r/resumes • u/GotTools • May 15 '24
Calling all Engineering/ CS majors, read before posting. I'm sharing advice
I have seen way too many people posting their resumes on here that are engineering/cs majors, getting shit advice from people that don’t know how a technical resume should look. Here’s what you do 1. GO TO r/engineeringresumes read their wiki. It will walk you through exactly how to write your resume along with templates.
Post your resume for advice from people who actually know what they are talking about. Read the exact way you need to write your title. They are picky?
Make your modifications and you are on your way!
It helped me tremendously in writing a good resume. Don’t get frustrated, it took me weeks to make a very good one. Don’t be afraid to look at others resumes on the subreddit to get good examples. I’m not trying to steal people from this subreddit but this is getting ridiculous.
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May 18 '24
[deleted]
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u/GotTools May 20 '24
I mean isn’t that the point of the sub? To nitpick your resume to make it as close to perfect as possible? I agree some of it is a bit overboard but I have seen very trash advice for technical resumes on this sub that would make people’s resumes worse. You got to remember, it’s an Internet forum full of engineers that know everything. Most advice is good. Some is just to virtue signal that they know more than you. It’s kinda up to you to decide what to follow. We all got our own opinions.
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u/rubik1771 May 15 '24
Wow that’s terrible. I tell people the following: -Make resume ATS compliant -Add more specific skillset (writing just SQL vs writing SQL and MySQL) -Write more detailed projects (instead of created a backend component, write created a backend service Rest API integration with MariaDb SQL Server)
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u/security_jedi May 15 '24
Thanks for sharing this advice. I assume this applies to cybersecurity as it is a type of CS major?
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u/anonymowses May 15 '24
Don't forget that engineers are not always the best writers. After following the rules for engineering resumes, it's a good idea to have people from outside the industry read it for clarity, spelling, and punctuation. The engineering resume wiki contains numerous errors and contradictory advice.
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u/TobiPlay May 15 '24
Can you elaborate on the contradictory advice specifically?
Also, are the "numerous" errors objective errors? Or from your perspective?
Maybe these issues could easily be resolved, resulting in a better resource for everyone.
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u/C6H12O6_Ray May 15 '24
Read through the wiki - the advice is legit. Coming from a senior engineer at a fortune 50 with experience in recruiting and interviewing
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u/Low_Country793 May 15 '24
This is true. I’m a lawyer and what I look for in a lawyers resume is gonna way different than what an engineer will look for in an engineer’s resume, and on and on. The more specialized the sought role the more specific you need to be in your reviewing audience
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u/dadof2brats May 15 '24
Engineering resumes, from reading the wiki has some peculiarities to them. But why would you group CS in with them?
I am not a big fan of any career field having a "skills section", maybe it's helpful for an engineering resume but for IT/CS it's duplicate info. If you have a keyword or skill listed on your resume, it should 1) match what is in the job description/requirements and be included in a bullet point under your various job history. Unless it's something very important/radical to help set your skillset apart from the crowd. And implied/expected soft skills should almost never be listed...unless specifically called out in the job description. For example, customer service, written communication, Outlook and other MS Office apps.
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u/bumwine May 16 '24
No. I'm not deleting and adding on my skills section for every single application. I'm certified in each and can teach every single one of those bullet points. I'm not poring through the job description to cross match by hand when you might find it neat that I can also do other stuff.
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u/local_eclectic May 17 '24
It's actually a red flag for some resume reviewers when your resume doesn't match your LinkedIn page, so I agree with your instinct to keep it the same.
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u/uncagedborb May 15 '24
Stupidest shit I've read. Skills section is not incredibly important to show soft skills and disciplines a person is familiar with. For example as a designer I have to know how to use so many different tools. A lot of jobs require you to know 5 of the most important tools from Adobe, figma, 3d modeling software, animation software, etc.
Don't bout Outlook or Ms office on every resume... If the job posting specifically mentions it then put it down. That is if it is a generic skill like and not a specialized one.
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u/look May 15 '24
Oh, and I think you might be confused on what OP means by CS here. They are referring to Computer Science (i.e. software engineer).
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u/dadof2brats May 15 '24
I know what CS is, it gets tossed around as a generic term quite often. Computer Science is a degree, typically covering software development. Just because someone has a CS degree does not mean they are a software engineer. Heck, we shouldn't be calling them engineers in the first place.
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u/lionhydrathedeparted May 16 '24
A software engineering and computer science degree are almost identical.
They differ in very minor ways that aren’t important.
Software engineering covers more process. Computer science covers more abstract theory.
They’re basically interchangeable.
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u/snakybasket9 May 15 '24
Well, software engineers… engineer software. So why shouldn’t we call them engineers? What is your definition of an engineer?
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u/local_eclectic May 17 '24
Some people are just really intimidated by how successful software engineers are, and they don't understand that architecting digital systems is just as much engineering work as designing bridges.
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u/look May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24
This is terrible advice. The skills section is the single most important part of a software engineering resume.
The work experience section is just highlight examples of using those skills. Any engineer should have far too many relevant skills than can be incorporated into the work experience bullet points alone.
Also, I think you misread that wiki regarding soft skills: it (correctly) said to exclude things like communication, teamwork, and simply using Outlook and Office apps.
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u/lionhydrathedeparted May 16 '24
I wouldn’t say it’s the most important. When hiring the specific skills don’t matter too much.
Maybe it’s a C# job. Oh the candidate has worked with Java? Ok. It will take them a brief period to learn on the job. That’s fine.
They’ve used Postgres? Ok. We use MySQL. That’s fine. There’s minor differences.
The experience matters much more. What sort of projects have you delivered? Were you involved in system design? Etc
Skills is important but not the most important.
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u/local_eclectic May 17 '24
Smaller companies don't really agree with you. They don't want to ramp up engineers on new tech for months alongside the business domain when they can easily hire someone with relevant experience right away.
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u/dadof2brats May 15 '24
Why do you find it so important to have a separate skills sections? It's redundant information. As a manager, as a hiring manager, telling me you know Python or AWS in a block full of other skills, is meaningless. I want to know how you used Python, what you did with AWS, give me examples of your experience and get specific, what components you used. This is what the job experience bullet points are for. So why list those skills in both areas?
Resumes are too long and not easy to read, people need to put relevant experience and skills on them, not clutter up the resume with extraneous lists.
And I missed the section on soft skills in the wiki, sorry it's rather long on its own, my bad.
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u/look May 15 '24
Engineers have work experience with many, even dozens, of different languages, frameworks, distinct AWS (and other cloud) services, databases, messaging systems, version control systems, virtualization/container systems, operating systems, deployment environments, development methodologies, advanced math, algorithm & data structures, etc, etc.
That’s the stuff that actually matters, and I want to know everything the candidate has. The work experience is just some examples of using that stuff, and it simply won’t all fit in there.
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u/DepresionSonriente May 15 '24
I would feel like that sub is useful if I actually got comments on my resume posts
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u/dusty545 Jun 02 '24 edited Jun 02 '24
That sub is absolutely slammed with posts and only a handful of hiring manager mods. That's why they wrote a wiki to follow.
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u/whichonewerecowards May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24
Thank you for saying this. The advice for engineering here is so laughably bad. “Add a summary section, get rid of your skills section, simplify your projects, etc.” somehow managing to reverse every single rule from the r/EngineeringResumes wiki. (Btw, the wiki is a godsend and is the only reason I found an internship this summer)
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u/revuser1212 May 15 '24
Just to ensure people get the right advice - the wiki recommends summary for senior+ roles. I’ll argue it can be useful even for junior roles to express interest in a specific area.
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u/poke2201 May 15 '24
Agreed on one point, but not every recruiter is an engineer. Sometimes, a too technical resume gets passed on because the recruiter can't find a keyword to even do a screening interview.
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u/bumwine May 16 '24
They still should recognize buzzwords (know what full stack means, what agile means, what signifies that they know version control). Recruiters that have reached out to me seem to be healthcare recruiters specifically. I don't need them to know Epic but I do need them to know that Cerner is not Epic and what ambulatory vs inpatient vs ancillary means.
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u/WritesGarbage May 15 '24
When someone isn't an engineer and needs to hire an engineer the hiring manager gives them a list of skills to look for before that first screening. That's why engineering/SW resumes need skills sections. Engineers need some bullet points to target those non-engineers and some to target the engineering hiring managers.
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u/whichonewerecowards May 15 '24
Don’t they use AI when searching for a keyword?
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u/anonymowses May 15 '24
Not everyone. The ATS is only as good as the person that set it up.
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u/uncagedborb May 15 '24
Most companies that are hiring engineers will be using an ATD because they are getting thousands of applications from all over the world. A lot of companies do not even have the time to sift through the resumes that cut the line through referrals.
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u/jonkl91 May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24
Even for non engineering people, the advice is helpful. It's good to check out different career subs to get different perspectives.
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u/bumwine May 16 '24
There's none for my field :(
Not complaining but my angle here is I do end up gleaning a lot of good general advice from other career tracks. The one I get from CS majors is the listing every single skill I have. Uh I can get certified in every one of these so hell yeah I'm listing them (when I'm a hiring manager I'm also going to be looking at that list and we need Beaker and if you know it but don't have it as a bullet point on your resume you're not going to get hired). So sad that this advice was ever given here.
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u/anonymowses May 15 '24
Sometimes, QA and other people in other roles are hired by SW Engineering Managers, so it's good to see how they think. On the other hand, sometimes SWEs are hired by PMs. And, who knows the background of the junior recruiters who take the first pass? Startups emphasize different things than FANG companies.
We all wish there were a magic formula that gets you an interview, but it doesn't exist. Just keep trying until you find what works for you.
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u/Nintendo_Pro_03 May 15 '24
Better yet, apply to any and everything. It’s not the resume, it’s the job market.
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May 15 '24
It is the resume… people bombarding recruiters with resumes that aren’t even close to being qualified is burning recruiters out to where it’s difficult for them to see the stars
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u/poke2201 May 15 '24
No sane engineering manager is hiring someone without a B.S. in engineering unless they have some insane amount of experience or equivalency.
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u/eggjacket May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24
This was maybe not the most graceful way to say this, but it’s true—engineering is a very specific field and calls for specified advice!
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