ENGI E4000-12 Professional Development & Leadership

MS in Management Science & Engineering

Engineer Your Resume

TRANSCENDING DISCIPLINES, TRANSFORMING LIVES

YOUR HOSTS TODAY

JENNY MAK MINDI LEVINSON

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DIRECTOR OF CAREER PLACEMENT
PDL CORE FACULTY IEOR DEPARTMENT

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VMOCK

Obtain access by next Monday July 13 after PDL Resume attendance.

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RESUME PRESENTATION
HEADER

EDUCATION, 15-20% of the page

EXPERIENCE, PROJECTS, RESEARCH, 50% or more of the page

SKILLS, ACTIVITIES, INTEREST, 10-15% of the page

(TECH SKILLS MAY BE PLACED AFTER EDUCATION)

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RESUME SECTIONS
HEADER: Name, Phone Number, Email, Address, LinkedIn

EDUCATION: Schools, Degrees, Honors

EXPERIENCE: Professional, Research, Projects

SKILLS: Programming/Computer, Spoken Languages

ACTIVITIES: Community Service, School Service
INTERESTS: Hobbies, Talents, Athletics

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HEADER

1. Name is largest and bold on Page: Joe Student or JOE STUDENT.

2. US Phone: Format (123) 456-7890 (No +), with voice mail set up. If you
do not have US phone number, international number is optional.
3. Columbia UNI email address: jsm1234@columbia.edu.
4. US address is optional; omit international address.
5. LinkedIn, GitHub or Personal Website: review your content.

Bolded, enlarged and centered name gets you Vmock points!

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HEADER

Consider how many lines

you are using (2 vs. 3).

Your name should be BIG

and bold. I should be
able to see your name
from a distance. Email
and LinkedIn/GitHub are
required.

All black text gets you Vmock points! Email and hyperlinks can be blue.

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EDUCATION

Best practices:
• The two degree entries (MS and BS) are clear and consistent.
• Schools are affiliated with their location on the same line.
• Degree program is affiliated with the dates of enrollment on the same
line. Employers can see when you are available for full time work.

Bolded schools and degrees get you Vmock points!

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EDUCATION: MORE THAN TWO DEGREES

University is required, but School is not. If you want to list school, be

accurate!
You can use The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science
or Columbia Engineering.

Consistency and professional presentation get you Vmock points!

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EDUCATION: MORE THAN TWO DEGREES

Sometimes less is more!

Presentation matters! Professional attractive resumes get more Vmock points!

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EDUCATION WITH GPA AND COURSES

Adding interesting coursework and competitive GPA get you Vmock points!

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COUNTRY CODE (ISO ALPHA 2) AND US POSTAL STATE CODES
ABBREVIATION
Consider using the ISO Alpha-2 digit country code and
the US Postal State Codes to shorten locations.

International Organization for Standardization United States Postal Service

https://www.iso.org/ Two-Letter State Abbreviations
https://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/28apb.htm

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EDUCATION SECTION SUMMARIZED
Formal education: School and Degree Program
• Columbia University, New York, NY
• Columbia Engineering & Columbia Business Schools
• MS in Management Science & Engineering
• Master of Science, Management Science & Engineering
Performance indicator
• GPA: 3.5/4.0 GPA: 8.8/10.0 GPA: 89/100
• Top 5% of Graduating Class
• List awards associated with your School (choose at most 3)
Summary of courses (no course numbers)
• Stochastic Models, Optimization, Operations Consulting, Corporate Finance
Study abroad (if space permits and relevant)

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DATES OF ATTENDANCE
MSE with GET: 39 points
MSE without GET: 36 points
Assuming full time enrollment, 12 credits per term.

Fall A coursework starts Aug 2020

Fall B coursework starts Oct 2020
Spring 2021 coursework starts in Jan 2021

Possible graduation dates: Aug 2021, Dec 2021, May 2022.

If you fully engage in PDL this summer, your start date can be stated as July
2020.

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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

I recommend using
active verbs instead of
passive. Quantify your
achievements with
metrics (percentage,
money, time, headcount,
other metrics).

Action oriented language gets you more Vmock points!

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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Skills in context get you more Vmock points!

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ACTION VERBS TO SPICE UP YOUR RESUME

Consider using a
variety of action
verbs to describe
your contributions.
Visit these various
sits for more
choices!

Use different verbs to describe your experiences!

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CONSULTANESE
Best practices Low hanging fruit Scope creep
Lessons learned On the same page Key takeaway
Bandwidth Out of the box Provide color
Deck Ping me Push back
Deliverable Quick win Sniff test
Time on the bench Touch base Take the lead on
Time on the beach Add value Let’s take a backseat
Socialize this Scope of work Word smith
Due diligence Get buy-in Let me play this back
Manage expectations View from 50,000 feet Circle back
Flesh out Engagement Feed forward
Leverage SME Hard stop

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PROJECT EXPERIENCE

Making an impact gets you more Vmock points!

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EXPERIENCE

If the experience is in the past, use past tense.

Think about how to showcase your presentation/public speaking abilities in your experience.

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ACTIVITIES AS PART OF YOUR EXPERIENCE

School based activities and leadership positions

can be showcased the same way as professional
experience section.

Leadership activities are great ways of showing your initiative!

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MULTIPLE EXPERIENCE SECTIONS

You can have multiple

experience sections,
including:
Professional Experience
Finance Experience
Academic Experience
Research Experience
and more!

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PUNCTUATION AND SPACING

With a computer, use one space following end-of-sentence

periods, commas, semicolons, colons, exclamation points,
question marks, quotation marks and parentheses.

INCORRECT: Graduation May 2022(expected)

CORRECT: Graduation May 2022 (expected)

INCORRECT: GPA:3.7/4.0(Top 5%)

CORRECT: GPA: 3.7/4.0 (Top 5% of graduating class)
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EXPERIENCE SECTION SUMMARIZED
Professional, Research, Academic, Project
• Name of organization
• Location
• Position title
• Duration of experience
Description of experience
• Active verbs, in correct verb tense, create vs. created
• Measure your impact, Increased return on investment by 10%...
• Talk about your programming skills in context, Used Python to…
• Customize the description to the job
• Spell out all acronyms, Columbia University (CU)

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SKILLS, INTERESTS, AWARDS: COMMON ERRORS

No GRE & TOEFL Scores. Remove English Fluency.

It’s important to go to the gym, but not for job search.
Travel = vacation = no work.

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SKILLS, INTERESTS, AWARDS

We are engineers! Market your technical skills first.

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TOP TECH SKILLS

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TOP 10 TECH SKILLS OF 2020

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 Let’s leverage social
media appropriately in
the job search process.
Consider your employers
point of view.
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LEADERS OF CONSULTING INDUSTRY

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LEADERS OF INVESTMENT BANKS

What do they have in

common?

How would they react

to your resume?

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OTHER US INDUSTRY LEADERS

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OTHER GLOBAL INDUSTRY LEADERS

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ABOUT YOUR WORK PREFERENCES

Plans for Summer 2021?

100% Seeking a summer internship

After Graduation Plans?

100% Seeking employment

Where would you like to work?

94% US (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston)
6% China

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TOP MSE ORGANIZATIONS DESIRED IN 2020

1. McKinsey & Co.

2. Accenture
3. Apple
4. Bytedance
5. Facebook
6. Goldman Sachs
7. Google
8. JP Morgan
9. Morgan Stanley
10.Tempus

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WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

1. Management Consultant (29%)

2. Data Science Professional (24%)
3. Product Management (24%)
4. Entrepreneurship (6%)
5. Investment Banking (6%)
6. Quantitative Researcher (6%)
7. Other (5%)

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SAMPLE SUMMER 2020 INTERNSHIPS

1. Alibaba – Product Manager Intern

2. Amazon Web Services – Product Services Consultant
3. Apple – Data Engineer Intern
4. Bayer – Business Analytics MBA Intern
5. Blackrock – Institutional Client Business, Portfolio Analytics
6. Capital One – Data Science Intern
7. eBay – Product Management
8. IBM – Cognitive Engineer Consultant
9. JP Morgan – Summer Associate AI & Machine Learning
10. Tencent – Product Management Intern
11. Tesla – Project Management Intern

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YOUR ASSIGNMENT

1. Watch Engineer Your Resume and Engineer your Career.

2. You must use LionMail to communicate with us.
3. Add an email signature to your LionMail.
4. On Monday, you can use Vmock.
5. Your career placement coach expects you to achieve a
score of 85 or better.
6. PDL credit for your resume is given after attending this
session and achieving the green zone in Vmock.

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VMOCK SCORING

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VMOCK TIPS

1. Start with a template.

2. Focus on the feedback, not the score.
3. Make all your changes before resubmitting.
You have 10 tries for the year.
4. Enable your career coach feedback: achieve 70+.
5. Consider the Impact (40), Presentation (30),
Competencies (30) of your resume.

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Professional Development and Leadership Team
PDL-SEAS@columbia.edu

TRANSCENDING DISCIPLINES, TRANSFORMING LIVES