EWB RESUME/INTERVIEW

WORKSHOP…from the perspective of an involved EWB member

with no experience

OVERVIEW

Resume

• General Format

• Preparation

• DOs and DON’Ts

• Description

Interview

• Preparation

• Implementation

• Common Questions

• Networking

RESUME

GENERAL FORMAT

- Career Center good place to start

- Times New Roman (default)

- Font size: 10-12

- Margins: narrow enough to be

printable - 0.3, 0.5, 1

- Use “csupomona” e-mail

- Expected graduation date

- List relevant courses (top), tailor

to the position applying for

- 3-5 bullets for each previous

work experience

- Put dates in order: current-old

- No work experience?

Volunteer/Research relevant to

engineering as possible

GENERAL FORMAT

- Education, Work Experience, Leadership (before/after work exp.), Skills (top/bottom)

- Companies affiliate w/ certain organizations (i.e. MWD = EWB, SDGE = PES & IEEE)

- No leadership positions yet? Just put “Active Member” and some description.

- Technical Skills: always include Microsoft Office - Excel, Word, Outlook, Access

- Languages not necessary but great conversation starters

- Tips: Microsoft Sharepoint & Microsoft Projects (familiarize)

PREPARATION

● Resumes

○ Do your research

■ Look up different companies

■ Learn about their specialties

■ Find what you might like about that company

■ Look at what projects they’ve complete before and currently working

now

○ Look up technical skills that you may need to learn (i.e.: CAD, surveying, or

other unrelated)

○ Be knowledgeable of different engineering fields within your discipline

○ How could you flourish with the skills required?

PREPARATION

● Have multiple resumes, cover letters, generic questions already answered (i.e. “Why

do you want to work for this company?”)

● Cater different resumes for different companies or application processes:

○ Direct email (1 hour – 1 day + response)

○ Online database (1-6 months response)

● Otherwise, have one generic resume

○ Generic must be most appealing in layout and design

○ More specific resumes can be more detailed

● Respond/Apply immediately

○ First come, first serve

○ Ex: LADOT - 600+ applied within 5 days, first 100 students interviewed, 20

hired (!!!)

■ 3% chance!

PREPARATION

● If you have no relevant engineering experience

○ ANY technical skills are welcome

■ Programming languages

■ good understanding of computers (aka simple IT tasks)

○ Never assume what companies might want/not want

● Use 1.5 or double spacing to fill entire page

● 1 page max

● If you have no experience

○ Get any job

○ Why? benefits are:

■ Relatable, reliable, and responsible

■ Experience with people, difficult situations, better problem-solving skills

○ volunteer work

■ recommended: coordinate volunteer event, managed volunteer group, etc.

○ Clubs (leadership positioons)

PREPARATION

DOs and DON’Ts

DO...make a job-specific resume (job position, company name)

DO...use bullet points to convey your work

DO...start your bullet points with a verb

DO...include relevant work and/or project experience

DO...list technical skills/qualifications and your level of expertise

DO...include keywords that were listed in the job description

DO...summarize the work conducted in your work/project experience

DOs and DON’Ts

DON’T...include irrelavent work/project experience

DON’T...include high school education

DON’T...use first-person words “I”

DON’T...make it look like an essay (use indents/bullets)

DON’T...go over one-page unless necessary

DON’T...use small and/or illegible font

DON’T...leave gaps in your employment history

DESCRIPTIONS

• Wording makes a difference

• Large companies have systems that find specific words

• Add words from directly from job descriptions

• EWB Involvement

• Describe responsibilities

• Manage people/projects

• Project Management Skills

• Deadlines

• Scheduling Experience

• Distinguish Yourself From Others

DESCRIPTIONS - EXAMPLES

OKAY

• helped

• looked over

• went

• drew

• replied to..

• worked with

• researched

• wrote

• made

• bring together

BETTER

• assisted

• reviewed

• attended

• drafted

• prepared correspondence to..

• collaborated

• analyzed

• composed

• designed, constructed

• coordinate

INTERVIEWBe aware of yourself and the person

interviewing you.

PREPARATION

● Interviews

○ Google common interview questions

■ Practice answering them

■ Video record yourself talking

● improve on any negative habits that stand out (i.e.: stuttering,

“uh/um,” excessive hand gestures, etc.)

○ RESEARCH THE COMPANY

■ WHY…?

■ Ex: transportation - increasing need for maintaining infrastructure,

improvement to traffic congestion, implementation of more public

transit, ease of access to locations, etc.

○ No experience

■ lots of interpersonal skills questions

○ Some experience

■ interpersonal skills + new skills learned from previous employer

PREPARATION

•Know how to get to your interview

•Give yourself adequate time for travel (Arrive early!)

•Dress accordingly (guys = dress shirt, tie, slacks, dress shoes)

(ladies = business attire, formal dress, skirt, blouse)

PREPARATION

•Know the company (look into their current projects)

•Do your best to be relaxed

•Bring a few copies of your resume

•Be confident in what you know (Sell yourself)

IMPLEMENTATION

Key Things to Remember DURING the Interview(When asked about involvement in school…)

• Important to highlight & summarize

• Keep focus on personal accomplishments

• They’ll ask more if they’re interested

• Apply to the prospective position

• How has EWB helped you improve?

• How does it make you marketable to the company?

IMPLEMENTATION

General Tips to Remeber…

• Stay humble

• Smile & keep eye contact

• If more than one person, divide attention equally

• Be lively

• They look to hire people they want to work with

• Be Yourself!!!

COMMON QUESTIONS

Please tell us why you choose engineering?• What are they really asking you?

• Engineering is a powerful tool

• Highly Involvement with EWB

How do you work with group situations? Do you feel

most Productive while working in a group?• Involvement with International Project?

• Work with other types of Engineering students

COMMON QUESTIONS

Give us an example when you had to learn something

complex at a short period of time?• Spring Break Travel Team Incident

What motivates you to want to work here?

How will this internship benefit your career, goals in

life?• Motivation, Networking, Knowledge, Experience

NETWORKING

○ EWB-LA: LADWP, MWD

○ EWB-OC: Tetra Tech, RBF

Work with EWB Professional

Chapters

NETWORKING

○ Volunteer opportunities

○ Social events

○ Professional Chapter Meetings

Attend Events

NETWORKING

○ Turner Construction

○ Arup

○ MWD

Companies Encourage EWB Involvement

QUESTIONS?

EMAIL: ewb.cpp@gmail.com