Engineering Resumes, Cover Letters and
Career
Question:
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I’m
on the fence and can not decide if I need help with my engineering
resume or not. What should I keep in mind if I go at it
myself? Thanks.
Ann
L., New Orleans, LA
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Answer:
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Ann,
thank you for your message. I can certainly give you some insight into 3 key pieces of information
you should keep in mind when you prepare a engineering resume.
First: Nobody
spends more than 10 seconds on your resume before making the decision
to give you any more time. So… You need to summarize your entire career
history and background in a short paragraph called a “summary” upfront.
The manager needs to get a crystal clear picture of who you are
immediately.
Hiring managers may then read your resume for
a minute or two, but make up their minds in the first few seconds, and
spend the balance of time looking through your resume for reasons to
justify the first impression.
You have 5-10 seconds to make
them decide to spend the next 2 minutes reading your resume. If you
don’t achieve this in 10 seconds your resume goes in the trash bin and
your hopes of getting the job go with it.
Second:
There is nothing more important to an engineering resume than a set of
highly qualified, valuable and respected professional references.
So
many times we have reviewed resumes that don’t look nearly as good as
others but have two or three names listed as references that gave us
pause. It could be someone that is known in industry, a respected
engineer or scientist, a well known professor or more often than not a
senior leader in a previous employer.
Someone of value
telling us they are willing to be your reference MEANS YOU ARE WORTH
THEIR TIME. Credibility is immediately established even before a call
is placed to the reference.
If you've been sending out
dozens of resumes in response to job postings you KNOW you're perfect
for, and employers aren't calling, your resume is failing to do one or
both of these two things.
Third:
You are a professional with too many skills to list in a 1 or 2 page
document.
So
how do you make yourself irresistible? By branding yourself to the job.
In other words, focus your resume entirely on the engineering job you
are applying for. Cut and slash what is not relevant and bring out all
that is. Engineering is very different from business, your skills are
only useful if relevant to the employer’s specific need. So be prepared
to customize your resume and then customize some more.
Ann, if you should decide to do it yourself I strongly recommend our resume templates
with complete layouts and advice
on how to write your resume. Should you need help with the
writtin we can
certainly
help you write your resume as part of our premium services.
Best of luck to you in your job search and let us know how we can help.
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