What's up guys! I just put this in a comment, and figured I'd make a post out of it, because I've been noticing a lot of posted resumes recently that aren't even close to the recommended guidelines. All in all, that's not a big deal- all the seasoned users are excited to help.
But for your own sake, if you don't want a comment that concisely says "read the wiki"- then read the wiki [Wiki] (https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/wiki/index/) make sure your resume follows the fundamental guidelines. You can of course ask questions on those guidelines- but until you understand the fundamental ideas and format your resume as such, you will be lucky if you get anything more than the aforementioned comment.
I want to help more often, but I just end up saying the same thing over and over again. The common problems are:
1. Your format sucks
a. Either there's not enough formatting that I can't find the experience/skills/education section easily at a glance,
b. Or there's too much formatting and it's a clusterfuck of blue and green bars and I still can't find the experience/skills/education section easily at a glance.
2. The bullet points suck, which is either:
a. They don't actually say what you did, or it's too broad - working in a "fast-paced team" for a "product" doesn't tell me anything about what you did
b. For people in industry: they don't say the impact of your work, just that you coded some feature in a language. Well, what did the feature do? Why did you make it? Do you understand why and what you're doing other than just fulfilling tickets?
3. There's just bad information
a) Either there's like 3 billion lines of "skills" that nobody cares to know. No, I don't need to know what IDE you used or the 100 languages you touched once.
b) The project doesn't actually highlight anything and expects you to know what your "super awesome project" does and why you made it just from the title.
All in all, people spend way too much time trying to show they can program in 10 million languages and frameworks and not nearly enough time demonstrating that they know how to work in industry, which means you:
Understand the problem(s) that you're trying to solve
Understand the decision-making behind the problems and why you're doing what you do
Can actually follow through and have an impact on the work you did
Sure this is programming as a career, but you don't code just to code - it needs to go somewhere and do something if you want to prove that you're going to succeed in a job.
Hello! I would like to hear any feedback on my resume. Be as brutally honest as you can.
Some notes/questions:
Should I have a one-page resume?
For my projects, should I have a way for people to view them like a github or a website (I haven't done that since I didn't want to pay hosting fees). I'm really sure since it's not super common in civil/structural.
I have 2 pretty good references. Should I add them to my resume or just say references available upon request?
Adding more projects: I have a few incomplete projects that I could finish, one of them in FEA that may be more impressive than the 2 I have now, but might not be able to be completed in time for hiring season. Another one's a Timoshenko beam theory calculator and one for generating STAAD load combinations, though that ones very simplistic.
My experience is kind of split between pipelines and structural design (both interested in). Is there one that I have a better chance at targeting/getting into? Since I'm in civil, and most pipeline roles I've seen are mechanical.
If you want your projects to stand out, they should be real projects, not mandatory school projects or trivial tutorial projects found online. Something that someone uses to solve a problem.
I'm currently doing B.Tech degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. I'm in 2nd Yr. The issue I'm facing while searching for projects is I find a lot of ideas but I'm unable to filter out which is actually useful or interesting and good to go with and which are just resume fillers.
For example, right now I had an idea to make a Phase Diagram Analyser that would give the phase composition and phase %age at certain temperature for alloys and all but idk if its useful to invest time after that or its just not impressive at all. Similar thoughts for another one I thought to build a device that can measure the thermal conductivity of materials but again there are already a lot of them, will it be of any use if i build one as a project?
Hi everyone. I am graduating from undergrad this spring and am polishing my resume to start applying. This sub has been very helpful, but I'm unsure of how to group non-continuous co-op terms with the same company.
Ive got a year of internship experience in 3, four month terms over the past summers. The bulk of the work was the same each summer with incremental responsibilities being added each time as I gained experience. I currently have each co-op term listed independently on my resume... is that the best approach, or should I group them all into one line item?
If it makes any difference, these internships were in my desired field, and at a company I would very much like to return to as I start my career. Thanks in advance for any input!
[Question] [Student] I have no job or intern experience whatsoever related to engineering and I only have restaurant jobs and only one project. What do I put on my resume?
[Mechanical] [0 YoE] Getting Back Into Applying to Mechanical/Aerospace Jobs Only After a Few Months. Targeting Countries Across Europe and Asia, But All Feedback is Appreciated.
I've built an open-source job board that has a substantial amount of traffic and was wondering if I should put it under the Experience section rather than the Projects section since I have used technologies that I do not get to use in my actual job, for example I used AWS services for the project whereas at work I exclusively use Azure, which fills a big gap in my resume.
Would it be good idea to list it as experience? or will I get flagged as unserious or 'cringey' and get my resume tossed in the bin?
Looking for honest feedback on my resume, I am a data scientist with 8 years of experience with ML, Deep Learning, Computer Vision and Gen AI included as can be seen in my resume. I have been trying to move to Europe (Mainly Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Sweden) but so far havn't been successful. It's been a year and havn't gotten an interview still. I have been also looking for jobs in UAE as I am situated there but rarely get a reply.
I’m a U.S. citizen and a senior mechanical engineering student at the University of Arizona, graduating with my BS in May 2027 and continuing in an accelerated MS in Materials Science and Engineering through May 2028. I’m based in Arizona but am applying nationwide and am fully willing to relocate for on-site Summer 2027 internships or Spring 2027 co-ops. I’m primarily targeting mechanical design, manufcturing, equipment engineering, and hardware roles in aerospace, robotics, semiconductor equipment, consumer electronics, automotive EV, and advanced technology companies.
My background includes equipment engineering at TSMC, materials engineering, CubeSat mechanism research, mechanical leadership on a 30 lb combat robot, and a senior capstone. I have started applying to larger aerospace and hardware companies, but I want to refine my resume before applying more broadly.
I would especially appreciate feedback on whether my bullets clearly communicate my individual technical ownership and results, whether they are too dense or jargon-heavy, whether the balnce between my internship and project experience is effective, and whether my skills section is properly focused for the roles I’m targeting.
I’m a recent MS Engineering Management graduate with a BS in Mechanical Engineering, and I’m targeting entry-level Process, Manufacturing, Packaging, Validation, and MSAT/TSMS-type roles, mainly in pharma, biotech, and medical devices.
My most recent experience was a pharmaceutical manufacturing/process engineering internship where I worked on equipment troubleshooting, serialization/vision systems, URSs, technical protocols, change controls, CAPAs, SOPs/WIs, and process improvement.
I’m currently based in Philadelphia and applying throughout the U.S. I have a preference for the east coast area, but I’m open to relocating for the right role and I’m not limiting myself to remote positions.
I finished my BS in 2023, had a period without employment before starting my master’s in 2025, completed the internship during the master’s program, and graduated in June 2026. I’m currently unemployed and actively looking for a full-time engineering role.
I’ve been getting some recruiter screens and interviews, so the resume is not getting completely ignored, but the response rate has been inconsistent and I’d like to improve how well it positions me for the roles I’m targeting.
I’m especially interested in feedback on whether my experience bullets communicate enough engineering impact.
Whether the Skills section is too broad or keyword-heavy.
Is the overall format okay for someone with several internships/co-ops but 0 years of full-time non-internship experience.
I’m also an international graduate currently working under F-1 OPT, so I would eventually require employer sponsorship(after September 2029). I know that narrows the number of companies that will consider me, and I’m trying to separate that issue from problems I may be able to fix in the resume itself.
I am am a rising 3rd year Mechanical Engineering looking to fine tune my resume (mostly concerned with top two experiences + skills section). I am looking for summer internships in Orange & LA County. I am mostly looking for roles that align with my experience (roles that I would be a top candidate for) in the fields of defense, naval engineering, medical devices, and robotics. I don't have much specialized experience (which is why my list of industries is so broad) but I have all the foundational skills (machining, CAD, simulation, programming, etc). I would like to work at a startup or at least a smaller company (<300) but I am willing to work at a larger company (1000-3000), just prefereably not a massive corporation like BMW. I would love to hear feedback on my wording, how I have my skills section setup, and what the general consensus is on having multiple different engineering resumes for each of the industries I described.
Tell us why you're seeking help
I'm a C++ engineer, currently based in Iran (subject to sanctions), looking for work while preparing to relocate to Germany (through a same-sex marriage). Furthermore, I am a transgender woman who's going through DIY HRT in Iran and am therefore legally male, in my mid-twenties.
I have a big gap in my resume, and I could argue that I went through 3 months of internet-blackout and an extremely stressful situation with my family/laws/doctors due to my transition. However, none of that could justify such a long gap...
I am seeking tips to help with:
- Landing any kind of job that would pay me at least $800/mo (most positions in my own country offer way less). Remote work / office in Tehran / relocation/visa support, anything.
- Lessening the impact of my employment gap.
- The sanctions (I don't mean anything illegal, just legal workarounds and opportunities).
- General improvements.
Also, assuming that I won't be hired anytime soon, what are my best options to advance in my career prior to immigration?
Is there a particular section on your resume you’d like feedback on?
The employment gap is my biggest concern...
Should I move my WIP project into the "Experience" section? I know the wiki said only PAID work, but it looks like I've been doing literally nothing for nearly 2 years... Note that this project will grow rapidly as I have recently started to work on it full force.
I've shown this to a few people, and they said it looks like a wall of text. I've already cut down a lot of it, should I cut down even more? Someone even said "writing docs" is pointless, should I remove that bullet point?
Also, I am currently using my new (not-yet-legal) full name, am I forced to use my legal name?
Is your citizenship status and visa situation playing a role in your job search?
Yes! I'm hoping to relocate soon. I may not be able to get hired prior to that. Currently figuring out a safe way to legally marry my partner (who's a German citizen).
PS1: Please don't worry about offending me.
PS2: Please don't turn this political, I am here purely for professional advice.
Senior CS student, graduating April 2027. Targeting Spring co-ops in platform engineering, SRE, and infrastructure, with new-grad roles in the same lane after that. Open to relocating anywhere in the US.
I've done one pass against the wiki already. I switched to Charter, bumped everything to 11pt, killed the italics and in-bullet bolding, dropped the location and LinkedIn from my header, reordered sections, and rewrote bullets toward XYZ with metrics front-loaded. Company names and school are redacted here.
Three things I'm specifically unsure about:
Skills with no bullet evidence. The wiki says skills should appear in your bullets. A few of mine don't anymore... I cut a project that was the only evidence for Terraform and AWS. Should I drop those from Skills, or find a way to work them back into a bullet?
Whether my most recent role is too dense. The top entry uses terms like idempotent CDC, watermark cursors, and nondeterminism isolation. I think it's accurate and it's the work I'm proudest of, but I can't tell if it reads as substance or as jargon to someone skimming.
I cannot express how happy I am to be making this post. It doesn't feel real. Major thank you for the mod team for helping me as well as everyone who gave me advice.
I would like to offer advice for everyone since it's a really hard time in the market and this community has changed the course of my life.
1) Yes, you need to follow the Wiki exactly. I know it sucks, and I was hesitant to copy it exactly, but it really is the best resume template that you can use. You can change your font sizes to best fit your resume (I prefer using paragraph spacing over small font text lines), but it has everything you need. Don't deviate from it. (See my bonus resume below to see how much better it looks compared to the original)
2) Make a portfolio even if you're a student and ESPECIALLY if it's been so long since you have been in the field. This one was a huge game changer for me. It has been over 4 years since I've been in school and over 2 since I had an engineering job. I felt like an absolute failure of an engineer and making my portfolio from my school projects was a major confidence boost for me. I only wished I had done it sooner. The confidence helped me so much for the interview.
3) If you are a student, especially about to graduate, SAVE EVERYTHING FROM SCHOOL AND BACK IT UP!!! I had only recently gotten my senior design project back by emailing an old professor which was one reason I procrastinated making my portfolio for so long. Had I actually backed it up instead of assuming it was saved, I could've had a portfolio sooner and maybe had gotten a job sooner.
4) People skills and communication is what I believed sold me to my interviewers. I talked about how in my current loss prevention job how I worked with my team and how I interact with shoplifters. I talked about how in my previous job over 2 years ago I worked with field technicians and how I treated them with respect. I was very purposeful that even though I am always learning new things, I value the insight of other people who are different from me. I say this because I noticed a trend in the past near 3 years of underemployment where engineers (and frankly, a lot of professionals, it's not just us) have been rude assholes. Not calling anyone out, but just remember: no one cares about what you've done, they care about how you made them feel. This shows up in your interviews.
5) I also believe my desire to learn new things sold me to the interviewers. I talked about how I made my own home server, I taught myself Python for a TTRPG application, and I took a free IT course for fun. It wasn't even skills related to the job, but they were impressed to see how passionate I was about learning new things. If you are out of a job, never stop learning, even if it is only tangentially related or not related at all to your field.
6) You can use your university's resources even if you're an alumni. I didn't need it after all, but I went to a student career fair as an alumni. If I hadn't had gotten this offer, I would've had a lot of other opportunities to go towards. It definitely boosted my confidence seeing how good I matched with the people there!
7) Use your local library. I didn't need to do this, but I found a lot of books about engineering projects using Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc. Plus, using the library to print off resumes was incredibly helpful. Just use your local library.
Thank you again to everyone and if anyone has any questions, I'm happy to answer. :) The job I got was for an Air Pollution Engineer role with my local government, and I'm so excited to get started!
--
Bonus: So I have updated this resume since submitting this job application and it's so much better. This is what it looks like now, if you all would like to reference it for your own resumes.
I’m a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering student at the University at Buffalo, expected to graduate in May 2028 with a 3.97 GPA. I’m currently working as a Product Engineering Intern at Moog, where I’ve gained experience with aerospace hardware, manufacturing, process improvement, mechanical testing, and root cause analysis. I’m targeting Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering internships in the space and defense industries for next summer. I’m located in Buffalo, NY, but I’m willing to relocate anywhere in the world for the right opportunity. I haven’t started applying for positions yet this year, so I’m looking to improve my resume before beginning my search. I’m primarily looking for general feedback and ways to strengthen the resume, particularly its ATS compatibility and how well it communicates my technical experience. I’m a U.S. citizen, so citizenship or visa sponsorship should not be a factor in my job search.
Hi everyone! I'm looking for honest feedback on my resume. I am a mid-level engineer with 5 years of experience, primarily working with C# and MSSQL / T-SQL.
I am currently targeting Mid-Level Software Engineer roles (hybrid or remote), primarily FAANG companies (my dream company is Google). I want to ensure my bullet points effectively highlight my technical and leadership impact.
please give me some honest feedback on my resume because apart from 1 phone screening I haven't been able to get any callbacks. im a US citizen applying to mainly backend/cloud roles in the US. my previous position was kind of dealing with sensor fusion stuff but id like to move away from that if I can
I’m a Mechanical Engineering student applying for mainly Summer 2027 internships. I’ve been applying to mostly defense, I’ve applied to multiple internships at the same big defense companies, RTX, NG, L3, etc. and heard nothing back so far. My resume fits the JD for all of them and I don’t care about where I relocate to.
My question is, is this a bad idea and it’s gonna get me blacklisted for applying too much? I’d like to hear if anyone has done this and had success getting offers.
I've been at my company working as an Additive Manufacturing Technician for over a year now. I've had a very special case while in my role as my supervisor has been aware of my mechanical engineering background, and I've been able to do engineering work where I was able to, such as doing tooling/fixture design, material research, process-plan creation/revision, and iterative prototyping. Which is why I was able to grow in that retrospect, along with working on personal projects during my spare time.
My company did offer potential pathways into an engineering role within the company, however the problem is that my current department is in a situation where theres a roadblock in my transition, and also the work environment isn't that great. Which is why I'm keeping my options open by applying to other companies just in case.
The roles that I'm interested in taking include Mechanical, Design, Manufacturing, or Tooling engineer, as I heavily want to go more into a design-oriented or manufacturing engineering position. So far, I've applied to around 60-70 companies, and have gotten interviews from 2 of them. One being a manufacturing engineer role in which I was lowballed for another technician position, and the other, a mechanical engineer role where I wasn't selected for the final on-site and was ghosted.
I'm trying to increase the number of responses I'm getting on my applications, so if there's anything else I'm able to add/remove on my resume to enhance it, please let me know. Be as critical as possible. Thank you!
Hi all, I'd really appreciate a review of my CV. I'm UK-based with full right to work and and I've just finished an MSc in Aerospace Engineering with a Distinction, on top of a BEng in Aerospace. I have about a year of experience as a design engineer along with hands-on UAV design, build and test work, and my main strengths are aerodynamics, CFD (ANSYS Fluent), CAD (CATIA V5 and SolidWorks) and FEA. I'm open to any suitable role in aerospace and motorsport, whether that's aero/CFD, mechanical design, simulation or analysis, and that includes graduate schemes, placements and entry-level engineering roles.
I'd value an honest critique of the whole thing, but a few specific questions: is the profile pulling its weight or should it be shorter or cut, are my project and experience bullets specific and quantified enough, does the ordering make sense (projects before experience) for someone at my stage, and is there anything that's holding it back for aero/CFD roles in particular.
I’m a software engineer with around 4–5 years of experience, currently looking to make the jump to FAANG/Big Tech or similar engineering companies.
My experience is primarily front-end/full-stack, working with React/TypeScript and C#/.NET. I’ve owned and delivered production applications end-to-end and have recently been targeting SDE1/SDE2 and mid-level SWE roles.
I’d really appreciate feedback on my resume, especially:
Does it communicate enough impact and ownership for my experience level?
Are my bullets too technical, wordy, or difficult to scan?
Does my experience position me well for mid-level/SDE2 roles?
Is there anything that could be hurting me during the initial resume screen?
Should I change the ordering, wording, or amount of detail?
Are there any bullets you would remove or rewrite?
I’m mainly targeting companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and other strong engineering-focused companies.
Please be critical — I’m trying to figure out what I should improve before my next round of applications.
I feel somewhat good about this resume so need a reality check. Please give me some constructive criticism about which lines are useless and don't say anything, and which ones say something but need more context. Being concisely detailed has always been my weakness. I like the XYZ method, but haven't been thorough with it in the interest of keeping things short. Would it be more beneficial to go into detail about fewer things or cover more ground with a more comprehensive list of activities?
I will remove the phone number as the wiki says, please ignore that part.
I have removed "a," "an," and "the" in some places to save some space and tighten things up. Is grammar important in these cases and should I add it back?
Is the Skills section bloated?
Should the short research assistant role be removed since I feel that it doesn't really add much to the resume? Would the "gap in your resume" thing be a problem?
Wiki says "don't use &," but is that true for abbreviations too? No V&V, GD&T, R&D, etc.?
My choice of role would be Structural/Thermal Analyst, or Design Engineer (though I don't like CAD on its own), or at least something technical. Industry doesn't matter that much since I'll be applying everywhere, but my preference would be in the space industry. One caveat is that I don't have much of an interest in Earth orbit. I eventually want to do a PhD so the experience I already have in finite element would be useful to build upon.
Prefered locations are mostly in EU. I have looked at Luxembourg (ESRIC, etc.) and Finland (ICEYE) so far, but would like to target all spacefaring nations. Not really applying in India because my current job is not bad and has plenty of room for growth. I want to make money fast yesterday which is why I'm even looking outside India, because of debt from the US education. I could target mechanical jobs for now because once you get your foot in, it gets easier. So perhaps the US is still on the cards. Would like some insight on this TBH.
I'm not that desperate for a job, so feel free to go into as much detail as you want about every nitpick, I want to iron things out.
Hello, I am an Electrical and Computer Engineering undergraduate student completing an Integrated Master's degree in Greece, with focus on robotics, control theory and autonomous navigation. I am posting my resume to get an honest review, due to some failed applications. I will target a more focused Master's degree or a PHD degree. For the internship positions in my country I didn't have any problem, but I had 2 failed ESA applications and possibly 1 from CERN (Still waiting for that interview). I would like some feedback on my technical experience bullet points, because I am starting to feel they look naive. Additionally, I want to know whether my current layout is acceptable, or if I should completely change it. Thank you for your time!
*I have read the wiki, my linkedin and GPA < 3.75 are on my resume based on my professor and multiple connections recommending I put them*
I'm going to be applying to Civil Engineering internships for the first time, please let me know of any thoughts, recommended additions/removals!
Questions/Concerns:
Wondering if I should completely ignore ATS checker scores? I understand that humans are the ones ultimately reading the resumes and moving candidates to different points in the hiring process. I just want to be sure that as long as I use this recommended template, then the resume is parsable, and therefore the recommended changes from an ATS checker are unnecessary.
I also have a slight concern that I have not yet worked in CAD, this will be happening next semester (Spring 2027; prior to the potential summer internship but not prior to submitting applications), so I'm not sure if I should list the future projected skills under CAD that we work on next semester. I don't want to add those, send this out and be lying (potentially looking unprepared at an interview as well).
I appreciate anyone taking the time to read my post/resume and give pointers. Thank you!
