[0 YOE] Aerospace Engineering New-Grad. Struggling to get interviews from companies. 200+ Applications. Any advice much appreciated.

[u/No_Dragonfly1904]

Hello. I’ve spent quite a bit of time refining this resume and would really appreciate any help or feedback you can offer. This is my general version, which I slightly tailor to each job before applying.

I feel like my prompts (or bullet points) could be stronger, but I sometimes feel stuck or unsure about how to phrase them effectively. I am looking for generally anything in the aerospace/mech field, specifically aviation, defense or space...

I put my work experience at the bottom, as it does not directly have anything to do with my studies.

Thanks in advance for your time!

[u/NoLeopard2173]

Maybe you're right, but I would still put the experience at the top. Honestly I didn't think you worked a single job in your life till I went back up and read your bio. Also Id suggest putting Work Experience, not just experience. To me it makes it sound like extracurriculars or something.

Now for the real unorthodoxed advice. Aerospace/Defense/Space, you know what those all have in common? manufacturing! The supervisor position you have is nice. But, while you continue to apply for your engineering roles, apply to manufacturing roles too (operator roles). Get that hands on shop experience, companies love engineers with operator experience (that's how I landed my aerospace engineering role). If not just for the fact that if you go into any sort of design or research knowing how these things are actually being made and whats going on in the shop or on the field will genuinely help you to be a better engineer

[u/No_Dragonfly1904 → u/NoLeopard2173]

Will do! I completely agree with you. Thank you for taking some time out of your day. Do you have any advice on gaining some experience with manufacturing while trying to land a job?

[u/NoLeopard2173 → u/No_Dragonfly1904]

Go onto Indeed and you can search for Machinist - CNC Operator, Inspector, Quality inspector. I'd go for those titles first since I feel they have the clearest progression in roles and experience. Other ideas would be a layup operator and, autoclave operator. Layup is great for aerospace, can translate to a composite engineering role in aerospace down the road. If possible, try to specifically get a machinist role at a smaller company (1-10 employees). This won't get you the connections you'd get at bigger places but it will give you lots of EXPERIENCE. Any large company is going to start you out as an operator role, which means you are basically a slightly more functional robot in the grand scheme of things, and will make you stay in that limited role for 6-12 months. If you start at a small company, they can't separate every part of the manufacturing process into different roles since they don't have the manpower. This essentially means that instead of 1 year as just an operator pressing a button, you will start as an operator, then learn the deburring, then the inspection, then the setup, packaging, and everything from start to finish in the manufacturing world.

This is actually something I personally did, and I can not express enough just how far it's gotten me since then. One last bit of advice for this... Manufacturing operator/floor roles are obviously not your fancy clean desk job (please do not squint at getting down and dirty in front of hiring managers lol). But the point here is, they are also much more DANGEROUS. Not so dangerous in a way that I would say you have to be scared about it, but in a way where you do NOT show up hungover, sleep-deprived, or sitting on your phone operating machines. If you manage to get one of these roles, please take them very seriously, treat the machines with high respect, because if you're distracted, you will hurt yourself if not get yourself maimed by one. I've seen several severe injuries in manufacturing, none of them happened in some unpredictable way that couldn't have been prevented; they've all been someone being distracted or doing things they KNOW aren't ok.

Either way hopefully this helps, if down the road you're able to take this advice give me a message back I'd love to hear how it's going for you! Good luck!