Resume critique/other help

[jeffreyd]

Well I graduated with a BSEE(Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering) about a month ago and am having no luck in looking for a job(I will be attending a career fair through the school in 2 weeks). I believe it might be my resume and am attaching it below. I appreciate any tips/suggestions. I am having the most difficulty on the Objective. I am also curious if anyone knows of companies local to Tampa, Fl that are looking for an EE. I have more work experience but its not related to engineering, such as summer jobs with quiznos, boys and girls club etc...should I include it? it would add at least a page.


Thank you in advance,
JeffreyD.

**************************************************
Jeffrey *****
************
Temple Terrace Fl. 33637

Cell: 813-***-****
E-mail:****** (edited for posting online)

Electrical Engineer: Recent graduate with experience

Objective:
Obtain an engineering position utilizing skills of a BSEE along with technical knowledge obtained through 3+ years experience.

Experience:

1/2002-4/2005 Honeywell A.C.S. US-FL-Sarasota

Engineering Technician: $10.90/hr

Perform tasks required by engineers to evaluate the functionality, reliability, and outputs of new designs. Assemble prototypes from schematics, AutoCAD drawings, sketches and any other form. Use Lab-view software to run tests. Prepare conference demos, test documentation, and troubleshoot failed units to find cause. Return results and consult with the engineer/s.

1/2004-Present Luxottica Retail US-FL-Tampa

Certified Lab Technician: $9.75/hr

Progressed from no knowledge to daily lab supervisor in three months and became a certified technician in six months which normally takes at least one year. Receive and manufacture work orders requested by opticians. Monitor stock and suggest equipment changes. Ensure all equipment in proper operation and perform any maintenance required. Maintain high quality through quality control checks during the entire manufacturing process. Supervise up to two employees during daily operation to maintain high productivity.

Education:

8/2005 University of South Florida US-FL-Tampa
Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering

5/2003 Manatee Community College US-FL-Bradenton
Associates of Arts in Engineering General

Affiliations: 12/2004-Present I.E.E.E.

Skills:
Circuit design
Leadership
OSHA safety
C++
LabView
Pspice
MathCad
Mat Lab
Ansoft Maxwell 3D
Project Management
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Power Point
Outlook Express
Optical Lens Fabrication
PCB Layout
PCB Assembly
SMT
Microsoft Project
Simulink

Certificates: 30 Hour OSHA training

Additional info: Currently studying embeded microcontrollers (Atmel AVR)

*************************************
Thanks again,
JeffreyD

 

[BabyDuck]

all this is, of course, personal opinion, and i know nothing about engineering so my examples will be made up. take off the salaries, but write them down somewhere because some places ask for them and you'll never remember ten years from now if you don't write them down. ditto, by the way, for your current places of employment addresses / phone #'s / supervisor names. they shouldn't go on the resume but you need to keep them written down somewhere. i would spell out the affiliation name. if your gpa is great or you made dean's list or anything, put it. i would say how skilled you are at your skills if you have anything more than a passing aquaintance, such as - 'circuit design - have blah blah years experience with circuits for these three types of things, including this interesting one.' and another opinion - don't pad. doesn't look like you are, but when you start describing your skills it's a fine line between honest and bragging and lying!

 

[Damselfish]

As far as "adding at least a page" that shouldn't be a goal. You just graduated and no one expects a long resume, or wants to read one. (After 20+ years I still keep mine to 2 by dropping or minimizing earlier stuff.) A page of summer jobs might just look like a lame attempt at padding your resume. You might consider putting them into one entry such as "2000-2004 Various part time positions at Quizmos, Boys and Girls club..." to show you were doing stuff if that seems like a good idea. You never know which of them might catch someone's eye - maybe someone who is reviewing resumes also worked at a Boys Club and it will catch their eye!

However, you might consider separating out a job if you did something in it that would sound good to an employer. Doesn't have to be directly engineering related - if you can say something like you "organized events at the Boys Club" or whatever that might be interesting.

I'd drop the line "Electrical Engineer: Recent graduate with experience" the objective can cover it. I don't have specific suggestions on the objective. It could use something, but you already know that. There's nothing exactly wrong with what's there, it's just pretty generic so it doesn't really say anything - EE covers a wide area. If you don't want to limit yourself by getting too specific, perhaps you can add something phrased along the lines of "My special interests are in the areas of ..."

Other thoughts:
- I'd drop the wage info. This isn't seen on a professional resume.
- I would spell out the cities in a more common fashion like "Tampa, FL", not like "US-FL-Tampa" - I know a lot of job postings get listed that way, but people don't usually put it on their resume like that and it seems less readable.
- I would change "Progressed from no knowledge to daily lab supervisor" - maybe "Progressed from entry level to daily lab supervisor." The phrase "no knowledge" looks wrong to me on a resume no matter the context.
- "engineer/s" looks like a typo.

If you want, since you're not short on space, you could add just a few words to each job saying what a company does so people don't have to figure it out from context. I know I would have no idea what Luxottica is or does. Honeywell is a big well-known company there's no need to attempt to define it, but you could mention the division you worked or whatever gives a better idea of what it was you were part of making. Maybe you want to spell out "A.C.S" - I know I have no idea what that stands for.

 

[Louie]

One option is to have your resume done/redone/spruced up by a professional consultant. Prices vary depending on the extent of the work and on what you need doing.

The reason I suggest this is that personnel/human resources is as much a science as anything else these days and employers are often looking for the important "catch phrases", lingo, etc.. Also, these professionals are often quite in tune with the local employment culture and some of them even have useful information. Ask around and you may find one who's good in the field of engineering.

 

[Damselfish]

Your school may also have some resources for helping grads with resumes, etc.

 

[rab]

Here's my 2psi on the matter. You're a recent grad -- put your education FIRST. Then support that with the relevant work experience. (Reverse chronological is still the best way for you to go at this point.) I definitely agree with the others who've said to get the wage information off of there NOW! If you're looking for a salaried position, your hourly wage rates have little bearing on the matter (and you actually don't have to disclose your prior wages/salaries anyway; just say what you want to be paid ((but not on the resume, of course))).

Change "Supervise up to two..." to simply "Supervise two...". Two just isn't big enough to split the difference ("up to fifty" would be a different matter). If you can say how your work is related to the BOTTOM LINE, then do it! Just showing that you understand that the only reason for someone to give you a job is so that your value to the company is greater than your cost (salary, benefits, etc.) can give you the edge over someone who can't show that. (And if you don't understand that, then figure it out quick!)

You should definitely take advantage of whatever resources the school has to offer. You probably won't be facing many other August graduates so play to that. Are there any industries that have sales cycles that favor hiring someone NOW rather than waiting for a Spring grad? Find out the business cycle of the companies that you're interested in working for -- and then sell them on why they'd be smart to hire you now (or at least be ready to when the interview question comes up).

Also regarding your summer jobs. If these jobs demonstrate (or illustrate) leadership, management, time-management, multitasking, etc., then by all means include them. But understand why you want a potential employer to see each one. On my own resume, I have two employers that have been completely dropped from the middle and the employment dates are just pairs of years (no months) -- just don't need them anymore and they weren't significant enough to stay around.

Since so many resumes are keyword searched (and my resume is always getting online hits), you absolutely have to list your skills and the products with which you have experience, but group them and leave them in a simple, comma-separated list. For some of the more specialized software products, include version numbers (or ranges of version numbers) even if the version is old. You never know when someone is still using the old (even obsolete) version of a product. (Particularly if the interface or functionality has changed significantly.)

If you'd like me to take another look, PM me when you've put Resume 2.0 together.

-Rob

 

[jeffreyd]

Thank you for the responses and suggestions.

Jeffrey D.

 

[diver_paula]

I agree with all of the above posts and want to add my 2 cents on the objective. Employers will want to see want you want to do / how you will add to their objective. Instead of 'obtain a position' decide what you want to actually do. Contribute to such & such a department? Develop something? Contribute to ??? by utilizing your education and experience?

Also, at the bottom you typed embeded instead of embedded.

Engineering Technician: Delete "Perform tasks required by engineers to" and start the sentence with Evaluate.

Certified Lab Technician: You changed tense and should keep it consistent.

May also want to separate 'skills' and software you know into two lists.

You already have 'affiliations'. Would be good to add the Boys and Girls Club here as it shows you are involved in charity.

Paula

 

[DA Aquamaster]

With a large company the first screening criteria for incoming resumes is usually for things like grammar and spelling errors. The US-FL-Tampa thing is probably the kiss of death as are some of the overly contracted sentences. I'd also suggest using dates like "May 2005" rather than "5/2005".

In my first year of aeronautical engineering, papers were failed for more than two grammatical or spelling errors as the belief was that poor communication skills killed - which is quite sadly true. Many engineering firms still put a great deal of value in clear communication and communication skills in general. Any engineer can crunch the numbers, but far fewer can write a clear and illuminating technical paper about it.

With a short work history and limited experience, you need to focus primarily on skills and abilities and not worry so much about the details of your past employment unless it is extremely relevent. I agree with the suggestions above to ditch the salary information. Throw in any college honors, student organization involvement and anything that indicates you are a team player and are generally able to play well with others. You need to show that you have initiative, are a quick study, and are readily trainable (as you will learn a lot more in your first year on the job than you ever did in 4 years of college) but don't leave the impression you plan to run the place in a few months.

You also have some chronological problems with over lap in your prior and present employment. More alarmingly it looks like you took a step backward from engineering technician to optical lab tech - and for less money to boot. Any one reviewing your resume is going to wonder why and assume the worst. Companies look for progression in employment, not regression, especially in younger or entry level employees. Unfortunately, your resume is your only opportunity to present your case. In your case however, the job info on your resume creates the impression you went from full time, to part time, to out the door at Honeywell in Sarasota and during that period supplemented your income with another less relavent and career related job at Luxottica in Tampa (regardless of whether you supervised 1 or 2 employees).

My suggestion is to either dump the present job at Luxottica or list both jobs in a non chronological manner with years and months of experience in each position rather than dates. It hides the overlap and will be more likely to avoid questions in the reviewers mind that will otherwise cost you an interview. Once you get as far as an interview you can explain that you were, for example, downsized but were the last one they let go due to your value to the company, hard work ethic, etc, or that you had to regrettebly quit the job with Honeywell to take care of your dying monther/wife/brother/sister in Tampa, etc. - things no one reviewing your resume will be likely to assume the way it is listed now. Even if you did get canned by Honeywell, it is a lot less obvious. And again once you get an interview, you have the opportunity to put a much better spin on events.

In any case, the purpose of a resume is soley to get you interviews. You then use the interview to provide any extra details, so don't go overboard.

For old fashioned personally delivered or snail mailed resumes use a nice grade of off white or beige resume paper but nothing too fancy or loud. Bright colors get lots of attention...standing out like they often do in the trash can.

 

[PavoDive]

My two psi:
some companies consider the cover letter even more important than the resume, so give it proper attention also. I agree on deleting wages and on clearly stating what you would contribute to their company. HHRR managers no longer look for employees but for associates (well, probably not when it comes to salary, right?).

I found this link to be of help.

Good luck!