Engineering Resume Workshop

1. EngineeringResume Workshop - BYU - January 26, 2005

2. Why did you come to BYU? You came to get a job, So put in the time to get it.

3. Why did you come to BYU? • 1 hour a day (at least) • Be on time & responsible • Spend what is necessary • Interview documents • cell phone • new shirt & tie

4. Agenda • Purpose of your Resume • Anatomy • Substance • What to include and why • Writing (Putting it into words) • Interviewing • What recruiters are looking for

5. Purpose

6. Purpose • You are a product you are selling to a company • Your Resume is your marketing tool • a single page “product description” • With a MS, two pages can be appropriate

7. Purpose Two Questions: • What does your employer want? • Industry expectations from a graduating engineer • How do you communicate your qualities to your employer?

8. Purpose • Your resume is not built to impress an employer… … Your resume is built to communicate your experience.

9. Anatomy

10. Anatomy • Personal Info • Objective / Qualifications (optional) • Education • Relative Experience • Other Experience

11. Personal Info • Make a custom email address – bryan.gardner@byu.edu instead of – bjg3@email.byu.edu • Not – genius@byu.edu

12. Process Organization Computer Memory is Cheap!!! • Save your Resume with reference to each company, and attach that same resume when emailing them (John_Lockheed_Res) • Customize a Cover Letter for Each Company (John_Raytheon_Cov) • Keep a Journal of contacts, emails, interviews, etc, with dates, for each company (Word Doc: NatInst_Contacts)

13. Substance

14. Substance • Your resume is not built on paper… … Your resume is built on experience.

15. Substance • Student Fallacies - Industry Realities • What Recruiters are Looking For • The Value of Your Experience

16. Highest GPA Wins You have to be totally self sufficient 3.9 is a yellow flag 3.7 -.5 is perfect < 3.0 is concerning They want you to know when and how to find help Student Fallacies - Industry Realities

17. Internships are better than Clubs “Real Engineering” involves complex calculations and modeling Experience is experience – It shows what you have done About 5% of your first year will use equations you learned in college Student Fallacies - Industry Realities

18. Employers scrutinize recruits, and want only the brightest and smartest Companies have set and rigid recruiting schedules We want somebody who we can reliably work with on any project Hiring is just another thing that needs to get done Student Fallacies - Industry Realities

19. Submitting your resume on the internet is useless Some of the largest companies only hire undergrads from internet submissions. Student Fallacies - Industry Realities

20. Substance • What Kind of Experience • Internships • Univ. Projects • Research Assistant • Senior Design Project • Non-Eng. “Soft” Experience • Honors, awards, memberships, etc.

21. Substance • The value of mundane experience - Brian Hyatt

22. Substance • The value of University Projects - Derek Wright

23. Substance • The value of non-engineering experience (Fitting this into two bullets would be better)

24. Writing(putting it into words)

25. Writing You have built the substance (experience) of your resume… … now you need to present it.

26. Writing • Each resume is highly individualized. We use a standard format, but there is no standard recipe. • You may use different resumes for different companies.

27. Writing • Putting Words onto Paper • Organizing as a Resume • Layout • Finished Phrasing

28. Writing Putting Words onto Paper • Start with a list • Company Name • Dates • Positions • Projects • Skills

29. Writing Putting Words onto Paper • Stream of Thought Writing • Don’t worry about punctuation, grammar, organization, flow, redundancy…whatever • Use Technical Terminology • Use Layman Terminology

30. Writing Putting Words onto Paper • Ramble about The Project • Everybody and Everything • What was the project • Why this project (Objective / Purpose) • How the project was done

31. Writing • Ramble about The Project • Mercedes CLK GTR Design Project: Part of a three-person team that modeled a complete to scale Mercedes CLK-GTR using CATIA and created a cad-centric tool-kit to analyze and optimize aerodynamic flow using CFD methods in Hypermesh and Fluent and optimization algorithms and processes in iSIGHT to iterate and define an optimal design within the design space of the mathematical model.

32. Writing Putting Words onto Paper • Ramble about Your Experience • Your Personal Role • What you did • How you did it • Why you did it

33. Writing • Ramble about Your Experience • Unity IV Rocket; Brigham Young University; September 2004 - Present • Describe Unity IV Project; Bi-University Project building and modifying 20’ rocket, hybrid fuel… and so on • Research efficient/effective fin shape and placement • Model fins with CATIA and build them out of fiberglass • Fin Design/Build Team • Determine size and shape of fin according to center of pressure on the rocket during flight • Bulid fins from Fiberglass and installing (mating, find a better word) on the rocket • Redesign and Modification of an existing rocket • Anticipated launch in November • Designing and entirely new rocket for payload competition in April.

34. Writing Organization as a Resume Layout starts after putting words onto paper so you don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re done when you’re not.

35. Writing Organization as a Resume • Anatomy Outline • Personal Info, Education, Experience, Extra • Paste in rambled content • Make space for finished content

36. Writing Organization as a Resume (Preliminary) • Anatomy of each experience • Header • Company / Position / Project / Dates • Project / Position Description • Experience Description

37. Writing Make Space • Small margins • Efficient Layout Good Example

38. Writing Make Space!!! Bad Example!!!

39. Writing Organization as a Resume (Completed) • Anatomy of each experience • Header • Company / Position / Project / Dates • Project Description (1 bullet) • Experience Description (1-4 bullets)

40. Writing Organization as a Resume • Project Description • 1 Bullet • Collect terminology and phases from the rambling into a single non-redundant run-on sentence • Arrange and eliminate segments to create a Comprehensive and Concise bullet

41. Writing Organization as a Resume • Experience Description • 1 - 4 Bullets • Collect terminology and phases from the rambling according to logical groups • Engineering, Reporting, Scheduling, etc • Arrange and eliminate segments to create Comprehensive and Concise bullets

42. Writing Finished Phrasing Polishing and Tailoring

43. Writing Finished Phrasing • Tailor content to the company • Keep the most valuable content • Eliminate less valuable content

44. Writing Finished Phrasing • Fonts and Formatting • Easy to read, simple font • Engineers don’t care for flair • Easy to navigate, logical formatting • Content is far more important than “Proper balance of white and black space”

45. Writing • Details in mundane experience - Brian Hyatt

46. Writing • How to put your experience into words – Joey Prince

47. Writing • See web site for more examples… www.bryangardner.com

48. Things to avoid Excessive emphasis on mission position Recruiters like your mission experience, but don’t dwell on it. High School honors (unless you’re very new and looking for an internship) Marital status Don’t avoid it, but don’t make it a badge of honor Resume

49. Things to include (if convenient) Worked to pay your own way through college Resume

50. Interviewing