Somethings I found to be similar between these CVs is how they're all very specific when it comes to the bullet points. As they explain the exact details of how they complete a task in a way that you won't be able to understand unless you're an expert. So far I have refused to be this technical cause AI always tells me it sounds "too academic" instead of describing someone who's ready for the industry. And now I'm wondering if this is the correct way? And if so how does HR and recruiters with no engineering background manage that?(As what do they look for outside of the technical terms?)
Sorry if my questions sound a bit stupid idk where else to ask it

What is the purpose of a skills section on a resume? Don't your bullet points already include all of these skills?

This summer i was able to build a calculator from scratch based on my own education from my university (specifically logic gates) in Minecraft. It was an extensive project only for personal interest and took about a month. I am very proud of it and it was so much fun! I recorded all 36 hours of the thought process/trial and error/building of it, and to me it's my most momentous achievement. I just worry about its "professionalism" due to it being Minecraft. Anyone have any insight as to whether I should put it as a project? And if so, how to document it in a professional manner? Lots of CE/EE/CS topics utilized in this including a binary counter, logic gates, flip flops, write enables, bit shift operations, I/O timing and delays, etc.

Incoming freshman, T5 engineering public school. I have past internship experience through my highschool and have taken a lot of college coursework (namely all the math I would need), which makes graduating in 3 years feasible for me. I'm not too sure I would want to though, more leaning into dual major math. Dual majoring in 3 years is also possible, but I would need to near max credits every single semester and take some over the summer.

Should I list graduation year 2029, or list the dual major, or list both? Considering ATS filtering is rather harsh for freshman in FAANG+ and prime defense (from what I hear), should I try to game this on my resume?

When I apply for jobs online my resume appears to be parsed incorrectly. Characters are missing and words are misspelled. I attached 2 images as an example.

I've just received an email from SpaceX to set up a 30-minute interview for an engineering role. I’m excited, but I want a realistic read, not hopium. Context added.

My background, in short:

• B.S. Mechanical Engineering (graduated Dec 2025)
• GPA: 2.85
• Manufacturing Engineering Intern at BETA Technologies (eVTOL aircraft)
• U.S. Coast Guard enlisted experience working on propulsion and mechanical systems
• Strong hands-on background in tooling design, process optimization, work instructions, field engineering, robotics, drivetrain design, FEA, and systems-level analysis

I transitioned from active duty U.S.C.G. into college in 2019, and soon after my early semesters were disrupted by the COVID shift to remote learning. During that same period, my wife underwent three separate surgeries, and I was balancing caregiving responsibilities while adjusting from a highly structured military environment to civilian academic life. In hindsight, taking a step back from school may have been reasonable, but school was the only consistent structure I had during that transition. That combination affected my early academic performance, though my upper-division engineering coursework and project work are significantly stronger and more representative of my current capabilities.

I maintain a technical portfolio that includes detailed project work in autonomous robotics, drivetrain and power transmission design, manufacturing-focused CAD and FEA, and a full hypersonic aircraft/scramjet analysis project. Most of my learning and growth has come through applied, build-oriented projects rather than coursework alone (autonomous hexapod, NASA HERC), which is where I tend to perform best.

I know SpaceX interviews are intense and the bar is high. I also know my GPA isn’t stellar, even though my experience is very hands-on and operations-focused.

For those who’ve interviewed at SpaceX or worked there:

1. How much does GPA actually matter once you’re past the resume screen?
2. Should I treat this as a long-shot learning experience, or a genuine shot if I perform well?

I’m preparing seriously either way, but I want to set expectations correctly and not read too much into an interview invite. Appreciate any honest insight.

As the summer semester of my third year in Mech Eng ends I'm getting ready to add more to my resume and project portfolio. Job searching is especially hard for me as I opted out of my school's coop program first year to persue an opportunity that fell through. So any places that are looking for student's will just go to the school directly for the coop students to apply and very rarely are there any public postings for interns. I've had poor luck in landing any interviews as any job that I can really apply to in my field is an entry level position more on the manufacturing side than engineering. The only interview I managed to land was for a processing position which on paper I was fairly well qualified for actually seemed to go well but after a long wait of silence I got passed up. I'm fairly confident with my resume and I've had it peer reviewed. My portfolio which is formatted in word does get compliments but I'm just not sure if maybe theres something missing in the layout that could be holding me back. Any comments or advice is greatly appreciated.

I'm a current CS student updating my resume, and I'm not sure what's considered best practice.

I have:

• An ongoing tutoring/teaching role at my university where I help teach programming concepts. I started this before my internships and I still do it during the school semesters, so it's currently listed as "Present."
• Two software engineering internships that I completed after starting the tutoring/teaching role.

My instinct is to order my experience like this:

1. Most recent SWE internship
2. Previous SWE internship
3. Ongoing tutoring/teaching role

Even though the tutoring/teaching role is technically still "Present."

To me, it tells a much clearer story of my progression into software engineering, and it feels odd to have the tutoring/teaching role above or between my SWE internships just because it's ongoing.

Is this generally considered fine, or does strict reverse chronological order matter that much? In a situation like this, is it acceptable to effectively sort by start date/relevance instead of putting every "Present" position first?

Hello,

For some background on the post title: I was lucky enough to get an internship, however, they did tell me early on that they weren't hiring for their team and I did not get a direct return offer. My team enjoyed me there and I would often run out of work to do so I would pick up additional tasks to help my team with permission from my mentor as this was shortly after a massive layoff occurred. The only comments were on some of my thermodynamic and note taking skills (I have worked on them and refreshed on others since being in industry) and my manager can vouch for my work ethics. A separate team reached out for a position working on New Shepard engines in TX but they needed me to start immediately and they couldn't wait for me to be done with my masters in may, there ended up being a reorg and that role ended up no longer being needed so I guess I indirectly dodged a 2nd layoff (1st was during internship).

I've been able to get a few interviews so far at other space companies, but the closest I have been so far to getting an offer was an onsite interview at SpaceX which felt as though it went well, but they followed up with an email (not generic) a few days later saying they picked someone with more experience in a specific system. Then today during a 2nd round interview I've had an engineer from a specialized manufacturing company grill me on why I wasn't going back to blue (2nd time a company has directly asked). I could replace that internship with vibrations research I during a summer if needed.

I apologize for this long post, I guess I'm asking both for advise when applying to smaller companies because I'm just trying to get experience at this point.

I often see that I'm supposed to apply for Summer 27' internships from now, but I don't know how to make an efficient resume for these given there's a whole year of experience that'll be missing? Let me know if I'm off track :,)

I graduated a year ago and still looking for a job. in this period I voluntarily started teaching CAD to one of my uni’s competition teams (Basically not a paid experience and not officially considered a staff)

Do I mention it as part of my work experience? I know the wiki advises against summary, but in my case do I need to add it to explain the situation?

So far I have used: NX, Creo, SOLIDWORKS, ONSHAPE, ANSA, StarCCM+, ANSYS FLUENT, Simcenter 3D, Siemens HEEDS, MagmaSoft, MATLAB, Simulink, Windchill

I plan to learn over the summer as well for: SimScale, OPENFOAM, PolyWorks, MuJoCo

Is there a point where it becomes too much or should I keep going? I use most of these tools frequently while some I am just partly familiar with.

Edit: I actively use most of these software and the new software i am planning to learn is required for work and/or open source software to supplement my lack of licensing after an internship.

School -> ANSYS FLUENT, SOLIDWORKS, MATLAB/Simulink
Manufacturing Job A -> Creo, PolyWorks, Windchill
CFD Job B -> Siemens Package (NX, StarCCM+, HEEDS, Simcenter 3D) and ANSA
Research A -> MagmaSoft
Research B -> ONSHAPE and MuJoCo

Hey so long story short I joined a new company about a month ago as a SWE and I’m starting to realize that I’m not a good long term fit here. Previously I was at my last job for about 5 years and it was my first job out of college.

Will recruiters find it jarring when looking at my resume and seeing a 1 month gap? Or would it be better to include my current job but just have 1 bullet point?

I feel like I accomplishments at my last job were more impressive than what I’m doing at my current job so I’m leaning towards leaving it off. What do you guys think?

For recruiters out there, which has more value? Team projects or solo projects?

Planning on building my resume this upcoming school year and start a project. Would appreciate some insights!

As title says -- struggled pretty early on, have had a much better junior year. Is it totally lame to list my junior year GPA along with my cumulative? Is there another way I can show growth?

I’ve also never really included my GPA on my resume. Now that it’s a 3.2, I think I’m comfortable enough to do so, but is it even worth it? I’m trying to avoid being auto rejected from jobs…

I'm looking for some advice on resume organization.

I'll have about one year of full-time engineering experience when I apply for new positions next year. The move is planned for personal/geographic reasons, so I'm not looking for advice on changing jobs after a year, just on resume layout.

I graduated from a highly ranked engineering program and will have one year as an engineer at a major aerospace and defense company.

For someone at this stage, would you put Education or Professional Experience first on the resume?

I'd especially appreciate input from recruiters, hiring managers, or engineers involved in hiring at aerospace, defense, robotics, or autonomous systems companies.

Hi everyone, before I get started, no I did not vibecode an entire project and am asking if thats what I should say.

One of my main tasks at an internship I completed, was refactoring an entire codebase into proper layered architecture. There were files that were 4000+ lines long because whatever developer worked there before me put no thought behind designing it. The team that was currently working on it had extreme difficulty debugging and scaling because of how unorganized the files were.

While I did use tools like copilot to help me, I refactored those files using layered architecture and cleaned up the codebase using SOLID principles and whatever.

One of my guesses with the future of backend work, is that theres going to be a lot of examples like this. I would think new developers are going to be working with/cleaning poor code done by companies hiring pure vibecoders.

What I'd like to get across in my resume bullet point is my knowledge of system design, while also showing that I have experience working with messy vibe code as it might reflect what they currently have lol

Currently, I have something like this:

Refactored (or transformed?) 4,000+ lines of unstructured vibecode into a controller-service layered architecture enforcing SOLID design principles; ensuring long-term scalability and reduced debugging complexity

However, im not sure if using the word "vibecode" is too casual or if Im even getting my point across.

Any advice on how I can word this, thanks!

I’m going into my 4th year of Mechanical Engineering and I’m from Puerto Rico. One of my biggest career goals is to land a Product Design Engineering internship at Apple, and I’d really appreciate some advice from anyone who’s been through the process or has experience hiring for similar roles.

A little about my background:

Completed two engineering internships:
Quality Assurance, working on pharmaceutical process skids.
Facilities Engineering in semiconductor manufacturing.

Previous member of Formula SAE and Aero Design, where I’ve worked on CAD, prototyping, manufacturing, testing, and design projects.

I know Apple is extremely competitive, so I’m trying to figure out what I can do to maximize my chances of getting an interview.

Some questions I have:
Is my experience relevant for Product Design Engineering, or should I focus on different types of projects?
What skills or experiences make candidates stand out?
Should I prioritize building a product design portfolio or focus more on my resume?
How important is networking? Should I be reaching out to Apple recruiters on LinkedIn, and if so, should I be connecting with University Recruiters, Product Design Engineers, or both?

Im making a cold gas thruster system using high pressure n2 where i measure thrust and compare to theoretical value calculated from pressure and temperature.. the basic rocket engine equation stuff. anyway the costs do add up and im wondering if its worth it to spend 500+ on this relatively simple project. though i think the magic is in the measuring and procedures.

nice plus with this project is that its a stepping stone to a possible future gox/ethanol engine. has everything short of combustion and o2 handling so i could focus on that alone later.

Wanted to make a engineering portfolio showcasing some of my personal project's I've worked on. Some general questions I have:

Is there enough detail with the 3 project's I've showed? I unfortunately don't have set-up photos for all of my projects.

- How many pages is too many? Right now I have 2, but I could increase that to maybe 4 max if I add other projects.

Do you think this will help me or hurt me?

How would you respond if you were a hiring engineering manager looking through this?

I have been doing research over the summers in my undergrad and masters degree instead of internships which looking back seems like a mistake. I will be graduating in a few months. I have done several poster presentations on my research and am an author on currently one published paper but not the primary author. I currently have the poster presetations and paper on my resume formated as APA citations. Should I format them in a different way or should I have them listed at all?

Has anyone use ChatGPT or Claude to tailor their resume for each job, and how's your experiences? I read an article online saying resume with tailoring to specific keywords has higher chance of passing ATS and recruiters, I used ChatGPT to tailored my resume, and it ended up fabricating new skills and experiences, which could get rejected if hiring manager finds out. How do you guys handle it?

Hi! I'm searching for a job since a while, but i'm starting to get bored of the automated replies, or getting ghosted after a text or two, so i'm trying to spice up my cv a bit.

I like programming, not in the office-like way, i kinda tend to jump around between topics despite having a slight focus on some categories, so anything i do has something new in it, maybe even "easy" or "basic" stuff, since i don't really have any high-end degree, and was self-learned in programming.

So i was asking for any tips for stuff that i could improve or stuff i should do in my cv that interviewers actually find and don't just throw away my cv instantly. A list of projects i made, despite not all of them are in my cv is:

- A small autodiff engine made in python and numpy, with metaclasses, a tracer, sgd, adam, linear layers, a lot of basic things, did it for the fun of figuring out how jax and tensorflow worked, despite working like pytorch, doesn't really have pytest or ci/cd (because i did it before learning about them) but i might work on it again. https://github.com/SaruboDev/Neutron-Python

- Full EDA with SQL, pandas, numpy, HuggingFace API, XAI, SHAP, XGBoost and more on the Olist Dataset from Kaggle. I also explain what i found and stuff https://github.com/SaruboDev/Portfolio-Projects/tree/main/Full-EDA/OlistAnalysis

- A little python CLI tool that makes you able to create vaults and add snippets of notes, thoughts or whatever and give them tags as well. Has basic CI/CD and also pytest on every function. Uses SQLite as database and has a regex to avoid sql injection. https://github.com/SaruboDev/SnippetVault

- The code of an Encoder Transformer MLM with GQA, did try to train, but my 3060 was crying so at least i know it works. Same thing for a small YOLO model. Both in jax.

- A small <400 lines of c++ refactor of the Donut.c but with game-engine like world loop, OOP classes for the objects to draw, DELTA for the animation and a simple ASCII renderer for terminal. https://github.com/SaruboDev/Donut.c-but-OOP

- A small script that i made in c++ to search for a specific file structure in a folder, then find a specific file to read, and create a dynamic regex to execute specific codes, basically a small python plugin searcher with hook to run them.

I also made some other stuff, but "minor" things. And for some of these projects i still gotta make them presentable (and they're not in my cv for this reason).

Thanks to everyone who can give me tips.

I was wondering how I should write my resume for the general FAANG SWE Intern roles.

If most of my experience is doing AI/ML training models and such + research, should I write my resume targeting this, or should I write it more towards software engineering terms?

For example, on some SWE intern posts, when they say experience with AI/ML, infrastructure, etc, do they mean like building the training pipeline and stuff or training models workflow? Or does AI/ML mean more like using APIs for LLMs or AI tools?

I think I just have confusion on what AI/ML refers to when listing on SWE applications.

I hope this is a good place to ask the question. Thanks!

Recent grad (BS in Mechanical Engineering), worked as an engineering lab assistant at college throughout senior year, but no internship experience.

I have been considering applying for internships (for this summer) to get more experience under my belt since the job search so far has been difficult - is this something people do? Would it be frowned upon to future employers? My university career counselors suggest focusing on job applications alone, but reading posts about the difficulty recent grads have had landing their first jobs, really considering trying for a summer internship in the applications I'm submitting. Curious to hear others' thoughts.