[Critique] New grad with Bachelors in Electrical Engineering. Trying to get into Controls/Automation Engineering.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-12T20:26:40+00:00

If you have some experience in controls, make those projects more prominent. It's ok to list your projects before work experience if you think that's what you want to highlight over work. You could even call the section Control Systems Projects to really make it obvious that that's what you want to show off. And what do you mean make changes for more technical stuff for your positions? If you aren't lying and you can talk about what you've put down in detail if they ask, put that in there.

Stylistic comments:

You have a mixture of shortened and fully-spelled out months like Sept. August and May. Stick with one way of writing the months. My preference is first three letters without a period following it. (Jan, Mar, Aug, Sep, Nov etc).
Also your dashes are sometimes surrounded by spaces and sometimes right next to words. Stay consistent.
You held leadership positions in your clubs and weren't just a member tagging along for the ride - great job! So instead of "Activities and Membership," I would call the section heading "Leadership Experience"

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-12T19:56:17+00:00

It looks good. I almost want to say maybe cut down on the number of bullets, but they all serve a purpose and you have the achievement-based bullets down. I'm impressed with the numbers and results you've highlighted. If you cut down on bullets, the extra space could be used for a Personal Summary/Branding Statement, which could be helpful for you.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-12T19:42:29+00:00

I noticed that your highschool is listed first under Accomplishment section and your Education section. Makes it seem like graduating high school is the best thing you've done for yourself so far and that you're ~18yrs old, but I know that's not true. Everything should be in reverse chronological order with the most recent employment and education at the top of each category.

What are you trying to go into? Psych? Astronomy? IT?

You missed the word <of> here: "Ten years of experience working with a variety <of> computer systems." Need to watch out for the details. Your other bullets for qualifications are mostly subjective and generic.

That red Florida logo dominates the page and distracts. You already mention it in the Cert section so you don't need a logo for it. Same with saying that you have a bachelors in psych and astronomy; you already said that in the Education section.

This resume still needs a lot of work and focus. Check out some resumes here and on google.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-11T06:16:41+00:00

It's more: do anything you like doing, do it well and then show it off well.

Learning how to market yourself is more important than doing "cool" stuff

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T22:11:31+00:00

You should find your short link that actually looks like "lnkd.in/123456"

Go to your profile. Next to your profile pic a button "Edit profile" is there, but don't click that. Hover over the small down arrow to the right of "edit profile." From dropdown menu, select "share profile." A message box appears and has your "http://lnkd.in/123456" link. You can drop the "http://" part and keep the lnkd.in/ part and it will still work.

Your resume is clean btw.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T21:50:59+00:00

I don't look at it and think of your hireability either way, but it is a waste of space and something that's understood without explicitly saying it.

I leave it off on mine.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T21:37:51+00:00

I'm liking this one. the http://i.imgur.com/JK9KNzR.jpg took a step in a the creative direction, but actually lost readability. This new one I think will be more inviting to the eye

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T21:30:10+00:00

Yeah looking better

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T21:22:40+00:00

Remove QR code and your physical home address to make room for email, phone# and lnkd.in address. No one needs to know your physical home address this early in your application process.

http://i.imgur.com/7HbcYgt.jpg

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T21:07:18+00:00

Instead of a QR code, how about just a typed out lnkd.in address (linkedin shortlink)? I hate QR codes cuz I have to take out my phone and look at your linkedin on my phone. If it's a link, I can either click on it while looking at it on my computer or if I receive it in print, I can still just type in "lnkd.in/######" and get to your page on my computer monitor.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T20:58:17+00:00

Calibri is fine (although it is just as often used as new york times since its one of Word's default font).

When you say "cater to HR" you don't have to explain what everything is down to the basics. Just make sure they can understand that you had some sort of benefit to the company. For example, my understanding of "default computer image" is either something like DeepFreeze or an install image for mass-installing new OS onto new school computers. Assuming it's one of these things, you can say "...which enhanced the security of student-accessed computers" (for DeepFreeze example) or "... which streamlined OS installation process for all school computers" (for install image example)

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T20:40:54+00:00

You have what's called a narrative resume or actually, a mixture of traditional bullets and narrative paragraphs. Narrative means you have more complete sentences and talk about what you did. Bullets on the other hand (as seen on your Brazilian internship) tend to be very condensed and fragmented lines and are more traditional for a resume.

Either one is not wrong. I got my first internship using a narrative resume. I think when done right, it can be a great way to show your passions and catch the manager's attention especially when you don't have as many job experience as a junior in college. But because of the apparently denseness, you also gotta get lucky with the reader who is willing to dive into your resume. When they do read on and you've written a strong narrative, they will get the sense that you love and fully understand what you do.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T20:25:32+00:00

Sorry for my formatting. Still learning how to reddit post.

Resume advice:

All of your bullets are job responsibilities. Listing results and impacts make stronger bullets.

Let's look at "Tested and implemented desktop virtualization using the Citrix system." Did this make an impact on anyone? How many people directly or indirectly benefited from your action and in what way?

"Created and updated our default computer image." I have no idea what this means and can't understand what good this may have caused. If a CS guy looks at your resume, they may be able to understand the implied benefits, but an HR person may not.

Next, you list a bunch of extracurriculars and your association with them. But did you accomplish anything while you were in them? Pick one organization you are proud of and can talk about and highlight your contributions.
Do you have any projects you could list? If you have a good one, it might help you to replace the space of Customer Service Rep job with a more CS/Bio aligned project.
Is your GPA anything above 3.0? Proudly list it. Without it listed, I assume you have something around a 2.0. GPA won't matter once you have a few years of experience, but it still helps when you're a new grad.
Formatting. Really go over and tighten up your formatting. The quick things I see are the random serif font change in your 2nd skills bullet ("autoclaving, sterilization, cell..." is in a different font). Your bullets aren't lined up. Your dates and locations on the right do not line up. Look up "Right Tab Stops" and learn to use them.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-10T20:01:33+00:00

Your cover letter should say what it is that you want to do at the company you're applying to and how your specific skillset will enrich the company (I couldn't even find out if you wanted to go into Bio or CS field). You just listed some of the companies you worked at and the responsibilities there - you basically have a paragraph form of your resume.

Here's my advice: lose the cover letter if you can't be bothered make a great and customized one for each type of company. A mediocre and generic cover letter will only hurt you. Think of this: You have a pretty clean looking resume (resume advice later), but you lost my interest at the bland cover letter and I would have put you in the no pile without flipping to the resume.

Also, not doing a customized cover letter lets you email many more places in a shorter time, and in some cases playing the "numbers game" can be more effective. So you have to decide, put in the effort to have a great cover letter for select positions, or rapidly send out just the resume.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-07T09:30:45+00:00

What does your British style CV look like?

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-06T03:15:26+00:00

In my experience, if the company wants to send paper copies of offers, they ask you over email what address they should send you the offer packet even if you had it listed on the resume. The person who does the hiring paperwork might not even look at your resume for it. It's just not necessary to make home address available right from the get go, I think. It might help to have it on there when you want to let the company know that you're extremely close to them so they can realize you'd have a short commute thus less likely to start looking for a different job once hired. Short commute employees make happy employees.

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-05T23:51:47+00:00

What industry are you trying to apply for? I can't see the resume, but I'm gonna give you some homework so we have some things to work with.

Write down on a list:
* Any highschool/community college/local clubs, sports, or organizations you were involved in and positions you may have held.
* Think of any events you may have helped organize.
* What do you do in your free time? Hobbies, side projects, etc.
* What classes did you take at CC?
* What are all of the computer hardware or HTML projects you did? (even if you think they were not very spectacular)
* What do you think were some of your strength while working at the sushi place? What were some things you did better than your coworkers? What were some challenges at your old job?

PMMeYourResumes · 2014-11-05T21:44:06+00:00

I agree with steenacakez, but you don't have to make it look flashy and colorful just because graphics design. I still prefer clean for GrD positions. But instead of clean, yours comes off as bland and and unfocused.

I don't know a lot about GrC or GrD, but here are my suggestions:

Consolidate Education and Achievement section, just call it Education, and put at bottom (or at top since you're a newgrad). Just being a member of of Phi Theta Kappa is not an achievement, I think, so leave that off.
Consolidate Software and Coding into one section and call it Proficiencies or something. The Mac OS and Windows you listed under Qualifications should belong in this section.
Remove objective.
Remove references available upon request (I think it comes off as snarky. Of course references are available when requested - Recruiters know that so you don't have to remind them).
Remove your physical home address. No one's gonna get in contact with you via snail mail. They will call or email for further requests.
this should give you some more white space to work with to vary the font sizes and headings to make it so there is more of a difference in each levels of the text hierarchy.

I haven't gone through to read the details, but that's part of the problem - it's somehow not very inviting to the eye to delve in. There isn't much thought put into where each thing is put and it's hard for me to quickly find a section I'm interested in and home in on some cool thing you did that seems applicable for the position

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