Bioinformatics Resume Example

Bioinformaticians rely on an understanding of biological principles and advanced computational skills to analyze biological data.

Bioinformatics analysts are also known as:

• bioinformatics engineers
• bioinformatics programmers
• computational biologists
• biological data scientists

A fairly recent interdisciplinary field launched largely by the Human Genome Project and the decreasing price of whole-genome sequencing, bioinformatics positions abound in both academia and industry.

If you’re applying to postdocs or other positions in academia, you’ll need an academic CV. But, for positions in industry, you should write a bioinformatics resume.

Follow our two tips to write a bioinformatics resume that lands your next position:

1. Include extra sections on your bioinformatics resume

Because bioinformatics is a highly specialized field, employers require some information usually reserved for academic CVs to verify you have the appropriate experience (or education) in both biology and computer science.

List your Github in your contact information

In addition to your standard contact information, provide the link to your Github or preferred open source repository account. Listing this information allows employers to see the kinds of projects you’ve done and understand how you work.

Elaborate on your education

Most bioinformatics employers prefer or even require you to list an advanced degree on your resume. If a Master’s or PhD degree is required, mention your degree in your resume summary in addition to your education section so the hiring manager doesn’t miss it.

Note how this applicant includes their degree in their resume summary:

If you’ve just graduated and are writing a resume with no work experience, put your education at the top of your resume. List your thesis title and relevant coursework to show your target employers you have the expertise to tackle their particular problems and data sets.

Mention your publications

Like other accomplishments on your resume, your publications show employers you can take a project to peer review.

If your target job specifically asks for a strong record of publication and will require you to publish heavily, you should dedicate a specific section for your publications on your resume.

In your resume’s publication section, format your publications consistently according to your chosen style guide. You can order your publications by importance or in reverse-chronological order, like this bioinformatics analyst does below:

But, if you don’t have many publications or the target employer needs to know you can publish (but not the full details of what you published), you can also mention your publications briefly in your:

• resume summary
• education section
• work experience section

2. Include top bioinformatics skills on your resume

Bioinformatics analysts need a mix of technical and soft skills. Technical skills are hard skills (skills learned through training) specific to STEM fields. Soft skills are those tied to your personality that govern how you interact with others and work in general.

Computational biologists need hard skills like:

Also, putting the following general science skills on your resume will show employers that you don’t just run pipelines, but understand what questions you want to answer, what outputs you expect, and where pitfalls can arise:

• data quality assessment
• ability to form and test hypotheses
• ability to spot confounding variables
• ability to run sanity checks based on biology principles

Because bioinformaticians work in tandem with experimental biologists, good bioinformaticians also need soft skills such as:

• interpersonal skills
• teamwork skills
• written and verbal communication skills
• problem-solving skills
• time management skills
• organizational skills