Steve Bailey
Lifetime Supporting Member + Moderator
Ashwin writes;
hi steve
My name is Ashwin. I am graduate student at the Univ of MO. I have been following your posts on this site now and then. I was wondering if you could do me a favor. I am looking for jobs currently in the field of automation. Would it be possible for you to go through my resume and give me some suggesstions as to what to have on it. My email id is [email protected] or you may reply through this site.
Sorry to bother you. I just felt you maybe a good person to ask about this one.
Ashwin.
PM responses are limited to 2K characters, so I had to limit my response. However, there are plenty of students who probably have similar questions, so I figured it was worth posting and soliciting additional suggestions, particularly from people who have been in Ashwin's shoes more recently than I.
My response:
I think you should start at the Placement Service at your college (or whatever it is they call themselves these days).
The folks there are more in tune with what the human resources people are looking for in resumes. Like it or not, the HR people are the gatekeepers to an interview. Your resume has to convince them that it's worthwhile to invite you for an interview. I'm not from that world, so I don't know what appeals to them.
Once you score the interview, you get to talk with the people for whom you'll be working. They will have seen your resume prior to meeting you at the interview, so the resume needs to demonstrate enough technical competence (or potential) to convince them that you're capable of making a contribution. Nobody at that level is going to expect you to come in on Monday and be ready to run the department by Friday. They are going to be looking for evidence that the courses you took and the projects you worked on are relevant to the type of work you'll be doing for them.
There are some classic basics that apply to all entry-level applicants.
Your resume should be 100% free of typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors. If your resume is sloppy, the person reading it will come to the conclusion that you too are sloppy.
If you get invited to an interview, do some research before the day of the interview. Know something about what the company does, its history, its reputation in the community.
Arrive on time for the interview. If you're not sure how long it will take to get there, practice by driving the route (at the correct time of day) in advance. If that's not possible, make a worst-case assumption, even if it gets you there a half hour early.
Dress appropriately. If the office dress code is casual and you show up wearing a tie, you can lose the tie. If the office dress code is more formal and you show up in jeans and a T shirt, what can you do to recover?
hi steve
My name is Ashwin. I am graduate student at the Univ of MO. I have been following your posts on this site now and then. I was wondering if you could do me a favor. I am looking for jobs currently in the field of automation. Would it be possible for you to go through my resume and give me some suggesstions as to what to have on it. My email id is [email protected] or you may reply through this site.
Sorry to bother you. I just felt you maybe a good person to ask about this one.
Ashwin.
PM responses are limited to 2K characters, so I had to limit my response. However, there are plenty of students who probably have similar questions, so I figured it was worth posting and soliciting additional suggestions, particularly from people who have been in Ashwin's shoes more recently than I.
My response:
I think you should start at the Placement Service at your college (or whatever it is they call themselves these days).
The folks there are more in tune with what the human resources people are looking for in resumes. Like it or not, the HR people are the gatekeepers to an interview. Your resume has to convince them that it's worthwhile to invite you for an interview. I'm not from that world, so I don't know what appeals to them.
Once you score the interview, you get to talk with the people for whom you'll be working. They will have seen your resume prior to meeting you at the interview, so the resume needs to demonstrate enough technical competence (or potential) to convince them that you're capable of making a contribution. Nobody at that level is going to expect you to come in on Monday and be ready to run the department by Friday. They are going to be looking for evidence that the courses you took and the projects you worked on are relevant to the type of work you'll be doing for them.
There are some classic basics that apply to all entry-level applicants.
Your resume should be 100% free of typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors. If your resume is sloppy, the person reading it will come to the conclusion that you too are sloppy.
If you get invited to an interview, do some research before the day of the interview. Know something about what the company does, its history, its reputation in the community.
Arrive on time for the interview. If you're not sure how long it will take to get there, practice by driving the route (at the correct time of day) in advance. If that's not possible, make a worst-case assumption, even if it gets you there a half hour early.
Dress appropriately. If the office dress code is casual and you show up wearing a tie, you can lose the tie. If the office dress code is more formal and you show up in jeans and a T shirt, what can you do to recover?
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