Critique My Resume

Q: I am a recent graduate and looking for a job. I know Resumes make the most impact in finding a job, So I have attached my resume for you to view and to give me feed back and any improvements I could make so suggestions on anything I should add on ,,, thinks like that... Your Opinions and views are greatly appreciated.. Thank you. My Resume. The Alignment is little off 2050 Bridletowne Circle #612 Scarborough, Ontario M1W-2V5 (416) 491-1410 email: ssrik...@mail.lakeheadu.ca OBJECTIVE: To provide creative, high quality solutions for challenging Electrical Engineering projects. EDUCATION: Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical Lakehead University, Thunder bay, Ontario Current GPA: 3.06/4.00 Graduation May 2003 Relevant Courses Include: Electronic Devices and Circuits, Analog Integrated Circuits, VLSI, Advanced Controls Systems, Robotics, Digital Communications, Power System Analysis, Computer Circuit design, Instrumentation. EXPERIENCE: Degree Thesis Project, Sept, 2002 - April, 2003 Lakehead University, Thunder bay, Ont. ? Lead a team of three in implementing a power line modem. Task included research in the field, design and simulations, implementation and troubleshooting. Submitted progress report every month. Overall time spent was 900hrs. Final result was a working model of a bi-directional power line modem. Grade earned was a A. Course Projects and Lab work. Lakehead University, Thunder bay, Ont. ? Design and simulations of QPSK modem was implemented on Electronic Work Bench. ? Design, implementation and simulations of a 1 MHz square wave amplifier. ? Design of feed back control systems implemented practicing PID, LQR, Observablety, Lapanov etc. ? Practical lab includes 1125 hours of hands on experience. Teachers Assistant (Math Dept.) Sept-1999 to April 2000 Lakehead University, Thunder bay, Ont. ? Assisted in grading assignments and test papers. ? Tutored first year calculus and Circuit theory and design. ACTIVITIES/ ? Student membership in IEEE, 1999-2003 AWARDS: ? Treasure of Lakehead University Tamil Student Association ? Waterloo math contest (Pascal) winner, placed in the top 20 in all of Canada, 1993-1994. COMPUTER Operating Systems: MS-DOS, Windows95/98/2000/XP, Unix. EXPERIENCE: Programming Languages: Basic knowledge in Programming languages include Assembly Language, C, C++, Fortran, and VHDL. Software Applications: Many hours of experience in OrCAD Pspice, MatLab (simulaink) , MathCAD, and Electronic Workbench. Other software's Include most of MS-office applications (Word, Excel, Access, FrontPage), Macromedia, Adobe Photoshop. REFERENCE: Available Upon Request.

A: For 15 years I was what those slippery personnel folk like to call a "hiring manager", while in actuality I was a principal engineer and middle-level manager. As a consequence, I was one of the technical guys at Raytheon charged with screening incoming resumes for possible interest, so I'll give it to you from my perspective. First, place yourself in the place of the technical manager who must sceen between 250 and 500 incoming resumes each week, plus take care of his full-time engineering responsibilities. Here is the way that it work from that perspective when screening applications from new college graduates: Since recent graduates have limited practical experience on which to base the content of their resume, you closely read what is posted on the first page. The first four things most reviewers look at is: the (1) the name and reputation of the college or university; (2) The applicants major; (3) The applicant's GPA; (4) Finally, his statement of objective/goals. If you aren't graduating from a university well known for theh accomplishments of its graduates in a particular field, or have a relatively low GPA, then it's entirely up to your statement of your goals and objectives to help you survive the first cut, because the balance of the resume will not be read at this time. If you make this first cut, the balance of your resume will be read at a later time, but unless you really put your foot in your mouth it won't generally affect your chances of being invited in for an in-person interview. (This is simply because the level of experience students gain as an undergraduate is relatively unimportant to employers who, at this juncture are more interested in your potential than your past (other than academic) accomplishments. On reading your resume, regretfully you wouldn't make the first cut at Raytheon or many other large US firms, but by improving your resume content you could. You have a respectful GPA, however it doesn't compare with the many 3.8 with whom you will shortly find yourself in competition for jobs. Also, in all honesty, your university is virtually unknown to many firms, hence they won't know how to interpret or scale your 3.1 GPA vis-a-vis those from better known universities like Cal Tech, MIT, McGill, etc. Cutting to the brass tacks... You need to re-write your statment of objective completely, eliminating most of the arm-waving/motherhood statments contained in your current resume and replacing them with a clear-cut, pro-actove statement of what you will being to your employer in the way of raw qualifications, plus what you see as the professional goals that you could achieve though this employment. For example: OBJECTIVE: To contribute to the solution of complex and challenging control system design problems through the application of my education and potential to enthusiastically pursue viable and cost effective solutions, at the same time advance my engineering knowledge through a working association with professionals more experienced than myself. Here is another: OBJECTIVE: To apply and enhance my education in and knowledge of circuit simulation through the energetic application of effort to achieve the solution to practical simulation/emulation challenges, plus gain practical working experience through my association with others in the field. Hopefully, these examples will give you the general idea. Beyond that, I shudder a little at your listing thesis project under the category of experience. I would personally prefer to see these included under your heading of EDUCATION, but that's more of a style issue subject to personal judgement. Still, I do feel that you should include a list of the major courses you have completed in undergraduate school. For the type of position you are seeking employers will likely want to confirm that you have had the full complement of EE math courses as well as sujbects like DC and AC circuit analysis. The balance of the resume really doesn't make too much of a difference.

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