Resume Writing info for Technical Students
* The point of your resume is to intrigue your reader. Most glance quickly at your resume,
giving it only 30-60 seconds, so efficiency is extremely important. Be
as brief as possible, while still communicating your RELEVANT
accomplishments. Eliminate personal pronouns (I, my) since you are
always the subject of your resume.
* Your resume should be uniquely
yours. What have you done that is different from your
competition, your fellow students. Make sure you choose to highlight
qualifications that set you apart.
* Focus on recent accomplishments.
For undergrads, this means what you have done in college (if you are at
least a sophomore... freshmen can continue to include high school).
For grad students, try to include more info from grad school than undergrad.
* Keep the most important info at
the top & left of your resume. The key is to engage your
reader, and keep them reading. What will THEY think is most important.
This means items like dates of employment typically go on the right, while
company names & job titles stay on the left, etc.
* When describing your projects or work experience, focus on what YOU did on the project,
rather than the functions of the project itself. (i.e., what did you
program the software to do?). Start your description of the project
with action verbs, and incorporate the technical skills/knowledge into this
description.
*The GPA issue .
Engineering employers want to see this, so be ready to talk about it if you
have less than a 3.0. They think you're trying to hide something if
you leave it off. Notable exceptions are for international
students, and first semester NC State students.
International:This group may want to eliminate their
undergrad listing of this because it's not likely to be on a 4.0 GPA scale.
Aggregate percentages may not translate well to American readers & are
best left for listing on company applications, when asked. They're
much more concerned with your graduate GPA, so once you get your first
semester GPA, please add it to your resume.
First semester NC State students: Since this group, grad or undergrad
DOES NOT have an NC State GPA yet, and should leave this off until they do.