Resume Feedback, Mechanical Engineering student

[teknodude]

Can someone read over my resume. Thank You
Here is the file. I uploaded it this site, because I don't know when an Admin will ok the file.
http://www.badongo.com/file/7507007

I replaced a lot of the names with generic stuff since this is a public form.

Couple of things that I was unsure off:

Leadership Experience: This is basically I course that I am in now, Mechanical Product Design. They turned the product design into competition this quarter compared to other quarters where they just let you design anything that has a market need.

Work Experience: Some of friends told me to not put that there. I wanted to leave it since it does shows that I was promoted to another position when I worked at a grocery store.

Relevant Coursework: Again I got some mixed opinions whether I should leave it in. I figured since I'm in manufacturing and design, showing some coursework would help.

 

[kev1829]

Your friends are right. Your work experience does not have any relevance to the career field you are applying to. A letter of recomendation from a professor that you had for more than one semester would provide more applicable insight into your character.

Also, eliminating your work experience will condense your resume to a single page. A resume should give highlights aimed at getting you an interview. The interview should provide the details.

 

[makethings]

You should include the time span of your product design. Did you come in first place? If the competition was just a one day thing then it doesn't say much about you and it shouldn't be included. Generally, its nonsense if you start including every group project you do in your coursework on your resume. People interviewing you would already know that engineering does include group projects no matter what school you come from. You're better off listing the skills you can bring to the job learned from those projects and then talking about those project experiences if you're asked in an interview.

I agree with the previous work experience comments. If you remove it you would probably end up with a nice exact 1-page resume. For a student that is ok. It is also irrelevant to the job you are applying for. But if you are keeping it, at least combine the two experiences into one if they are in the same store because the 2000-02 is considered outdated (ie. I've learned that its best to list only the work experiences in the last four years unless work further back is directly relevant to the position you are applying for) and then say you were promoted. Try to think about things that would make you stand out from other employees and put that in there. Like on my resume, I was a manager in my campus student store and during my time I improved sales by x % and negotiated better deals with suppliers. Contrast that to, as a manager, I dealt with customer issues and managed 4 employees and you see the former is more of a 'wow' while the latter is something every manager has to do as part of their job. I know it might be hard if it was just a food store but there must have been something you've been doing right if you were there for six years.

If the coursework is common to every engineering education then there is no point in including it as it is implied already in your education. But if the job required you to know something specialized like CFD with two-phase flows and you just so happened to have studied it (independently or otherwise) then you include it since its not something every engineering undergrad would know. So if its manufacturing and product design, talk about what asme codes you know or design standards that you have studied etc.

 

[user101]

I would consider changing the format altogether. You can fit all that information in one page, if you'd like. It's hard to read and frankly, it's not appealing. While the resume format isn't the make or break of a deal, it surely plays a role when someone first looks at the resume. Do they want to read it with as much dedication as they did with someone elses? To me, with your formatting, no. Not trying to be harsh, just stating another thing you could improve on. It's fine if it's for a text-based resume, but if they want a DOC or PDF version, this is quite ugly.

 

[fizziks]

I agree on removing the work experience. If you are applying for an entry-level job, they should expect almost nothing under work experience. Your research and leadership experience is enough to cover what you are looking for.

A good resume is one page. When I was working on my resume, practically everyone, including my professors, career adviser, and general acquaintances, told me to limit my resume to one page, especially if it's your first time applying for an industrial job. You can also take out the relevant courses stuff.

Fix the format. No need for different size fonts. Bolding the titles should be enough.

 

[Dr Transport]

try these tips...http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/category/resumes/

 

[teknodude]

Thanks for the feedback. Yea I know a resume is one page, I intentionally made it longer so that I could cut out irrelevant stuff from there later to get to 1 page.

Yes, the format was not really appealing to me either. I uploaded my old resume format I've been using for the last few months if you want to see it. The only reason I changed it was because I thought the old format would be difficult for those scanners and online submissions.

About the product design course, this is a class that I am taking this quarter. The competition is part of the course and we have 10 weeks to design something, present and give a demonstration. Also i thought putting it on my resume would be ok, because it is the only major project that I have done so far. I was talking to recruiters several weeks ago, and I sadly had to tell them that all classes have been just theory and no projects. But in the end I did mention that I was in a this product design course which did spark a nice conversation.

 

[user101]

Google "resume filetype:pdf" and you can get tons of examples on how it should look.

 

[Michael.Brit]

Hi,

As a junior professional your resume should focus on your schooling and any
relevant experience. Ideally you would have engineering experience such
as internships in relevant work, information technology jobs or others.
In lieu of this your other experience is very useful. The leadership section
is really not that relevant. For an entry level position nobody expects you to
be a leader so I would suggest you drop that. Instead focus on your technical
interests. The engineering resume should be about skills. For you that means
courses, school projects, software skills and relevant experience.
Also, you want to make sure the resume is one page only.

Good luck!

Michael

 

[Michael.Brit]

Engineering resumes and cover letters have unique requirements and formats that are unlike other resumes.

For example, an strong opening with a list of technical skills will only be useful if customized for the job opening. I suggest that you customize your engineering resume and engineering cover letter for the job posting.
It take a little longer but it really increases response rate.

Good luck
Michael Brit
Engineering Resume Professional Writer