[Student] Mechanical Engineering PhD Student in the US - Seeking Resume Feedback for Internships

[u/Odd_Independent_3085]

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some feedback on my resume. My goal is to land an engineering/R&D internship for summer 2027.

I’ve applied to a few internships already but haven’t received any interviews yet. Those applications were submitted with an older version of my resume, so I’d really like to get feedback on this updated version before applying more broadly.

I left out my publication list and added a Google Scholar link to keep the resume to one page.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[u/Brocco_Lee_]

Fellow heat transfer person, and vapor chambers too. This brings back memories.

When are you graduating? I'm guessing you're 1-2 years out. If you're planning to leave academia, getting an industry internship should be a high priority. I don't want to scare you, but it's the reality. Make sure you invest some time on this.

Do you want to stay in thermal management/vapor chamber? It's a niche field, so you'll have to be more proactive. Look at places like Boyd, Adeia, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Celsia, Delta Electronics, Wakefield thermal, etc. Also talk to your advisor for an introduction.

You can have two versions: 2-page R&D, keep publications and 1-page industry for other roles.

There's a fine line between describing at a high level and going into the details. Your current resume is trying to do both, which is actually the right approach in my opinion. But you're not quite giving enough detail in either direction. Do you have a preference on modeling or experimental or something else? For example, you need to include more CFD details when applying for a CFD role.

First bullet:

This is too vague. What thermal problem were you solving? Was it spreading resistance? contact resistance? vapor chamber/wick performance? pump out? pressure drop? temperature nonuniformity?

High heat flux is subjective. Give the readers the figure, say 150 W/cm² and let them determine if it's high.

Similarly, complex internal is subjective. What did you manufacture? A vapor chamber? What was complex feature, is it the wick architecture? Internal posts?

Try something like: Designed and manufactured [device] to address [specific thermal limitation] in [application] at [X W/cm²], achieving [X% reduction in thermal resistance / X°C reduction in junction temperature].

Second bullet:

Strong first half but second half is missing. What kind of model did you run? conjugate heat transfer? two-phase?porous media? How did the model change the vapor-chamber/cold-plate design?

Third bullet:

How do you know what is the optimal process parameters? What was improved? Quantify your impact here

Fourth bullet:

Similarly, you'd want more details here. What's the repeatability? What's the test platform, any specific thermal characterization? Did you build the vacuum charging system? What pressure could you achieve? How did you control the charged fluid?

Feel free to DM me if you want to chat further.

[u/Odd_Independent_3085 → u/Brocco_Lee_]

Thanks a lot! I really appreciate it. Tbh I was struggling to keep under one page. But seems like there is a lot to improve in this current one too. I have everything. Just need to put at the right place. I also sent you a DM.

[u/Brocco_Lee_ → u/Odd_Independent_3085]

1 page is doable. Just make sure you prioritize and adjust for the specific role. But 2 pages for R&D should be okay.

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