Applying for Grad School - Need to critique my resume

[Cattlegod]

I'm pretty much done with it. I would just like to get some fresh eyes on the resume and hear your thoughts. How does the objective sentence sound?

I pretty much have the format exactly as it shows in word with the exception of font size on the objective, summary, work exp, education, and techicnal attributes being a larger font.

It fits exactly on one page.

New Question: Currently my Education is located below my Job History. Should I move that up because I'm applying for acceptance into an academic program?

OBJECTIVE

• -Acceptance into the Steven M. Ross School of Business at University of Michigan evening MBA program

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

• -Four years of program management and engineering experience at a fortune five company
  -Highly organized with exceptional technical and oral capability
  -Programming experience in several languages and database management

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2003-Present - Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI

• 
  NOISE, VIBRATION, AND HARSHNESS (NVH) ENGINEER, 2006
  • -Designed and developed NVH countermeasures and target setting for the 2007 and 2010 model year Shelby GT500 Mustang
    -Led studies on all launch related issues and handled all communication and issue resolution between the plant and the NVH development team
    -Designed and developed surface modeling software for sheet metal modal analysis
    -Tasks involved vibration and audio data acquisition, post processing, data analysis, and written reports on all investigates
  PROGRAM LAUNCH SPECIALIST, 2005
  • -Successfully delivered the 2007 Expedition/Navigator confirmation prototype build ahead of schedule
    -Coordinated and managed closure of all issues in the automated issue management database
    -Represented manufacturing in the program steering team for the 2007 Expedition/Navigator platforms
    -Developed and executed monthly Vice President New Model Launch reviews
  PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR, 2004
  • -Supervised the Piston and Rod subassembly area at Romeo Engine Plant in Romeo, MI
    -Responsibilities included managing a half million dollar budget and ensured all cost objectives are improved
    -Labor and cost target setting for the 2005 calendar year
  PROGRAM LAUNCH SPECIALIST, 2003
  • -Launched the 2005 Escape at the Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, OH
    -Supported the Ford Consumer Product Audit process & drove issues to closure

2001-2003 - Michigan Tech University, Houghton, MI

• RESIDENT ASSISTANT, 2001-2003
  • -Helped students adjust to college life and nurtured their cultural diversity
    -Budgeted annual activity funds and coordinated monthly events

EDUCATION
1999-2003 - Michigan Tech University, Houghton, MI

• Degree: B.S. Computer Engineering, GPA: 3.4

TECHNICAL & LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES

• 
  Leadership: STEPS into High School, Ford College Graduate and Summer Intern mentor
  Technical: Artemis, PROSIG, C/C++, Visual Basic, VBA, ASM, FORTRAN, Java, SQL, and MS Office

 

[SociallyChallenged]

It's not RESIDANT ASSISTANT, it's RESIDENT, that's pretty important.

Otherwise it looks pretty well written and direct.

 

[Cattlegod]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
It's not RESIDANT ASSISTANT, it's RESIDENT, that's pretty important.

Otherwise it looks pretty well written and direct.

ahh crap, wonder why spell check didn't catch that I bet because it is in all caps. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Cattlegod

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
It's not RESIDANT ASSISTANT, it's RESIDENT, that's pretty important.

Otherwise it looks pretty well written and direct.

ahh crap, wonder why spell check didn't catch that I bet because it is in all caps. Thanks for the heads up.

No prob, man, your resume is actually pretty impressive anyhow. It's just nitpicking after that.

 

[WildHorse]

statement of your objective is blatant butt-kissing. suggest using objective to give indication of your goals after graduation.

if me i'd remove gpa.

Reasons: a) it's already on transcript, b) some schools, in effort to attract top recruiters to campus, compile student resumes into a book they circulate among companies. I.E. "it lives forever." the gpa is too personal, & to me it detracts from impressiveness of your degree

wouldn't put a period after objective, since it isn't a complete sentence.

how about phoning Stephen M. Ross School of Business Career Services Dept & asking them to provide you their resume style guide?

 

[Cattlegod]

Originally posted by: scott
statement of your objective is blatant butt-kissing. suggest using objective to give indication of your goals after graduation.

if me i'd remove gpa.

Reasons: a) it's already on transcript, b) some schools, in effort to attract top recruiters to campus, compile student resumes into a book they circulate among companies. I.E. "it lives forever." the gpa is too personal, & to me it detracts from impressiveness of your degree

wouldn't put a period after objective, since it isn't a complete sentence.

how about phoning Stephen M. Ross School of Business Career Services Dept & asking them to provide you their resume style guide?

excellent idea on the career services. they may even be able to help me on what the university is looking for as well.

 

[franksta]

You have to write a resume for graduate school? It seems the ones I'm applying to only require a statment of purpose. Or perhaps I'm just not far enough along in the application process. Good luck to you sir.

 

[thirtythree]

I'd add a period. None of your other points are complete sentences either, and they have periods. Also, you might want to lengthen your objective (obviously you want to get into their program, but why?). I also think you should remove the GPA. Did the program actually ask for a resume? All the ones I applied to asked for a vitae, if anything (different field, of course).

"-Highly organized with exceptional technical and oral capability."

That's kinda sketchy too. That's a pretty subjective judgment.

 

[Cattlegod]

Originally posted by: thirtythree
I'd add a period. None of your other points are complete sentences either, and they have periods. Also, you might want to lengthen your objective (obviously you want to get into their program, but why?). I also think you should remove the GPA. Did the program actually ask for a resume? All the ones I applied to asked for a vitae, if anything (different field, of course).

"-Highly organized with exceptional technical and oral capability."

That's kinda sketchy too. That's a pretty subjective judgment.

Ok, as of right now i removed all periods from all of the lines. The above poster suggested to not have one on the objective because it is not a sentence. I applied that theory throughout the resume.

I agree about your point on the subjective statement. If anyone else cares to offer an opinion, I would appreciate it. Should the resume be completly objective?

Yeah, they asked for a full blown resume, along with 3 essays (1 optional), gmat score, an interview, and two letters of recommendation. Edit: oh yeah, and 180 bucks

 

[dullard]

Overall it reads quite well, this is just nitpicking. And a resume is an odd request, but if they want one, they'll get one. A CV is a much more common request.

[*]Your objective is NOT to be accepted. Your real objective is to get a masters / phd / other advanced degree. Many schools offer many forms of graduatate degrees yet they often highly prefer form one over the other. Thus, here is a good opportunity to make certain that you tell them which one you are going for. And as a side note, you should know what degree you want to get and what degree they want to give.

[*]Or you could state your objective as a career objective in which you need the masters / phd / other advanced degree to obtain your career goals. Either way, your objective is not to be accepted, your relevant objective is to get the appropriate degree.

[*]I always like consistancy. If you have periods at the end of everything else, why not the objective?

[*]As an aside, when I first read your resume I read, "2003: President of Ford Motor Company". I thought that was blantantly false until I saw it really read "present" instead of "president".

[*]To make it clearer, put (NVH) in your Noise, Vibration, and Harshness Engineeer line. I was damn confused for a second reading your first bullet wondering what NVH meant.

[*]Can you be slightly more terse? Multiple line bullets are annoying to read.

[*]The technical part is redundant in the top and bottom of your resume.

 

[Cattlegod]

Originally posted by: dullard
Overall it reads quite well, this is just nitpicking. And a resume is an odd request, but if they want one, they'll get one. A CV is a much more common request.

[*]Your objective is NOT to be accepted. Your real objective is to get a masters / phd / other advanced degree. Many schools offer many forms of graduatate degrees yet they often highly prefer form one over the other. Thus, here is a good opportunity to make certain that you tell them which one you are going for. And as a side note, you should know what degree you want to get and what degree they want to give.

[*]Or you could state your objective as a career objective in which you need the masters / phd / other advanced degree to obtain your career goals. Either way, your objective is not to be accepted, your relevant objective is to get the appropriate degree.

[*]I always like consistancy. If you have periods at the end of everything else, why not the objective?

[*]As an aside, when I first read your resume I read, "2003: President of Ford Motor Company". I thought that was blantantly false until I saw it really read "present" instead of "president".

[*]To make it clearer, put (NVH) in your Noise, Vibration, and Harshness Engineeer line. I was damn confused for a second reading your first bullet wondering what NVH meant.

[*]Can you be slightly more terse? Multiple line bullets are annoying to read.

[*]The technical part is redundant in the top and bottom of your resume.

Thanks for your input.

One of the guys in my department just reviewed my resume and he is in this exact program I am applying for. They do not let you call out a specific form (i.e. finance, consulting, general management, etc) in the program. It has something to do with creating your own path or education path, something like that. I tweaked the objective slightly to show exactly why I am giving my resume to the admissions office.

Periods - I blew them all away on all bullets.

Present vs. President - It reads a lot better on paper. I actually did this same thing when I was reading my post. I though "Oh crap, that isn't right!"

Including NVH in the job description: excellent suggestion, done.

multiple bullet lines - Are you recommending I just use multi tier indentation instead of bullet points?

Summary of Qualifications - I agree it is redundant. I'm going to ask around a bit. One of the people suggested I just remove that part all together.

 

[cchen]

I would remove objective completely. Its useless.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
Thanks for your input.
...
multiple bullet lines - Are you recommending I just use multi tier indentation instead of bullet points?

You are welcome. I think you already have two tiers of indentation, you don't need more. I am just wondering if you can make those slightly less wordy. Or can you break a few of them up into more than one bullet?

For example, can you drop "the 2007 and 2010 model year" part of your first bullet? It'll still read correctly and yet it'll be much shorter and less cluttered.

For example, can your next bullet be split into two bullets? "- Led studies on all launch related issues". "- Handled all communication and issue resolution between the plant and the NVH development team."

Apply that idea to everything. There aren't too many wordy bullets, but some of them just seem to be a bit too long.