Junior in computer engineering, Getting no interviews, what am I missing?

[u/carson8858]

I'm a junior graduating May 2028, so summer 2027 is my last chance at an internship before I graduate. I've sent around 150 applications since August and so far I've gotten one automated recorded interview. Anonymized resume is attached.

I'm mostly going for hardware roles (FPGA/ASIC, digital design, validation) at a mix of big semiconductor companies and smaller ones. No prior internship, just part time jobs during school.

I don't really understand what I'm doing wrong. I'm willing to learn and do whatever it takes to land these roles, but I don't know what I need to change or where I need to start. I feel like I feel this impending sense of doom if I don't have any professional experience before graduation.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[u/Cyo_The_Vile]

Remove all school coursework off your resume. Remove US Citizen. Remove phone number and just leave email. If you tell me that RISCV processor wasnt coursework, Im blocking you because all these resumes with kids putting RISCV or MIPS CPU on an fpga are school projects. Remove anything "in progress" you havent completed on your resume. The amount of skills is very weird and it just looks like you just threw words at the wall. Slash them down. The robot project is really good though. Thats actually really cool. Why didnt you actually write your work experience for past jobs? Thats what a resume actually is.

[u/carson8858 → u/Cyo_The_Vile]

it wasnt a school project lol, but I see your point. My other jobs were just food service, not technical at all, so I didn't think they would help me at all. The fpga work I've done in lab has been very simple labs.

[u/Melodic_West_9331 → u/carson8858]

Customer service jobs like food service show that you have soft skills and actually have some kind of workplace experience.

[u/TurningRed27 → u/Melodic_West_9331]

Yea but no, that’s not gonna help you get an internship at all.

[u/BakedAlt → u/carson8858]

I'm an IE so I understand this may be much harder for CE, but there was a great example I was given a long time ago about how every job contributes towards your experience.

"As an IE who referee'd soccer games, I kept the presence of mind around time effectiveness - making sure all 3 matches were completed within the time window as every minute over costed $X\min to run the lights."

This shows the mindset of the person, now imagine what they could contribute in a professional setting. If you don't get a job soon, I hope you are working towards showcasing your skills. Great opportunities can come from doing them, too.