Hi,

I am an electronics engineer with 4 years industry experience in this field.  I studied my MSc in electronics while working full time, when I finished my MSc I said that I was finished with academia but, after working for 1 year post-MSc I am interested in an EngD. 

I am after some advice from other engineers studying an EngD (or anyone really) about the CV you must hand in to apply. My current CV is tailored for industry applications but for this, should it focus on mainly my academic achievements, or a balance of the two?

Many thanks in advance.

Stuart.

I've not done a EngD but I would say your CV should be a combination of both. In my opinion you should include all the relavent information, obviously as someone who has been working in the field your experience is relavent to the EngD position. You should also include details of degree as this is also relavent (and will almost certainly be expected).

The middle of the road, balanced approach, is a good one for the CV.  However, I think it will be in the interview where you will need to ensure that you come across as academic and commercial. I would sway towards impressing the commercial company over the academic as ultimately your qualifications speak for themselves. A few years ago I got caught out in an interview when asked what I thought about a company annual report.  I had to admit that I had not read it...this was followed by a strong suggestion of doing proper pre-interview research!

You basically need to show that you can balance commercial projects with research (if you can do this, please let me know how!). It is probably worth asking the industrial Doctoral centre at the Uni for they type of CV they expect.  You could also contact existing RE's from the Uni and ask them to send you the CV they submitted. I feel sure most will say yes, and welcome the distraction.

Good luck!