Perfecting my Resume [Updated] - Resume Attached

[sentry7]

Hey guys,

Underway in my last year of college here in the US; I'll be coming out with a BS in Physics. I'm anticipating to enter the field of EE or CE, particularly digital systems, mpu/mcu embedded systems, sensors, i.e.

Although my study is physics, I have experience in circuit design/simulation. I've been building mpu/mcu based systems since my senior year in high school. I went all out during my freshman year in college and invested in a workbench, and I've been designing/building ever since.

At any rate, I'm putting my resume together, and since I don't really have any job experience yet, I'd imagine that the resume should easily comply with the one-page rule. The first thing I have questions about is whether or not it is appropriate to state soft skills (i.e. Works well in a team, self-motivated, etc.) Should I leave these kinds of things out?

[GreyWoolfe]

Listing any school activities/clubs you were involved in would probably weigh more.  So would extracurricular activities if they relate to what you are after.  Also, any professional organizations you became a member of would be useful.  After I went back to technical school years after college the first time, I even included the fact that I was an Amateur Extra ham radio operator.

It has been said many times, if you land an interview, bring some of your best projects, especially the ones you did outside of school.  That will be a big plus.

[sentry7]

I'm back with the "completed" resume; this is a first draft. I'm open to any review and CC.

[AntiProtonBoy]

Have you done any electronics related projects on your own time? Did you build kits and things? You might want to create a small blog to document them and include that on the resume.

Also, perhaps expand on the education section a bit, since these are your most recent thing you've completed. Elaborate on what you did in the course in terms of projects, and so forth.

In short, potential employers might look at you closer if you can demonstrate that you are really into this shit, and that is often through projects and tangible evidence.

[sentry7]

Have you done any electronics related projects on your own time? Did you build kits and things? You might want to create a small blog to document them and include that on the resume.

Also, perhaps expand on the education section a bit, since these are your most recent thing you've completed. Elaborate on what you did in the course in terms of projects, and so forth.

In short, potential employers might look at you closer if you can demonstrate that you are really into this shit, and that is often through projects and tangible evidence.

Should I condense the line spacing to try to fit it all on one page?

[AntiProtonBoy]

There is definitely a lot of wiggle room.  I would compact the blurred heading a bit. The Overview section could be turned into a small paragraph with the 3 bullet points being its own sentence. I would also kill the blue and just use bold text. You might want to structure your entries to include chronology and dates. For example, put the year period on the course you did. And for future jobs, you can use the same style:

For example:

Employment

2016 - ongoing: Kitchen Hand - Dodgy Burger Joint

Brief description here. No more than two sentences.

* Responsibilities 1
* Responsibilities 2
* Responsibilities 3

Education

2010 - 2016: Bachelor of Science, Physics - Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia

Brief description here. No more than two sentences.

* Achievement/task 1
* Achievement/task 2
* Achievement/task 3

[Cerebus]

That Resume tells me nothing about you. If it crossed my desk with 200 others there's nothing there that makes it stand out. I've always hired people, not lists of experience or ambitions. Yes, you've got to get the bare facts in there, but anything that makes you stand out as a person will have a disproportionate impact.

I can't tell you exactly what to write because I don't know you. And even if I could, my words for what 'makes' you are not what an employer will want to read. They will want to read your words. Especially about anything you're passionate about. Passion comes over.

When you're older you'll have chunks of career to draw on to describe yourself. For now you don't, so you have to draw on what experience and experiences you do have.

Things to consider:

Other work you've done, paid or voluntary.

Quasi-academic qualifications such as musical instrument gradings. Any trade qualifications you've picked up along the way perhaps from part-time jobs.

Have you lived in several places? Experience of other cultures, or just of coping with moving and changing schools can demonstrate flexibility. Don't be afraid to say something like "With my family moving, changing schools three times in four years was challenging but I still managed to retain a GPA of x and make new friends many of whom I still keep in touch with", as long as it's true of course.

Hobbies. They look stupid taking up 1/2 your resume if you're forty but don't if you're fresh out of college. Even when you're forty a hobby that demonstrates skill or learning ability has its place - an HR droid was most impressed that I'd managed to teach myself to make acoustic guitars.

Spare time activities. Do you do something interesting, adventurous, socially useful?

Sports - if you play them, put them down. They don't count for much but a Rugby man will always interview another Rugby man if that's what differentiates him from the next guy (or fills that place on the company team that's just come vacant).

Lastly, don't be dishonest in any shape or form. If it's factual dishonesty somebodies' fact checking or background checks will find you out. If it's emotional dishonesty, "I love working late with no reward and just want to make my boss happy", that too will find you out. Don't put "Good team player" if you're a curmudgeon who chases everybody out of your office, put "Task focused individual who works best alone". A strategic admission and honest assessment of one or some of your weakness(es) isn't a bad thing as it can show self understanding - don't overdo it though.

If you can't fit what you want into a one page resume - cheat! Put all the good stuff into a covering letter. In fact it's a good idea to have several drafts ready to suit different application processes. Do they have an application form with a big empty box that says "Tell us about yourself in 300 words"? Have a draft ready for it.

Most of all, good luck!

[sentry7]

@Cerebus,
Under what heading should I place personal traits/qualities or hobbies?

EDIT
I've found examples that show the more personalized information on the cover letter and the factual info on the resume.

[Bud]

No employer is interested in learning what hobbies you have or what musical instrument you play. If you want to nail it, consider getting help from professional resume writing service. They know the market and your local employment culture. This will be money well spent. Some of headgunting companies help their customers with this for free.

Edit: it is often easier to build you resume when applying for a particular  posted job, in which case you simply use the job description/responsibilities listed and just put the relevant information in the resume. Guaranteed, the employer will be looking for best match  to the posted job description, so this helps. Try to only answer questions the employer asked in the job post (figuratevely) and this will give you an edge over those who fills their resume with useless fluff about how good they are in areas irrelevant to the job they are applying for.

[AntiProtonBoy]

No employer is interested in learning what hobbies you have or what musical instrument you play.

Only include hobbies that may be related to the field you are applying for. Hobbies including building kits, programming, managing or running a web site may be perfectly relevant in this case.

[RoGeorge]

Follow the advice from Cerebus.

The employer is looking to hire a person not a professional resume. That person must show the potential to do the job. Since this is your first job, your hobby and you character is what defines you out of other hundreds of applicants with the same age and education.

The fact that you are building since you were in high school is your strongest advantage. The fact that you have your own workbench makes people think that you really are a technical guy. The last two qualities are rare and highly appreciated in EE and CE. You should definitely mention them. If a cover letter is OK were you apply, then you can tell about a few projects you completed. Don't forget to talk about your current project/s. If you have a blog/channel or some other kind of repository for your work and projects, then you must put links to them. If you have any kind of publications, academic or hobby level, mention them. Be yourself, show what kind of person you are, but stick mostly to what might be relevant for the future job.

Of course, you need to adjust the content and the level of details according to the job description and the company you intend to work for. Do not limit your application only for jobs that you think it might be the ideal ones. Do not disqualify yourself. Apply for as many decent matches as you can find, because each interview will be a big experience gain for you. Go to as many as you can.

[tggzzz]

A key concept is that the CV should indicate you can demonstrate (during an interview) what you claim based on your past activities. Thus while everybody writes and ignores "am a team player that also works on my own", a statement such as "solo glider pilot, launch duties team member getting aircraft in the air" demonstrates you have the drive to achieve something non-trivial, what you have achieved on your own, and how you helped other people achieve things.

An employer will be looking for any evidence that someone actually likes the subject sufficiently that you go off and do things on your own, just for the fun of it. Let them understand that you have set your own objectives, done the work, recognised your mistakes and know what you would do better next time. Having done that will put you in the most competent 5% of new graduates.

Interviewers also like having something they can ask questions about, beyond their standard competency questions.

"experience with X", "developed a Y" = you did work and served your time. Boring. Better is

Technologies used:

• hardware: X1, X2, X3
• software: Y1, Y2, Y3
• CAD: Z1, Z2, Z3

(Which allows HR droids to skim your CV to see you aren't completely irrelevant; passes automated filters)

Projects:

• developed an M for objective N, special characteristics P, using Z1 to ensure characteristic Q, implemented using Y2 and X1, proved by R and X3

(Which allows competent interviewer to understand you aren't a bullshit artist, and to get you to justify why P was beneficial, and to what extent Z1 could and could not ensure Q)

Note that anything vaguely relevant can be used for those statements.

[Cerebus]

No employer is interested in learning what hobbies you have or what musical instrument you play. If you want to nail it, consider getting help from professional resume writing service. They know the market and your local employment culture. This will be money well spent. Some of headgunting companies help their customers with this for free.

Edit: it is often easier to build you resume when applying for a particular  posted job, in which case you simply use the job description/responsibilities listed and just put the relevant information in the resume. Guaranteed, the employer will be looking for best match  to the posted job description, so this helps. Try to only answer questions the employer asked in the job post (figuratevely) and this will give you an edge over those who fills their resume with useless fluff about how good they are in areas irrelevant to the job they are applying for.

I'm guessing that you personally haven't had, as an employer, to sit and wade your way through a few hundred Resumes/CVs. I have, and most 'professionally prepared' CVs are so bad that you beg for any information that can give you a glimpse at the person behind the CV.  I can categorically state that I, as an employer, have been interested in what hobbies and pastimes an applicant has.

Also, you might think one gets a bespoke service from 'professional' resume writers. You don't. When there are 10-20 resumes prepared by the same service in a batch of 200 applications it quickly becomes clear which resumes were written by individuals and which by not just some, but which, service bureaux - the one from services bureaux tend to head for the big round filling bin faster than the others.

[tggzzz]

No employer is interested in learning what hobbies you have or what musical instrument you play. If you want to nail it, consider getting help from professional resume writing service. They know the market and your local employment culture. This will be money well spent. Some of headgunting companies help their customers with this for free.

Edit: it is often easier to build you resume when applying for a particular  posted job, in which case you simply use the job description/responsibilities listed and just put the relevant information in the resume. Guaranteed, the employer will be looking for best match  to the posted job description, so this helps. Try to only answer questions the employer asked in the job post (figuratevely) and this will give you an edge over those who fills their resume with useless fluff about how good they are in areas irrelevant to the job they are applying for.

I'm guessing that you personally haven't had, as an employer, to sit and wade your way through a few hundred Resumes/CVs. I have, and most 'professionally prepared' CVs are so bad that you beg for any information that can give you a glimpse at the person behind the CV.  I can categorically state that I, as an employer, have been interested in what hobbies and pastimes an applicant has.

Also, you might think one gets a bespoke service from 'professional' resume writers. You don't. When there are 10-20 resumes prepared by the same service in a batch of 200 applications it quickly becomes clear which resumes were written by individuals and which by not just some, but which, service bureaux - the one from services bureaux tend to head for the big round filling bin faster than the others.

l agree wholeheartedly with that.

One consideration is that HRdroids are mostly pretty poor, and are there to prevent employees, especially bosses, from making mistakes. Thus they will tend to weed out people that are "interesting" - which leaves the safe boring average bodies. Engineers have to keep such droids under control, and actively  ensure they don't filter out the really good candidates.

[Fred27]

No employer is interested in learning what hobbies you have or what musical instrument you play.

I disagree. I've interviewed and hired a lot of people and if there's nothing on there that says something about the person outside just their technical qualifications, I always ask. I want to know what sort of person I'm hiring, not just a robot. I don't care if it's something I find interesting or not. I just want to hire a person who cares about something just for the joy of it.

Sidenote: I drew the line at a guy who had a hobby of buying women's shoes and documenting the destructive testing of them. Apparently, he'd destroy them with hammers, angle grinders, blowtorches, etc. Also, why would you admit that at a job interview?