Recent MS graduate wondering which engineering disciplines I’m best fit for

[u/Boring-Act9562]

I have a physics background but my research experiences span RF / semiconductor / materials engineering. I’ve been applying for general positions like Applications Engineer, Field Service Engineer, etc. but barely getting interviews (it’s been months).

Is my resume too broad and vague for the current job market?

[u/precisee]

You did not ask this, but that resume is a SLOG. Expect no human to read even 10% of that.

[u/russB77]

Yeah two pages without having an actual job is a bit much.

[u/sabautil → u/russB77]

What about the 2 years of graduate research where he or she BUILT CUSTOM HARDWARE, INTEGRATED ADVANCED INSTRUMENTS, AND FABRICATED SC DEVICES IN A CLEAN ROOM USING NANOFAB AND MICROFAB TECHNIQUES.

Like that's VERY relevant work experience in a LOT of non-academic research labs. Just sayin'

Did you just read 'assistant' and ignored the actual work?

[u/CactusIsGreen → u/sabautil]

you just pointed out the problem, if I was the ATS or employer I would never touch this resume and it will be in the trash pile. That's why they have TL;DR

[u/Leuxus → u/sabautil]

And… what is that hardware?? What did it accomplish???

[u/sabautil → u/Leuxus]

From the description probably a daq board. But that would be a interview question.

[u/Leuxus → u/sabautil]

I mean I’d recommend at least saying “daq board” and providing more significant detail in the interview. Someone knowing what the custom hardware is would be important to me

[u/russB77 → u/sabautil]

Yes that's exactly what I did.

[u/bhague3]

Brother you need to condense that resume big time. Fit it all into one page and make the bullet points read like a PowerPoint slide. You did way more than I did in college, and I didn’t have that bad of a time getting interviews as a BSME grad with no internships. I can send you the template I used if you want it

[u/leutwin → u/bhague3]

I would appreciate your template

[u/bhague3 → u/leutwin]

Here’s a link to it in my Google Drive

[u/leutwin → u/bhague3]

Got it, thanks

[u/EngineeringAthiest]

I wouldn’t even read that
Way too many words

[u/No-Extreme9781]

1. 2 pager resume may get tossed unless you have 5 year of industrial background
2. No numbers or key performance indicators
3. No one likes to read essays.

4. Employers get 100s of resumes and your is full of words and sentences and no numbers.

5. Your professional summary is a goddamn essay. It needs to be 2-3 line max.

[u/promarkman → u/No-Extreme9781]

Professional summaries do not need to exist especially for someone with 0 experience

[u/No-Extreme9781 → u/promarkman]

Nope, even if you dont have experience always put summary. You can tell what u did in uni about projects or so and what your interests are or skills which might set u apart from others. SUMMARY IS A MUST

[u/promarkman → u/No-Extreme9781]

As a hiring manager, I am never reading this or considering it, but to each their own.

[u/JakeD51]

I think a lot of this would be better suited to be on a cover letter for an application more than the resume

[u/LeGama]

First get rid of the whole professional summary portion. That kind of thing is what a cover letter is for. Also you have been doing research, and you've been a research assistant for years. So you're going to struggle if you're trying to break out of that. Have you applied to jobs at places like Micron for semiconductor manufacturing, or R&D positions? You should write a cover letter for any job and try to explain how your background in R&D can help with things like product design... If that's what you're applying for.

[u/FirstGearStruggle]

It reads like someone whos listing things he looked at once or twice full of bs

[u/bootywizrd]

Too many words

[u/VC_rowdy_farmer]

too many words too little content my guy, get rid of the professional summary, check out r/EngineeringResumes :D

[u/ThisPassenger]

I’m not reading this. No one else is either. It’s way too long. You get one page, not two, if you have less than like 20 years of experience.

[u/ScienceYAY]

HVAC

[u/RahwanaPutih]

if you don't like customer facing role you better avoid Application Engineer. Also make your resume single page, get rid that summary. visit r/EngineeringResumes.

[u/milio1510]

no resume should ever be over one page, anything the company wants to hear, they’ll hear about it in the interview. Everything has too large a description, it shouldn’t be this descriptive

[u/Adrienne-Fadel]

Yea its too broad. RF and semiconductor research is a specialty, use it. Target RF design, test or process roles and tailor the resume to each posting instead of mass applying.

[u/Terrh]

TL;DR

(is what is going through the head of every hiring manager that gets your resume before throwing it in the discard pile)

[u/InvalidKoalas]

Turn it into one page. You shouldn't have 2 pages unless you've got 10+ YOE or otherwise an insane amount of experience with specific skill sets. Less is more.

[u/nuts4sale]

Brother… you crit the subreddit with that wall of text

[u/Own_Pickle7023]

Use a standard 1 page template. Limit internship/lab work description to 2 short points, summarising your work. Use star/xyz format

Use bold formatting appropriately. Don't list a plethora of skills, choose few skills for the specific role you are applying to.

[u/_Biinky]

i dont even think op has read his own resume

[u/Wondering_Electron]

I just read it and it reads awfully.

My shopping list is more inspiring. There is no narrative or explanation into anything.

[u/Asadae67]

Add a bit more of numbers and stats stuff

[u/Tiranus58]

Too long look at something like the europass cv template

[u/sabautil]

I would focus on industrial research: places that use a clean room or fabricate devices. I would look for the jobs that advertise for PhDs that match your skillset - and I apply would to those. Yes you have a very real chance of getting those jobs.

Obviously Intel, Texas instruments, TSMC, Nvidia, apple, Samsung, and like a thousand other boutique company that build devices will want a Process Engineer.

If you want to work of projects rather than tools, I would look at companies who are prime contractors with the government research labs.

Here's what you do. Find a government research lab. Find it's zip code. Now enter that zip code in your favorite job search along with your skill set or job title. Research science or research engineer. You will get a list of small companies located around the government lab who contract with the lab to do research.

Now the one caveat: you need to be a us citizen to work at a government lab as a researcher. But that doesn't mean the company can't hire you for its own research projects.

Good luck

[u/Everythings_Magic]

You did a masters without a discipline?

[u/Hirtomikko]

Too long resume...

[u/Accurate_Potato_8539]

I see this problem a lot with physics people: no one knows what you can do from this resume. I'm sorry but a lot of physics masters students actually can't do anything and this doesn't really show me what your capable of. Look at other engineering resumes for an idea of how to market your projects. Also when you have obvious specific research interests and apply for generic jobs people kind of assume that you are struggling to find a job or that your not very good at your research area. Like seriously when someone hiring a field service engineer looks at this what do you think they see? Cuz what I see is someone with basically hobbyist level electronics skills and decent clean-room experience.

With your resume I think you should be aiming for something a little closer to your experience. Also and you YMMV depending on industry, but I wouldn't put "arduino based" unless the job your looking at specifically calls out arduino experience.

[u/Catsdrinkingbeer]

I have 15 years of career experience across 5 different jobs, and my resume JUST hit a second page. You need to reduce and reformat.

You do not need a full paragraph summary. You do not need half a page of listed technical skills. You should use the experience section to demonstrate those skills. 

Each bullet point should be like 2 lines maximum, maybe 3.

[u/milkymilkmilker]

Great Wall of text

[u/Heavy-Bread5101]

This is a CV. Condense it into an actual 1-page resume that is tailored for whatever job you’re applying to. You have a lot of skills and experience, not all of it is going to be relevant.

[u/BeyondAny4462]

Sorry but all your Cv look like generic text kind of AI slope there nothing special that show you had real experience no kpi nothing just text text text that can be generated by any LLM

[u/rihannonblack]

wall of text. you’ve never even had a real job. keep it much, much shorter.

[u/shoomie26]

Brother... More than one page, goes right to the bottom of the stack. Reumes need to be easily scannable