Treat it as a new document, not a trimmed CV
A CV is a complete record of your academic career, built to prove scholarship and expertise to a research audience. An industry resume is a short, targeted document that answers one question: why are you a fit for this specific role? CU Boulder's career services office frames the switch as moving from a document recognized in one field to one that must be rewritten for a different audience, so it helps to think of the resume as marketing material rather than an abbreviated CV.
Start by building a private base resume from everything in your CV, then make tailored copies for each application. The base holds your full evidence—roles, projects, grants, teaching, and service—while the version you send keeps only what the posting asks for. This protects you from losing useful detail when you cut.
Translate academic work into plain, relevant terms
Most people reading your resume have never run a lab, published a paper, or taught a section, so terms that are obvious inside academia need explaining. Describe what you did, the skills you used, and the impact it had in language a generalist hiring manager can follow. Michigan's career center recommends showing the transferability of your academic skills in the experience section rather than assuming the reader will infer it.
Choose the responsibilities most relevant to the target role and attach achievements with numbers where you can support them: students supervised, funding raised, participants recruited, time or cost reduced, or papers published. Skip the thesis title and advisor's name unless the advisor is genuinely well known in the industry you are targeting.
Reorder sections and cut without guilt
Industry resumes usually lead with a short summary, then a skills section and two or three focused experience sections. CU Boulder suggests arranging sections by relevance so the strongest match sits near the top, and moving education down when your work experience is more relevant. Publications, presentations, awards, and service can become a separate supplemental list, or a single bullet that names them.
Aim for one to two pages and remove anything that does not support this application. Because you are writing for a non-academic reader, have someone outside your field proofread the resume and tell you where the descriptions stop making sense. If they cannot explain your contribution back to you, rewrite those bullets.
Sources consulted
This guide is an original synthesis of the following career guidance. Read the source material for its full context.