List these pseudo-courses on my resume - next to my fancy real degrees?

June 24, 2015 5:19 AM

Looking to get up-and-out of my current private-sector scientist position, I've been rewriting my resume to target more senior science jobs with more of a management or strategic character to them. Obviously I've been playing up every relevant aspect of my experience on my submissions, but what I don't have is an MBA. Some of my competitors for these jobs probably do - in addition to their science PhD. I've sort-of taken a few business courses* over the years, though. Better than nothing? Should I list them on my resume? How to word it?

*To add to the complication - these were special business-overview lecture series, prepared by the business schools of some universities I was affiliated with, specifically for scientists and science PhD students at those institutions. Think "general-overview-nano-mba for scientists." On the one hand, these total about 80+ hours of lecture time, plus some discussion sessions etc; admission in one case was selective (even among people at that elite institution), and the business schools that organized this were top-tier. On the other hand, these weren't really genuine courses - they weren't offered to the real MBA students, there wasn't any sort of exam or homework or grade, and they wouldn't show up on any official academic transcript (though I could document enrolling and attending).

Would I look silly if I listed these in some manner? Would it be helpful? How could I phrase this on a resume to be a positive without implying anything exaggerated? Throwaway.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (9 answers total)

I don't know. I have sometimes (when relevant) added a section to my Education section of my resume called "Additional Coursework" with a few descriptive course titles and institution names, but those were actual classes with coursework and grades, even though they weren't taken towards a specific degree. Maybe better to include in a cover letter? "The strategic and management aspects of this position are particularly interesting to me, and I look forward to utilizing the information I learned about Science Business during the 2011 General Overview Nano MBA at the Science Institute."
posted by Rock Steady at 5:32 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Could you list them under the heading 'CPD'?
posted by penguin pie at 6:01 AM on June 24, 2015

Leave it off. As a hiring manager, I would rather see a shorter resume. These courses would leave no impression on me, positive or negative.
posted by crazycanuck at 6:12 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

I would definitely add these courses to your resume, under a heading of "Management Training" or the like. Then list the title of each lecture series along with the name of the business school and the associated year. If there were only a few courses in each series, or you think some in the series were particularly relevant, be sure to list those underneath the name of the series and the institution offering it. FWIW, I see this sort of thing all the time on the resumes of senior management candidates, especially but not exclusively on the resumes of scientists. Also FWIW, I just checked the resumes of two PhD scientists I know in CEO roles, and neither of them have MBAs.
posted by DrGail at 6:13 AM on June 24, 2015 [5 favorites]

My opinion.

Your resume gets you an interview. Your resume does not get you a job.

Keep relevant information on the resume. Remove the irrelevant.

For this job, I would put these courses on the resume you write for this job.

If the overworked manager reading your resume (who wants to be doing something else) finds your resume is interesting enough, you'll get an interview.)
posted by blob at 7:10 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

I would add them, or at least some of them, as they signal that you are interested in this type of work and are not just tossing your resume around because you want out of your current position. OTOH I would probably label them "additional coursework" and do them as a single line rather than one-per-line, as you don't want to imply you overvalue them.

Combined with emphasizing the management parts of your work experience, this can help look like a coherent story of a scientist on track to a manager position, which is exactly what you want hiring managers to get out of it.
posted by mark k at 7:21 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

I include training courses on my resume if the skills they taught were directly relevant to the job I'm applying for. Otherwise, I leave them off.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 7:57 AM on June 24, 2015

I've put these (and MOOCs) under the header "ongoing education and non-credit coursework."
posted by deludingmyself at 7:57 AM on June 24, 2015 [5 favorites]

Yeah it's ok (although not important) to list them, as long as you have them in a separate section from your degrees.

It has a slight plus in that it demonstrates that you have an ongoing sincere interest in business; and a very slight minus in that it could look like padding. (When I get resumes that list a 6 week course at Harvard, formatted in such a way that it looks like they're trying to fool me into thinking it's a Harvard education, I roll my eyes; I have seen many of these.) But overall it's a wash.

I'd probably lean towards including them in a separate section as deludingmyself suggested above... but it's a lot less important than listing out the leadership/management elements of your work experience. Make sure that is listed out in bullet points on your resume (don't fold it into the cover letter.)
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:07 AM on June 24, 2015