From applying to laboratories, overseas field research trips, or corporate ESG jobs, every environmental student needs a CV that makes them standout and posits them as the ideal candidate. Since environmental students can apply their knowledge in so many different fields and sectors, it is important to create a tailored CV that makes your experience shine! This is what will make your application standout amongst other candidates. Along with being tailored, a CV must convey all of this information in a way that is visually neat and easily conveys your experience to a recruiter.
Here’s a basic breakdown of how to best highlight and showcase your skills and experience on your CV:
Objective:
An objective is a short summary of who you are and what you will offer to the company. You can do this in a few sentences about what you study, what projects you are capable of, and how this will help you do the job well.
You may want to include what kind of coursework you’ve done, research techniques you know, and what type of environmental science you specialize in.
If you do not tailor this to every job, there is very little point in including it because a recruiter who is only looking at your CV for a few seconds may skip it. As you gain more experience, you can begin to leave this off your CV in favor of a longer Work Experience section.
Education:
This section will remain at the top of you CV
as a student, but can be moved to the bottom after you are a few years removed form graduation. The section should include your university and expected overall mark if you believe it will be particularly high or the job is asking for a specific mark. You can use this section to highlight any relevant modules you’ve taken at university which can help convey that you are trained in a certain research technique or have knowledge of a certain environment or biome.
Example relevant modules: Surveying Environmental Quality, Coastal Ecology and Hydrology, Monitoring Tropical Rain Forests
You should also include your relevant A-Levels and their marks if they were high.
Work Experience:
This is where you really want to impress your recruiter with how experienced you already are and all of the accomplishments you personally helped other companies achieve.
This section can include internships, research fellowships, relevant part-time work, and even volunteering if you are applying to an NGO.
Regardless of you type of work, all of the descriptions should follow this formula:
action word + accomplishment and how it was quantified + positive impact it made on the company
For example: Measured air pollution levels at over 80 sites using a particulate monitor to optimize the collection process for use by city policy makers
Skills:
The skills section will quickly list what softwares and research methodologies you are familiar with along with any soft skills you may possess that will help you on the job. Check out my topic on all the skills environmental students can include: CV Skills for Environmental Students 🌱
You can also include relevant certifications in this section which will particularly useful for field research positions.
This can be certifications like a driver’s license, boating license, scuba certification, or first aid.
Conclusion:
As more companies look for people to fill sustainability positions, environmental students have become even more valuable. You can bring so much valuable knowledge to the table which companies are looking for but may fail to even put to use if your CV is not up to par. With a well structured CV, you can land that position!