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1-Visitor
July 2, 2010
Question

Who wants to critique my resume

  • July 2, 2010
  • 3 replies
  • 6279 views

OK I'm going out on a limb and posting my resueme.

I'm basically on my second career, and pro/e is it, I've been working with it for about three years, and think I'm pretty good.

........But some of these companies I apply too don't think I'm so great, and I get turned down a lot.

So what do you think....... is it, good - bad - stupid - acceptable - great.

I don't know a whole lot how the corporate world works, and what they are looking for.

I put my

professional experence

pro/e experience

life expereince

hobbies.

I hope the file uploads, you'll need MS Office 2007 to view it

Thanx

    3 replies

    1-Visitor
    July 3, 2010

    Last weak I was in negotiations for a pro/e position, they came back and told me I didn't have enough experience.

    (edit)

    Thanx for the tips, private e-mail's, I have it reformatted.

    19-Tanzanite
    July 6, 2010

    Before going into private consulting I managed a technical group. I read a lot of resumes. I threw a lot in the trash too. Here are some universal tips:

    1) No typos. I found two without even trying: "training(CADquest)" and "Lonestar Racing ,responsibilities"

    2) No glaring grammatical errors. You have a several of these too. Did you use the spelling and grammar checkers in Word?

    3) No broken hyperlinks. You have several.

    4) No obviously bad formatting. Such as headers that are orphaned on the end of a page and separated from the section they are supposed to head (Education, Software/IT)

    A lot of people look for errors in resumes, because a resume with errors says a lot (and it's not good). You can get away with one, maybe two, but if there's a lot then either you have some skills that really set you apart from the rest of the applicants or your resume is in the trash.

    5) Don't start the resume with an introductory sentence that

    a) Is irrelevant to the job you are applying for

    b) Might imply you don't really want this job, and have other goals

    c) Might threaten the position of the person you are sending the resume to

    Yours does all three. If you are applying for a position as a Pro/E designer don't start out touting your skills as a manager! Apart from the grammatical errors (e.g. "improve", not "improving"), it is also too much marketing/business speak. There is no such thing as 100% customer satisfaction, so don't make claims about achieving (or even wishing to achieve) it.

    6) Don't ever pad your resume with irrelevent material. It is amazing how many people pad resumes.

    Nobody will care if you were a member of ASME while you were a student umpteen years ago. Putting that in there just raises the question of why you are not a member now.

    7) Don't send it in format they might not be able to read. As you said in the first post, "You'll need MS Office 2007 to view it". So why put it in docx format? Suppose I don't have Office 2007? (Actually I don't, but there are other ways to read a docx file). Print it to a pdf.

    I would also recommend separating your portfolio from the resume itself. And for the third example, have you really got FEA experience? I ask because right in the image it says "Roger TooGoods Pro/E tutorial files". That would be a big flag for me to quiz you about FEA if you ever got as far as an interview. You should also remove number 7 under "Advanced Level User". Some managers might think it's a good thing, but there are plenty that might wonder how much of your working day will be spent "networking with peers". Don't open that can of worms.

    1-Visitor
    July 6, 2010

    This probably is not really the proper location for this type of discussion, but since it is here I will give my 2cents.

    Some things I might suggest are:

    • Take the 3 off of Pro/Engineer Wildfire - don't put that limit on there first off. If they want to know specifically what version/s you have used they can ask you.
    • Try to quantify how many hours you have used Pro/E or how many parts/assemblies and drawings you have created. Employers want to have a better way of understanding what you did. If you just say designed parts, that could be 2.
    • Take off the link to CADQuest. Maybe the company has had bad experience with a particular training medium. They can ask that if they need more information. Just say it was Pro/E training.
    • You should give the company name first then the job title, dates and description. If you had multiple positions with the same company you can indent them under the same heading. Employers would like to have an idea if you are going to stick around.
    • I would say give the name of your company and not say Sole Proprieter. Again you want the employer to think you are going to stick around and not run off to start your own business again when the housing market picks up.
    • Tell them what College you went to.
    • Consider making your portfolio a document seperate from your resume.
    • In Word when you hover over the link it tells you to control click it. The statement to do this seems redundant to me.
    • The links in the sample work section did not work for me in Word 2007.
    • You did not have your phone number at the top of the resume.

    If you disaggree with me on some of the points, that is fine. Everyone has different preferences on resumes. And, I definitely am not an expert on the subject.

    If you want I could attach my resume so you could have it as an example.

    1-Visitor
    July 6, 2010

    Made the changes you suggested, I appreciate it, comparing this new resume to the one I had two months ago, it's day and night diference for the better.

    I don't know why the links don't work, some do some don't. I'll try to get that figured out, the links work until I attach the doc and upload, then they seem to quit working??

    Recruiters seem to make a snap judgment of what they see on your resume, on whether or not you will be considered or thrown in the trash can.

    Rick

    19-Tanzanite
    July 6, 2010

    Typo: "Mechanical Designer,responsibilities". There is no way that could get past a spell checker. So if you can't be bothered to spell check your resume what does that say about the quality of the work I might expect to get from you?

    Sorry if that sounds a little harsh. I made it sound harsh because I'm trying to make a point about why potential employers look for such mistakes in resumes. It's the same if someone turns up for interview in jeans and a tee shirt. Even if that's probably what they would wear to work if they got the job, turning up for interview like that makes the potential employer wonder how much you really care. First impressions last.

    1-Visitor
    July 6, 2010

    I uploaded a copy of my resume to my profile. You might think about completing your profile on here so more people can get to know you.

    Good luck in your job search.

    I agree with all of Richard's comments. Like I said I was not an expert so I missed mentioning that stuff.