NEW AND IMPROVED WIKI

Disclaimer: this sub focuses on US and Canadian resume standards. If you are from a different country you are welcome to post, but please indicate where you are applying so we can best help you. Please take a screenshot of your resume (the higher quality the better) and upload here directly or via an image hosting site like imgur.com.

What we are aiming for: a clean, simple, and concise resume that shows off your technical experience, projects, and skills using examples to back your claims up.

FORMATTING:

• Stick to a 1 page resume unless you have many years of experience
• Have adequate spacing in between each section/job/project of your resume
• Use a good starting template such as: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DrAED8s8DWlTgCMNMVnFUxrzn_BgwxSTCd_JyLFIEzw/ or https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q0ucm4M18PH4YRxGbAzyDNDK5KHrLLVl5JIwC2HLBbs/ or https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/free-investment-banking-resume-template/
• Stick with a 1 column resume. 2+ columns waste space and are generally more difficult to read
• NEVER use gray font. It’s hard to read
• Use a modern email: gmail/outlook/college email, NOT hotmail/yahoo/aol/comcast
• Right align your dates
• Order both positions/projects and bullet points by relevancy to the job you’re interested in OR impressiveness: put your best stuff first!
• Don’t rate your skills based on proficiency, this can only hurt you. You can discuss proficiency in the interview
• Use bullet points instead of paragraphs - they are much easier to read
• Do not include periods at the end of your bullet points

CONTENT:

• Each bullet point should start with a past tense action verb (designed, implemented, created, improved, analyzed, built, etc). Check out this list of strong action verbs: https://capd.mit.edu/sites/default/files/jobs/files/resume-action-verbs.pdf
• Each bullet point should use the STAR (situation, task, action, result) format detailed here: https://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/resumes-impact-creating-strong-bullet-points
• Tailor your resume for each application so it addresses the job description. Show that you can do the job
• Add context. Simply listing positions/projects and adding industry buzzwords is not enough - you need to tell hiring managers what you really did and how you utilized technology to solve problems.
• Differentiate yourself. Just listing job duties will not make your resume different from any other. Tell us about your accomplishments, tangible metrics, and technical victories.
• Avoid centering your skills around a piece of software if you can. Any idiot can learn how to sketch, extrude, cut, and mate in SolidWorks - but identifying capabilities gaps (a need), creating a preliminary design, and taking it through the rest of the design process is something that fewer people can do, so try to focus on the engineering skills behind it. CAD and other software should be an “oh by the way” if possible.
• Pro Tip: senior engineers love it if you did hand-calc sanity checks instead of just hitting the RUN button in your FEA package, so do that and mention it at the interview. Seriously,

REMOVE:

• Objectives/summaries/profiles/personal statements unless you're an experienced engineer
• All indentation
• All italics
• All bolding inside your bullet points
• Any ALL CAPS
• Your high school from education
• Your address, unless
• ALL coursework, unless they are very specialized like grad electives.
• Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, Publisher
• References or “references available upon request”
• So-called “soft skills” - nobody will ever claim they are a bad listener, can’t follow instructions, and struggle to work with others on a resume, so don’t waste your time writing something that will be ignored.
• “utilize” - 9/10 times that word will be attached to some disgusting Gordian knot of a sentence that says in twenty words what could be said in ten.

Evy Kassirer's Resume Tips: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iMMQCuHFY5ocwAJSrnAIfz5o23CYYsT0EPtlYTaj9Bs/pub

STAR FORMAT: https://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/resumes-impact-creating-strong-bullet-points

STAR Examples:

• Designed 3 different packaging styles for the product in SolidWorks, created and tested 3 prototypes, and integrated the best packaging design into future product releases
• Collected data using micrometers to correlate size of kid with flavor intensity, discovering that size actually does matter and suggesting an increase in kid size by at least 10%
• Implemented kaizen and lean six sigma principles into the assembly line by integrating a kanban chart, successfully identifying 4 hang up spots, and drafting a plan to improve assembly line efficiency
• Worked with a team of 6 engineers to draft updated safety procedures and protocol, as per OSHA Y14.5, reducing workplace injury by 500% and saving an average of 3 lives per year
• Led a team of 700 students to design, test, and manufacture an updated and improved suspension system for the FSAE 2017 year, resulting in a decrease in lap time by 5.0 sec in all 5 events
• Tested suspension geometry in MSC Adams Car and recreated test using prototype components manufactured with a CNC mill and lathe, confirming that reacted loads are below allowable limits

Emily’s (/u/emnm47) resume redline edits:

• Aerospace Engineering (AE) senior https://imgur.com/a/cY5JE1Z
• Mechanical Engineering (ME) senior https://imgur.com/a/44BoBoT
• ME 2019 grad https://imgur.com/a/YlRYz8j
• ME fresh grad https://imgur.com/a/gRm732L
• Foreign, experienced project engineer https://imgur.com/a/j9RAevQ
• ME/AE Senior https://imgur.com/a/3c1mcN6
• ME fresh grad https://imgur.com/a/AGIcWbe
• Auto/vehicle engineering new grad https://imgur.com/a/CRGrJR8
• AE senior https://imgur.com/a/58QMVuq
• AE senior https://imgur.com/a/z5jNOD6
• AE fresh grad https://imgur.com/a/hrDCq7x
• ME junior https://imgur.com/a/qCnK5YM
• BME 2019 grad https://imgur.com/a/XzairM6
• Manufacturing mid-level engineer https://imgur.com/a/dTxxIoE
• AE master's fresh grad https://imgur.com/a/X8ZlvL6
• ME fresh grad https://imgur.com/a/XOWZzf5
• ME sophomore https://imgur.com/a/vXrSVUE
• Spanish resume https://imgur.com/a/Dbfpypg
• ME junior https://imgur.com/a/dgw9A0e
• ME senior https://imgur.com/a/Lb6rekw
• More experienced resume edit: https://imgur.com/a/j9RAevQ

Emily’s (/u/emnm47) How To Get A Job™ Speech:

Networking is EVERYTHING (or at least a skewed amount) now that apps are online and it's easy to use filters. You must network to have a chance unless you are the top 3% of candidates (those people can toss a resume in and get lots of bites). If you continue to throw applications out there without networking it is highly unlikely you will get picked up. I will get more into networking later BUT here are some steps for How To Get A Job™:

Step 1: Evaluate your desperation level. How much money do you have saved up? Do you have any dependents, loans, rent, debts, food money concerns? Should you get a part time job or file for unemployment while you continue to search?

Step 2: Set a time line. For example "if I haven't accepted a position by Jan 1st, I am changing x y and z." Your time line will rely on your desperation level. Feel free to break it up into tiers as your desperation increases and time line shortens.

Steps 3-7: What you can do to improve (aka the x y and z):

. Edit your resume (hey you’re in the right place!)

. Up your networking game (see below)

. Revamp your LinkedIn profile

. Follow up on previous applications

. Refocus on a different job market, geographic area, or company size if needed

You cannot send off 100 applications online blindly and wait to hear back. You have to use your network of friends, family, ex coworkers, peers, professors, etc. to ask around for openings. While Aunt Lucy might not be an engineer, maybe one of her girlfriends in spin class is. Actually making contact with someone on “the other side” (engineer, manager, hr, hiring manager, etc.) is huge and will get your name in their head. Follow up after every application. You may feel like you are being annoying, but honestly people forget so following up a few times is not a bad thing. It’s so easy now to just send off a resume to a position. A single opening could have 100 applicants, maybe the top 10 get interviews and top 3 get offers. Which is great for those with spectacular resumes - you know the type, interned at SpaceX, build prosthetics for puppies in their spare time, tutors underprivileged kids in STEM on the weekends, all while getting stellar grades - these few people look amazing on paper and get interest all over the board. But only very few people can draw interest from resumes alone. That’s when you need that name recognition and a willingness to actually pull your application and take a look at it. If you can get someone to actually look at it, you have a big advantage.

ON INTERVIEWS: If you're getting interviews but struggling to get offers I suggest talking to someone to try to figure out why this is happening. This is an entirely different subject than paper applications and resumes and following up. You may be missing social cues, struggling with nerves, or having trouble understanding/answering interview questions correctly. Practice resume questions you mind online with a friend or family member. Let me know if you need help.

HANDLING SENSITIVE CONTENT, OR GRAYTOTORO’S SUGGESTIONS TO NOT GET FIRED AND/OR SUED

You’ve finally decided to move on from that job working on the X-02S Strike Wyvern on behalf of the Erusean Air and Space Agency. In your time on this project you supported integration efforts for subsystems enabling this airplane to do things the likes of which would make other nations cower in fear.

But how do you talk about that on your resume without revealing information which would make you persona non grata from a particular industry or the recipient of an expensive-looking letter from a legal firm?

The answer: talk about the technologies behind it without saying the forbidden words. Choose your words very very carefully.*

Instead of saying “I developed C++ software for testing LANTIRN display pod software used on the F-14D Tomcat”**, consider “I developed C++ software for evaluating aircraft subsystems on [some hardware standard]-based test bench” OR “I created a proof-of-concept integrating COTS whatever items into a data recorder” - you shed just enough light on the subject without resorting to a vague “I did some stuff for these guys”. Of course, it goes without saying that you should still use the STAR criteria to flesh it out as necessary.

For a little less silly example, I once worked at a company that made carbon fiber widgets for airplanes. It was very obviously carbon fiber and even an idiot like me could tell, but we couldn't go around revealing our exact layups and procedures. Saying "a new standard process used to form composite parts, reducing lead times by 33% and (whatever other metrics)" would not be revealing anything too much. If they pry deeper, that's when you can say "no".

*Not a lawyer (shh) so I can’t help you if you get into a Tom Clancy situation.

**I didn’t actually do this, it’s an example. Sure would be cool though.

GOT WRITER’S BLOCK LOOKING AT STAR?

Here’s a fun exercise I learned from my last supervisor. At the start of every project, you and/or a task lead likely sat down and established the goals you had to meet, right? Ideally these goals were set up in such a way that you could meet them and solid enough that you had to exert effort to make them happen.

Now that it’s time to write it up on your resume, start thinking back to what you did back then. Obviously you met this goal - bold of you to put a failure on your resume - so look at how you met the goal. Did you deliver all five widgets in the agreed-upon six months? Did they have the ability to complete operations X, Y, and Z? Good!

Here’s the fun part. Did you exceed the goals in any way? If you did, how so? Did your delivered widgets reach the customer in half the time and do twice the operations in half the time? If you can flesh this out, you are in a good place.

Do not worry about writing at length. This is a planning exercise. Just get it all on paper and pick your brain until you think everything is on there. Even if you’re not 100% sure about exceeding a goal, just write it down.

When you are finally satisfied, now start paring it down to meet space & content requirements.