, Helvetica, Calibri, Arial Narrow,, etc.

What to Avoid?

We have discussed what you should include in your resume. Now let’s talk about what you should avoid while preparing your resume.

• Try to avoid sharing too much information. This can be counterproductive.
• Do not share your personal information which is not relevant to the job.
• Avoid any kind of spelling or grammatical errors. Make sure to double-check before sending your resume.
• Don’t lie about your accomplishments or education.

Data Scientist Resume Samples

Entry-Level Data Scientist Resume Sample

• Organizations consider the potential instead of past experiences while considering fresh graduates for the entry-level data scientist position.
• This template for the entry-level data scientist position is good as it clearly includes the career objective, internships, project details, skills, and relevant courses studied in the college.

Senior Data Scientist Resume Sample

• As a Senior Data Scientist, you should focus more on responsibilities, accomplishments, collaboration, and team building. You also might want to customize your resume based on the job you are applying for.
• This template for a Senior Data Scientist resume provides work experience details in a clear and organized manner. Each job has emphasized quantifiable business impact along with tools and technologies implemented, demonstrating the candidate's capabilities.
• It also shows career progression from associate data scientist to senior data scientist in a clear manner.

Data Science Manager Resume Sample

• As a Data Science Manager, your resume should demonstrate your leadership and project ownership capabilities.
• This template resume provides work experience along with clear, quantifiable business outcomes and impact. It also showcases details of the team led, which clearly demonstrates the managerial capabilities of the candidate.

NLP Data Scientist Resume Sample

• When you apply for a job requiring a specialized skillset such as NLP, Computer Vision, etc., your resume should be focused on demonstrating your capabilities in the specialized field only.
• This template clearly focuses on NLP within data science. Work experience provides a clear picture of diverse experience in the NLP field along with the business impact created.

Metadata Scientist Resume Sample

• Entry-level metadata scientist roles can be difficult to land. However, your metadata scientist resume should be able to showcase the data-exploration skills required by the typical job profile.

Where to Find Data Scientist Resume Templates?

You can search for Data Scientist resume templates online, and you will find plenty of templates that are free to use. We also have curated a list of websites where you can get a good Data Scientist resume template based on your experience or role.

Beamjobs

• This website offers resume templates based on experience level or role. Whether you are a senior data scientist or applying for a job in a specialized field within data science, you can find a good relevant resume template here.

Zety

• Apart from resume templates, this website also offers tips for each section of the resume, such as the right or wrong way to put anything in your resume.

Enhancv

• Here you can find templates based on the experience or role you are applying for along with tips to create an impactful resume.

Google Doc

• Google docs also contain a lot of good resume templates which are available for free to use.