How to Create Marketable Content for Your Engineering Resume

Preface

There are many articles on the internet detailing how to make great cover letters and resumes, which is why I’m not going to tell you exactly how to make these documents. Instead, I will provide you with my very own examples, and give you pointers on what to focus on when making yours. The examples provided at the link above are resumes that I not only made, but have also used.

Before we get started, let’s consider a few questions. What is a resume, how is it going to be used, who is the intended audience, and what are you trying to convey? Answering these questions is the key to understanding how to make a great resume. In order to truly excel in the game of job hunting, and all of the tasks associated with it, you need to have a sales and marketing mindset, where YOU are the product. For motivation and information on this topic, check out my articles on The Sales and Marketing Mindset to Job Hunting and The Robert Kiyosaki, “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” Sales and Marketing Mindset for Success.

Without further ado, let’s dive in! In the next few paragraphs I will detail some of the fundamentals you should consider when making a resume. Use my latest resume (Timeline 4 Resume from the examples link above) to follow along as guidance.

Getting Started

The first principle of resume making is thinking about how you are going to use it. For myself, I know that I am going to use my resume to provide a sales pitch to the people I am sending it to. In order to make the sale, I want to provide the reader with as much relevant information about myself, my background, my skills, and the association of all of these things with the jobs I am applying for, and the potential responsibilities that may come with the job. In order to do this, I have to provide the right information that will captivate the attention of my readers. I am talking about providing real content, and not just the basic fluff that the majority of people will spend little time filling their resumes with. This concept stretches beyond format. How you will fit all of this information into a good looking package is a secondary priority. Focus on the content!

Continuing with the theme of content generation, let’s dive into the content that you should focus on providing in your resume, which is also included on mine. My resume is broken into a few sections. Let’s review each section, and I will provide commentary as we go along. 

Resume Section 1 – Title, Contact Information, and Opening Statement 

Like most people, the top section of my resume is the title, contact information, and opening statement section. I recommend using a large font for your name so that the reader knows exactly whose resume they are reading. I also suggest providing any applicable credential abbreviations if you think it will help your overall image (John Smith, PhD and John Smith, PE). 

Contact Information

With regards to your contact information, you may ask if it’s necessary that you provide it on your resume, especially if it is highly likely that you will submit your resume and contact information through an online system. My answer to this question is YES! How do you expect to sell a product if the consumer doesn’t know how to inquire about buying the product? Not only is providing your contact information a very traditional thing to do, but most people expect to see it on a resume. Hiring managers may not always have access to the contact information that you share through a job recruiting website, especially if the company outsources their recruitment. This means that hiring managers may only initially see your resume and cover letter, and it could become very inconvenient if they have to constantly go back and forth between recruiters to collect your contact information if they want to contact you directly. 

Lastly on the subject of providing contact information on a resume, if you are applying for a job in your general location, it’s a good way of letting the employer know that you are local. The flip side is also true, in that it would let the employer know that you are out of the area, which could potentially hinder you if you have to relocate to take the job, and if they don’t want to hire someone from out of town. My response to this is that this scenario would eventually be uncovered, and would be a big waste of time for all parties. It also makes you appear shady like you have something to hide. In this situation, I would state upfront, on the opening statement of my resume, under the contact information, that I was looking to relocate to the area. Who knows, maybe the hiring manager is from your hometown or your current living location. Bottom line…provide all of your contact information: Cell phone, physical address, and email address.

Opening Statement

The last part of my first section is the opening statement, which I may leave off depending on how I intend to use my resume (I don’t usually have an opening statement on my internal resume). Like providing your contact information, an opening statement could be viewed as a very traditional thing to have on your resume. Like my current one, most opening statements are very generic and state the obvious: “YES, I want to get a job at your company. Please hire me!” However, as I said in the previous paragraph, your opening statement could be exactly where you state that you have intentions of relocating, you are willing to travel extensively, etc. 

Resume Section 2 – Education, Credentials, and Memberships

This section should be fairly straightforward. Provide your most relevant education, credentials, and memberships that you think would capture the reader’s attention. Do you have any special licensing or credentials like an EIT certificate, PE license, Security+ training, Security Clearance, etc.? If so, list it here. Are you a member of an engineering organization like IEEE, or part of an engineering union like the IBEW? List these here as well. The purpose of providing all of this information is that you never know who may end up reading your resume, relating to it, and end up reaching out to you. Remember, you are selling a product (you, your skills, experience, etc.) to a consumer (company/hiring manager/team). 

When it comes to listing your educational background, of course, the GPA debate will always come into play. My advice is, if you have a good GPA and/or other figures that would separate you from the rest of the crowd, like graduation rank, I would list that information here. I would also list the schools you attended if you have multiple degrees. Naturally over time, your overall experience will take the place of any importance placed on things like GPA and where you went to school

Resume Section 3 – Work Experience and Accomplishments

The work experience and accomplishments section is by far the most important section of your resume, and should be the section most dedicated to creating content to capture your reader’s attention. Realistically, this is the section that will likely make the sale, which means that you should dedicate as much attention as possible to the content, wording, and formatting of this section.

To prepare yourself for writing this section, really think about what you are trying to convey to the reader. You are trying to give them bullet points about who you are and what you can do for the company based on what you have already done, or are currently doing. This is the whole purpose of creating and sending out a resume: to tell the reader who you are and what you can do in the most concise, organized, and aesthetically pleasing manner possible. To really enhance your resume, consider doing the following things when generating content for this section.

Current and Previous Employers

When it comes to providing your work history, you should inform the reader of whom you are currently working for (if you are currently employed), and for whom you worked for in the past (if you have work experience). To provide context to paint the overall picture, you should also provide the dates that you’ve been employed, and relevant positions you’ve held while at these companies. The number of previous employers and positions you provide is greatly up to you, and is really dependent on things like how much experience you have, how long you’ve worked for each employer, etc. It really depends on everyone’s individual situation. What you should be more focused on is describing to your readers how working for these various employers is going to benefit your new employer. Remember…focus on making a sale. While considering your current and previous employers, have you ever considered that the reader might not know whom it is that you actually worked for? I will give you an example. 

In 2013, while still an EE undergrad student at USF, I interned at one of the largest electronic manufacturing companies in the world: Jabil Circuit. Not only was this company manufacturing and assembling many products you use on a daily basis, from phones and computers to household appliances and beyond, but they were generating billions of dollars in sales each year, and were also headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. Here is the funny part. Despite their signs being hung in the stadiums of the Tampa Bay Rays and Lighting, you will never see a Jabil logo on any product. This is because Jabil is in the business of contract manufacturing. They manufacture and assemble the products of other companies, whose logos you will see on those products. Everyone knows that Whirlpool makes great household appliances, but most people don’t know that Jabil likely manufactured and assembled the majority of their products. Due to this limited visibility, very few people actually know that Jabil Circuit is a gigantic company with tremendous industry impact. As a matter of fact, one of my interviewers at GE Aviation, which was my first full time job outside of college after my internship, didn’t know what Jabil Circuit was, despite both companies being located within a few miles of each other. This is why, if you think that the company you work for is very small and/or not very well known, you should provide some context to your readers. If you’ve worked for companies in this category, state some facts about them upfront: like their sales figures, number of employees, industries served, headquarters, etc. I have provided an example of this in my shared resumes at the link above (Timelines 2 and 3 Resumes).

Responsibilities and Accomplishments

Let’s move onward to the responsibilities and accomplishments section of your resume. Like I’ve said before, and what I will keep reiterating, is that you have to focus on selling your product. So far, in terms of your resume, your product only includes your name, contact information, maybe a personal statement, and a general template for describing your work experience and accomplishments at the various employers you’ve worked for. It is now time to describe your core product, which is the culmination of all of your experiences, your expertise, leadership abilities, and any other relevant information that is going to help you get an interview and potentially secure a job. 

One might think that describing what you do on a daily basis is an easy thing to do, but I will be the first to admit that actually describing what you do in a short, sweet, and easy to read manner is much harder than it sounds. Of course, we all want to say, “I am a productive member of society that shows up to work on time everyday,” or, “I do awesome engineering things;” however, these simply aren’t enough. These are definitely things we want to convey, but we want to do it in the sexiest way possible. What kinds of awesome things do you do everyday? Do you design bridges, roads, buildings, cell phones, robots, etc.? Do you write software to command and control various pieces of lab equipment for automating tests on customer hardware? Do you lead a team of engineers throughout hardware and software research, design, and development programs? Do you oversee the deployment and integration of hardware and software systems for your customers? Do you manage a program’s budget and schedule to ensure milestones are being delivered on time to a customer and within the allocated budget? These are all actions you probably do, or have done, on a daily basis, but never thought about them in this way. For well roundedness, your resume should contain a solid mixture of technical and managerial type skills. 

Just as it is important to describe your responsibilities, it is equally important to describe your accomplishments. Are you a troubleshooting genius that the company sends to put out fires as they pop up around the country or the world? Did you patent a new technology? Did you save the company money implementing a new process? Did you increase sales by earning new customers? Are you a founding member of a highly specialized team within the company? SELL YOUR PRODUCT!

Something very important to keep in mind when describing your responsibilities and accomplishments is to use figures where possible. Saying, “I increased sales by “x” amount within a “y” time period,” is much better and relatable than just saying, “I increased sales.” It is always better to be quantitative where possible, as it simply makes things more tangible. Also, I highly recommend using the highly effective action verbs when detailing all of your responsibilities and accomplishments. A fantastic list of attention grabbing action verbs can be found here.

As I said before, this can be a very difficult exercise to complete, but DO NOT skimp out on the effort it takes to see it through. If it takes a few extra days, weeks, or even months to get your creative juices flowing to ensure your marketing game is on point, it would be a well worthy investment of your time. I will give you some more background. The person that really got me thinking in this way was my dad, who at one time in his life, owned a recruitment agency that placed people in senior management and sales engineering roles. It was around the time that I started working with him on my resume, that my resume truly transformed in terms of overall formatting and content. I began looking at the tasks I did on a daily basis, and transformed them into marketable skills. Listing accomplishments in this way followed suit. It was also around this time that I read Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” which also imparted on me that a sales and marketing mindset is necessary to getting some of the things I desired.

Resume Section 4 – Knowledge of Specialty Tools (Hardware and Software)

I will not spend too much time on the knowledge of hardware and software tools section, as it should be a straightforward section to complete. If you are familiar with any speciality equipment/software, especially if it is listed on the job description, definitely list your knowledge of it in this section.

Resume Section 5 – Extra Supporting Information (Optional)

We made it to the last section! The extra supporting information is an optional section, but is a great section to detail any extra information you would like to share with your reader. Do you participate or volunteer in any professional and/or “extracurricular” clubs? Do you work on any special side projects that you would be comfortable sharing the details of? If so, you should certainly detail them here. My only recommendation for listing these types of activities, is to ensure they are relatable in a professional manner.

Final Words

Before closing, I would like to impart a few last pieces of advice to you. The more upfront effort you put into this venture, the easier it will be to not only do again in the future, but also to use in your current endeavors: cover letters, interviews, internal resumes, and even for completing mid/end of year performance reviews. Always keep in mind that you are trying to sell an overall set of products. From a professional perspective, these products are your experiences, technical expertise, communication skills, leadership abilities, etc. Documents like your resume and cover letter are marketing tools for your products. These documents are like brochures that you give to a customer to see if they are interested in buying your products. You should think about this entire process as more than just a writing drill; instead, think of it as a skill building exercise, where the skills you are learning are content creation, sales, and marketing.