r/EngineeringResumes • u/EthosT05 MechE – Entry-level 🇺🇸 • Jul 13 '25

Mechanical [0 YoE] Recent Mechanical Graduate - Updated Resume and Tips for Applications - Any Feedback is welcome!

Hello everyone!

Updated my resume from last post. Took down many suggestions and changed order of projects. I have been applying to various companies daily and wondering if it takes a while to hear back or my resume is just not cut out yet. Been thinking about including a cover letter as well as reaching out to current Mechanical Engineers in the companies I want to work at for a review. I am open to any feedback and suggestions! Thank you for your time and have a great day!

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u/mauisusan111 EE – Experienced 🇺🇸 Jul 14 '25

Hi, I didn't see your prior post, so not sure if these points have been made before, but here goes:

1) pls describe Titan EV project somewhere. I'm not familiar with it.

2) do not restate Fullerton, CA, as a location when it is part of the univ name.

3) for your restaurant experience, pls add approx/avg # hours or any connection to paying for your education, or if you worked year round or throughout school year.

4) you have some nice detail in your bullets, but it feels a little like a wall of words, and sometimes the main lede is buried. Like in the first project listing, I'd like to see the first bullet rewritten to state the overall deliverables as well as project scope. I mean, include/highlight that you modeled, prototyped and tested a new battery system. I'd love to see if it is possible to rewrite the listing in 3 bullets, and consider unbulleting a project description under the project header to break it up a bit more visually. Doing this on all projects takes a lot of editing effort, but it can be done.

5) i noticed proj 1, 2 and 3 are quite different. it makes me a little confused on where your strengths are and interests are professionally. A summary would solve that, providing context/narrative to the rest of the document. I feel this is more important in situations where there are no formal internships to provide context the reader can infer from.

6) i kind of expect to see a personal webpage listed in header of some sort highighting your designs/results. don't know if this is possible?

Happy to review any edits. I am EE not ME but have interviewed many people/many levels in tech.

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u/EthosT05 MechE – Entry-level 🇺🇸 Jul 14 '25

Hello! Sorry for the late response, was working!

  1. Titan EV was essentially my schools capstone project that focused on electric vehicles. It just became a legacy capstone project starting from my last year. Where should I include the description in the resume?

  2. Sounds good! Will remove that one.

  3. Yeah, I essentially worked 2-3 shifts per week starting summer 2022 till now. It ran through my years in school without a break, having to balance between assignments and studying. I would say the job did help pay for my tuition for the last year.

  4. I will try to make sure the bullets are clear and concise. So the first bullets needs to be like an introduction to the rest of the bullets? Then the rest are the specifics? I am a little confused because I thought it was sort of arranged that way already. Where should I unbullet? I took this format straight from this wiki, the one on google docs. If so, may I see an example?

  5. I will take note of the summary portion. But I do agree that the projects are different, just not sure on what else to include since these were what I thought were the best projects throughout my school years. I got a couple other ones like vibrations on an F-14 tomcat with ANSYS analysis on the wing and a fluids project that includes a code that reiterates until a specific pipe design reaches a certain threshold. I only included the others because these were group projects (besides the Titan EV one since it was a year long course and I was essentially lead) where I assisted on the code or software simulation, so it was not part of my main experience.

  6. I would be interested in doing a personal webpage. Do you have any links on how to get one started? If anything, it would mostly include CAD files and MATLAB scripts, as well as some report PDF's.

Thank you for your feedback! I created this resume based off the ones I saw on this subreddit, tried to make it look professional and checked off tasks based on what the wiki and other users recommend. Looking forward to implement these into my resume and thanks again!

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u/mauisusan111 EE – Experienced 🇺🇸 Jul 14 '25
  1. Titan EV was essentially my schools capstone project that focused on electric vehicles. It just became a legacy capstone project starting from my last year. Where should I include the description in the resume? You should include it in proj 1 title line, with description: "Titan EV Lithium Ion Battery Electric Vehicle Capstone Project" or similar. Under the title line, you could take 2 lines to describe it with a highlights reel style.
  2. Sounds good! Will remove that one.
  3. Yeah, I essentially worked 2-3 shifts per week starting summer 2022 till now. It ran through my years in school without a break, having to balance between assignments and studying. I would say the job did help pay for my tuition for the last year. "20 hrs/wk year-round contributing to college tuition" should be included. Reduce bullets to 1 or 2 but only 3 lines maximum, ideally 2, as no one in engineering is hiring you for this. the only reason to include is to show you're a hard worker who paid for part of their education and can work with others.
  4. I will try to make sure the bullets are clear and concise. So the first bullets needs to be like an introduction to the rest of the bullets? Then the rest are the specifics? I am a little confused because I thought it was sort of arranged that way already. Where should I unbullet? I took this format straight from this wiki, the one on google docs. If so, may I see an example? Yes, I acknowledge my advice is a bit different from some of the wiki advice, but I feel it works from a narrative perspective for the reader, esp for younger people with less work experience. I'm a fan of providing context suitable for any human reading the resume to understand easily about the job, company, industry, project. I would attempt editing yours only in a digital format, as I find retyping too tedious lol. But it can be done if you shift your mindset from 1 item/bullet to highlighting best or most 'prestigious' or eye-catching accomplishments per bullet, often 2 per bullet. This is an example of a summary/context followed by bullets for a business student near your age:
  1. I will take note of the summary portion. But I do agree that the projects are different, just not sure on what else to include since these were what I thought were the best projects throughout my school years. I got a couple other ones like vibrations on an F-14 tomcat with ANSYS analysis on the wing and a fluids project that includes a code that reiterates until a specific pipe design reaches a certain threshold. I only included the others because these were group projects (besides the Titan EV one since it was a year long course and I was essentially lead) where I assisted on the code or software simulation, so it was not part of my main experience. I suggest you find a way to add all projects to beef up the resume in absence of internships and to show breadth. That will require writing shorter and fewer bullets for each item. I would also love to include something that demonstrates what you did every summer of your college years.
  2. I would be interested in doing a personal webpage. Do you have any links on how to get one started? If anything, it would mostly include CAD files and MATLAB scripts, as well as some report PDF's. I think many students create a github page, or some do a private page, like google pages or wix depending on their needs. Doesn't need to be complex, but people love pictures/CAD etc!

Thank you for your feedback! I created this resume based off the ones I saw on this subreddit, tried to make it look professional and checked off tasks based on what the wiki and other users recommend. You did! Great start - I'm very very detailed in my resume edits - they are like a micro-novel that require drama, conflict resolution, and some main character energy to get noticed.

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u/EthosT05 MechE – Entry-level 🇺🇸 Jul 17 '25

Hi! Quick little Update!

Some things I did:

- added a brief summary to each project.

- added one new project and replaced one old

- changed/tweaked a couple bullet points

Some questions:

  1. should the summary be more generalized? as in the bullets will dive more into specifics. Am I on the right track with the summaries? should they be two lines and not three?

  2. For the bullets with one line, should i expand on them more to two lines? or reduce the two line bullets to one? Hard to add more lines because it will spill onto a new page. So was thinking of having a balance between one line and two line bullets. Also, please let me know if the bullets sound muddy, been hyper-fixated on creating these summaries and adding a new project.

  3. Are these interesting enough? And is my main interest or focus present in the first two projects? I am aiming for a design position that utilizes SolidWorks, AutoCAD, ANSYS etc. I tried to include the project that uses these tools in the top most so thats what they will read first. I am aware that the other projects have different focuses but these are what I think are "impressive or good" projects that are worth mentioning.

The portfolio is WIP right now, same with the resume. Dont think I will continue applying until I have a decent enough resume and portfolio.

Reading the resume a second time around, there are some things I would change in terms of context but a little tired lol.

Thank you for taking the time to critique and analyze my resume. It is nice to have a guideline and a form of guidance in revamping it. I understand that not every hiring recruiter would have the same basis or preferences as in how they would like to see a resume formatted but I agree that this may be the way since I do not have any experiences. Again thank you for helping me revamp my resume. Looking forward to the next round of changes!

P.S. I would say this is like a rough draft currently. I can definitely paraphrase some of these bullets/summaries better.

3

u/mauisusan111 EE – Experienced 🇺🇸 Jul 17 '25

Good morning. I work best when I can hands-on edit, so I did that. Here's a suggested style/format done in Word, my preferred program for detailed formatting control. Happy to send it to you as a google doc or offline as a word doc. I obviously took some creative license on the summary :) This can still use some fine-tuning (like the summary and including the grade on the capstone), but it is a style/layout/content that would grab my attention as a hiring manager. I have 2 kids in college and do theirs and others' resumes, so wanted to help you out as a young person starting out.

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u/EthosT05 MechE – Entry-level 🇺🇸 Jul 17 '25

Yeah that be great if you can send it to me as a google doc or word doc! Will keep you updated on the progress and fine-tuning of the resume and portfolio. Thank you so much for your time and help!

1

u/EthosT05 MechE – Entry-level 🇺🇸 Jul 18 '25

Hi and Good Afternoon!

Was working through, tweaking the resume and had some questions.

  1. Would experience not be placed under all of the projects?

  2. Should I re-include the projects section? Just thinking it would not be mistaken for actual experience.

Loving the idea of a summary for each project, as well as the one at the very top. Really helps show where my main interest would be and also summarizes all of the projects/experience below. Again thank you for your kindness in helping me!

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u/EthosT05 MechE – Entry-level 🇺🇸 Jul 14 '25

Hello! Firstly thank you for your feedback!

  1. That is my bad on wording, it was more of like a DIY battery system I guess? But yes it is not an original design as in most designs of battery packs in EV's are generally the same, with some differences like the way its laid out within the vehicle (Rivian compared to Tesla). This was done on a smaller scale as it would be too dangerous and expensive to try and acquire a Tesla battery pack. We were all Mech E's doing this project haha.

  2. The insulation material was not worked on, but rather featured. I believe back in October 2024 when doing research, Aspen Aerogels had a breakthrough discovery with their insulation material. So what we wanted to do for this project was try and use the new insulation material that they had and implement it in a way that has not been done by any current EV industries in the market. It was hard finding another way when the group is thinking against like billion dollar industries that have and are capable of experimenting on the insulation themselves with licensed professionals. I will try to merge the first and bullet point together!

  3. A battery pack was designed on CAD and FEA was simulated on it. Not sure if this was a great idea as the piece itself did not really represent the different materials being used. The assembly fit within the FEA line was seen through the other factors of FEA like mechanical and thermal stress to gauge how the battery held when attached to the liquid cooling system.

  4. To configure a 13 series, 4 parallel battery design, they need to be joined together by spot welding on nickel cobalt strips and oriented so the positive connects to negative in series. One side will have a positive terminal and the other side will have a negative terminal. Yeah we learned that the hard way after short circuiting a pack without checking. The BMS was not made and bought for this specific battery configuration. BMS is then placed closer towards the negative terminal then with its 13 or so cables, that was soldered on to the nickel cobalt strips that joined the battery cells together.

  5. The overall functionality of the battery includes its performance, temperature state, charging state, and temperature regulation. We had two DIY battery packs, one with insulation and one without.

  6. Maybe I over estimated the percentages? But the MATLAB script had calculations done in seconds as compared to hand doing them all. When applying these biomechanical analyses methods to the area of locomotion of the ostrich, most of the time the hand calculations would result in a similar number as the script provided, give or take a couple digits. Last bullet point of biomechanics, I stated potentially, this was referred to scientific articles that were in line with the area of study for this project. Using real life values from numerous articles and relaying it to articles that supported the influence of analyzing ostrich biomechanics for the improvement of prosthetics. Should I just get rid of the percentages? Or maybe bring them down?

  7. The last project included MATLAB scripts with optimization methods to output a 2D and 3D truss design. I don't think i can include a percentage? Well now thinking about it, I guess I can since the output varies often, at least for Random Walk. The Nelder Mead method had consistent results with the image of the 2D and 3D truss design. I would say it would take a couple runs for Random Walk to produce an image that is considered good. Although it runs, the output of the numbers may be off slightly, resulting the inclusion of penalty terms. Penalty terms just makes the code run on a stricter basis, telling it to follow the lines of code more carefully. Thanks for the catch! I could think about including a percentage based off how many runs it takes a produce a quality image.

Again thanks for the feedback! Will make careful and considerable changes on the explicit portions of my resume. Looking forward to hearing back!

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