Walkthrough
This page takes one made-up student, Alex Doe, from a first draft a screener would skip to the page in the Alex's finished page section on the resume page. Each step names what to edit and why. The end product is a PDF you can download, built from a data file you can copy and fill in.
One thing to hold onto the whole way through. Projects earn the first interview, because they are what a student has before anyone has paid them to do engineering. Once you have an internship or a co-op, paid work takes over the page. A reader wants to know what value you added somewhere, and a paid role answers that in a way a class project cannot. Alex's page below is a projects page because Alex has no engineering job yet, and the section at the end shows what happens once that changes.
Projects first, then paid work
Two columns. Projects earn the first interview: what a student has before anyone pays them to engineer, proof you can build, measure, and finish, and the questions in the first interviews. Experience takes over the page: value added for someone who was paying for it, it takes the top of the page with the first internship, it pushes the oldest class project down and then off, and it is the questions in every interview after. An arrow from Projects to Experience is labeled: the first internship.
Start with an inventory
Section titled “Start with an inventory”Before you touch a template, list everything: class labs where you built or measured something, club builds, repairs, and every job. The section on the project inventory for students with no experience on the workshop page has the form. Alex's list came to two builds, a CubeSat power board and a bench data logger, a retail job, three upper-level courses, and two clubs. That is enough for one page.
The first draft
Section titled “The first draft”Alex's first draft reads like most first drafts. It opens with an objective, leads with the retail job, says "worked on" and "utilized", and lists teamwork as a skill. Five edits fix it.
Alex's first draft
Five edits turn this into the finished page
Made-up exampleEvery pin marks something to cut or change.
Alex Doe
Phone: [phone] | Email: alex.doe@[school].edu
Objective
Seeking a challenging engineering position where I can apply my skills and grow as a professional.
Work history
Sales Associate, [Retail store] (2023–2024)
- Responsible for customer service and stocking shelves
- Worked as part of a team in a fast-paced environment
Education
[University], B.S. Electrical Engineering, GPA [X.XX], graduating 2027
Projects
CubeSat Power Board Project(Fall 2025 - 2026)
- Worked on a buck converter for a CubeSat using LTspice and KiCad.
- Helped test the board in the lab.
Data Logger Project (2025)
- Utilized an STM32 to log data from sensors.
Skills
Teamwork, Communication, Leadership, Problem Solving, MATLAB, Python, C, KiCad, LTspice, Microsoft Office
References available upon request
- Cut the objective. The wiki keeps a summary only for senior engineers, career changers, and people returning from a gap. This one says nothing a screener can use.
- Move Projects above Experience. Alex has no engineering job yet, so a retail job at the top wastes the first scan. Education, then Skills, then Projects, then Experience.
- Rewrite every bullet as did X with Y to get Z. "Worked on" hides what Alex did, and there is no number. The finished bullet names the action, the tools, and a measurement.
- Put dates at the right margin, in one style. Dates in parentheses after a title make the screener hunt for them. Pick semesters or months and use that style on every line.
- Cut soft skills and the references line. Teamwork and communication show up in interviews, not in a list. Every tool that stays needs a bullet behind it. No resume needs a references line.
- Cut the objective. The wiki keeps a summary 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 you want.
- Move Projects above Experience. Alex has no engineering job yet, so the order is Education, Skills, Projects, Experience. That is the wiki's student default (opens in a new tab), with Skills moved up under Education. The retail job stays, on one line.
- Rewrite every bullet as did X with Y to get Z. "Worked on a buck converter for a CubeSat using LTspice and KiCad" becomes "Designed a [X] W CubeSat buck converter in KiCad and LTspice, measured at [X]% efficiency on an electronic load". The bullets section on the resume page shows the pattern, and the hardware builds that count section on the hardware page has longer lines for the same kind of build.
- Put the dates at the right margin, in one style. Alex uses semesters on every line. The wiki says that if you use months, do not mix them with semesters or seasons (opens in a new tab).
- Cut the soft skills and the references line. Teamwork shows up in an interview, not in a list, and every skill that stays needs a bullet behind it (opens in a new tab). Microsoft Office goes too.
Every [X] is a number Alex measures on the bench. If you do not have the number yet, go measure it. Do not guess it.
The finished page
Section titled “The finished page”The result is the finished page figure in the Alex's finished page section on the resume page: one column, a centered header, Projects above Experience, and two labeled skill lines where every tool appears in a bullet. Download the finished PDF (opens in a new tab) to see the real page.
The page is built from one data file. resume-generator (opens in a new tab) reads it and does the layout, so the content is all you write. Here is the projects block from Alex's data file (opens in a new tab):
"projects": [ { "title": "CubeSat Power Board", "tools": ["KiCad", "LTspice"], "start": "Fall 2025", "end": "Spring 2026", "bullets": [ "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" ] }]Copy the file, replace Alex's details with yours, and run ./run. It writes [Name]-Resume.pdf, fits it onto one page, and checks that the text extracts cleanly. The section on building your resume on the resume page has the download steps. If a bullet spills a word or two onto a second line, cut it or add a detail that fills the line, then run it again.
When experience takes over
Section titled “When experience takes over”Alex is a senior with no engineering job, so Projects carries the page. The same rules produce a different page in your first year and a different one at graduation, and the difference is mostly how much paid work there is to show. resume-generator ships five finished examples, all under the Alex Doe name, one for each stage. The senior page is the one these pages follow.
Five finished pages, first year to graduation
Five resume pages side by side. First year: education, two skill lines, one project, a one-line job, with room left at the bottom. Sophomore: education, two skill lines, two projects, a club lead role and a one-line job. Alex, a senior: education, two skill lines, two projects, a one-line job. New graduate: experience with two internships leads, then two projects, education, and three skill lines including certifications. Packed: three engineering roles and a one-line job lead, then three projects, education, and three skill lines, tightened to 10.25 point text to fit.
| Page, linked to its PDF | What is on it |
|---|---|
| First year (opens in a new tab) | One class project, a one-line retail job, and a few skills. The page has room left at the bottom. |
| Sophomore (opens in a new tab) | Two projects, an electrical lead role in a robotics club, and a one-line job. |
| Senior (opens in a new tab) | Two projects, a one-line job, and two skill lines. This is the finished page figure. |
| New graduate (opens in a new tab) | Two internships, two projects, and certifications. Experience leads. |
| Packed (opens in a new tab) | Three engineering roles, a one-line job, three projects, and long skill lists. The script tightens the text to 10.25 pt to fit. |
Three things change as you go. Education stays at the top until you have an engineering job, and then Experience moves up, as on the new-graduate page. Each internship pushes the oldest class project down the list, and eventually off the page. The skill lines grow, but every tool on them still needs a bullet.
That is the shape of a career on one page. The projects were the way in. Once there is an internship, its bullets say what you built for someone who was paying for it, and a reader weighs that more than the best class project. Do not fight the move. Give the internship the bullets with the biggest numbers, keep the one or two projects you can still defend line by line, and let the rest go. When employers choose between two equal candidates, an internship in their industry weighs most (opens in a new tab), and that is the result the page is built to show.
The projects open the door, and the internship work is what an interview asks you to explain.
The first-year page has empty space at the bottom. That is fine in your first year. The fix is content, a lab or a club build, and never tighter spacing. The layout section on the resume page has the limits.
What to do this week
Section titled “What to do this week”Fill in the inventory. Pick the two builds you can defend best, and write one did X with Y to get Z bullet for each. Measure anything that still reads [X]. Then run the cleanup page on the PDF before you send it anywhere. If you have an internship, start with its bullets instead, and give them the room.
Linked from
Content by eeprep contributors (opens in a new tab), licensed CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Code licensed MIT (opens in a new tab). Source is in the eeprep (opens in a new tab), resume-generator (opens in a new tab), and company-lists (opens in a new tab) repositories.