Resume filler info?
Bits
Posts: 414
As an engineer and or tech what are some good courses / certs that I should obtain? Any ideas?
[h=1][/h]
[h=1][/h]
Comments
I am not sure what the status of it is now. I passed the State of California's exam on the first try with a specialty in computer programming. The computer programming was extremely easy at that time. The other stuff was rather demanding - Strength of Material, Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics, and much more.
It used to be considered acceptable in lieu of 4 years of bachelor's studies, but most employers are more comfortable if you went to a university as well unless you have substantial work experience (like in the military).
Though I have taken and passed it, I never got a PE in anything and my bachelor's is in Fine Art. It is an excellent review and points out a lot of useful knowledge. It was useful in my working in construction with civil engineers and such.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentals_of_Engineering_exam
Depending on your area of work, some certifications may carry some immediate benefit in the workplace. For instance, having some CAD training is worthwhile, particularly if its the same system your company uses. Similarly, having special training on a particular operational system or machine may make you more valuable to the firm.
But, unless you're an "alphabet hunter" and just like the idea of a stream of letters after your name, get training in the areas that interest you and provide long term value, to you and the company.
What I see lacking in newer grad engineers is a noticeable lack of ability in the area of reporting and report writing. This is necessary in every aspect of work from describing what went wrong in an experiment to writing a proposal for an expensive project development initiative to justifying a raise. The "soft-skill" of technical writing will serve you your whole career.
Similarly, having some basic business skills ( understanding profit, loss, pricing ) are invaluable no matter where you go.
Finally, one of the best things I ever did was take a short course in Ethics. In that many dilemmas you will face will seem to have no clear cut "right" answers, formal ethics training will give you the tools to make some of the toughest decisions you'll ever make; both on the job and in your personal life.
Cheers,
From working in medical imaging, the weakest areas I saw in EE and ET grads was limited analog and signal processing understanding. Don't think that will change. Far harder path than digital systems and CS. (For the record I have an AS in networking technology pieced together over 25 years, was an instructor for the military and medical imaging OEM for 16 of them) And yes, one of the other posters here has nailed the communications deficiencies; how many times have some of you had to struggle through someones project plan or test plan or failure analysis and wondered if they passed elementary level (primary language here)? Does little for ones credibility either before the boss or worse a client paying premium compensation to hand over a barely middle school work product.
Remember, "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king". Look for demand, pick what you enjoy, but above all else, be the best choice. Your plan will help/drive your choices.
In some cases, concurrent work as a student or even things done for free (including that word 'apprentice'). Do some things that really interest you, even without university credit.
Straight out of university with a degree in Fine Arts (gave up on becoming an architect), I successfully interviewed at a nuclear power plant builder because I had taken a community college course (not related to my university and NO credit) in Take-off Estimating. It seems they had never had anyone interview that had ever taken a course in it.
I also took some business school courses - Accounting, Business Law, and Economics. And studied for real estate licenses in California and Oregon.
So a year later I was working on a breeder reactor project in Cost and Scheduling. It also helped that I worked for free on a project with the Farm Housing Administration that had agricultural worker building their own homes to qualify for low income mortgages. I'd learned a lot of practical skills about home building.
I didn't take the EIT exam until I was about 35 and it took six months to prepare.
First, any filler in a resume is not good, but I do think that wasn't what you meant.
Generally resumes should be limited to two pages if at all possible, but there are those 'important people' that can get away with presenting a resume of 10 or 20 pages just because they have done it all. Providing a listing of employment and an additional listing of all the projects might be more acceptable. I've done that as I have a rather long list of construction projects that include quite a few well-known buildings, but on the resume a lot of it comes under 'self-employed General Contractor' or one of several employers. It is equally important to demonstrate that you stay with an employer long enough for them to benefit. People with a different job every year are considered unstable.
People get hundreds of resumes and a long one might just get quickly moved into the 'no' pile as too long to read.
And more importantly, the days of one resume for applying to many jobs is long gone.
Each resume should be designed to address that particular opportunity if at all possible. It should read in a way that grabs the reader from the beginning and carries him or her further into it. If you have education and credentials to sell, they go at the top; if you have lots of experience, that should go at the top.
But the beginning should be an a heading "Objective;" and it should basically state, "I want to work for you and am ready to do so." Often, I have mentioned the specific job title I am applying for in the objective.
My primary reference for resume writing is a tiny text called "Damn Good Resume Guide"
http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Good-Resume-Guide-Writing/dp/0898156726
Furthermore, many readers never get to the resume as they dislike the cover letter. You have a great opportunity to introduce yourself, your knowledge of your prospective employer, and your motivation in your cover letter -- don't waste it. And you can mention your two page resume with an attached ten page project list.
I know there are online services that want to keep a stock resume on hand, and there is a need to have a ready resume for 'just in case' opportunities. I do these as well. The 'just in case' resume is usually my latest template for the next one I'll write.
In other words, if you have tons of experience, next to nobody wants to hear you start with your newspaper route in your job history. Use the space wisely (it is a valued management skill). When I was trying to get away from a particular career path, I just provided less detail about my experience in that area. Including it will just drag you back into that kind of work.
I want to take what Frank is saying one step further for he is right on the money. Tailor your resume to the exact position you are applying for by using the exact same language used in the job description. A lot of companies these days use auto-filters as a first pass to filter down the resumes by looking for the exact requirements of the position being filled. The same is true if someone is just scanning through the resumes to get the top contenders. Many times these people are not technical people. Their job is to fill many different positions through out the company so they are looking for exact requirements (wording!). So as Frank said, make sure you tailor your resume to the content of the position you are applying for.
Jim...
As has been pointed out, your "focused" resume and cover letter must be tailored for the individual jobs you are applying for or the audience you are trying to address. Also noted is that the first reviewer might be a key-word searching computer. It is looking for words like "decision-making", "successful", "profitable", "supervised", "problem-solving", "opportunity" and so on.
Rather than listing 20 projects you've worked on, tell the audience the key things you accomplished or the things you learned that will make you the best person for the job at hand.
While getting 20 projects under your belt is a great accomplishment, if 15 of them are the same type of projects that the other 100 applicants have also successfully done, what makes you distinct? Concentrate on the 5 projects where you had to make tough choices or even endured failure. Your ability as an engineer is more to do with your general problem solving ability than just getting projects racked up.
If you need someone to have a look at your resume, just PM me.
Cheers,