Top 5 Resume Mistakes For Engineers

I see job seekers write the same mistakes over and over again, so I thought I’d summarize the Top 5 Resume Mistakes. The sad thing is that it’s no one’s fault they make these mistakes. The education system does not do a good job at teaching you relevant issues pertaining to getting a career. These are the most important things and the things that actually matter! Engineering school goes really deep into derivations and calculations, but if you talk to anyone in the industry, you’ll learn that you don’t use what you learn in school.

February 29, 2024 by Kazu Fujimoto

The Top 5 Resume Mistakes

Not containing keywords

Job applications are algorithm based, meaning that they quickly scan through your resume to ensure that they have the correct keywords. A simple strategy to write resumes and ensure you contain keywords is to take the application and tie in your experiences to the job requirements. Utilize the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, and Result). Define the project you were working on, your task, what you did, and an outcome. (Make sure the outcome is quantifiable, to be discussed in the next bullet)

Not specifying quantitative results and accomplishments

Quantitative results and accomplishments give a clear and tangible feel to recruiters and hiring managers of what you did. They give a feel for the dollar value you have generated for the company. They show that you’re not there just to push buttons, but to drive change and innovation. Clear indicators of quantitative results include: cost savings, time savings, improvement in efficiency, lessening the number of tags, number of safety incidents. The list goes on.

Not being clear or concise

This is a hard one for engineers, as they have a tough time simplifying their explanations. I’ve rewritten many resumes where engineers have gotten way too “into the woods” with their resumes. An important part of resume writing is this – focus on high level achievements and accomplishments. Although the tooling fixture that you designed to make a part fit can be cool, this is not the nitty gritty that recruiters are focused on. Make sure that you focus on high level achievements and accomplishments. High level topics to include in your resume are ones that catch your day to day operations, results, achievements, and accomplishments.

Formatting

Use the standard format for resumes and do not use anything “modern” or “fancy”. This may change as the years progress, but as of date, the best resume format is a simple one. Refer to my resume writing guide or look at my templates for a simple one that’ll get you into top tier companies. Less is more, is a saying that applies here, but to many other aspects in engineering.

Specifying Soft Skills or “Competencies”

Seeing soft skills or competencies on a resume disgusts me. These skills do not demonstrate how you have accomplished anything. Instead, these skills act as “filler”. Anyone can specify that they can “work in a fast paced environment” or “have excellent project management skills”. The real differentiation between someone specifying soft skills is as follows:

Let’s use the phrase “able to work in a fast paced environment”.

Instead, let’s say – “Successfully managed day to day operations, totaling approximately 100+ transactions, generating revenue of $2,500 USD daily”

Something like that can be used for something like retail or part time experience.