Lessons Learned Presentation

So I'll be giving a short presentation on 9/6 with some of my fellow company representatives in front of some college students. Our topic is 'Lessons Learned,' and we are discussing things we wish we could tell our college selves now that we've been in industry. The following is my presentation transcribed from a slideshow. The plain text is a pseudo-script; the bold text is what actually appears on the slides. I've decided to go with a very simplistic slide style because that's what I'm into these days.

Padding Your Resume

Tips For Not Overloading Your Resume With Mindless Drivel

Since it's IR week, I'm sure every engineer on campus has been tweaking their resume around the clock, adding experience gained over the summer, deleting all the stuff you put in there about your high school soccer team, and trying to figure out if 8-point font is too small for a recruiter to read. I was like that around this time last year, and so I'd like to share some of my tips for not overloading your resume with mindless drivel.

Topic 1: Clubs

Tell me: How many activities do you participate in just so you can tack it on the end of your resume? We all do this. We join the Ambassadors, the Student Council, the Railroad Club, a few honors societies, the League of Knitters, and the Rock Band Club. We attend all their callouts and we eat more than our fair share of pizza. And then we get this wild idea. We self-nominate ourselves to be officers during that first meeting just to see that faint chance of actually becoming elected into a position of power so we can utter that one sweet word to company recruiters: "Leadership."

STOP IT

I've got two words for you. STOP IT! You're one person. These organizations may appreciate the boost in attendance you bring to the table, but after a few meetings you'll be bored and leave the organization, and there will be no proof that you were ever even there. You should be joining organizations that represent activities you feel passionate about.

You can do better!

I know you. You can do better. What are you passionate about? Spreading the word about Linux, cleaning up the Wabash, cutting down all those trees on campus that stink in the fall? Join the club, or create one. Limit yourself to only a few clubs. Then, instead of just sitting back, do something meaningful. Write a script to replace your club's secretary. Write software to manage your organization's budget. Make this the year where your club finally has female students attend the callout. Recruiters will be much happier talking to you for 10 minutes about a club you're passionate about than they would be listening to you list all the clubs you're a member of for 20 seconds.

Topic 2: Electives

Electives are important. Unlike classes specifically required by your degree, you have chosen to take these courses. That means you get a choice, though that choice may still be limited. So, what electives should you pick? Bowling? History of Rock & Roll? Wine Tasting? Ooh, I know, what about that class where you just watch movies?

Meaningful electives

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Ok, maybe Wine Tasting if you can register early enough. Do yourself a favor, and stop looking for the easiest electives. You can go bowling, listen to rock music, drink wine, and watch movies with your buddies on the weekends. Find classes that are interesting, maybe even challenging. Find a class that makes you a better person or a better professional. Look through classes that could combine with your major to make something cool: Math, Physics, and Biology can all be combined with electrical and computer engineering to form useful and innovative applications, and additional experience in these topics will make you stand out to companies in these kinds of industries.

Topic 3: Objective

Objectives. This is a tough one. Every person trying to help you with your resume so far in your life has told you that an objective is the most important part of a resume and that yours must be clear-cut for a company to notice you. But what is a clear-cut objective? Well, what do you want? You want a job. Hopefully not in fast-food.  Let's see what we've got here...

Objective: To obtain a job not in fast-food.

Ok, I guess that's pretty good. Maybe they'll let you work the drive-thru. Most objectives sound very generic and a recruiter skips right over it. You have two options at this point. The first is my favorite choice.

Objective:

Don't even bother. Most recruiters know that you're looking for a job, and it'll allow more space on your resume for meaningful information. The second choice is more difficult.

Objective: To be awesome and make more money than my friends.

Put some feeling into it. Put some spin on it. Say that you want a job with a certain kind of atmosphere, or list some of your skills in your objective. For example: I want to obtain a job which utilizes bleeding-edge technology and allows me to use my skills as an Agile expert to deliver innovative results.

Conclusion:

Your resume is sacred

Your resume is sacred. It represents you and everything you've accomplished up to this point in your professional career. In order to have a spectacular resume, you must be the resume. Join clubs you are passionate for and help out in meaningful ways. Take classes that are challenging and meaningful. Have an objective that shows off your individualism or do so by having no objective at all.