Young Engineer

Writing Your Engineering Resume Part I August 26, 2009

Writing an engineering resume is daunting, but you can do it.  In this post, I’m going to walk you through brainstorming all the things you’ve done that could go on your resume.  Next week, I’ll tell you how to pick out the experiences and skills that will put you in the best light, then bring them together into a resume that will give the image you want it to of who you are and why you are valuable.   So find a handy notebook or piece of paper and your writing implement of choice, and let’s get going!

Area One: Education

This is the section every engineering student should have on their resume.  In this section, you should have things like your GPA, major or degree program, expected date of graduation, and information about your courses.  Use the GPA that makes you look best, either your overall GPA or your engineering GPA, from major-specific courses.

Your Assignment: Make a list of all the classes you’ve taken so far at your college or university.  Which of them are relevant to your specific industry?  Leave out classes like calculus, physics, and chemistry which are more general in nature.  For the relevant classes, jot down a few notes about what you did in the class.  Make note of any projects or papers you wrote, focusing on cumulative, long-scale assignments or projects that relate to your field.

Area Two: Work Experience

This section tells prospective employers about previous places you’ve worked.  Hopefully it’s going to include things like research experience, either during the summer or during the school year, working as a teaching assistant or course assistant, or projects you’ve done with other students or for courses.  It can also include things like the summer job you worked last summer, but if you have other experience, it’s better to leave it off.   Finally, don’t forget volunteer or unpaid work you’ve done!  Even if you didn’t get paid, if it relates to your field or helped you develop a skill it’s still experience.

Your Assignment: Make a list of all the work experiences you’ve had, and for each, write down a list of responsibilities you had in that position.  For example, when I was a sailing instructor, my responsibilities were safety of the children I was teaching, maintenance of the boats, and instruction of the campers.  Many resumes list responsibilities for a position and stop there.  However, next week we’ll use those responsibilities to write compelling statements about your experiences in the form of results.

Area Three: Awards

This section is pretty self explanatory.  Brag a little bit about yourself.  Tell your future employer what a star you are.

Your assignment: Make a list of awards you’ve won.  Don’t leave anything out, even awards for things that are not related to engineering, like sports awards or music awards.  The point is to highlight any ways in which you are exceptional.

Area Four: Other Stuff

This ‘other stuff’ may go in a differently titled section depending on what sort of ‘other stuff’ you do.  Mine is called entrepreneurial, but yours may better described by leadership activities or community service.  The point of this is to capture non-school related things you do that demonstrate character traits, like leadership or independence, that are desirable to employers.

Your assignment: Make a list of other things you do.  If you were applying to college, I might call this section extracurriculars.  In this section, you’re brainstorming experiences and activities in which you demonstrate leadership or management skills.  Were you captain of a sports team?  Have you planned an event for a large number of people?  Do you do community service, or fundraise for a charitable cause?   Do you work for you family’s business, or have you ever started a business of your own?  For each ‘extracurricular,’ jot down a few comments about what you did, what your responsibilities were, or what the biggest challenge in the activity is.

Area Five: Skills

This is an area of great interest to most employers.  Read over things you’ve made notes about in education, experience, awards, and other stuff, and start coming up with a skills list.  Skills can be very obvious, like CAD designing in Solidworks or Pro/E, or programming in Java or C.  These are the types of skills you typically find listed in example resumes for engineers on the internet.  However, there are many other skills, like prototyping, synthesis, or technical writing that could also belong in this area.

Your assignment: Make a comprehensive list of skills.  Try to confine the list to skills that can be described in a single word or phrase, preferably a short one.

Finish Up

Read back over your brainstorm, making extra notes or filling in anything you may have forgotten.  Leave it alone for a day or two, and then look over it again to see if anything new occurs to you.  Next week, we’ll shape the list of accomplishments and experiences you just brain-dumped onto paper into an effective engineering resume.