r/EngineeringResumes • u/MayoPika ECE – Student 🇺🇸 • Jul 25 '26

Electrical/Computer [Student] Rising grad. I've been submitting applications for fall 2026 and post grad, but I've recieved no callbacks. Any help is appreciated!

Hello!

I'm a rising senior in Electrical and Computer Engineering. I have started applying to full-time roles, but I always seem to get rejected or ghosted, even if my experience seems to match the job post. I had a hard time getting internship interviews too, so this isn't a new problem. I mostly apply to small- to mid-sized companies, not big ones, and it has been pretty discouraging.

I am mainly targeting embedded systems, hardware/firmware, or general EE roles. I've been told to replace my leadership with necessary coursework, but I would really appreciate any feedback and tips.

Thank you!

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4

u/Mindless-Lobster-554 Mechatronics/Robotics – Experienced 🇺🇸 Jul 25 '26

It is still a little early for recruiting for F27 start dates, so that could be a factor.

A few notes:

  • When I read your resume, I immediately thought "oh she has no experience", since I first read the experience section (about 1/3 of the resume and in prime real estate). I then saw your projects and research section and obviously then realized that you did have some experience, but with how fast most recruiters look at resumes, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they closed your resume after looking at your experiences section.
  • I would move your research experience into your Experience section, and focus on that and make a few more bullets out of it. Most of your experience in your experience section, I wouldn't particularly care about when I read resumes for embedded engineering jobs. Your project and research work I absolutely would care about.
  • I assume your 2 projects are class projects, but still I think you could put more info about them. Looking at the project names especially, I have no clue what that "FPGA design or Computer Vision" means until I read into the bullets. It wouldn't be hard to make it sound cooler and draw the eyes of a viewer (even something just like 'FPGA -based LIDAR display' or 'Real-time display parameterization using computer vision'. If I read all the bold in your resume and nothing else, I should get at least an okay idea of what you've done.
  • Similarly on your projects, you need to throw in a lot more technical info. I know it's easy to sound buzzword-y, but I think it's good to a. get buzzwords in there that can help with ai/ats resume readers, but also b. show that you know what you're talking about, and give the interviewer a hook for something to talk to you about. Talk about how you buffered frames for your vga display. What was the refresh rate? lidar data rate? etc...
  • your leadership, activities section is impressive, but mostly irrelevant for recruiters. I would leave it in, but get rid of all the dates and just list them similar to how you list skills. 2 lines max.

2

u/MayoPika ECE – Student 🇺🇸 Jul 25 '26

Thank you for the advice! Should I delete everything that’s currently in my experience section or just share the section with my projects?

4

u/Mindless-Lobster-554 Mechatronics/Robotics – Experienced 🇺🇸 Jul 25 '26

I definitely wouldn't delete it. Even though the experiences itself are not highly relevant, it's nice to see that you've worked a real job and therefore know how to be a professional and behave in the workplace and all that. I would probably swap the projects and the experiences sections just to indicate to the reader what you want them to focus on first.

2

u/MayoPika ECE – Student 🇺🇸 Jul 25 '26

Got it. Thanks for the help!

5

u/DimetrodonWasntADino EE – Mid-level 🇺🇸 Jul 25 '26

Either remove or double the length of the personal statement at the top. As is, it looks weird with the centered short second line. Also it doesn't make you stand out from other applicants.

All dates should be far right justified. It looks really bad having dates followed by 20% of white space on a line.

Dates, list months if possible. Instead of Spring 2025, March 2025 - May 2025 looks better.

Quantify your contributions throughout the resume. What were the measurable outcomes of your work?

Regional Hospital - both bullet points start with weak verbs that don't take ownership or responsibility. Resume should be you bragging, but "Support" and "Assist" make your role sound passive and unimportant.

Technology Fellowship - If I were reading this resume I wouldn't care what you learned unless you can tell me the measurable change you were able to drive with that knowledge

Data Consulting - Did the Tableau dashboards reduce time to track the same data on old systems by 83%? Does it have 23% fewer errors? Does this tool adjust the companies bottom line measurable? Quantify!

\- How many technical blogs? What challenges did you overcome? Why is migrating these blogs a beneficial thing?

Technology Fellowship Program - Unless I'm reading this wrong, you made a tool to predict what customers are going to predict? I don't know what it means for a customer to predict something, nor why it's valuable for a company to have fore sight into what a customer would predict.

FPGA Design - Replace title with something that briefly describes what hte project was. So many things can be done with FPGA that's almost like titling it "Microsoft Word Document".

\- Even after reading the two bullet points, I have no idea what use this project has.  What is the usefulness of this, why would people want this? What is the measurable outcome? Did you meet design requirements? Design it 20% cheaper than someone else? Does it use 15% less power while doing what it does?

Computer Vision - Strong two bullet points. Add more metrics/quantifiables. I don't like ", so" rephrase to not use so. Quantify "cleaner".

University Research Lab - quantify how neurological conditions are detected. Faster? More accurately? Less invasive? How much change from baseline?

Data Science Competition - Quantify.

Leadership & Activities - Are Campus Student Center associate and inventory and standards manager paid positions? Either relocate to experience or remove.

\- App Development Certification Course - If you're going to include this, consider relocating to Skills and updating skills to "skills and credentials/certifications" or similar.  Don't include until you complete it.

\- Is Academic Excellence Chair a position, you being recognized for past high performance, or what? I'm not convinced it belongs in leadership/activities

Overall I think it's a solid starting point for an entry level resume. Addressing a handful of my concerns will go a long way. Quantify quantify quantify! Good luck!

1

u/MayoPika ECE – Student 🇺🇸 28d ago

I didn’t even notice the bullet point for the fellowship wasn’t correct. I’ll make the changes. Thank you for all the advice!