Spent many years pursuing PhD but left with a Masters. How to present on the CV?

Question

After ~8 years doing it I decided to quit my PhD and do something else. I left with a Masters certificate at the time, thinking it was at least better than nothing, in terms official documents.

Since then, I have been listing this experience as 8 years spent obtaining a Masters degree under my CV's Education section, as well as 8 years spent working as a research student under the Professional Experience Section.

I was wondering if there's a better way to present this on the CV, because it feels:

• There's a large overlap. It's there in Education AND Professional Experience.
• The fact that I was originally pursuing a PhD is not conveyed. Don't know if this matters.

I see elsewhere here suggestions about excluding the start date of an experience, but for some job applications, they demand a DETAILED CV, and I've heard that recruiters are good at spotting gaps or inconsistencies on the CV anyway.

Answer 1

There are 3 basic rules for writing a CV:

• keep it simple and short - the people who read it usually do not have the time to read an entire complicated encyclopedia;
• keep it true - everything you write must be true; otherwise, it might come back to hurt you;
• leave out everything that will not help you, or if it can hurt you (or your chances). This point does NOT conflict with "keeping it true".

Therefore, in your case, I would recommend to write just about having the Master's, leaving out that you spent 8 years for it (8 years for a Master's will probably raise eyebrows).

If you do not have an PhD, leave it out completely. You do not want to brag about your "failures".