I’m wondering what resume styles work best for those in engineering. Can others share their experiences about what seems to work, and what doesn’t?
Are the rules of thumb still true? Keep it brief and one page.
To keep it brief, I use bulleted phrases, but some tell me to use three line paragraphs with phrases separated by semi-colons.
Also, is it mostlikely true that the further down the page, the less likely HR will read onward.
All pointers would be greatly appreciated,
Some generic stuff:
[ul]
[li]Check spelling several times, and don’t rely on a spellchecker. Make sure all technical terms are spelled and used correctly.[/li][li]Choose an easy-to-read font, but don’t stick exclusively to Times New Roman or Arial.[/li][li]Use good-quality plain white, off-white, grey, or blue paper. Someone at a place like Kinko’s can help you with this. If you use anything else, it tends to induce headache.[/li][li]Don’t bombard a potential employer with a lot of correspondence or telephone calls. Yes, you may get noticed, but it’ll be for being a pain in the ass. If you don’t hear back within a week, then follow up. [/li][/ul]
Hope that helps.
Robin
Brag, but never lie.
Never give salary information.
Give concrete examples. “Cited by upper management for re-tooling the approval process” is better than “Worked in purchasing.”
Eschew surplusage.
HR screens people out, it does not hire them. The purpose of the resume is to get an interview with the person responsible for making the hiring decision.
Being memorable is good; being cute is not. No one likes a smart ass.
If it takes three pages to list your accomplishments, you are either exaggerating, or you don’t need to go thru the resume process. Two pages, tops.
I would recommend following up with a phone call three business days after they receive your resume. Thank you notes should arrive the day after an interview.
Good luck. It’s often a crap shoot.
Regards,
Shodan
Ditto what Shodan said. Especially thank you notes. They work, and very few people use them.
I would recomment against having an objective line at the top. They usually come across as cheesy and unproffessional. Let your work experience speak for you.
I am also a fan of the one page resume. Better to have one page packed with info than a thin 2 pages.
Ditto on the thank you note. In fact, my boss told me that one of the major reasons I got hired was that when all three of the interviewers (all at once–boy, that was hell) got back to their rooms and had email from me, that was the deciding moment. And one of them I had to track down through the corporate office. They appreciated my follow-up.
Anoter ditto, and underscores for these:
In my experience, it is best never to even discuss salary until you have been offered the job. If they try to bring it up, say something like, “I am sure we will be able to come to an agreement if I am the candidate you select” and leave it at that.
Now you tell me.
These are some more generic points, rather than for Engineering per se…
*Emphasise your strong points, and don’t include anything that isn’t relavent. So what if you ran a lemonade stand when you where 5 years old? It doesn’t have any relavence now.
*If you are in the posistion of having a lot of experience: unless one of your former jobs has a direct bearing on what you’re applying for, just mention when/where/title. Only expand on the last three (or so) jobs. Or, altenatively: be a bit more descriptive on more recent jobs, and taper off how descriptive you are the older the job is.
*I’d still use bullets: it draws the eye right to where you want them to be looking. And trust me, you want to make the highlights of your resume as easy to find as possible.
*The only reason for having an ‘objective’ line is if you’re right out of schooling, and simply don’t have anything to indicate to the potential employer who you are and what you do (or want to do).
*Use at most bold and italic in addition to the normal font face, use those consistently and sparingly, and only to those items that really do need extra emphasis.
*Don’t vary the font size much: some variation to help (d)emphasise points, but don’t do your name in size 24 and the rest in 8, for example. And do not go lower than font size 10. You want to help people immedately see the ‘jucy stuff’, not blind them!
*And hopefully needless to say, don’t use a colored font! Stick with good ol’ basic black.
heads off to ensure her own resume is up to date
<< Yadda, yadda, yadda. >>
all good points (I’m cheering for the drop the ‘objective’ line - I generally used them to weed people out).
with technical fields, I’d have a trusted person in that field look it over. For example - I’ll see people mention under ‘computer skills’ “familiar with Windows 98”. Which tells me to not bother interviewing you.
Spell out your skills (but avoid statements like “quick learner” - no one to date claims to be a slow learner- and “hard worker”).
I prefer to have the skills spelled out up front, so I don’t have to wade through the whole damn thing to find out if you have the experience/skills I’m seeking. (many people will list off their skills etc. under the specific job, so I’d have to guess that you demonstrated these abilities when working for Clark Company, vs. Pioneer INc. ).
The ENTIRE point of the resume is to secure a personal interview.
It’s a sales piece, and thus must be structured like a sales pitch - Your key point first, then most important, then less important, then a little at the end as a payoff for the person interested enough to read it all (or skip ahead)
NEVER put anything there you don’t want to discuss (That missing year you were in a Turkish prison, or that your last actual job was cleaning dumpsters.) This is not an affidavit testifying before the grand jury.
It’s a sales pitch, and you tell them what you want to sell them.
A few tips for on-line applications:
Follow format instructions to the letter:
If they say text only, do not send slideshows.
If they say no calls, don’t call.
But… you can still stand out a little.
You can S P A C E O U T a title or two.
Indent some sections from both right and left margins.
. . . ___ . . .
Add section breaks. Etc.
If they allow formatted text, stick to things you can do in Word - don’t rush off to Photoshop for a special drop-shadow font.
Unless the job has a need for visual arts skills, like web designer.
If there are periods of unemployment, or work experience that you’d rather skip, how do you account for these times in the resume?
Thanks, Jinx
By not listing anything for that time:
Doesn’t this make the HR screener say- wait- what happened here?
hMMM . . .WHAT WERE YOU DOING BETWEEN 1998-2000?
Working.
What are your thoughts on this, this is all good info! 
I would duck the question as to what you were doing during that ‘blank’ period:
“I used the time to re-center myself, so I could resume employment knowing exactly what I wanted to do.” —> Good for going on extended vacation, goofing off, or actually taking the time to take a break from the rat race.
…or…
“I used the time to re-evaluate my skills and take honest stock of what my goals in life were, and how I wanted to get there.” —> Job you took because you were desperate, job where nothing was working out for whatever reason, etc.
As long as you aren’t trying to defraud and/or decieve anyone, it’s not really their business what you did during that time period. Just keep in mind that word gets around and your new/potential employer may hear of who you worked for during this time period (or whatever you were doing) from someone else.
I’ve always had good luck with putting my technical skills up-front separate from work experience, so it’s easy for people to see at a glance if I have the technical skill they are looking for. I make sure that anything listed in the skills section is backed up in the job history section. I also have a summary (NOT an objective) up-front that pushes some of the “soft” skills (written/verbal communication, leadership, etc.).
When the job market is good, I found this format to be very effective. However, the job market in my field sucks now. I don’t know if anything is effective.
I’ve had a two page resume for years, but recently bit the bullet and went to three after talking to some of my recruiters. Anything really important is on page 1 - no one is going to look at any additional pages unless something catches their eye on page 1.
I also always write a cover letter to emphasize the skills particularly relevant to the job in question.
If you were working for jobs you didn’t feel like listing, you can say, “I was working for ABC Company and XYZ Corp., but I didn’t feel those experiences were relevant to this position and didn’t want to waste valuable space describing them.” If you were unemployed, say, “I was unemployed.”
Trust me, in this job market, you won’t be the only one with gaps of either type.
Speaking as someone who spent FIVE HOURS today looking at resumés:
Large companies (at least, the LARGE hospital I work for) keeps all the CVs it recieves on file for at least 6 months. If I don’t know what you really wanna do, you may get put in the wrong file, and you will NEVER get a job in what you want.
Everything is supposed to go from most recent to least recent.
Clearly show what degrees you have gotten. It’s difficult to tell sometimes whether someone has graduated or not
More than one page is okay if you really need it.
As much fun as it makes MY job (and man, do I appreciate it after a couple of hours), smart-ass remarks and long personal histories of being soviet war prisoners (no, not making this up) do not help you.
I’ve gotten nothing but positive reactions to my decision to “goof off” for a few years before returning to grad school. Employers rightly assume that I am more focused than some of my younger peers who have followed a career path without considering what they really wanted. At least in my field, “real world” experience is valued.