Resume Advice for Young Professionals
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I just finished a lengthy search to hire two new engineers. I reviewed just under 100 resumes and through this process, I saw some great resumes and some that very much fell short.
In this article, I would like to share my advice on resumes for young professionals looking for a job.
While I am not a hiring professional and this is just my experience, I do believe this advice will apply to Engineers and many other professional occupations.
Picture or no Picture
It seems like every couple of years, the recommendation changes on whether to include a photo of yourself. My recommendation is to include a photo. When you do this, you become more than just a name on a sheet of 8.5″ X 11″; you become a person.
In your photo, be yourself. I suggest the photo shows the top 1/3 of yourself. The purpose of a resume is to get the company to select you, which means fitting in with the company culture. Before choosing a photo, go through their website, LinkedIn, and their employees’ LinkedIn. Find out what they wear. If it is business professional attire, then your photo should match. If it is blue jeans and a tee-shirt, you will have much better luck being in an elevated version of this than wearing a suit and tie.
Format
After reviewing 100 resumes, 90 were the exact same format, and they were boring. With 9/10 people using the same Microsoft Word template, any resume that looked different became more enjoyable to review.
When I was reviewing the resumes, anything that was elegant or unique made an impression. Think of your resume as a piece of marketing. You are marketing yourself. If you saw your resume on a shelf, would you buy it?
The point of the resume is to capture attention, make an impression, answer the questions the employer would most likely have, and get you to the next stage of interviews. Therefore, spend effort on making the resume attractive, clear, and concise (I promise you, they are not reading through your tomb of qualifications).
In Engineering, I do not recommend using a basic Microsoft office template (everyone does that). Instead, get Canva and use one of their templates, use an interesting Word template, or work with a professional resume service.
File Type
DO NOT send anything other than a PDF. A word document screams unprofessional.
Printed Resume
If you are printing a resume to hand in physically, go the extra mile to get it printed on thick paper with your cover letter. You can even include a bi-fold booklet to put your resume and cover letter in.
Pro-tip: Full-bleed printing (having the image cover edge to edge) will make a massive impact and set your resume apart from the crowd.
Keywords
Your resume should follow the job posting as much as possible.
Using the same terminology as they do makes it easier for an assistant or the HR department to scan resumes and keep your resumes filtered in the “potential pile.”
If you use different wording for skills or experience (even if the word is a synonym), it is more difficult for a non-technical HR rep or assistant to select you.
Personality
Most young Engineers or other professionals that have worked in the same sector will have nearly identical qualifications.
The difference will then be personality and culture fit. Most of the companies I know are focusing their hiring effort on building cohesive teams.
Everyone has to be skilled; that is the baseline. To stand out, you need to include your personality.
It is crucial to be yourself. Because if you pretend to be what the company is looking for, it can lead to you not being a true fit for the team and not enjoying the job and your coworkers. You want to be a part of a team that you enjoy working with every day.
Interests
In continuation with expressing your personality, it is vital to include your interests and hobbies. Almost every candidate will have the same skills. However, it is the interests and hobbies that set you apart.
If you are applying to a manufacturing company, it would be beneficial for the employer to know if you enjoy woodworking, mechanics, working on vehicles, or designing and building things in your free time.
To be an interesting person, you need to be interested.
Skillset
As mentioned before, almost all skills will be the same for most candidates. As a baseline, make sure you include any skills that match their job description.
After noting all of the relevant skills you have, add in other skills that make you a more interesting and well-rounded person—for example, speaking different languages, making videos, photography, graphic design, or baking.
Depending on the exact skill, it may be better to put them in the Interests or Hobby section of your resume. Think of these as seeds to be used as a talking point in your interview.
Be Interested
If you have read my top recommended book, How to win friends and influence people, by Dale Carnegie, you know one of the best ways to be interesting to another person is by first being interested in them.
Most people love talking about themselves more than anything else. So get them talking about themself and the company. Do research on the company, and ask them about their company, what products they make, or what their workflow looks like.
Get them talking about themself, and they will remember you as someone exciting and easy to talk to when the truth is that they were most interested in themself.
The follow-up.
After you apply, send a follow-up email after a day or two. Do not be pushy and do not ask, “when do I start?”
Instead, thank them for their time and the opportunity to apply to join their team. Then, let them know you can provide any additional information they may need.
Summary
When sending in your resume, your primary focus is to make an impression. You want to be true to yourself while being a good fit for the company culture. Focus on using the same terminology as the job description, be interesting, be interested, and be yourself.
I wish you all the best of luck in your search. Remember, you can hopefully be at a job for decades, so pick something that excites you and surround yourself with people that inspire you.
