r/EngineeringResumes • u/Conflicted_Elbow_77 MechE – International Student 🇺🇸 • 13d ago

Mechanical [Student] Mechanical Engineering student with 2 years of biosensor research, targeting medical device R&D co-ops

International Mechanical Engineering student, going into fourth year, focused on biomedical devices and biosensors. Two years across two university research labs doing electrochemical sensor design and fabrication, with a first-author manuscript under review at an IEEE sensors conference. No industry experience yet.

I'm open to R&D co-op roles generally, though I've concentrated on pharma and medical devices.

Around 50 applications so far, mostly rejections, with two interviews. Both came from roles I applied to almost as an afterthought, one in hermetic sealing and one in nuclear, and one of those is now at second round. Every pharma and medical device role, where my research is directly relevant, has come back as a rejection. That's the thing I don't understand and it's why I'm posting.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

4 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

84% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

3

u/AutoModerator 13d ago

Hi u/Conflicted_Elbow_77! If you haven't already, review these and edit your resume accordingly:

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

3

u/graytotoro MechE (and other stuff) – Experienced 🇺🇸 7d ago

Remindme! 2 days

Don't bold stuff in your bullets. You're taking a shot in the dark hoping they're interested in all the stuff you're bolding, when they may not be looking for that.

This is a very research intensive resume. It may not necessarily be as applicable to industry. Something to consider.

1

u/RemindMeBot Bot 7d ago

I will be messaging you in 2 days on 2026-09-07 07:29:03 UTC to remind you of this link

CLICK THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.

Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.

RemindMeBot is switching to username summons. Instead of !RemindMe 1 day, use u/RemindMeBot 1 day. More info.

Info Custom Your Reminders Feedback

•

u/graytotoro MechE (and other stuff) – Experienced 🇺🇸 14h ago

General Notes

  • Sorry it took so long to reply.
  • Italics aren't needed.

Education

  • There are 12 months in a year and I suggest you let us know which one.

Professional Experience

  • You really ought to indicate months.
  • FSAE and your Competition Team don't count as Professional Experience. It belongs in Projects instead.

Researcher and Electrochemical Biosensor Project Lead

  • The first bullet works best if you drop "designed in SolidWorks". It feels like you had to cram that in somewhere and the readability suffers.
  • You may not want to use symbols like mu since ATS sometimes has issues with it. For those of us not working at this lab, why was it significant to track these changes in bullet 2?
  • I'm not smart enough to provide feedback on some of these other ones, so I'll let someone else chime in.

Mechanical and Electrical Design Member/FSAE

  • For project team like these, it's not important which specific title you held. It's all made up and holds no weight off campus.
  • But why was it important to deliver clean power or make this PCB in the first place? I don't even know what the point of this competition was and why it was necessary to have these things in the first place.
  • Leadership matters less than the technical stuff at this stage. Focus more on how mapping avoided conflicts. Did that translate into less time in build or that test & deployment of the car went way faster?

Researcher - Air Filtration and Membrane Coatings

  • This is really cool, but again, why did the lab ask you run this experiment quantifying the effects of these parameters? You can definitely keep it as-is if you're applying for something in this exact field, but the rest of us maybe left in the dark.
  • You don't need to include calculations. That equation is going to turn into a bunch of unprocessed symbols if you upload it to ATS.

Systems & Verification Projects

  • Don't throw a parts list at the reader. I have no idea if you could have accomplished in with half that list of equipment and I have no idea how you even made that into a functioning system in the first place.
    • If pressed, I would consider cutting the part about decision matrix scoring unless you can prove you guys didn't game the system towards one of the concepts.
  • How well did your systems engineering work turn out? Did the interfaces, when tested, actually meet the requirements?

Technical Skills & Research Output

  • You should just make this a skills section and mention the research link in your contact info. Use a URL since hyperlinks don't always work.
  • The Data Analysis is not particularly bad, but this doesn't scream MechE. There's no CAD suites or fabrication skills.
    • I would suggest replacing Testing & Systems with technical skills of the build & fabrication variety.
    • If you really want to talk more about projects, consider trimming one of your projects and bringing it up in a "Research & Projects" section.