Professional and Career Topics

Calling all who recruit undergraduate Civil and Construction students:  What do you look for in a resume?  What makes a strong and lasting impression when you're sorting through a list of applicants?  Are you using ePortfolios to find strong candidates?  We're collecting feedback from industry professionals to develop best-practices for undergraduate civil engineers and construction managers.  Your input would be great!  To contribute to our survey, follow this link:  http://bit.ly/2kWP8aS

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Michael Perez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Auburn University - Civil Engineering
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Professor, if I may. . . . 
Consider the following logic from the perspective of the owner of a business.
1st, they are in business to make money.
If they don't, they go out of business.
2nd, when sorting through potential candidates applications, given the 'volumes' they receive,
they have up to 7 seconds per resume to decide if they "Get back to them later,'' or contact them in the next week.
3rd, their best potential candidates make it clear they understand the purpose of their technical hire is to translate their
technical work into supporting the financial viability of that firm.
4th, So, the ONLY purpose of the one-page letter they send is to get an interview; either on the phone or in person.

• Suggestion:
• Have them use 'action verbs' and select 5 specific applications of what they did that led to...eventually...making money.

Examples include saving time, building relationships, improving quality, . . . . .and offer to tell more during the interview.

Cheers,
Bill

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William M. Hayden Jr., Ph.D., P.E., CMQ/OE, F.ASCE
Buffalo, N.Y.

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." -- George Eliot 1819 - 1880
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Every graduate will have a section showing that they completed their degree so the best additional info should focus on useful extracurricular activities. Were they involved with ASCE? More points for being a leader in the student chapter. How about other organizations like ITE or EWB? This shows they are actively interested in the profession rather than sports or other unrelated activities. It also shows they can manage their time, especially if their grades were good.

Did they have internships or summer work in the field? Practical experience is always preferable to working as a bartender or sales associate. Outside of these two big points I would recommend adding any volunteer work that is relevant. Did the student help with activities during an Engineer's Week event? Did they assist the professor with grading papers for lower level classes? Did they work with Habitat for Humanity? Did they write any papers for a conference?

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Yance Marti P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer IV
City of Milwaukee
Milwaukee WI
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Yance, 

These are great pointers - thank you for the feedback.  It seems that in today's economy finding internships or part-time engineering related experience is relatively easy.  When I went through my undergrad program, it was in the middle of the recession and those opportunities were very rare and very competitive.  Maybe only 1/4 of my class was able to work a paid internship.  How would you recommend finding these types of experiences if we get into an economy where no one is hiring?  I agree this experience is very important to get while you're in school.

Cheers!
Mike

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Michael Perez Ph.D., EI, A.M.ASCE
Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Auburn AL
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-07-2019 08:50
From: Yance Marti
Subject: The Perfect Resume

Every graduate will have a section showing that they completed their degree so the best additional info should focus on useful extracurricular activities. Were they involved with ASCE? More points for being a leader in the student chapter. How about other organizations like ITE or EWB? This shows they are actively interested in the profession rather than sports or other unrelated activities. It also shows they can manage their time, especially if their grades were good.

Did they have internships or summer work in the field? Practical experience is always preferable to working as a bartender or sales associate. Outside of these two big points I would recommend adding any volunteer work that is relevant. Did the student help with activities during an Engineer's Week event? Did they assist the professor with grading papers for lower level classes? Did they work with Habitat for Humanity? Did they write any papers for a conference?

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Yance Marti P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer IV
City of Milwaukee
Milwaukee WI
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Internships can be a little hard to find in a good economy unless you think outside of the box. Top notch students will have no problem finding them at the better engineering companies. Everyone wants to work at Black & Veatch.

However, there are many municipalities, county governments and state DOT's that also have a good number of internships and summer employment, even in a bad economy. Especially in a bad economy it makes better economic sense to hire a cheaper temp employee than a full time, regular employee so they do not disappear when the economy gets worse. Even small cities of less than 70k will have several summer internships in their DPW's. Make a list of these agencies and contact them. You should easily be able to get put on email lists when they post for summer help. There are also regional planning agencies, wastewater districts, utility companies, regional rail agencies that all hire interns.

Also don't forget construction companies, barricade contractors, concrete plants or pipe manufacturers, sometimes even construction equipment manufacturers. They are looking for temp help and would be willing to help students out during the busy summer season.

Examples of these jobs include construction inspection, traffic engineering interns, survey techs, pavement marking crews, GIS techs, drafting techs, etc. All of these would be great experience no matter your academic specialty.

In college I worked a summer as a construction inspector and worked as an aide to a one-man survey company. I knew fellow students that worked at concrete pipe manufacturers, the state DOT, etc. Our city hires probably 6 summer interns for construction inspection, doing traffic counts, and on pavement marking crews.Unless students are aware of these or have family connections that know about them they tend to miss out on these opportunities. They don't tend to be put on the big job boards because of their temporary nature.

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Yance Marti P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer IV
City of Milwaukee
Milwaukee WI
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2019 17:59
From: Michael Perez
Subject: The Perfect Resume

Yance,

These are great pointers - thank you for the feedback.  It seems that in today's economy finding internships or part-time engineering related experience is relatively easy.  When I went through my undergrad program, it was in the middle of the recession and those opportunities were very rare and very competitive.  Maybe only 1/4 of my class was able to work a paid internship.  How would you recommend finding these types of experiences if we get into an economy where no one is hiring?  I agree this experience is very important to get while you're in school.

Cheers!
Mike

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Michael Perez Ph.D., EI, A.M.ASCE
Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Auburn AL
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 10-07-2019 08:50
From: Yance Marti
Subject: The Perfect Resume

Every graduate will have a section showing that they completed their degree so the best additional info should focus on useful extracurricular activities. Were they involved with ASCE? More points for being a leader in the student chapter. How about other organizations like ITE or EWB? This shows they are actively interested in the profession rather than sports or other unrelated activities. It also shows they can manage their time, especially if their grades were good.

Did they have internships or summer work in the field? Practical experience is always preferable to working as a bartender or sales associate. Outside of these two big points I would recommend adding any volunteer work that is relevant. Did the student help with activities during an Engineer's Week event? Did they assist the professor with grading papers for lower level classes? Did they work with Habitat for Humanity? Did they write any papers for a conference?

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Yance Marti P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer IV
City of Milwaukee
Milwaukee WI

Like it or not, GPA makes a difference.  If one isn't shown, I assume you're hiding something.  If yours is low, find a way to explain it.  I've hired a great employee who had a low GPA, but she gave a breakdown that explained why.  She initially picked a major that she didn't enjoy and her grades suffered. She switched to civil and carried high marks.  It was enough to get a phone call from me, and the phone call got her the interview, which led to an internship, and now she's working for us full-time.

I'm looking for leaders and team workers.  If your summers are spent running your own landscaping business, list what skills that translates to.  Where do you volunteer/give back to the community? I'm also looking for engineers who have at least some motivation to help build our society and shape the places we live and can see how their efforts, however small, help to that end.

Internship experiences are great, and something I especially look for in a full-time hire, depending on other aspects of their resume'.  If I'm hiring for an internship, I'm looking more for the quality extra curricular involvement.  

Speaking of extra curricular: list contributions over positions.  list why it mattered.  "Social Chair 2016-Current" tells me nothing and I'm not likely to pay that much attention to it.  "Planned annual formal event for 300 guests including venue arrangements, catering coordination, volunteer organization, and entertainment contracting" tells me much more.

Overall, what I look for in a resume' is whether there is enough there to think you might be an honest learner with some measure of people skills that might fit with our company and office culture.  If I can think that, you'll probably get an interview, which will hopefully support and confirm the impression I get from your resume'.

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Kensey Russell P.E., M.ASCE
HNTB
Oklahoma City OK
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Kensey, 

Thanks for the feedback.  To clarify, would you recommend a student always show their GPA, even if its low?  What's the best way for a candidate to explain a low GPA?  Would that be something to elaborate on in a cover letter?  I very much like your suggestion of listing contributions instead of positions held in student orgs. Great stuff - thank you!

Cheers,
Mike

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Michael Perez Ph.D., EI, A.M.ASCE
Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Auburn AL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-08-2019 09:35
From: Kensey Russell
Subject: The Perfect Resume

Like it or not, GPA makes a difference.  If one isn't shown, I assume you're hiding something.  If yours is low, find a way to explain it.  I've hired a great employee who had a low GPA, but she gave a breakdown that explained why.  She initially picked a major that she didn't enjoy and her grades suffered. She switched to civil and carried high marks.  It was enough to get a phone call from me, and the phone call got her the interview, which led to an internship, and now she's working for us full-time.

I'm looking for leaders and team workers.  If your summers are spent running your own landscaping business, list what skills that translates to.  Where do you volunteer/give back to the community? I'm also looking for engineers who have at least some motivation to help build our society and shape the places we live and can see how their efforts, however small, help to that end.

Internship experiences are great, and something I especially look for in a full-time hire, depending on other aspects of their resume'.  If I'm hiring for an internship, I'm looking more for the quality extra curricular involvement.

Speaking of extra curricular: list contributions over positions.  list why it mattered.  "Social Chair 2016-Current" tells me nothing and I'm not likely to pay that much attention to it.  "Planned annual formal event for 300 guests including venue arrangements, catering coordination, volunteer organization, and entertainment contracting" tells me much more.

Overall, what I look for in a resume' is whether there is enough there to think you might be an honest learner with some measure of people skills that might fit with our company and office culture.  If I can think that, you'll probably get an interview, which will hopefully support and confirm the impression I get from your resume'.

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Kensey Russell P.E., M.ASCE
HNTB
Oklahoma City OK
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Micheal, I completed your survey. I wasn't familiar with e-portfolios and after viewing a few of the samples I could see how they would be helpful. Looks like a good initiative you've got going for your students. I wish you all the best in this effort.

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Jesse Kamm PhD, PMP, A.M.ASCE
Senior Vice President of Construction Management
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Thanks Jesse!  We appreciate your insight.  Glad to hear you find the ePortfolio a helpful tool.  Our University has a big initiative with ePortfolios, I'm sure you'll start seeing more and more with applicants.

Cheers, 
Mike

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Michael Perez Ph.D., EI, A.M.ASCE
Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Auburn AL
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-10-2019 18:58
From: Jesse Kamm
Subject: The Perfect Resume

Micheal, I completed your survey. I wasn't familiar with e-portfolios and after viewing a few of the samples I could see how they would be helpful. Looks like a good initiative you've got going for your students. I wish you all the best in this effort.

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Jesse Kamm PhD, PMP, A.M.ASCE
Senior Vice President of Construction Management
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