Silent Killing Of An Engineer And Baking Cakes

I received this following late night email. It was a long email, i have truncated it for privacy reasons.

Reading this i felt sad. But the point raised in this rant email were very genuine. Before we go forward, please read the following.

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It's been more than 60 days, I'm sending my resume to different companies, approaching various project managers and business leaders of aviation & aerospace industry. I used to ask my friends who are recruiter in various companies about my resume and seek advise for modification to attract. I've used the all available sources like the recommendation letter, power of written communication and a lot........... Finally at last it's what I call the silent killing of engineering attitude and an engineer. I am still up because someone says that winners don't quit and Quitters don't win but each day I go to bed, I used to cry and pillow becomes wet because of the limit of my patience.

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I think this is an universal stage that all AeSI graduates, no almost all graduates pass through. The stage when resumes do not fetch interviews and networking never pays.

After being in the industry, i have these following suggestions to everyone currently in this state.

1. Keep working. Career building is a marathon and not a quick sprint. Your career is like a train. You cant run it on a paved road, it needs tracks and they take time to show up. 60 days is not long enough.

2. In the beginning, it pays to be an aircraft than a rocket. Taxing on the runway is must. Rockets just dont last after their initial thrusts. Go slow. Build up the speed than shooting straight.

3. If a resume isnt working. Sleep on it. Change it. It might be missing the hook.

4. Build demonstrated skills. Skills that can be demoed. Skills that are out there on internet, for anyone to verify and check. Skills that make you stand out.

5. The greatest thing a graduate can do at this time is to build his or her skills. Aim to be the best in your domain. The most important component to skill building is putting the time to learn your craft. Unless you do that its near impossible to shine.

I am learning to bake cakes and i have ruined so many cakes in the process. My major mistake is taking out the cake too early. Not respecting the baking time.

Building a career and getting it on track is similar. You need that baking time.

Less is More - Building a resume

Let me tell you a story. Being in NAL was the best learning time I had in my working life. I learnt so much. Within the first 6 months, I had done analysis in ansys, designing in solidworks and programming in visual basic and fortran. The pace continued. I loved the work i was doing.

Then a year passed and i decided to craft a resume and send it out there. The resume i created was decent and i thought it had all the right ingredients to get me lot of interview calls.

But all i got was empty email inbox. No acknowledgement, let alone an interview call. Thinking its the fault of my resume, i tweaked and tweaked it but none got me any call.

Baffled. I analyzed why others got the call and not me even when the resume clearly matched the requirement. All this while i continue building my skills.

Then one fine day i realized my mistake. Since i had worked on so many projects, my resume was bloated. In an effort to impress the recruiter that i know so much, i crammed all my work into the resume. This list baffled the receiver of the resume. It distracted him or her and since there were so many projects, it dimmed the effect of the one that matched the profile.

Fortunately i caught this mistake early and then divided all my project and its descriptions into 3 resumes. Now i began putting only those projects in the sent resumes that were relevant to the profile. Kept the resume brief and sharp.

This did the magic and this little shift had me called for 3 interviews.

Less is more, when it comes to building your resume to get an interview call.

Because first impressions, matter.

Ensure your resume has no gramatical errors.

Ensure it doesn't look too fresher type.

Ensure only relevant information is there.

Ensure that it shows you in spotlight.

The purpose of resume is to entice calls for interviews. It not a place to tell your story.

Remember it's the trailer. The movie happens at the interview room.

Read More on how to craft your resume. http://my-aesi.blogspot.in/search?q=resume&m=1

Before you send your resume, remember first impressions matter!

Get out and get wet

It's raining outside and if you aren't in the rain you won't get wet.

I am not talking of the watery downpour happening outside. I am referring to the current flood of job requirements for aerospace domain in the private and public sector.

There was not a better time to be in aerospace than this.

So go get out and get wet.

Upload your latest skills and achievement in your resume and float it.

The rain isn't there forever, get the most out of it.

If you have seen a requirement, and you doubt if you suit that requirement, do the safest thing, send in your resume and let them decide.

If you aren't sure you qualify, give yourself benefit of doubt and shoot that resume.

I have seen, most of the time, we underestimate our capabilities and don't just send in our resume. That's a mistake.

I am not saying shoot your resumes for all CEO jobs that you see, but if an interesting and worthwhile offer shows up, don't just let it go. Give it a shot.

For tips on crafting a professional resume, follow this link craft your professional resume

Recent AeSI graduates: Be professional

Today I was at the Annual General Meeting of AeSIAA. There I came
across a letter written by a recent AeSIAA graduate looking for an
intrinship position.

I admire the initiative of that graduate. He thought out of the box
and mailed to AeSIAA office for referel. But my admiration stops there.

A look at the resume dissipitated any good feeling that I had for
him. It seems that some people mistakenly assume that raw enthusiasm
and a willingness to work is enough to get them in the door. It
isn't.

You have to be professional. You are an engineer now. You need to
know how to write a decent resume. You need to know what to put in
that resume. Just raw enthusiasm won't do.

Please don't do such silly mistakes. They do matter. You have
Internet as a vast resource and google a doorway. Why not utilize
that to craft a professional resume?

For more posts related to crafting a professional resume follow the
link http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=resume&max-results=100

How to Send your Resume?

You see an job advert. You then search your email or hard disk for your resume. You modify the dates, mobile number and experience field and send the resume. Well those days when you did that are over.

No longer are the days when your generic all purpose resume can fetch you an interview call? Gone are the days when just by sending your resume, you will guarantee an interview call. Gone are the days when few scribbles in a word document with your name on it was getting you interview calls.

Everybody is sending resume and sending a resume like that takes 5 mins and that fact alone makes that the HR at the other end will get 100’s of resumes. So stop yourself and make sure your resume highlights answers to the following  questions before you hit the send button.

• Why you are an excellent match for the job?
• What skills you bring to the organization?
• Your capacity for doing the work better than other candidates
• Your ability to solve company or industry problems

If the HR doesn’t see this in your resume in the first two pages, your resume will end up in the recycle bin!!

So before sending your resume, take some time and craft a resume?

Don’t forget to read this

• Resume -ur first impression
• What hiring managers hate about your resume?
• What do I do about the gaps in my resume ?
• 7 signs of an unprofessional resume

AeSI graduates don't send your resumes if you can do this!!

In my recents posts I have talked about what to do in your resume. How
to answer interview questions? How to prepare for technical interview
but today I will talk about a very common mistake that AeSI guys do
while sending their resumes!!

First of all don't send a resume unless you know what is the job
requirement! Send one page job profile but don't just send your
generic because a friend of a friend asked you send it.

Get to know what the job is? Get to know what the requirement are and
then and only then send your updated resume.

Remember this, the job is not there as a charity, it's there because
of the organisations NEED! So don't insult the need by just send your
generic resume. Craft your resume. Polish it with answers to the
companies need!

Understand and respect this basic fact and I can put my words on this
that you won't miss an interview call!!

This post was prompted by a recent resume that I got in my email.
Tomorrow I will post about three things that are part of AeSI
graduates life but that you should NOT mention in your resume. So stay
tuned.

Read more about how to craft your resume by clicking this link http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=resume+craft

Is your resume shouting ' I am fresher !'

Be a freshers but don't let your resume show it!

I have seen many resumes of freshers and none had presented itself as
professional!!

Each and every resume shouts I am a fresher even before you read it.

Let the statement I am a fresher come from inside the resume but not
from the appearance of the resume.

Here are the things that I observed that need to be corrected before
you sent your fresher resume.

1. Resume is shabby. Looks like it's the first word document they have
ever edited.

2. Gramatical and spelling mistakes strewn everywhere.

3. Weak, generic objective statement.

4. Personal details are presented up front. Reception should be for
skills and projects not personal details.

5. Details of subject studied listed as if it's a bibliography of a
research paper. List your interest subjects and that too not more than
two.

6. No projects or if present they are nicly tucked somewhere near the
last page as if you are ashamed of them.

7. Skills section virtually absent.

8. Resume more than 2 page.

9. Lengthy project descriptions adding no value to the resume.

Avoid all these points to stop your resume from broadcasting ' I am
fresher' message!!

For more info on how to craft a resume browse the following link

http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=resume

Subscribe by clicking http://feeds.feedburner.com/myaesi

Why 18 million is an important number to get a job interview!

18 million. Imagine that number. Naukri.com has this many resumes in
it's database and when 35000 clients search for aerospace graduates,
your resume has to stand out from among the 18000000 resumes!!

Remember this when you craft your resume. Remember this when you post
an update in your resume.

Standing out from this vast sea of resumes is the only way to get a
request for interview.

To learn more about how to craft a resume click the following links

http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=craft+resume

If you are in any way related to aesi, then you might consider
subscribing to my-aesi by email or rss by clicking the following link. http://feeds.feedburner.com/myaesi

Want a job write a presentable resume

Recently I got a mail from someone who wanted some assistance in
getting a job. I asked the person to sent me his resume with a
coverletter. He did it but here are the list of things that I didn't
like and felt why his resume will not go down well with the HR

1. The coverletter was just two lines and it didn't have any
information what so ever.

2. Yes you are a fresher but don't make your resume a fresher!! At
least craft a resume that looks not just out of college. Even if he
hadn't told me, from his basic all education and subject details I
would have known that he is a fresher. So keep that stuff for the
interview, mention only subjects you want to highlight.

3. Resume's main purpose is to attact an interview. This resume forgot
that. It was a plain bio of what the person has studied in his AeSI
degree. State and present your facts as if someone looking for a
designer will find a design guy on it.

4. It had a generic objective with no regard or mention of field of
interest of the person. The resume shouted that put me in any job!!

5. Another thing that this basic resume declared loudly was I am
cheap, recruit me!!

As far as I am concerned I have to modify the resume before I send it
to our HR folks, so it's still pending in my todo list waiting.... So
if you want to send a resume to someone make sure it's presentable
without any modification!!!

To learn more about crafting your resume and coverletter visit
http://my-aesi.blogspot.com

Resume writing guidelines – a reaction to the worst resume of my life

I have already showed you all the worst crafted resume of my life. And in that I promised that when I'll get time I'll showing the mistakes and would re design the resume.  Since I have see lot of requirements in OURAeSI so I thought it high time to update you all on that.

So in this post i will give you a general structure of the resume that one should follow. While writing this I will keep the worst resume of my life in my mind.

Personal detail should be at the end. For a resume to be effective, you need to have the first page that contents all the relevant info up front. So first page of the resume is the most important.

The first thing is give in your name. Broader than anything you have, then state your phone no. And email. And briefly in one line state your location. No need to give house number or other details. Just stating behala kolkata is enough.  That is just be brief in the address. Give a general idea about your location.

Then comes the objective. Let it be brief. One line statements. As this post told you, objective is only good if its original otherwise it looses its importance. So craft a good objective or leave it.

Then if you are new a graduate. Education should be your first highlight after the objective. Be brief and to the point in it. State the year. Avoid percentage if not asked specifically. Use first class or grading level. Address of your school college is not important so skip it just give the location. For AeSI graduates follow Bishnujee’s advice and write BE aeronautical instead of AMAeSI. Why ? AMAeSI is unfortunately little known so avoid the confusions.

Then comes the important thing. Here you should rite about any practical experience you might have. Any training you attended and stuff like that. It should be the place where the recruiter will spend the most time to see if you are fit for the job so be sure when you send out the resume update this section accordingly and shuffle the list in accordance with the requirements.

Technical skills section can either come here of just after the education. make it as a bullet list. An example presented below

• Programming Languages : FORTRAN 77 & 90 , VB ,VBA and C
• CAE Software package  : SOLIDWORKS , CATIA v5r10, ANSYS
• Other Software’s          : Ms OFFICE (developer and user),MATLAB

After the project summaries list, you can include the project details where you elaborate on the projects. Here also be very brief about the projects and highlight what were your responsibilities in the project.

After this you can give in your personal profile. Be brief and don’t state unnecessary details. No one will read them unless you are going for a reality show. So keep it professional.

Well this are some of the general guideline of crafting a resume. I said I have written a lot about it here, so do check it and don’t forget to get a cover letter

Planning to apply for the job at Goodrich Aerospace or any other requirement remember this points

I was visiting naukri.com and noticed that Goodrich aerospace is one aerospace company that has the maximum number of requirements this week.

From design engineer to stress analyst, from software engineer to technical publication, Goodrich aerospace is looking for aerospace professional for varied range with varied experience

Do check out the job pages here.

Also if you are planning to apply for the job at Goodrich aerospace or any other requirement remember this following points.

1> Research about the company, what it does, what is it primary business?

2> Know if the company was in news recently, if you follow indianaeroblog  you will already know what Goodrich aerospace is doing in India. This information will help you in your interview and while crafting a custom resume and cover letter.

3> Update or edit your resume in light of the requirement and company's information that you have.

4> Craft a cover letter to highlight the points that's make you suitable for the job.

5> and finally follow this general instruction of how to send resume and begin preparing for the interview with these 50 common interview questions and answers.

This common sense steps are always required for every job requirement  that you might apply for, be it Goodrich aerospace or Mahindra aerospace or any other

For more information on how to build resume and how to craft a cover letter click here

Resume tips from experience

Last week in OURAeSI club, there were 3+ messages related to job requirement... I hope everyone has seen them and appropriate candidates must have forwarded their resumes by now. But I was wondering how many of them had done it in the right way? I mean what was your checklist before you shot that email carrying your resume for the requirement listed?

 

Please do let me know in the comments.

 

Although I haven't sent my resume for a year now, but a year back, when I did, I had this 4 point checklist before I sent my resume to any job requirement.

 

Is the resume latest?

Do I have the cover letter?

Do my resume match the requirement or needs little adjustments?

Do I know anything about the company I am applying?

 

Let me elaborate on these points a little bit more. Is my resume the latest is the first thing I checked. Most of the time, it never was. I had to scour my resume back from the sent folders of my email account. Or from the my documents folder where it stayed unattended. Sure it always got updated. The areas which got modified were the dates of previous work experience. I quantified my work experience as 1.5 year (meaning 1 year 6 months), that changed as I progressed month wise. So I needed to include that and give my latest experience figures!  While in NAL, the skills section also got updated to highlight the skills I have picked up since my last resume update. And same thing happened to Project listing. Sometimes skills and projects not needed in for the current requirements were trimmed and re-adjusted.

 

"Do I have a cover letter?" was the second thought. To this I will emphasize from experience, I know that my all resumes that went with a cover letter brought me a response!! There was not a single instance that my resume with a cover letter didn't get me a call for the interview. I think having cover letter is must.

 

You can't put everything on your resume and you can't use fancy colors or highlight your resume too much for the risk of looking unprofessional, here cover letter comes handy and useful. A cover letter is one place where you can highlight the specific areas that you want your recruiter to see when they look at your resume. It serves as a good introduction to your resume! So never let a resume go by without a good cover letter accompanying it!

 

While in NAL, i did various kind of work, some of the work came under design like design of mixed flow compressor, some came under software development where I developed VB applications to do various design calculations and other got into the category of analysis, where using analysis packages to get result was the main responsibility. So having worked on varied kind of work, I had this standard resume, where I listed all my work, major, minor, design related, analysis related and software development related and Every time I had to send a resume, I used to adjust my projects to the requirements, plucking projects and its description from this master standard project-only resume.

 

Sometimes one project covered and overlapped many different categories. Like I had this project "design of mixed flow centrifugal compressor impeller”; now this had design and during the project I have to develop a VB application to design the compressor. So this project encompassed 2 categories. And having a standard projects-only resume solved my problem. When I said I needed to modify my resume for the appropriate requirement, I meant pushing the project related to the requirement up in the list and including more details to it. Removing the once that were irrelevant, trimming some which do not add much value. This way the resume had the consistency and I was at peace that I haven’t missed any project.

 

Sometimes, if the requirement was of design nature then the design projects were pushed up and I hightled the points on this project. Even in the skills section of the resume, the skills related to design got highlighted and were emphasized.  Sometime when I knew my work experience directly matched with the requirement; then I made sure that I highlighted the project in my cover letter as well.

 

Knowing the company I was applying for! Be sure to know what the requirement is and then use Google to search for the company you are applying for. It’s after this that you should craft your cover letter and update your resume. Your cover letter and resume should reflect that you know about the company you are applying for and are aware of the requirements!!

 

A resume cannot guarantee you a job offer, but a great resume introduced with a good cover letter can help you get an interview.

 

For more info on how to craft a resume see this excellent link

http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_write_a_resume

 

I am sure you will add your tips in the comments that I might have missed. So feel free to comment!!