Tips on Landing an Engineering Job From the Other Side of the Table

Things have changed for me over the past few years, and I've been lucky enough to have gone from the nervous prospective engineer trying to find a career pat to spending a lot more time on the hiring side of the interview table. I know many of you may be struggling to find positions after major organizational cuts, or graduating in a world of no career fairs - and I figured it's a good time to lift the curtain a little bit. So here is the big secret... interviewers really want to hire you (assuming you are a smart, motivated, team player). If we are interviewing, it is because we need somebody on our team. So why aren't you landing the interview or the job? And how can you turn that around?

1. Your resume is poorly written or organized. Your resume is a reflection of you, and the best work you can produce. If it is littered with spelling errors, has pasted job descriptions out of the job postings for your previous jobs, or the sentences don't make sense - it makes you seem careless at best, incompetent at worst. Have multiple people review your resume before you send it out, and make sure it is something on which you are proud to have your name.

2. You don't seem like you are interested in the job. This could mean you send a cover letter or a resume geared towards a different job, you are difficult to reach, or you aren't able to communicate why you want the job in the interview. I want to work with people who want to stick around, and are excited about what we do. State clearly at some point that you want the job, and why you want it. That means you should do your homework on the company and the position ahead of time, and have a good idea of what the job is. Bonus points if you follow up with the interviewers to thank them for the interview- about 10% of people seem to do this anymore, and it certainly displays interest.

3. You come off as unprofessional. For me this is strongly tied to "you don't seem like you are interested in the job". Unprofessional behavior can be a sign of lack of maturity or competence- and can range from lack of personal hygiene, to being late for the interview, to being rude to the admin staff before or after the interview. One time, there was a phone interviewee who sounded like they were going for  a walk through the park (wind, huffing and puffing up stairs), and then banging around pots and pans. Take the time to make sure find a quiet space for phone or video interviews, and make sure you research or ask about expectations for dress for the interview if you are unsure.

4.  You don't have enough experience. I know, I know. This is sounds like the great conundrum of me asking for you to already to have done the job before you get your first job. But, while direct work experience is certainly great - you can also build your chops as an engineer on your own time. Make sure you are an active participant in your senior design project or thesis, take the time to actually build and design things on your own, join a build team at school, program a PLC to make yourself grilled cheese, participate in the concrete boat challenge - be an engineer. Don't just list labs you were required to do for class. Show that you can and enjoy to apply what you have studied. Then, sell that experience to the panel through your resume and interview. Practice common interview questions with a friend or family member - and make sure that you can clearly communicate how awesome you really are.

5. The specific gap on the team isn't the right one for you right now. Newly hired engineers are almost always brought onto a team. This part is out of your control, and is just about timing. Sometimes we've lost our most experienced team member, and need somebody with direct experience to be able to jump onto the team, mentor others, and keep up with the workload. Sometimes we have a pretty well rounded team and can afford to take somebody with little to no applicable experience, to be mentored and build up longer term organizational experience. This all to say - just because you don't get a job doesn't necessarily mean you should never apply to the company again. Now, if you bombed the interview, and showed up 30 minutes late and hadn't showered in a week - you may want to wait until people forget that impression of you or the management turns over. But otherwise, you can apply to similar postings, and see if another one is a better fit for you.

Ultimately- keep trying, and keep putting your best foot forward! Good luck out there!

-Vanessa