Cleveland State University ESC 720 Research Communications

1. Cleveland State UniversityESC 720Research Communications Job Applications and Resumes Dan Simon

2. The Perfect Job Candidate National Association of Colleges and Employers (2009)

3. The Perfect Job Candidate National Association of Colleges and Employers (2009) • Good GPA • Good communication skills • Strong work ethic • Ability to work with a team • Initiative • Leadership experience • Relevant work experience

4. The Perfect Job Candidate National Association of Colleges and Employers (2009) • Good GPA • Good communication skills • Strong work ethic • Ability to work with a team • Initiative • Leadership experience • Relevant work experience How can you include these attributes in your resume?

5. Job Applications • Looking for a Job • Resumes • Cover Letters • Interviews

6. 1. Looking for a job • Career Services Center • Professional recruiter • Want ads (magazines, IEEE Spectrum, newspapers) • Company web site • Personal contacts (networking) • Conferences

7. Job Applications • Looking for a Job • Resumes • Cover Letters • Interviews

8. 2. Resumes • Keep it short: less is more • One page if no work experience • Two pages if lots of work experience • There are exceptions, depending on the job • Recruiters might take only a few seconds to scan your resume! • Your resume can direct readers to your web page for more details

9. 2. Resumes • Visual appeal is extremely important • At least one-inch margins • High-quality printer, or PDF for electronic version • Clean and clear organization (white space) • Carefully placed page breaks (if any) • Be honest, but not exhaustive (e.g., GPA) • Reverse chronological order • No typopographical or grammamatical errors!

10. What’s wrong with this resume?

11. Not enough white space • Same font everywhere • No indentation • Career goal not listed (?) • Skills not listed • Not enough contact information

12. Much Better Resume • White space • More than one fontbut not too many • Good use of indentation • Career goal (?) • Skills list (keywords) • Contact information • Reverse chronological order

13. Bad page break in the middle of a paragraph The last paragraph is probably too long

14. Note the footer for a multi-page resume, including the date. Good page break between paragraphs

15. 2. Resumes Career Goals • Emphasize what you can do for your employer, not what your employer can do for you

16. 2. Resumes Career Goals • Emphasize what you can do for your employer, not what your employer can do for you • Seeking position with flexible hours where I can use my creative circuit design skills

17. 2. Resumes Career Goals • Emphasize what you can do for your employer, not what your employer can do for you • Seeking position with flexible hours where I can use my creative circuit design skills

18. 2. Resumes Career Goals • Emphasize what you can do for your employer, not what your employer can do for you • Seeking position with flexible hours where I can use my creative circuit design skills • Seeking challenging circuit design position with future management opportunities

19. 2. Resumes Career Goals • Emphasize what you can do for your employer, not what your employer can do for you • Seeking position with flexible hours where I can use my creative circuit design skills • Seeking challenging circuit design position with future management opportunities

20. 2. Resumes Career Goals • Emphasize what you can do for your employer, not what your employer can do for you • Seeking position with flexible hours where I can use my creative circuit design skills • Seeking challenging circuit design position with future management opportunities • Seeking position where I can use circuit design skills to solve challenging analog problems

21. 2. Resumes Career Goals • Emphasize what you can do for your employer, not what your employer can do for you • Seeking position with flexible hours where I can use my creative circuit design skills • Seeking challenging circuit design position with future management opportunities • Seeking position where I can use circuit design skills to solve challenging analog problems

22. 2. Resumes Career Goals • Emphasize what you can do for your employer, not what your employer can do for you • Seeking position with flexible hours where I can use my creative circuit design skills • Seeking challenging circuit design position with future management opportunities • Seeking position where I can use circuit design skills to solve challenging analog problems • Seeking position where I can solve challenging analog problems in a team environment

23. 2. Resumes Career Goals • Emphasize what you can do for your employer, not what your employer can do for you • Seeking position with flexible hours where I can use my creative circuit design skills • Seeking challenging circuit design position with future management opportunities • Seeking position where I can use circuit design skills to solve challenging analog problems • Seeking position where I can solve challenging analog problems in a team environment

24. 2. Resumes • Include key-words that can be scanned • Power electronics, FPGA, PSpice, MATLAB, embedded systems, … • Avoid abbreviations and undefined acronyms • Cleveland State University, not CSU • Define acronyms

25. 2. Resumes • No personal information (hobbies, age, marital status, salary, etc.) • But some outside activities may be relevant • Volunteer fire fighter • Volunteer work as campus newspaper reporter • Officer of IEEE student branch

26. 2. Resumes • Do not provide reference information • Waste of space • Employers will ask you for references if needed • When you provide reference information: • Get reference’s permission first • Ask those who know your work best • Ask those who will give you the best reference • Give the opportunity to gracefully decline

27. 2. Resumes • Use general writing skills – for example, write in the active voice, not in the passive voice • Participated in $9 million FPGA network. Project was completed on time and under budget. • Responsible for $9 million FPGA network. Completed project on time and under budget. • Note that resumes may be written using incomplete sentences, as above – but be consistent

28. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design

29. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design

30. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design • Designed pneumatic controller using Microchip PIC16F877-20/P with CCS compiler

31. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design • Designed pneumatic controller using Microchip PIC16F877-20/P with CCS compiler

32. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design • Designed pneumatic controller using Microchip PIC16F877-20/P with CCS compiler • Wrote C-based pneumatic controller using Microchip microcontroller

33. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design • Designed pneumatic controller using Microchip PIC16F877-20/P with CCS compiler • Wrote C-based pneumatic controller using Microchip microcontroller

34. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design • Designed pneumatic controller using Microchip PIC16F877-20/P with CCS compiler • Wrote C-based pneumatic controller using Microchip microcontroller • Developed ADRC controller for SMPS under unbalanced operating conditions

35. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design • Designed pneumatic controller using Microchip PIC16F877-20/P with CCS compiler • Wrote C-based pneumatic controller using Microchip microcontroller • Developed ADRC controller for SMPS under unbalanced operating conditions

36. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design • Designed pneumatic controller using Microchip PIC16F877-20/P with CCS compiler • Wrote C-based pneumatic controller using Microchip microcontroller • Developed ADRC controller for SMPS under unbalanced operating conditions • Developed nonlinear controller for power converter

37. 2. Resumes • Be specific, but not too specific • Experience: control algorithm design • Designed pneumatic controller using Microchip PIC16F877-20/P with CCS compiler • Wrote C-based pneumatic controller using Microchip microcontroller • Developed ADRC controller for SMPS under unbalanced operating conditions • Developed nonlinear controller for power converter

38. 2. Resumes • Certain skills are especially valuable to employers, and are worth emphasizing • Communication skills • Management • Teaching and training • Teamwork • Make sure when emailing resumes that the format is readable (avoid MS Word, and make sure fonts are embedded in PDF)

39. Job Applications • Looking for a Job • Resumes • Cover Letters • Interviews

40. 3. Cover Letters • Include a one-page letter with your resume • Each cover letter must be specific • No mass mailings • Not “To Whom it May Concern” • Address your letter to a specific person – make a phone call or send an email to get info if necessary • Emphasize past performance and specific results • No typographicical errors, or, grammatical errors, or sppellling errors!

41. 3. Cover Letters • Now is the time to “drop names” • Your colleague, Dr. Smith, encouraged me to send you my resume. • My experience as Albert Einstein’s lab assistant has prepared me for a productive career in flux capacitor design. • I look forward to using the technical writing skills that I gained under Dr. Simon’s tutelage.

42. 3. Cover Letters • Balance confidence with willingness to help

43. 3. Cover Letters • Balance confidence with willingness to help • As Dr. Einstein’s lab assistant, I single-handedly revolutionized the field of physics.

44. 3. Cover Letters • Balance confidence with willingness to help • As Dr. Einstein’s lab assistant, I single-handedly revolutionized the field of physics.

45. 3. Cover Letters • Balance confidence with willingness to help • As Dr. Einstein’s lab assistant, I single-handedly revolutionized the field of physics. • I will do anything to help your company! Please, please, please hire me!

46. 3. Cover Letters • Balance confidence with willingness to help • As Dr. Einstein’s lab assistant, I single-handedly revolutionized the field of physics. • I will do anything to help your company! Please, please, please hire me!

47. 3. Cover Letters • Balance confidence with willingness to help • As Dr. Einstein’s lab assistant, I single-handedly revolutionized the field of physics. • I will do anything to help your company! Please, please, please hire me! • Dr. Einstein gave me a lot of freedom in his lab and acknowledged my contributions in several of his relativity publications.

48. 3. Cover Letters • Balance confidence with willingness to help • As Dr. Einstein’s lab assistant, I single-handedly revolutionized the field of physics. • I will do anything to help your company! Please, please, please hire me! • Dr. Einstein gave me a lot of freedom in his lab and acknowledged my contributions in several of his relativity publications.

49. 3. Cover Letters • Four-paragraph example from Markel • Introductory paragraph • Education paragraph • Past performance paragraph • Concluding paragraph • See Chapter 15 in Markel for examples

50. 3. Cover Letters 3.1 Introductory paragraph • What position are you interested in? • How did you hear about the job or company? • Lead in to the next paragraphs: “education” and “past performance”