Epidemiologist Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Epidemiologist resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Epidemiologists study how diseases and other health conditions spread through populations. They look at risk factors like age, gender, genetics, and environment to determine how best to protect people from illness and injury.
Because of the public health implications of their work, epidemiologists often work for government agencies or NGOs. But there are also plenty of opportunities in the private sector for those who want to work for pharmaceutical companies, insurance agencies, or healthcare providers like hospitals and clinics.
To land your dream job as an epidemiologist, you’ll need a resume that showcases your skills and experience. Follow these tips and resume example to write a compelling resume that hiring managers will love.
How to Write an Epidemiologist Resume
Here’s how to write an epidemiologist resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
Bullet points are the most effective way to showcase your experience and qualifications. And when it comes to bullet points, the more specific and detailed you can be, the better.
For example, rather than saying you “conducted research on disease outbreaks,” you could say you “conducted research on Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, contributing to development of new treatment protocols and leading to significant reduction in mortality rate.”
The second bullet point is much more specific and provides more detail about what exactly you did and the results of your work.
Related: What Is an Epidemiologist? How to Become One
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you apply for an epidemiologist role, your resume will likely be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. This program looks for certain terms related to the job, like “epidemiology” and “public health” in order to determine whether your skills and experience match the job opening. If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right keywords, your application might not make it past the initial screening process.
To increase your chances of getting noticed, use this list of common epidemiologist keywords as a guide when creating or updating your resume:
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
- Epidemiologic Research
- R (Programming Language)
- Data Analysis
- Statistics
- Biostatistics
- Health Research
- Public Health Epidemiology
- Healthcare
- Healthcare Management
- Teaching
- Research
- Data Mining
- Program Evaluation
- Clinical Research
- Data Analysis & Statistical Software
- Public Speaking
- Microsoft Access
- Healthcare Information Technology (HIT)
- Informatics
- Clinical Trials
- Qualitative Research
- Analytical Skills
- Epidemiology Research
- Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
- Qualitative Research Design
- Patient Safety
- Emergency Medicine
- Patient Education
Showcase Your Technical Skills
As an epidemiologist, you rely on technology to help you track, study, and prevent the spread of disease. Therefore, it is important to list your technical skills prominently on your resume. This will show potential employers that you are familiar with the essential tools and systems used in your field.
Some of the programs and systems that epidemiologists typically use include: electronic health records (EHR) software, disease tracking software, mapping software, and statistical analysis software. Additionally, epidemiologists should be proficient in data analysis and interpretation, as much of their work is done in Excel.
Related: How Much Does an Epidemiologist Make?
Remember The Basics
As you draft your resume, there are a few basic rules to keep in mind.
Make Sure Your Resume Is Easy to Scan
There are a few things you can do to make your resume easier to read, such as using a standard font, left-aligning your text, and using bullets instead of paragraphs. You should also use all-caps and bold sparingly, and keep your bullets under two lines. Additionally, you can include some white space on the page to make the document easier to scan.
Be Concise
A resume should be succinct and to-the-point, so it is typically one page long unless you have a lot of experience to include. If you do need to go over one page, make sure to focus on the most relevant and recent experience. In general, you want to be brief and get your point across quickly. Font type and size, margins, and line spacing can all be tweaked to save space on a resume.
Check Your Work
Proofreading your resume is an important step in ensuring that it looks its best. There are a few key things to look for: spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, and grammatical mistakes. It is also important to be aware of easily confused words. Spell-checking your resume is a good way to catch mistakes, but it is important to have someone else read it over as well.
Consider a Summary
The resume summary statement is an important part of your resume that can help to bridge the gap between your past experience and future goals. This is your chance to show recruiters how your skills and experiences can be transferred to the role you’re applying for. When writing your summary, be sure to play up your most relevant skills, mention your most highly transferable experiences, and clearly state your intentions. Keep it to just a couple of lines and make sure it’s well written and easy to understand.
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