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Resumes

Engineering

The primary task in creating a resume is to correlate your skills, training, education, and experience with the aptitudes, skills, and traits sought by potential employers. To make this analysis you need first to assess yourself and, second, to carefully consider the industry, company, and position for which you are applying. Each resume you send can be tailored accordingly. For example, a resume designed for a research position at an engineering firm may highlight your technical and analytical skills. Alternatively, a resume for a consulting position may highlight, at least primarily, your non-technical or “soft skills”; such as interpersonal, presentation, leadership, or organizational skills. You may want to consider reviewing engineering text books or websites to identify key words from your discipline to use in your resume. The full range of your technical training and experience should be highlighted. See the Resumes Tip Sheet for additional general resume advice.

Here are some key engineering resume tips to consider:
Focus - When applying for an industry position, ensure your resume maintains a strong focus on your experience and training in the field of engineering. This sounds like an obvious recommendation but there are many possible ways to reflect this information. These may include emphasizing your skills and experience in:

• Research and development work
• Engineering projects - in school or externally
• Applications (computer and other)*
• Specialized technical training
• Programming languages*
• Quantitative disciplines
• Operating systems*
• Lab equipment*
• Lab techniques*

* These skills may be emphasized throughout your resume, or in a specific “Technical Skills Summary” section.

Balance - If you are a Columbia undergraduate, you will have received academic exposure to fields outside engineering, that is, to the humanities and social sciences. In varying amounts, many Columbia graduate students will also have received some breadth of academic exposure either as undergraduates or as graduate students. The combination of academic training in both engineering and the liberal arts is distinctive and attractive to employers and can be highlighted on your resume. This can be accomplished in discussing the “skills” you possess or have demonstrated through work or academic experiences. These skills may include:

• Critical thinking and analysis
• Ability to work well on a team
• General communication and presentation skills
• Leadership or managerial skills
• Organizational skills

Highlight your accomplishments - When describing your engineering experience, it is best to include the basic details of your experience, together with your accomplishments or achievements from each experience. For example, were you the first intern to work in a particular lab? Were you part of a research team which accomplished something noteworthy in your field? Did any publications come out of your work? In other words, try to identify "what you are most proud of" from your experience or what you want the reader to know about your contribution to the success of the project or work experience. 

Draw upon a variety of experiences - Go beyond your experiences in the lab, classroom, or in paid positions. Illustrate the
development of your skills from all your experiences. These experiences may include:

• Paid and unpaid work
• Internship/externship experiences
• Project or team work, both in and out of your university courses
• Activities (e.g., volunteering, student organizations, religious organizations, athletics, etc.)

Artists

Resume for “day” job

• Use when applying for positions outside of academia, and possibly unrelated to your art discipline (administrative positions, other office jobs, etc.).
• The purpose is to give potential employers relevant information about you in order to get an interview.
• Best to keep it to 1 page.
• Focus on skills that are relevant to the position.
• It is important to list education and experience, but you do not need to list presentations or publications.
• Headings will depend upon the type of position to which you are applying – use sections strategically to focus on the resume on relevant information.
• You can also list activities (clubs, associations, student organizations, volunteer, etc.) to demonstrate leadership and involvement outside of school.
• Keep the information clear and concise, using action verbs and bullets whenever possible. Artists’ Resume
• Use when trying to find work within your specific artistic discipline.
• Can be more than one page if necessary.

CVs

Artists

Academic CV

• Use when applying to teach at the college level, or other scholarly employment.
• Length is unimportant (can be multiple pages)
• Focus on academic achievements and qualifications as a teacher and scholar.
• Section headings can include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Education
  • Honors / awards
  • Teaching experience
  • Relevant work experience
  • Languages
  • Skills
  • Presentations
  • Publications
  • Professional affiliations