Quick setup

Build one project you can defend. Put it on a one-page resume with a measured number in every bullet you can. Ask for a referral, then apply within two weeks of the posting, and on the first day if you can. After about 20 applications with no interviews, pause and reevaluate the resume, the channel, and the roles you target, then adjust and keep going. The 20 is a rule of thumb from experience, not a measured cutoff. Know every line of your resume when the interview comes, and never bluff. That is the whole guide. The rest of this page gives each step a few sentences and names the page that goes deeper.

The whole guide

Five steps in order: one project, one page, a referral and then the application, the interview, and the offer. A dashed note under the second and third steps says that after about 20 applications with zero interviews, you reevaluate the resume, the channel, and the targeting, then keep going.

1. One project

   Build it, measure it, and know every part of it.

2. One page

   Projects or experience first, dates on the right, a number in each bullet.

3. Referral, then apply

   Ask someone inside first. Apply within two weeks either way.

4. Interview

   Your projects, then fundamentals, coding out loud, and STAR stories.

5. Offer

   Get it in writing, compare it with pay data, then stop interviewing.

About 20 applications and zero interviews? Reevaluate the resume, the channel, and the targeting, then keep going.

The guide in one line. Each page on eeprep goes deeper on one step. Sources: Ashby's referral report (opens in a new tab), Greenhouse on what happens after you apply (opens in a new tab), and MIT's offer negotiation steps (opens in a new tab).

1. Build one project you can defend

Pick one build, aim it at what the company makes, and finish it with a measured number. Write down what broke and how you fixed it. One project you can explain line by line beats five you copied. One student's projects got them a job at Apple (opens in a new tab): an oscilloscope built on an STM32 board with 9 percent error, and an MCU in Vivado that ran a Mario game. The projects page covers how to pick and present a build, the software page covers firmware and lab scripts, and the hardware page covers bench skills and builds on a student budget.

2. Write one page a screener can read in seconds

One column, no photo, dates at the right margin, and a result in every bullet. One engineering hiring manager reads about 350 resumes a week (opens in a new tab) and finds maybe 20 good ones, so the first scan has to land. The resume page has the layout and the bullet pattern. The walkthrough page takes Alex's page from a first draft to the finished PDF, and the cleanup page is the audit to run before you send it.

3. Ask for a referral, then apply early

A referral is someone at the company putting your name forward for a specific job. In Ashby's report on 38 million applications from 2021 to 2024 (opens in a new tab), 40 percent of referred candidates got an interview and 3 percent of people who applied on their own did. Ask before you apply. If you cannot get one, apply within two weeks of the posting, because most recruiters read applications in the order they arrive (opens in a new tab). The getting hired page lists who to ask and the message to send.

4. Reevaluate after 20 quiet applications

After about 20 applications with zero interviews, reevaluate the resume, the channel, and the roles you target. Adjust one, then keep applying. In theory every resume is tailored to the job. That is unrealistic over dozens of applications, so keep one version per field you apply to, and adjust it for each posting. Talk to a professor who knows engineers, or meet the recruiter at a career fair, where the calls come while the reps are still on campus. The section on when online applications go quiet on the getting hired page has the stories behind the rule.

5. Know every line of your resume

Interviewers go 3 to 5 layers deep (opens in a new tab) on whatever you say: how did you do that, why that way, what broke. Prepare your own projects first, then fundamentals, then coding out loud, then a handful of STAR stories. Say what you do not know, and never bluff. The how to interview page follows a typical process from the phone screen to the offer.

6. Match the calendar

Internship posts open before new-graduate posts, so apply in late summer and fall. Full-time hiring has two peaks, September–November and January–March (opens in a new tab). The first internship page covers the internship calendar and what to do if a summer falls through. The first full-time role page covers senior-year recruiting, return offers, and reading an offer.

7. Keep learning after the offer

Read the datasheet, the app note, and the errata for every part you use. Take the FE exam near graduation if a PE license might ever matter to you. The forever learning page lists the free courses and the paperwork. The AI use page says where a tool helps in all of this and where it hurts.

Where the rule of 20 came from

The rule of 20 came from trial and error in a real search. The author's story page has the short version.