sp. RUSUME WRITING TIPS Professor Pete Avitabile Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Massachusetts Lowell

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1 sp. RUSUME WRITING TIPS Professor Pete Avitabile Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Massachusetts Lowell 1 Dr. Peter Avitabile

2 First Thoughts What is the purpose of the resume: Identify who you are Identify your objectives Identify what your capabilities are Identify your educational experiences Identify your work-related experiences Identify other pertinent experiences DO THIS IN AS FEW WORDS AS POSSIBLE!!! 2 Dr. Peter Avitabile

3 Consider how a position becomes available Engineering supervisor or manager who : is VERY BUSY needs to fill a vacant position because has an expansion slot in his department OR is replacing someone who just left the company 3 Dr. Peter Avitabile

4 Consider how your resume gets to someone Human Resource People are involved : a generic request to fill a position is received a newspaper advertisement is written the ad has buzz words concerning the position a ton of resumes are received in HR HR scans the resumes for buzz words a stack of resumes are forwarded to the hiring manager or supervisor for review 4 Dr. Peter Avitabile

5 Consider who is going to review your resume Engineering supervisor or manager who : is VERY BUSY needs to get a qualified individual hired must fill the position quickly doesn t have enough time to spend on this 5 Dr. Peter Avitabile

6 Consider your resume and someone else s resume Mechanical Engineering Degrees : The general mechanical engineering curriculum from one school to another is very similar ME students take the same assortment of solids, thermo-fluids, and math related courses The grade point average is just a number What would make a reviewer pick one resume over another for two mechanical engineering students who appear to have the same overall capabilities? 6 Dr. Peter Avitabile

7 Your resume must speak VOLUMES in few words Critical Contents in Your Resume : Educational background / experience Application experience using commercially available industry software Related work experience Other experience that shows responsibility and initiative in your personal life Use your space E F F E C T I V E L Y 7 Dr. Peter Avitabile

8 Placement Companies have commented Your Resume needs to SELL YOURSELF : Head-hunters have commented that many well qualified people have not gotten jobs mainly because their resume didn t jump up and say HEY - I M THE GUY FOR THAT JOB!!! You may not be able to say all that is needed on the standard one sheet resume 8 Dr. Peter Avitabile

9 The Resume The main parts should be : Identity Objectives Education Work Experience Other Related Items These will be discussed on the following pages 9 Dr. Peter Avitabile

10 Critical Personal Information Standard information about you : Name Address Phone number address This should be at the top of the resume 10 Dr. Peter Avitabile

11 Objectives You need to identify your objective : What is your career plan Short term and long term goals Your objective should reflect what YOU think you want to do with your career BUT also be cognizant of the company objectives. This is a very important statement which should actually change depending on where your resume is being sent 11 Dr. Peter Avitabile

12 Education Information Highlight critical achievements : Identify general courses taken but emphasize the practical hands-on application projects Identify use of commercially available software Identify projects that require team work Identify report writing and presentation skills 12 Dr. Peter Avitabile

13 Education Information Highlight critical achievements : Receive a special award or recognition? Maintained a high ME grade point average? Worked on a special detailed project or very involved project as part of a course? Now this is an area where you need to sell your capabilities and experience 13 Dr. Peter Avitabile

14 Work Related Information Highlight critical achievements : If you have SIGNIFICANT work experience then it should be clearly identified Work as a Lab Assistant or TA or RA is useful to identify especially if you had responsibility for various aspects of operations Mention your responsibility as TA or RA - not that you washed test tubes and cleaned the lab 14 Dr. Peter Avitabile

15 Other Related Information Highlight critical achievements : Worked to support yourself through school is a very impressive accomplishment Leadership roles in clubs or organizations are important to note Participation in ASME, Tau Beta Pi, athletics are important to note 15 Dr. Peter Avitabile

16 Other Related Information Highlight critical achievements : Boyscout or Eagle Scout Working at Market Basket or Jiffy Lube is not as impressive as Lawn Maintainence over the summer where you had to capitalize equipment and function as a small business Note any work that required you to organize efforts of others or required you to function independently 16 Dr. Peter Avitabile

17 Education Information in Resume You might state: Graduated with 3.0 with Mechanical Engineering classes in Statics, Dynamics, Strength of Materials, Thermo, Fluids, Heat Transfer,... blah, blah, blah.. So what makes you any different than any other Mechanical Engineering student from any other university? Why pick you for an interview? 17 Dr. Peter Avitabile

18 Education Information in Resume It might be better to state: Graduated with 3.0 with a broad assortment of core Mechanical Engineering classes. Detailed project related work for courses required design, analysis and testing to confirm analytical models; worked using commercially available software and tested laboratory prototypes; projects required team work along with interim reports and final design reports which were presented at the completion of the project. W O W!!!!! 18 Dr. Peter Avitabile

19 Education Information - PROJECT WORK Highlight critical project work : Many courses require significant project related work as part of your education Your resume needs to identify this Otherwise the reviewer has no idea as to the detail and depth involved in your coursework Highlight your accomplishments to clearly show your capabilities and your achievements 19 Dr. Peter Avitabile

20 COMPUTER SKILLS AND SOFTWARE Highlight software packages you are familiar with: Many courses require use of commercially available software - identify which ones CAD software, Analysis software, etc many of these packages are used in industry and knowledge of these can definitely help Identify typical office related software used such as WORD, Power Point, Excel, etc 20 Dr. Peter Avitabile

21 POSSIBLE PROJECT WORK DESCRIPTIONS Mechanical Design (22.321) This mechanical design course required that the students not only learn the basic theoretical concepts of mechanism design but also required the students to design, build and test a working linkage to a set of design specifications as part of the course. The students worked in teams and had weekly reports that must be prepared documenting the design, analysis and progress of their linkage design in addition to normal homework, tests and other course requirements. The linkage design for each group consisted of a unique design since the design parameters are associated with the student s social security number. As part of the development of the design, the teams used classical design approaches supplemented with computer tools such as MATLAB, MATHCAD, WorkingModel and CAD software such AutoCAD, ProEngineer and SolidWorks. Once a design was specified, the team issued design drawings and manufactured the parts, assembled the linkage configuration and ran performance tests to determine the suitability of the design to meet the design requirements. Following completion of the design, a final report was issued documenting all phases of the project. ( 21 Dr. Peter Avitabile

22 POSSIBLE PROJECT WORK DESCRIPTIONS Mechanical Laboratory I & II ( & ) This two semester Mechanical Laboratory requires that the students become familiar with a variety of different measuring equipment including both analog and digital data acquisition techniques with both time and frequency domain processing of data. In the first course, the students are exposed to various fundamental concepts. Weekly laboratory reports are written as the semester progresses with one final report at the end of the first semester. In the second follow on semester, the students continue with more complicated laboratories. The last five weeks of the second semester, the students are required to design a measurement system with vaguely defined parameters. Instrumentation selection, acquisition requirements, processing of data and the final presentation of the results are required. (In one case, a measurement system needed to be defined to measure response of a dynamic system using different types of measurement devices that are not colocated at the same measurement point on the structure. Correlation of displacement, velocity and acceleration measurements from different devices to each other using a combination of time and frequency domain processing was required. Students use a variety of different software tools including data acquisition software, MATLAB, SIMULINK and spread sheet tools to design and evaluate the measurement system.) 22 Dr. Peter Avitabile

23 POSSIBLE PROJECT WORK DESCRIPTIONS Dynamic Systems (22.451) The Dynamic Systems course, in addition to typical class work, involved a laboratory project in which measured data was compared to MATLAB and SIMULINK models that the students had to develop to characterize a simple dynamic system. A variety of classical approaches as well as computer simulations are used to evaluate a mechanical dynamic system. Measurements are acquired to validate the analytical models developed. A report is written to document the results of both the analytical and experimental studies. Finite Element Analysis (22.512) The Finite Element Analysis course, uses commercially available software (such as ALGOR, ANSYS, FEMAP, HyperMesh, ABAQUS, NASTRAN and others) to solve typical structural analysis problems. The students develop models of a particular problem using several different analysis packages to obtain essentially the same solution. A variety of different problems are studied as part of this course. 23 Dr. Peter Avitabile

24 Layout of the Resume The resume should be well organized and utilize the white space on the page effectively Early in your career, your education is the primary focus of attention of your resume As time goes on, your work experience tends to be the primary focus of the resume 24 Dr. Peter Avitabile

25 Layout of the Resume - One I Like Left column identifies places of employment and years of service and educational information Right column identifies experience and responsibilities for each location For new graduates, - Education (graduate then undergraduate) - Work Experiences (in educational setting) - Work Experiences (in professional environment) - Work (non-professional to support yourself) - Other pertinent related items 25 Dr. Peter Avitabile

26 Layout of the Resume - Education Emphasized Identity Objective Education Chronological Order Courses Relevant Skills Experience Responsibilities 26 Dr. Peter Avitabile

27 Layout of the Resume - Experience Emphasized Identity Objective Company Chronological Order Position Responsibilities University Courses 27 Dr. Peter Avitabile