Resume

Keep your resume to one page. Lead with your strongest section, and put a measured number in every bullet you can. A screener's first scan takes seconds and covers company names, titles, and dates.

This page condenses the r/EngineeringResumes wiki (opens in a new tab), the threads cited on these pages, and posts from recruiters on X, for EE, embedded, FPGA, and PCB work under US and Canadian norms. Where the advice is eeprep's own, the page says so. Every bracket is a number you measure yourself.

Start from the wiki's LaTeX template (opens in a new tab). Michigan Engineering (opens in a new tab) says LaTeX is incompatible with most ATS, and MIT's career office (opens in a new tab) warns it can confound one, so check your PDF as plain text. Try to get a referral first.

How a resume gets read

The first scan takes about 20 seconds at Michigan Engineering and 7.4 in a 2018 eye-tracking study by Ladders, a job site, which did not publish its sample size (opens in a new tab). A recruiter (opens in a new tab) and the same Ladders study (opens in a new tab) agree that company, title, and dates get read first.

At many companies, the applicant tracking system (ATS, the software that stores applications) does not auto-reject. A recruiter on X listed 41 systems (opens in a new tab) that do not. Knockout questions on the form can cut you (opens in a new tab), and a specialist says (opens in a new tab) Greenhouse can do so on screening questions but not on resume content. Greenhouse documents its auto-reject rules (opens in a new tab).

Three habits follow:

1. Apply early. Most recruiters review in the order applications arrive (opens in a new tab), and one manager reviews the first 150, probably reviews 150-300, and likely will not review 300 or more (opens in a new tab).
2. Apply with a clear goal. A defense and aerospace manager can see every other job you applied to at that company. Five applications in design read as a plan. Thirty-nine scattered ones do not.
3. Write for a reader who is not an engineer. The wiki says to spell out an uncommon abbreviation the first time.

How a resume gets read

Software stores it, and people read it.

Step 1

You apply

Apply early. One manager reads about the first 150 applications.

Step 2

The ATS stores it

At many companies, it stores your resume and does not auto-reject it.

automatic cuts happen here

Knockout questions

Form answers can cut you automatically.

Step 3

A recruiter skims it

Companies, titles, and dates get read first.

Step 4

A manager reads it

Fast, often against hundreds of other resumes.

Exact steps vary by company.

Layout

These wiki rules (opens in a new tab) carry the most weight:

• Keep it to 1 page. The wiki allows a second page at about 10 years of experience, and a recruiter on X calls one page a myth (opens in a new tab) for a longer career.
• Use a single-column layout (opens in a new tab) with no icons, images, or graphics. One recruiter rejects tables and self-rated skills (opens in a new tab) too.
• Use black text and line spacing of at least 1.07.
• Do not use justified text or indent sections by hand.
• Right-align every date to the right margin.
• Use bold sparingly, and never on keywords inside a bullet.
• Keep the gap between every pair of sections the same. In LaTeX, use one \vspace value everywhere.

eeprep adds two rules. Keep text at 10 to 11 pt and margins at 0.5 in. Michigan (opens in a new tab), Georgia Tech (opens in a new tab), Mines (opens in a new tab), MIT (opens in a new tab), and Berkeley (opens in a new tab) all set 0.5 in as the smallest margin. Georgia Tech, Mines, MIT, and Berkeley also use 10 pt as the smallest text, where the wiki asks for 10.5. Center the header and left-align everything below it.

Layout do's and don'ts

Boring layouts read faster

Columns

Do · one column

Don't · sidebar, photo

A sidebar hides tool use.

Dates

Do · right margin

Don't · scattered

Aligned dates are easy to scan.

Space

Do · full, even gaps

Don't · empty or crammed

Fill the page, no cramming.

Wireframes are schematic.

If you write in pdfLaTeX, add these lines to the preamble:

\input{glyphtounicode}
\pdfgentounicode=1
\hypersetup{pdftitle={Alex Doe Resume}, pdfauthor={Alex Doe}}

The first 2 lines map glyphs to Unicode. Without them, the pdfTeX manual (opens in a new tab) says search is likely to fail on ligatures such as "fi". XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX do not need them. hyperref (opens in a new tab) sets the metadata, and no source says an ATS reads it.

Section order

Lead with your strongest section. The order depends on what you have:

Who	Order	From
Student with no technical job yet	Education, Skills, Projects, Experience	The wiki (opens in a new tab), Skills moved up
Student whose projects are the strongest part	Projects, Experience, Education, Skills	eeprep's advice
Graduate at work	Experience, Education, Skills	The wiki, Skills under Education
Working engineer	Experience, Projects, Education, Skills	eeprep's advice

Skills goes right under Education whatever else leads, because a recruiter with 700 or more resumes (opens in a new tab) wants skills near the top.

Cut the objective or summary. The wiki keeps one only for senior engineers, career changers, and people returning from a gap (opens in a new tab). If you keep one, make it one line that names the role.

Header

Center your name in large type, with one contact line under it and no rule line between them. Separate the items with a vertical bar, and use no icons or labels such as "Phone:". Write links as plain text. Click every link before you send (opens in a new tab), because hiring managers see dead links all the time. If you are willing to move, put "Willing to relocate" next to your location. The wiki says a city far from the job can count against you.

Education

Put the degree and GPA on the first line. The school goes under it, with the graduation date at the right margin. Then add one line each for "Relevant coursework:" and "Activities:", with the label in bold. The wiki says to drop high school, and eeprep allows it in your first year only. With a master's degree, keep the bachelor's line too (opens in a new tab).

The wiki says to leave coursework off unless it is extremely specialized. List upper-level electives that match the posting, such as Power Electronics or Digital Design. Move topics such as orbital mechanics here from Skills.

Michigan Engineering says to list GPA above 3.0 (opens in a new tab), and the wiki says above 3.75. eeprep's rule: list a GPA of 3.50 or higher. From 3.0 to 3.49, list it when the posting sets a minimum you meet, as the getting hired page says. Below 3.0, leave it off. Match the decimals (opens in a new tab), as in 3.30/4.00.

Bullets

Write results, not duties. A recruiter on X calls generic responsibilities the most common resume mistake (opens in a new tab). Use one pattern: did X with Y to get Z. X is the action, Y is the tool or method, and Z is the result. The wiki teaches it as the XYZ, STAR, and CAR methods, and a reviewer's guide (opens in a new tab) explains why. Put the number early.

One bullet, before and after

Did X with Y to get Z

Before

Worked on a buck converter for a CubeSat using LTspice and KiCad.

"Worked on" hides what Alex did. There's no spec, no check, and no result.

After

X · action + one specDesigned a [X] W CubeSat buck converter in Y · toolKiCad and LTspice, Z · measured resultmeasured at [X]% efficiency on an electronic load

Screeners filter on X and Y. Hiring managers choose from the Zs.

Alex Doe is a made-up student.

Rules for each bullet:

• Start with a past-tense verb such as designed, built, or reduced. Skip helped, assisted, worked on, and utilized.
• Fill one line, or most of a second one. Count 2 words alone on a second line as wasted space.
• Say how the parts work together. The wiki says a parts list, such as a Raspberry Pi and a stepper motor, tells the reader little.
• Check a simulation with a hand calculation, and say so.
• Ask what happened next: did the design fix the problem?
• Do not inflate. One manager said (opens in a new tab) an intern who claims $2 million in yearly savings will be asked to justify it.

For embedded work, lead with the action and do not force a number. One reviewer told a student (opens in a new tab) that "designed a PCB in KiCad" says more than exact step-down voltages. A spec belongs in the bullet when it shows difficulty, such as register-level SPI setup. The wiki's EE samples (opens in a new tab) have more worked bullets.

Projects

Projects is often a student's strongest section, so give it the most room. Leave the word "project" out of each title. Put the tools in parentheses after the name and the dates at the right margin, as \textbf{CubeSat Power Board} (KiCad, LTspice) \hfill Fall 2025 -- Spring 2026. Use one date style inside each section. eeprep dates projects by semester and jobs by month, though the wiki prefers months.

Add bullets to the best projects and skip weak ones. Give firmware, and for FPGA work testbenches, their own bullets. Pick a problem first and build toward it (opens in a new tab).

Class work beats an empty page. A senior design project that missed its spec is still worth listing. Give the numbers you did reach. Move real technical club work, such as a CubeSat team, out of Activities and into its own Projects entry.

Experience

Call the section Experience, not Work History. Give each role a bold job title and company, the dates at the right margin, the location, then bullets. With good engineering experience, give a non-engineering job one line, or drop it. Without that, give it bullets.

Skills

Keep skills to a couple of lines, written as comma-separated lists with a bold label, such as Software: KiCad, LTspice, C, Python. Add a Hardware/Lab line for equipment such as an oscilloscope. List a certification only if you can prove it, such as CSWP (opens in a new tab). Order items from most to least relevant to the posting, and cut soft skills. Drop a vague Knowledge line unless it is certifiable.

Use the exact product names (opens in a new tab), such as C, C++ (not C/C++) and Ansys HFSS (opens in a new tab). The wiki wants a single-column page layout. In the skills section it asks for multiple columns, one line per group. Every skill needs a bullet behind it (opens in a new tab), so repeat each project's tools in Skills. Keep an interests line only if it is specific.

Tailor it to the posting

A resume works best when it matches the posting in front of it. That is often unrealistic, so keep 4 or 5 versions, each aimed at one niche, and send the closest. An aerospace chief engineer (opens in a new tab) says to derive each version from a master resume, and Ask a Manager (opens in a new tab) recommends multiple versions for a few categories of jobs. Only the order, the depth, and the wording change. Nothing goes on a version that is not true on all of them.

One set of facts, five versions

One inventory of facts feeds five versions: embedded firmware, hardware and power, test and validation, signals and controls, and general. Only the lead project, the second lines, the coursework, and the Skills wording change.

The inventory

• Every project, with its measured numbers
• Every job, engineering or not
• Courses, tools, and instruments

1. Embedded firmware

   firmware projects lead

2. Hardware and power

   board and converter work leads

3. Test and validation

   bench scripts and measurements lead

4. Signals and controls

   DSP and controls projects lead

5. General

   for fairs and referrals, no role named

What changes between versions

• Which project leads
• Which bullets get a second line
• The coursework line
• The wording on the Skills lines

The facts do not.

One set of facts feeds every version. Send the closest one.

When one posting matters, tailor by hand. Read its requirements, find where you have already done each one, and move that work up. Use the posting's word for the same experience. Leave off anything you have not done, and apply anyway if the gap is a tool or a year, because an EE graduate with 3 offers lacked 2 of the 4 required skills (opens in a new tab) for the job they took. If the gap is the degree or a license, it is usually a hard filter, as one reply put it (opens in a new tab).

Write a cover letter when your resume is not an obvious fit. One manager said (opens in a new tab) the good ones were 2 short paragraphs on why you meet the posting.

Get more than one reviewer: the career center, two or three engineers in your field, and the r/EngineeringResumes forum (opens in a new tab) with your personal details removed. They will disagree. If three strangers stumble on the same bullet, that bullet has a problem. Give the most weight to people who hire where you want to work.

To have a coding agent follow these rules, see the AI use page.

Alex's finished page

Alex's finished page

One page, one column, dates on the right

Made-up exampleAlex Doe is not a real student.

Alex Doe

alex@[school].edu | linkedin.com/in/alex-doe-example | github.com/alex-doe-example

[phone] | City, ST | Willing to relocate

Education

B.S. Electrical Engineering, GPA [X.XX]/4.00

[University]

Expected Spring 2027

Relevant coursework: Embedded Systems, Power Electronics, Digital Design

Activities: IEEE student branch, Tau Beta Pi

Skills

Software: KiCad, LTspice, C, Python

Hardware/Lab: STM32, oscilloscope, electronic load, logic analyzer

Projects

CubeSat Power Board (KiCad, LTspice)

Fall 2025–Spring 2026

• Designed a [X] W CubeSat buck converter in KiCad and LTspice, measured at [X]% efficiency on an electronic load
• Cut output ripple from [X] mV to [X] mV by shrinking the switching loop, verified on an oscilloscope

Bench Data Logger (STM32, C, Python)

Spring 2025

• Wrote STM32 firmware in C to sample a 4-channel SPI ADC at [X] kHz and stream it to a Python logger
• Moved UART writes to DMA after a logic analyzer showed dropped samples, cutting losses to [X]%

Experience

Sales Associate, [Retail store]

Summer 2023–Summer 2024

City, ST

1. Centered header. One contact line.
2. Dates at the right margin. Five of the six samples do this.
3. One line of coursework. Courses that match the posting.
4. Skills right under Education. Four of the six samples do this. Each of Alex's eight tools appears in a bullet.
5. Projects above Experience. Alex has no engineering job yet.

Dashed outlines are callouts and don't appear on the real page.

Layout from the r/EngineeringResumes wiki (opens in a new tab), plus eeprep's centered header, checked against six career center samples.

Section titles, entry titles, and the coursework, activities, and skills labels are bold. Nothing else is. Samples: Georgia Tech (opens in a new tab), MIT (EECS) (opens in a new tab), Illinois (opens in a new tab), UIC (opens in a new tab), Oregon Tech (opens in a new tab), and Pitt (opens in a new tab).

Checklist

Review in two passes, content first and the page second. The cleanup page has the full audit.

Two-pass checklist

Fix the content, then fix the page

Pass 1

Content

What the page says

• 1 column, 1 page, black text, no icons or tables
• Header centered, the rest left-aligned
• Strongest section first, no objective
• One contact line, plus relocation
• Degree, GPA if listed, one coursework line
• Each bullet has an action, a tool, and a number
• Projects get the most room
• Unrelated jobs cut to one line
• Skills on a couple of lines, no soft skills

Pass 2

Polish

How the page looks

• Equal gaps between sections
• Each bullet fills one line or most of two
• Project titles list tools, dates on the right
• One date style per section
• Bold only on titles and labels
• Every tool in Skills appears in a bullet
• No typos, stray periods, or GPA decimal mismatches

Review resumes in these two passes.

Build your resume

resume-generator (opens in a new tab) is a free, open-source tool that follows the layout on this page. Unzip the latest release (opens in a new tab), replace Alex Doe's details in resume.json with your own, and run ./run. It writes a PDF named after you, such as Alex-Doe-Resume.pdf. It runs on Linux, on macOS, and on Windows through WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).

What ./run does

Python 3 or LaTeX missing?

It asks before it installs anything.

It fits your resume onto one page

It tightens the text from 11 pt to 10 pt if needed. Margins stay at 0.5 in.

The page has room left

It spaces the sections out evenly.

Your resume still does not fit

It says about how many lines to cut.

It also flags wasted space

It names any bullet with a short second line.

How resume-generator gets your resume onto one page.

You still write the bullets, and you cut any that spill a word or two onto a second line.