Recently I had a nice email discussion with an instructor about one of his Senior engineering students and what he could do with his resume.  Let me say up front, I’m no expert on resume writing, but, I do have to keep mine up to date at work for proposals and such with the company’s interrest in mind.  I also keep my full personal resume current about every 6 months with the latest updates.  Every region and every job has its ways that are preferred for how a resume should look and what should be on there.  Since I work in Huntsville, Al, one of the high tech centers of the Unites States with large commercial, military and space interests represented, there is a pretty simple format to follow for a resume here.  I think this formula should work for anyone in the engineering/technical fields.  The formula for the best resume is short and full of details.  Below you will find a list of what I have found in my carrier to be a good compromise for your resume.

• Experience and education are paramount and personal information can be brought up in an interview and is not necessary as filler.  Never include ”hobbies” or other personal or religious information unless it is directly related to the job position you are applying for.   
• Find a resume format that condenses everything onto one page.   The more pages, the less likely a person scanning for details is to look.  Rule of thumb is one page is great, 2 is ok, 3 pages go in the garbage. 
• Bright colors are not necessary in the format or paper.  Subdued shading is preferred.  Most companies still print and fax to black and white and colors obscure details and, if for some reason the document has to be scanned or faxed, it creates black blobs which don’t look good. 
• The use of a generic objective is ok for a generic resume.  ex: I am seeking a position in the engineering field pursuant to my skill and education.
• If you are applying for a specific job, the resume and content should be tailored to the potential position.  ex: Modify the generic objective to state for a military/aerospace company to something similar to: ”I am seeking a position in the aerospace community where I can play a productive role with my experience and education.”
• Include and entitle a  list of basic skills as “core competencies”.  ex: If the company uses SolidWorks as its design package and you have SolidWorks experience, then move SolidWorks to the top of the list.  Also include all software experience no matter how good or bad you are or how much you like it.  Companies today are looking for diverse experiences to help build their “core competencies”.   This could get you hired!
•  If you are going to have a resume listed with a recruitment (headhunter) agency then they may want a generic version or maybe 2 or 3 versions if they are in a diverse market environment like Huntsville.  It just depends and this should be a question the candidate asks the agency when signing up to be represented.  One thing of warning about headhunter agencies, if you don’t mind short term, feet wet, type jobs to gain experience and pay the bills,  this can be great and challenging carrier path for a single person.  If you are a more mature, experienced person who doesn’t want to jump around or who is looking to get married or is already married, this might not be the avenue for you.  
• Have the reference sheet ready to go but do not send it unless required by the company, also carry one in your notebook during an interview.  Put the statement “References Furnished Upon Request” at the end of your resume.  References will be checked but the space this takes up applies to your page count.  (see comment above regarding page count)

I hope this helps and this info should be shared with anyone looking for jobs.  I have found the following site to very good advice.  I don’t agree with everything it says as applied to the engineering/technical fields, but it has very good content.  http://www.damngood.com/jobseekers/tips.html

Stay Tuned for more from the Educators Corner featuring SolidWorks!