Graduating, need advice (1 Viewer)

[Bob Graz]

Marshall, I agree with the comments on objective. You should be descibing the attributes/experience you have and how that will benefit the company.

Also, don't list responsible for this, responsible for that. Use more action words, managed this, lead effort to...,team lead for this....developed processes that accomplished this.

Your resume must interest the reader. The reader should want to talk to you because of the interest generated. Your resume isn't doing that. You've got the basics but it needs to be dressed up. When reading resumes I make two piles, the ones I'm going to read again to pick a few to follow up on and the one's that just don't do anything for me. This resume wouldn't make my follow up pile.

 

[Daren Welsh]

You might check out USA if you're interested in writing or testing the Shuttle software. I imagine they're still hiring for the cockpit upgrade (where I work) and there are lots of other departments where they might consider you.

 

[Phil Kim]

I've been told it's often best to leave objective out of resume completely.

 

[Jeff Peake]

I have no Objective listed on my resume, and it seems to be working. I am working with my 4th company since graduating from Michigan State 3 years ago with a BS in Computer Science. I seem to get hired without issue, but the companies keep going out of business!
My Resume (isnt totally up to date): http://www.jeffpeake.com/resume.htm
Marshall, It is a very tough market out there now, have you thought of going to grad school???
Jeff

 

[Hunter P]

I totally agree. List your skills and proficiencies and let the company find what job position is best for you.
I am also in favor of "hiding" the things that may hurt more than help. I know that you are just entering the job market but I don't think it's too necessary to put the community college on the resume. I recommend listing just the university, the degree, and year of graduation. Don't bother listing the date started or the GPA since they are not really positives.
Finally, you might want to review the bullet points on your work experience. Put in "accomplishment statements." Just because you were responsible for a certain task doesn't tell the employer whether you did it. Put in statements that say not only what you did but illustrates how well you did it. Remember, you are competing against dozens of other equally qualified people. Just "being responsible for" or "working on" something doesn't make you stand out.
Even better if you can quantify your accomplishments in hard facts and figures.
"...saving the company $3,000,000..."
"..completed one year project two months ahead of schedule..."
"...made such and such process 30% more efficient..."
As for the job search, one word: plastics...err, I meant, network. More than half of all jobs are filled by networking as opposed to want ads and job fairs.
Some people also do all the interviews they can, even if they don't want the job, just for the practice.

 

[Phil Kim]

I've just looked at your resume. Few pointers.

• As I've said previously, take the Objective out. A so-so job is better than no job.
• I would move the Skills section to the top. It needs be better organized, using each bullet for language, operating system, so on and so on.
• Furthermore, do not limit yourself by using phrases like "exposure to." Be more confident, learn more, and list them as a fully legitimate skill.
• Your Experience section is too skimpy and vague. Add more details. Explain how you've solved each problem. For instance, did you use any design patterns? Be as specific as possible.
• On Education, did you get awards, wrote thesis, developed cool projects, etc.? If so, write them down. If you have taken any specialized courses (e.g., Advanced SQL, J2EE), write them down, too.

Good luck!

 

[Marshall Alsup]

Thanks for all the info guys. And sorry I haven't kept you up to date. A buddy of mine got me tickets for Monday Night Football in Seattle for a Graduation present so I've been gone for the weekend and first part of the week.

Anyway, I'm updating my resume and I'll post it here when I finish it. Probably this weekend sometime. Thanks for all the advice so far!

I had an interview last week and I think it went really well. It was my first however so I'm not sure. One thing I noticed was that it seemed much more casual than I was expecting. There were no technical questions and it almost seemed more like there were trying to get to know me rather than see how good I was at things. Is this normal?

-Marshall

 

[Ryan Wright]

Marshall,
Everyone else has already torn apart your resume, so I won't do that any further.
I work at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, just down the street from you. We do have an opening. It has not been fully defined yet, but it may interest you. The essence of the job would be Linux system administration, and perhaps some system programming in C.
If you are interested, please take everyone's advice and update your resume. Then email it to me, along with a detailed description of your Linux and C experience, at [email protected]. I am not the hiring manager but I do help recruit for our group.

There were no technical questions and it almost seemed more like there were trying to get to know me rather than see how good I was at things. Is this normal?

Fresh out of college, that's pretty typical. You're likely new to most everything and would have to be trained, so prospective employers want to get to know who you are. Are you capable of doing the job? Are you capable of learning? Will you fit in as a member of the team? Personality makes up for more than half of your job.

 

[MikeAlletto]

There were no technical questions and it almost seemed more like there were trying to get to know me rather than see how good I was at things. Is this normal?

Since you are fresh out of school they mainly want to see what kind of a person you are. Basically they will train you in anything they need. They mainly need to make sure that you can learn.

 

[Vu N]

Marshall,

I just graduated in May with a Comp Engineering degree and from the interviews I've had - about 5 of them, it was pretty much the other way around. 4 of them were very technical. In most of those interviews, I faced a barrage of technical questions and programming/logic design problems. One company asked me how I would solve 3 problems and that was it and another company gave me a 16 page written test (where I could only answer 25% of the questions but miraculously got the 2nd interview) to complete in an hour. All these companies had at least 2 rounds of interviews to get through.

There interviews weren't easy (for me at least anyways), so I'd recommend reviewing some of the material you learned in school. For me, it was amazing how much stuff I forgot from 2nd year. Also, I think it's important to be patient, positive and persistent, as the search could take many months - as it did for me. Most of my fellow graduates are still looking. If only we had graduated 2 or 3 years ago....

The non-technical interview I had sounded like the one you described. Most of my co-op interviews were like that as well. I do find that the larger companies are more into technical interviews. My friend interviewed with this small, relatively unknown company and all they asked him was 'what's a pointer?'. And he got the job after only 1 round of interviews.

Anyways, best of luck on your job search!


Vu

 

[Marshall Alsup]

Ryan, I've sent you a PM with regard to the PNNL opportunity.
Everyone,
I just got hit over the head by my school. While discussing my application for graduation with my adviser she noticed that I have the "wrong" type of AA degree from community college, and because of this I have to take 3 more classes! It was like.... Hey Marshall, I realize you plan to graduate in 9 weeks, but you cant. I've only just discovered this little problem even though you've been here for 5 years! Good thing they caught it in time
The worst part is that I only have one class this semester because when I got advised to register I was told that I only needed the one other class. As a matter of fact, the last 3 times I've gone in to be advised I've specifically asked for them to look over my situation and make sure that I was good. Each time they said I was on the right track. Now this, two months before I plan to graduate. I'm pretty frustrated because theres nothing I can do about it. They might be able to wave one class and I may be able to appeal my way out of one, but one of the three MUST be taken, and none of the three are CS classes! They're all GER classes!
I guess I wont be getting that HDTV as soon as planned
Thanks for letting me vent guys,
Marshall

 

[Bill Slack]

Ouch!
You should at least try to petition as many people as you can to alleviate all or some of that extra work, or at least be able to do it in an expediated way. Especially if you actually have courses that they thought you transfered but now are saying do not. (I'm not entirely sure the specifics of what you're saying...)
I was signed up for just a night class one semester and got charged the full day student fee because I hadn't transfered to being a part-time student. But you used to be able to do that and pay the lesser amount, and the only way they notified students of the change was through the new student handbook, which obviously not widely read (especially after being there 3-4 years!) Enough complaining at least got me $1500 back.
My old roomate got stuck a class short because of his adviser and ended up just having to write a 20 page in lieu of taking the class. Hopefully your college will budge on their rules too...
At least you're more on top of things than I. I transfered two classes to my school with about fifteen minutes to spare on the extra-super-extended deadline they had granted me. Nothing like waiting until the last minute (though I still didn't show up in the program; but, I didn't show up at graduation either, so I guess that's OK!)
Maybe in the meantime you could find a good internship to help really fill out your resume, get extra experience, and hopefully lead to a full-time position once you graduate...

 

[Marshall Alsup]

OK, another update..... Well I'm graduating in December again. There was a paper mix-up with my transfer degree from community college, but it's fixed up now. I've been through a bad week trying to figure this situation out and it worked out for the best!
Anyway, I've updated my resume and I wanted to see if you guys like the new version.
heres the old version and the new version.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions,
Marshall