This is my follow-on to last year's discussion on landing on a high-tech job which is here. But this has a specific focus on getting an internship.
I am involved in interviewing and hiring interns for Intel. Given that I've spent the better part of today reading through literally over 100 resumes, taking notes on them, and deciding who I want to interview, I have a few bits of advice for people who are thinking about a high-tech internship - advice from the guy on the other side, one could say.
But first, please do not send me a resume - applications for Intel need to be submitted through Intel's job webside. I can't help anyone get a job at Intel - beyond general advice - or at any other high-tech company. I'd encourage people to apply, but not to contact me as a way to "get into the system". My purpose in posting is to help people by giving advice that hopefully people will find useful. So please do not email or PM with your resume - submit it to Intel at the website at the website above.
The following is just my advice - I'm sure other people who read lots of intern applicant resumes have their own bits of advice, but these are mine. I wouldn't recommend ripping up your current resume and rewriting it like I describe below, but I would recommend re-examining your resume in light of some of my comments below.
My first bit of advice is to apply. This sounds dumb, but I remember that I was a completely clueless back when I was in college, and I never did. I would wait until my friends started talking about the internships that they had lined up and then think "hey, I should do that too!" and by then it seemed like it was too late, and I'd sigh and still didn't apply. Now is a good time to submit resumes, but there really isn't a bad time to apply. Do it now (Oct. 2006), do it later (Feb. 2007), but if you want an internship, make sure you apply.
Second bit of advice, put what you are looking for in your objective statement. In the past, I said that objectives were a bit of a waste of resume space, but I was wrong. It's a waste of time when people write "fluff" and put it in their objective statement ("I want an exciting job in high-tech") , but in reality it's a great place to describe what you are looking for. Specifically I love it when I see dates on internship applications. "I am looking for an internship in digital circuit design. Availability. Jan 2007 - Aug. 2007.". So my advice is to either skip the objective statement if you don't know what to write or you are open to anything - better not to waste space with a non-specific one - but , even better, use it to describe what you want and when you want it.
Next, put your expected graduation date in your resume, what degree(s) you are pursuing, and put your GPA in. The graduation date is useful because it gives resume readers a good idea where you are in the education process. If someone doesn't include a GPA then I figure that it must be really low.
Next, list classes and projects. I can't stress this enough. For an internship, this is usually the most interesting part of a resume, but I have seen a bunch of resumes today where people just completely skip this section and instead tell me how about their last 4 jobs that aren't really relevant to high-tech at all. If I'm looking for someone to fill an internship in digital circuit design, I want to know if they've taken a digital circuit design class - not that they worked at a job stocking shelves at a video rental store three years ago. Projects are especially interesting because they are close to real-world work. I would recommend describing a project with a sentence or two, not just listing the title of it.
Next for skills, put as many as you can think of in the skill section that are relevant. If you speak another language, put it in. If you know Linux well, put it in. You are good at Windows XP networking, put it in. Put every buzzword you can think of that applies to yourself in the skills section. You've used SPICE and have written some HDL - mention it. This section - and the classes and projects section - are the two best ways to differentiate your resume and get it through an automatic search screen, in my opinion. Make sure that you use it. Unix is a useful skill in circuit design at Intel, but I see lots of people skip mentioning it at all on their resume but it comes up in the interview which leaves me wondering why it's not on their resume. Or they'll list a project and in the interview they'll be describing it and describe all sorts of skills and knowledge that they didn't list on their resume but probably should have.
For my next bit of advice, it is to limit space discussing previous jobs to just one or two unless they are applicable to the job you are applying for. Otherwise they waste space (in my opinion). If you haven't ever had a job, then mention charity work or volunteer activities.
And since I frequently have mentioned space above, the reason to limit space is to keep a resume down to one to two pages unless you have a lot of relevant stuff that you want to make the resume reader aware of. So if you have patents and published papers and acadamic awards, then it's fine to run over multiple pages, but if you are using it to describe lots of previous jobs in unrelated fields and that go back over plenty of years, then for an internship resume I'd keep the resume focused on education, classes & projects, skills, awards & honors and a bit on previous jobs.
It's good to mention one or two jobs - even if in unrelated fields. It's a good thing to mention any previous jobs that are directly relevant - but if they aren't directly relevant, then it's still good to list one or two. It shows that you have had a job and can hold a job.
It's also great to mention any awards, papers, patents, or articles you've written. Useful software you've written, open source projects you've helped. Even ones that you aren't sure would really matter like Eagle Scout, academic scholarships, honors, awards, etc. Honors are short to describe, don't take up much space, and distinguish yourself from others. I would encourage you to mention things that you don't think are important (like "awarded an Elite member at Anandtech.com for valuable posts to the forum." but perhaps not, "awarded a Lifer membership at AT for excessive neffing")
Another important bit of advice is not to lie on a resume. I would also highly discourage excessive exaggeration. If someone mentions something on their resume, there is a high probability that I will ask something about it. If someone lists that they know Unix, I will almost certainly ask them a Unix question ("if you want to search for a word in a text file in Unix, what command would you most likely use", "what does the term piping mean with regards to Unix", etc.). If someone lists something as a skill, then they should know it. If they describe that they worked on the design of a switched-mode power supply as a project and I ask how one works, I'd hope that they could describe it to me. If not, it looks bad. It's definitely worse than not mentioning it at all.
Lastly, it's very helpful to include contact details that are up to date and will remain up to date for a while. Sometimes resumes sit for months before someone looks at them. Make sure you put an address/telephone/email that you will at for a while. If you know you are moving out of your apartment in two months, it's best to give an address you will be at longer. If you won't be checking university email over the summer, make sure you include an email you will be checking.
I hope that this post is of some use to people.
Patrick Mahoney
Senior Design Engineer
Enterprise Processor Division
Intel Corp.
I am involved in interviewing and hiring interns for Intel. Given that I've spent the better part of today reading through literally over 100 resumes, taking notes on them, and deciding who I want to interview, I have a few bits of advice for people who are thinking about a high-tech internship - advice from the guy on the other side, one could say.
But first, please do not send me a resume - applications for Intel need to be submitted through Intel's job webside. I can't help anyone get a job at Intel - beyond general advice - or at any other high-tech company. I'd encourage people to apply, but not to contact me as a way to "get into the system". My purpose in posting is to help people by giving advice that hopefully people will find useful. So please do not email or PM with your resume - submit it to Intel at the website at the website above.
The following is just my advice - I'm sure other people who read lots of intern applicant resumes have their own bits of advice, but these are mine. I wouldn't recommend ripping up your current resume and rewriting it like I describe below, but I would recommend re-examining your resume in light of some of my comments below.
My first bit of advice is to apply. This sounds dumb, but I remember that I was a completely clueless back when I was in college, and I never did. I would wait until my friends started talking about the internships that they had lined up and then think "hey, I should do that too!" and by then it seemed like it was too late, and I'd sigh and still didn't apply. Now is a good time to submit resumes, but there really isn't a bad time to apply. Do it now (Oct. 2006), do it later (Feb. 2007), but if you want an internship, make sure you apply.
Second bit of advice, put what you are looking for in your objective statement. In the past, I said that objectives were a bit of a waste of resume space, but I was wrong. It's a waste of time when people write "fluff" and put it in their objective statement ("I want an exciting job in high-tech") , but in reality it's a great place to describe what you are looking for. Specifically I love it when I see dates on internship applications. "I am looking for an internship in digital circuit design. Availability. Jan 2007 - Aug. 2007.". So my advice is to either skip the objective statement if you don't know what to write or you are open to anything - better not to waste space with a non-specific one - but , even better, use it to describe what you want and when you want it.
Next, put your expected graduation date in your resume, what degree(s) you are pursuing, and put your GPA in. The graduation date is useful because it gives resume readers a good idea where you are in the education process. If someone doesn't include a GPA then I figure that it must be really low.
Next, list classes and projects. I can't stress this enough. For an internship, this is usually the most interesting part of a resume, but I have seen a bunch of resumes today where people just completely skip this section and instead tell me how about their last 4 jobs that aren't really relevant to high-tech at all. If I'm looking for someone to fill an internship in digital circuit design, I want to know if they've taken a digital circuit design class - not that they worked at a job stocking shelves at a video rental store three years ago. Projects are especially interesting because they are close to real-world work. I would recommend describing a project with a sentence or two, not just listing the title of it.
Next for skills, put as many as you can think of in the skill section that are relevant. If you speak another language, put it in. If you know Linux well, put it in. You are good at Windows XP networking, put it in. Put every buzzword you can think of that applies to yourself in the skills section. You've used SPICE and have written some HDL - mention it. This section - and the classes and projects section - are the two best ways to differentiate your resume and get it through an automatic search screen, in my opinion. Make sure that you use it. Unix is a useful skill in circuit design at Intel, but I see lots of people skip mentioning it at all on their resume but it comes up in the interview which leaves me wondering why it's not on their resume. Or they'll list a project and in the interview they'll be describing it and describe all sorts of skills and knowledge that they didn't list on their resume but probably should have.
For my next bit of advice, it is to limit space discussing previous jobs to just one or two unless they are applicable to the job you are applying for. Otherwise they waste space (in my opinion). If you haven't ever had a job, then mention charity work or volunteer activities.
And since I frequently have mentioned space above, the reason to limit space is to keep a resume down to one to two pages unless you have a lot of relevant stuff that you want to make the resume reader aware of. So if you have patents and published papers and acadamic awards, then it's fine to run over multiple pages, but if you are using it to describe lots of previous jobs in unrelated fields and that go back over plenty of years, then for an internship resume I'd keep the resume focused on education, classes & projects, skills, awards & honors and a bit on previous jobs.
It's good to mention one or two jobs - even if in unrelated fields. It's a good thing to mention any previous jobs that are directly relevant - but if they aren't directly relevant, then it's still good to list one or two. It shows that you have had a job and can hold a job.
It's also great to mention any awards, papers, patents, or articles you've written. Useful software you've written, open source projects you've helped. Even ones that you aren't sure would really matter like Eagle Scout, academic scholarships, honors, awards, etc. Honors are short to describe, don't take up much space, and distinguish yourself from others. I would encourage you to mention things that you don't think are important (like "awarded an Elite member at Anandtech.com for valuable posts to the forum." but perhaps not, "awarded a Lifer membership at AT for excessive neffing")
Another important bit of advice is not to lie on a resume. I would also highly discourage excessive exaggeration. If someone mentions something on their resume, there is a high probability that I will ask something about it. If someone lists that they know Unix, I will almost certainly ask them a Unix question ("if you want to search for a word in a text file in Unix, what command would you most likely use", "what does the term piping mean with regards to Unix", etc.). If someone lists something as a skill, then they should know it. If they describe that they worked on the design of a switched-mode power supply as a project and I ask how one works, I'd hope that they could describe it to me. If not, it looks bad. It's definitely worse than not mentioning it at all.
Lastly, it's very helpful to include contact details that are up to date and will remain up to date for a while. Sometimes resumes sit for months before someone looks at them. Make sure you put an address/telephone/email that you will at for a while. If you know you are moving out of your apartment in two months, it's best to give an address you will be at longer. If you won't be checking university email over the summer, make sure you include an email you will be checking.
I hope that this post is of some use to people.
Patrick Mahoney
Senior Design Engineer
Enterprise Processor Division
Intel Corp.
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