Before applying for a job, you should envision yourself as if you were the one evaluating resumes or the interviewer for the open position.  Now consider having fifty to a hundred applicants per position.  The manager's first step is to quickly eliminate applicants.  As an applicant the goal has to involve not being eliminated and to make a finalist of people being interviewed.

Preliminary AI Elimination 

Foremost understand that a person is probably not looking at your resume.  Your first goal is to have AI view your resume favorably enough to have it on the list of resume's that a person actually evaluates.  The job description typically has a list of qualified and desired qualities.  Make sure that most of those words and attributes are in your resume or cover letter.  Some people suggest copying the announcement, making the font size 1, changing the font to white, and pasting it in open space in your resume.  No matter what terms the resume searches, those words are in your resume. Once a human starts evaluating resumes, they do not see the white text.

Human Elimination of Resume and Cover Letters

We are engineers.  We should be logical, organized, detail oriented and technologically sound.  Just looking at a resume, one can tell if the applicant possesses these qualities.

  • Be consistent in format, bolding, alignment, font, size, etc.
  • Lists should be consistent in English.
  • Using words ending with ing or ed as starting words helps to show achievement.
  • Starting each list with an action verb, not having, being, etc.
  • Do a spell check for mispellings.
  • Do not go over 1 page!

Getting an interview

Once your resume is not eliminated, imagine that you were the hiring manager, what qualities would you want to hire.  Past success creates a belief of future success. These are the things that you should try to highlight.  Many resumes and cover letters are about the person getting the job.  Companies only exist because their employees bring in more money than the person's salary!  Try to make the reader see what you can offer to the company on your resume and cover letter, and why you will provide substantially more benefit to the company than your salary.

  • Best qualities go first.  This is either education or work experience.
  • State succinctly your accomplishments.
  • Do not diminish your accomplishments.
  • It is not bragging.  It is stating facts.

Interview

Dress professionally and be between ten and fifteen minutes early.  This demonstrates that you respect the person's time and want the job.

Expect some difficult questions.  Your answers cannot be failures.  The answer quickly explains the situation and how the problem no longer exists or was overcome through the interviewee's skills, work ethic, and tools.  Thus, you learned, grew and succeeded.  Some typical questions are:

  • Name a time you failed?
  • Give an example when a group did not function well?
  • What was the most difficult class or intellectually challenging topic in your schooling?

Expect some technical questions.

  • As a systems engineering, what are your personal stakeholder needs in this job search and convert two into formal system requirements?
  • Describe the link between a use case and an activity diagram in SysML.
  • Describe a life cycle model and explain one of the stages.

Try to turn the interview into a converation.  Ask questions.  The salary, vacation days, benefits questions, cannot be the first or last question asked.  The questions you ask should indicate a desire to do effective work at the company.

  • What does a typical day look like for someone in this position?
  • What have people in this position done to excel?
  • How collegial is the environment?
  • If I were to get an offer, what advice would you give me?

During the interview try to succintly get your point across.  Looking up strategies like EARL: Event, Action, Results, Learning or STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result will help you stay focused in the interview and leave a better impression.

Recieving an Offer

Congratulations, you got an offer.  If you were the manager, would you want an employee that takes the first offer?  Most people do not want an employee that is just content with anything.

You should negotiate something.  If you negotiate too much, you may be labeled as difficult and even lose the offer.  It is a delicate balance.  The easiest things to negotiate are additional moving expenses, a signing bonus or small salary increase.  Present facts with your argument.  Using information like the national average starting salary or Utah's cost of living index may provide some basis for your request.

Note: Internships are short and probably not worth trying to negotiate something.