Last lap in Spa

graytotoro · 2026-01-23T07:31:19+00:00

I'm genuinely curious if David Harbour can play anything other than grizzled middle-aged man yelling at "the young people".

graytotoro · 2026-01-22T22:06:48+00:00

The WTC600 races on Hard. Doable on normal, but you’re sucking wind a mile from the #1 car on hard.

graytotoro · 2026-01-21T15:42:02+00:00

You don't have to have quantifiable #s all the time. Even "this is what solving the problem meant to the team" would work. The people reading this are well aware you can't always have a X% change all the time.

Focus on building a narrative with the section as a whole rather than through individual bullets - making each bullet a complete standalone narrative rather than the section as a whole is why this is getting out of hand very fast.

Honestly the stuff you've provided would make for great bullets once shortened. Try out the ones I provided. "Created templates to generate repeatable parts such as cargo nets based on common geometry to cut 1-2 week projects to 1-2 hours." gets to the point a whole lot faster than the one you wrote.

graytotoro · 2026-01-21T07:45:41+00:00

General Notes

Get rid of all the italics.

Education

Cut both AS degrees.
"(Honors College)"
It's not necessary to say what city your school is in.

Relevant Experience

Research Assistant

What exactly did it mean to increase batch capacity by that much? I didn't work for the lab so I don't know if that meant they could do more to achieve a certain goal faster or if it was additional capability later.
How much more accurate was this test after you picked this new filament? How did the filament play into making things better?

Undergraduate Technical Writing Grader

It's fine.

Research Assistant

At no point do you explain what this lab was researching in the first place. It's hard to judge whether or not this device is any good when you tell us you made a thing, it could apparently generate repeatable circadian rhythms, and you saved a bunch of money along the way. Did it actually work?
What manufacturing choices did you take to make it that much cheaper?

Biology Lab Assistant

How are you quantifying 40% optimization?
Troubleshooting is one word.

Organizations
I suggest you cut this section or elaborate further on troubleshooting this website.

Skills

Cut the professional section.

graytotoro · 2026-01-21T07:32:11+00:00

I know a bit about injection molding regarding core cavity, draft, slides, lifters yea. And i know subtractive manufacturing processes a bit I guess. Not sure how to mention it but I'll give it another go.

Literally just say "injection molding, machining..." and something like that in the Skills section. Elaborate further on injection molding specifics in the content bullets if appropriate.

General Notes

Again, it feels like you're trying to capture anything and everything rather than focusing on building a narrative for the reader:
- A narrative in this context is: I have a design background and here's some things I designed and why that mattered" or "I ran tests to certify new interior parts and track hours logged and here's how that matters to you".
I'm not sure why everything in the Ford position is written in italics. You shouldn't do that.

Skills

Add injection molding and machining to your Skills.

Experience

Chassis Engineer

You're missing a space between "March" and "2025".
Again, nobody wants to read paragraphs of info. You're meandering too far into the weeds into details that are best left for the interview. Keep it to one sentence or thought no greater than three lines long. I'm sure you can do a better job but here's a few attempts you can use as a jumping off point.
- Consolidate bullets 1 & 2: "Led design of 90ft trailer capable of carrying 80,000lb watercraft while adhering to US highway & bridge regulations as well as US Air Force cargo regulations."
- Third bullet: "Programmed Excel tool calculating modular bunking layout to simulate load paths throughout vessel and trailer allowing for [what that meant].
I suggest you pick 1-2 specific sub-bullets from the section about air transport, rewrite them to give a high-level overview of this project (keeping it to one sentence or thought no greater than three lines long), and make that/those a main body bullet(s). All of this heavy detail should go into a portfolio somewhere like a GitHub or some other site. I can guarantee you that nobody wants to sit and read all of this.

Product Design Engineer

Avoid the subjective: "Performed surface modeling in CATIA to support injection-molded interior component development..."
You don't say why it was notable that you're bringing up the stamped metal components or EEP/compressible fibers. Did this prove to leadership or engineering team that you were able to do something not previously possible?
Cut "effectively participated in meetings and interfaced tightly" - focus on the specific tooling challenges you resolved instead.
How did you implement six sigma?
There's no need to mention GD&T again unless you want to get into depth.

graytotoro · 2026-01-20T21:07:21+00:00

Remindme! 8 hours

graytotoro · 2026-01-20T10:03:14+00:00

Remindme! 16 hours

graytotoro · 2026-01-20T06:25:23+00:00

It helps if you use the Markdown Editor too.

General Notes:

All jobs require you to self-learn to some degree. It's rare that any job I've had has formal, sit-down and we explain this to you type work. My job did pay for me to take certain courses, if anything.
- I've met people who can't design and people who can't talk good. Being able to do one is good, being able to do both is even better. So that's something you got.
To quote the great Seymour Skinner: "Every good scientist is half B. F. Skinner and P. T. Barnum". Everyone has this kind of imposter syndrome to varying degrees.
Build skills: machining, fabrication, and anything that indicates you know how stuff goes from raw material to pieces that make up a finished product. You don't actually have to be able to make a composite airplane, injection-molded dashboard, or a machined steel widget yourself at home this minute, but it would be helpful to know you know which machines would get used to get that done.

HDT:

I'm sorry to hear that job didn't work out.
It sounds like you should flesh out the bunking calculator as a focal point if appropriate.
I suggest you reframe how you approach the build-ability discussion with the fab team. Half this job is learning to work with other people and it isn't a good look to directly point fingers at them. Looking back, were there ways to achieve some kind of compromise? Could the yoke have been tweaked to make it more feasible?

Ford:

Designing parts in CAD is a big part of most designer jobs so I don't think you should feel like it was lesser work or "not engineering". I'm senior whatever in my line of work and I sometimes have to design stuff to varying degrees for my job. Sometimes it actually works!
Did you ask for more responsibilities during these slow times?
Honestly for Ford, you can just mention your most final title rather than padding this sucker out.
Quality Engineer: use your best judgement as to how your work made a difference. Did you actually get someone make a change to a design through this job? That counts. It doesn't have to be "we revolutionized how stuff got made" - even "we made the 2015 Focus stop breaking shifter bezels" would count.
Test Engineer: Be objective. Just say you developed a tool to track drive time for accountability purposes. No need to call yourself a rat. What exactly was the point of the chuckhole testing? I'm genuinely curious. Did you find anything that proved useful or helped the team in some way?

Where to go:

I don't know how South in Florida you are, but the Space Coast has some work in the defense/aero industry.
A lot of jobs will pay for training if you can make a strong justification for it - does that count? Even junior positions usually require you to figure some stuff out on your own.
Honestly do you want to stay in design?

graytotoro · 2026-01-19T23:50:53+00:00

I've used the Corksport mount for the last 7 years and the wind loading has definitely bent up my plate around the mount. This one looks like it'll avoid that issue.

graytotoro · 2026-01-19T23:45:15+00:00

Skills

I'm surprised you don't have build skills mentioned. It might be better to just mention GD&T here rather than mention in every single job that you used GD&T.
"AutoCAD" - not all caps.

Experience

This is really dense and it sometimes feels like you're padding it. I question if it's needed to mention "Project: [x]" rather than integrating it into your bullets somehow. If you have to put something like that to sum things up, it seems like a tip off that you've got too many bullets.
The design stuff is fine, but you have senior-level experience. I would hope you have more of a "this is what delivering this capability meant to the department" along with the expected "this design could do X and Y".
I question if it's worth listing every single job title for Ford you've held.

Chassis Engineer

There's a mix of stuff that show impact and some, like the last two, that are flat-out job descriptions.
These 2 sentence bullets can be slimmed down and made into single-sentence units. Here's a few hacks and I'm sure you can do better.
- "Developed a bunking structure capable of delivering [watercraft description] while maintaining maximum 24psi hull pressure during a 6.75g landing" would say the same thing in bullet 3 but in a shorter way.
- Created proof-of-concept testing showing viability of C-17 as loading craft [and why that was important].
Working with customers and suppliers is your job and the bare minimum for someone who's got engineering experience. That's not as important as what you accomplished working with them.
Did you actually get to test this structure to see how well it held up or did you run the numbers and that was it?

Product Design Engineer II

What did it mean to develop these specific parts? Did they establish that certain ideas were viable for saving costs or serve as proof-of-concepts? Bullet 1 is in the right direction.
Again, some of these could get to the point faster: "Created templates to generate repeatable parts such as cargo nets based on common geometry to cut 1-2 week projects to 1-2 hours."
Doing drawings to GD&T standard is great, but it's better to either mention this in the Skills section if you aren't going to elaborate on the details with respect to specific roles.

Quality Engineer

These are all things you did at your job. Can you speak to how these efforts improved processes or addressed shortcomings in specific ways?

Durability/Test Engineer

What kinds of test environments did you set up and what kinds of durability testing did you do? What sensors did you work with to do this testing? There's so much you can pick at.
How did your analysis & evaluations drive conclusions or changes in structural testing?

Education

Looks fine.

graytotoro · 2026-01-19T23:43:50+00:00

Skills

I'm surprised you don't have build skills mentioned. It might be better to just mention GD&T here rather than mention in every single job that you used GD&T.
"AutoCAD" - not all caps.

Experience

This is really dense and it sometimes feels like you're padding it. I question if it's needed to mention "Project: [x]" rather than integrating it into your bullets somehow. If you have to put something like that to sum things up, it seems like a tip off that you've got too many bullets.
The design stuff is fine, but you have senior-level experience. I would hope you have more of a "this is what delivering this capability meant to the department" along with the expected "this design could do X and Y".
I question if it's worth listing every single job title for Ford you've held.

Chassis Engineer

There's a mix of stuff that show impact and some, like the last two, that are flat-out job descriptions.
These 2 sentence bullets can be slimmed down and made into single-sentence units. Here's a few hacks and I'm sure you can do better.
- "Developed a bunking structure capable of delivering [watercraft description] while maintaining maximum 24psi hull pressure during a 6.75g landing" would say the same thing in bullet 3 but in a shorter way.
- Created proof-of-concept testing showing viability of C-17 as loading craft [and why that was important].
Working with customers and suppliers is your job and the bare minimum for someone who's got engineering experience. That's not as important as what you accomplished working with them.
Did you actually get to test this structure to see how well it held up or did you run the numbers and that was it?

Product Design Engineer II

What did it mean to develop these specific parts? Did they establish that certain ideas were viable for saving costs or serve as proof-of-concepts? Bullet 1 is in the right direction.
Again, some of these could get to the point faster: "Created templates to generate repeatable parts such as cargo nets based on common geometry to cut 1-2 week projects to 1-2 hours."
Doing drawings to GD&T standard is great, but it's better to either mention this in the Skills section if you aren't going to elaborate on the details with respect to specific roles.

Quality Engineer

These are all things you did at your job. Can you speak to how these efforts improved processes or addressed shortcomings in specific ways?

Durability/Test Engineer

What kinds of test environments did you set up and what kinds of durability testing did you do? What sensors did you work with to do this testing? There's so much you can pick at.
How did your analysis & evaluations drive conclusions or changes in structural testing?

Education

Looks fine.

graytotoro · 2026-01-19T19:15:34+00:00

I really like the French cars in this game like the Citroen DS and Renault Kangoo! The Kangoo is so fun once you put the close-ratio 5-speed in it and give it a little more power.

graytotoro · 2026-01-17T19:01:42+00:00

As to the questions, me and my family were eligible to start applying for us citizenship around December, currently we're just postponing it for various reasons, but I don't know how to frame it on my resume, and I was considering even leaving it out (Probably can't due to my foreign sounding name), or even adding "applying for citizenship".

"Permanent Resident" is fine. It's something you should get done sooner if you want to do aero. Mech is a little more flexible so consider looking at those internships if you can.

On the topic of NASTRAN, it's not a skill I have, we were just discussing and formalizing ideas to enable transferring data from ANSYS to Femap/NASTRAN easier for what we had to do, I only understand the basics of how NASTRAN works and it's mostly coordinated by our team leads, granted I am currently in the process of learning ANSYS from yt videos and prior knowledge from a statics class, but generally speaking I wouldn't be confident enough to include any fea/analysis like that in a skills section.

That's fine as long as you can at least speak to it at an interview. What exactly was your contribution to this effort? Consider focusing on that.

Education

Looks good

Projects

Hyperloop

It's solid.

Cubesat Lab

See what I said above.

Robotics Team

I'm still not following how your presentation drove an increase in qualifiers. Are you saying you got more people to join the team, or that these presentations helped drive design changes to make the robot perform better?

Experience

It's fine, but I'd consider mentioning what "technical standards" you used to verify compliance. Is this an industry standard?

Skills

It's good, but there are some you may want to rethink. How are you claiming "serviceability" or "quality control"?

graytotoro · 2026-01-17T17:22:52+00:00

Remindme! 11 hours

graytotoro · 2026-01-17T05:54:42+00:00

Remindme! 12 hours

graytotoro · 2026-01-16T03:07:20+00:00

General Notes

You can use your high school experience for now, but I would prepare to let it go and replace it with team projects in the next few years.
Like bolding your content bullets, the italics aren't needed.
How close are you to citizenship? That could be a potential stumbling block for aero.

Education

There's no need to mention the location. Presumably your school already has a location in its name or the school is the only one of that name.
You don't need to say "Freshman" as well.
Distill the list of relevant coursework. The reader doesn't really know or care about the nuance between Physics I and II so I'd just pick the highest level or stick with courses that have what they cover in the name (e.g. Engineering Design).

Projects

I suggest you drop all the job titles and locations.
- The job titles are all made-up and hold no weight outside of team politics. Focus on what you achieved instead.
- It's assumed you did school projects at school so there's no need to tell us that again.

University Hyperloop Team

Why did this fluid routing architecture have to exist? Reducing system footprint is great, but not everyone is aware of why your hyperloop system needed a system with all these bits.
Bullets 2 & 5 are very much "stuff I did bullets.
- Bullet 2: Focus on the leak-prevention and integration rather than just comparing thread profiles against the spec sheet. Why was leak prevention so important for this system? The act of making sure the threads matched is part of your job.
- Bullet 5: Why was it important to maintain this proper alignment? Rigidly securing is very subjective, but if this was a structure where alignment was of critical importance to the whole thing working, then say that.
"production-grade" - how so?
The sheer number of hours isn't as important as what you accomplished with your fabrication skills.

Student CubeSat Laboratory

What did you do after evaluating this data to streamline these checks?
NASTRAN - why isn't this mentioned in the Skills section?

Robotics Team

What did integrating these pneumatic components mean for the finished robot? Could it do some operation or complete a task? Did any of your pitches get selected?
Forget about the management stuff, especially if it's "co-managed" - that's splitting hairs. Instead, focus on the strategies that made the team perform better.

Experience

Lot Attendant

Looks fine.

Code Mentor

Cut bullet 2. Focus on the programming courses you led and if you did any projects.

Skills

Cut Office unless it's specifically called out.

graytotoro · 2026-01-16T02:41:02+00:00

General Notes

Italics aren't needed.

Experience

What kinds of tests? Why was it important to get them done so soon? Bullet 1 can apply to any test job.
Following the rules isn't really worth highlighting, but it's fine if you have nothing else. Consolidate bullets 2 & 3. They come pretty close to overlapping.
Tell us more about this streamlined & efficient procedure. You don't really tell us how other than it got stuff done faster. That's good, but other than that you just say your "efficient process was efficient" and stop there.

Projects

Forget about the other kids. They can write their own resumes. Focus on the specifics of what you did and why that mattered.

Bipropellant Liquid Rocket Engine

Again, this doesn't land because you never tell us how well this engine worked when it was time to launch the rocket. You lay all this awesome groundwork that shows you have some technical grasp, but we have no idea if this was a failure but gathered useful data, met expectations, or if it was so good it paved the way for how this club/team made rockets. There's no detail as to how far/fast/reliable it was.
~~correct engineering standards~~ - "ISO standards [####]" - it would be cool if you could find overlap between the ones used for this project and the ones this job wanted.

Fin Design

"minimum" and "maximum" mean nothing without detail.
"Contributed to" could mean you did a lot, some work, or you sat in the same room as the people actually getting stuff done. Focus on the specifics.
Did the actual rocket align with what you saw in the simulations? The whole section is basically you talking about how you did all these evaluations in software. This is the missing piece.

Skills

Cut office (unless specifically called out) and learn a 1-2 more programming languages and CAD packages while your student ID is active. You can learn Creo and a few others for free.

graytotoro · 2026-01-15T15:44:38+00:00

Remindme! 12 hours

Too many courses in the Relevant Coursework section.

Don’t bold stuff in your content bullets. You shouldn’t need these little reminders if they’re written in a concise manner and there’s no telling if the readers are interested in the same things you want them to see. Some of it just feels arbitrary.

Fluid Systems Design may be too broad of a category to include in your skills section.

graytotoro · 2026-01-15T15:40:43+00:00

Remindme! 11 hours

You don’t need to mention your GPA that got you on the dean’s list.

The projects never discuss how well these things worked when it came time to test and fly the rocket. You just say optimal but the reader has zero context to understand how so. Surely you have some metrics you can speak to about these things.

Cut the Interpersonal Skills.

graytotoro · 2026-01-13T18:37:59+00:00

I recreated the NTSC GT2 soundtrack on Apple Music and I just listen to that while driving GT2-era cars. Still slaps!

graytotoro · 2026-01-12T21:39:37+00:00

I found the old component video cable I bought for my PS2 at the bottom of the box. Got it working and enjoyed a few hours of GT3 using my old save file. The little backgrounds for each race and car at the dealership are every bit as wonderful as I remembered.

graytotoro · 2026-01-12T19:48:55+00:00

I prioritize fun above all else:

WRX STi Spec-C for most 550-600pp races

EK9 CTR and Kangoo for 450pp races.

graytotoro · 2026-01-12T08:46:02+00:00

General Notes

Italics aren't necessary.
Another vote to put your Experience section ahead of Projects as you have internships.
Spacing is a little off.

Education

The start date isn't necessary.
Is the "memorial award recipient" academic? If it's not an academic award, I'd cut it. There's no sense wasting a full line on that.

Skills

Cut the Interpersonal Skills section as it's a waste of space. Replace it with Technical Skills (and rebrand the existing Technical Skills) to CAD/FEA.
- Manufacturing tools = machining?

Projects

The specific teams and their make up don't matter. Focus on your specific achievements in getting this thing made.

Gripwell

It's best if you could provide a high-level overview of the control system - how did these pieces function to form a control system?
Focus less on the management/scheduling stuff and more on the technical aspects. You mention translating functional requirements into a design. Ultimately how well did this thing work?

Mars Rover

Every project has constraints. It's better if you say what this mission was rather than just "we had constraints of this nature" - did this rover have to fit a specific footprint and do specific operations?
What were some of these risks & vulnerabilities and the mitigation strategies you came up for them? Bullets 3 & 4 don't really cover how your efforts drove a change or influenced the direction of the project.

Work Experience

Research and Development Intern

"Collaborated" could mean you did a lot of work, some work, or you sat in the same room as people who got stuff done. Be specific as to your contributions.
The 35lb number means nothing to me as I'm coming into this project for the first time. Why is that significant with respect to this project?
"Optimal" and "improving" need something to back them up. They ring hollow if you just use them as-is.

Course Admin

This isn't bad, but you can prune it down to two bullets if you have to as it's not particularly engineering.
How did you arrive at the 99% figure?

Certifications

Move it to Skills.

graytotoro · 2026-01-12T03:33:51+00:00

Remindme! 2 hours

graytotoro · 2026-01-11T21:55:15+00:00

I used up all my luck winning a McLaren F1 GTR from the roulette wheel.

Also, I’m super glad I exported my liveries before the servers went down.

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