sp. RUSUME WRITING TIPS Professor Pete Avitabile Department … · Resume Writing Tips Education Information in Resume It might be better to state: Graduated with 3.0 with a broad

1 Dr. Peter AvitabileModal Analysis & Controls LaboratoryResume Writing Tips

RUSUME WRITING TIPSRUSUME WRITING TIPS

Professor Pete AvitabileProfessor Pete Avitabile

Department of Mechanical EngineeringDepartment of Mechanical Engineering

University of Massachusetts LowellUniversity of Massachusetts Lowell

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First Thoughts

• 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 !!!

What is the purpose of the resume:


Consider how a position becomes available

• 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

Engineering supervisor or manager who :


Consider how your resume gets to someone

• 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 thehiring manager or supervisor for review

Human Resource People are involved :


Consider who is going to review your resume

• is VERY BUSY• needs to get a qualified individual hired• must fill the position quickly• doesn’t have enough time to spend on this

Engineering supervisor or manager who :


Consider your resume and someone else’s resume

• The general mechanical engineering curriculumfrom 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

Mechanical Engineering Degrees :

What would make a reviewer pick one resume overanother for two mechanical engineering studentswho appear to have the same overall capabilities ?


Your resume must speak VOLUMES in few words

• Educational background / experience• Application experience using commerciallyavailable industry software

• Related work experience• Other experience that shows responsibility andinitiative in your personal life

Critical Contents in Your Resume :

Use your space E F F E C T I V E L Y


Placement Companies have commented

• Head-hunters have commented that many wellqualified people have not gotten jobs mainlybecause their resume didn’t jump up and say

• You may not be able to say all that is needed onthe standard one sheet resume

Your Resume needs to SELL YOURSELF :

HEY - I’M THE GUY FOR THAT JOB !!!


The Resume

• Identity• Objectives• Education• Work Experience• Other Related Items

The main parts should be :

These will be discussed on the following pages


Critical Personal Information

• Name• Address• Phone number• Email address

Standard information about you :

This should be at the top of the resume


Objectives

• What is your career plan• Short term and long term goals

You need to identify your objective :

Your objective should reflect what YOU think youwant to do with your career BUT also becognizant of the company objectives.

This is a very important statement which shouldactually change depending on where your resumeis being sent


Education Information

• Identify general courses taken but emphasize thepractical hands-on application projects

• Identify use of commercially available software• Identify projects that require team work• Identify report writing and presentation skills

Highlight critical achievements :


Education Information

• Receive a special award or recognition ?• Maintained a high ME grade point average ?

• Worked on a special detailed project or veryinvolved project as part of a course?

Now this is an area where you need to sell your capabilities and experience



Work Related Information

• If you have SIGNIFICANT work experience thenit should be clearly identified

• Work as a Lab Assistant or TA or RA is usefulto identify especially if you had responsibility forvarious aspects of operations

• Mention your responsibility as TA or RA - notthat you washed test tubes and cleaned the lab




Other Related Information

• Worked to support yourself through school is avery impressive accomplishment

• Leadership roles in clubs or organizations areimportant to note

• Participation in ASME, Tau Beta Pi, athletics areimportant to note


Other Related Information

• Boyscout or Eagle Scout• Working at Market Basket or Jiffy Lube is notas impressive as Lawn Maintainence over thesummer where you had to capitalize equipmentand function as a small business

• Note any work that required you to organizeefforts of others or required you to functionindependently



Education Information in Resume

You might state:Graduated with 3.0 with Mechanical Engineeringclasses in Statics, Dynamics, Strength ofMaterials, Thermo, Fluids, Heat Transfer, ...

blah, blah, blah …..

So what makes you any different than any otherMechanical Engineering student from any otheruniversity ? Why pick you for an interview ?


Education Information in Resume

It might be better to state:Graduated with 3.0 with a broad assortment ofcore Mechanical Engineering classes. Detailedproject related work for courses required design,analysis and testing to confirm analytical models;worked using commercially available software andtested laboratory prototypes; projects requiredteam work along with interim reports and finaldesign reports which were presented at thecompletion of the project. W O W ! ! ! ! !


Education Information - PROJECT WORK

• Many courses require significant project relatedwork as part of your education

• Your resume needs to identify this• Otherwise the reviewer has no idea as to thedetail and depth involved in your coursework

Highlight critical project work :

Highlight your accomplishments to clearly showyour capabilities and your achievements


COMPUTER SKILLS AND SOFTWARE

• Many courses require use of commerciallyavailable software - identify which ones

• CAD software, Analysis software, etcmany of these packages are used in industry andknowledge of these can definitely help

• Identify typical office related software usedsuch as WORD, Power Point, Excel, etc

Highlight software packages you are familiar with:


POSSIBLE PROJECT WORK DESCRIPTIONS

Mechanical Design (22.321) – This mechanical design course required that thestudents not only learn the basic theoretical concepts of mechanism design but alsorequired the students to design, build and test a working linkage to a set of designspecifications as part of the course. The students worked in teams and had weeklyreports that must be prepared documenting the design, analysis and progress of theirlinkage design in addition to normal homework, tests and other courserequirements. The linkage design for each group consisted of a unique design sincethe design parameters are associated with the student’s social security number. Aspart of the development of the design, the teams used classical design approachessupplemented with computer tools such as MATLAB, MATHCAD, WorkingModeland CAD software such AutoCAD, ProEngineer and SolidWorks. Once a designwas specified, the team issued design drawings and manufactured the parts,assembled the linkage configuration and ran performance tests to determine thesuitability of the design to meet the design requirements. Following completion ofthe design, a final report was issued documenting all phases of the project.(http://m-5.eng.uml.edu/22.321).


Mechanical Laboratory I & II (22.302 & 22.403) – This two semester MechanicalLaboratory requires that the students become familiar with a variety of differentmeasuring equipment including both analog and digital data acquisition techniqueswith both time and frequency domain processing of data. In the first course, thestudents are exposed to various fundamental concepts. Weekly laboratory reportsare written as the semester progresses with one final report at the end of the firstsemester. In the second follow on semester, the students continue with morecomplicated laboratories. The last five weeks of the second semester, the studentsare required to design a measurement system with vaguely defined parameters.Instrumentation selection, acquisition requirements, processing of data and thefinal presentation of the results are required. (In one case, a measurement systemneeded to be defined to measure response of a dynamic system using different typesof measurement devices that are not colocated at the same measurement point onthe structure. Correlation of displacement, velocity and acceleration measurementsfrom different devices to each other using a combination of time and frequencydomain processing was required. Students use a variety of different software toolsincluding data acquisition software, MATLAB, SIMULINK and spread sheet toolsto design and evaluate the measurement system.)




Dynamic Systems (22.451) – The Dynamic Systems course, in addition to typical classwork, involved a laboratory project in which measured data was compared toMATLAB and SIMULINK models that the students had to develop to characterize asimple dynamic system. A variety of classical approaches as well as computersimulations are used to evaluate a mechanical dynamic system. Measurements areacquired to validate the analytical models developed. A report is written to documentthe results of both the analytical and experimental studies.

Finite Element Analysis (22.512) – The Finite Element Analysis course, usescommercially available software (such as ALGOR, ANSYS, FEMAP, HyperMesh,ABAQUS, NASTRAN and others) to solve typical structural analysis problems. Thestudents develop models of a particular problem using several different analysispackages to obtain essentially the same solution. A variety of different problems arestudied as part of this course.


Layout of the Resume

The resume should be well organized and utilizethe “white space” on the page effectivelyEarly in your career, your education is theprimary focus of attention of your resumeAs time goes on, your work experience tends tobe the primary focus of the resume


Layout of the Resume - One I Like

Left column identifies places of employment andyears of service and educational informationRight column identifies experience andresponsibilities for each locationFor 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


Layout of the Resume - Education EmphasizedCh

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Relevant Skills

Education

Courses

Objective

Identity

Responsibilities

Experience


Layout of the Resume - Experience EmphasizedCh

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Responsibilities

Position

Company

University

Courses

Objective

Identity

Documents

sp. RUSUME WRITING TIPS Professor Pete Avitabile Department … · Resume Writing Tips Education Information in Resume It might be better to state: Graduated with 3.0 with a broad