Resume questions
Resume questions
(OP)
Hey guys, I have decided to leave my first "engineering" position I got after graduating this spring (BSME). I'm a little confused about how I should describe my current job since I've only been there for ~9 weeks and haven't gotten around to doing anything that fits in the "engineering" part of my job description. The key elements of my job description for my current employment are
-Supervision of on-site construction, repair, and modification jobs
-Overseeing performance against schedule and estimates
-Developing work schedules for the execution of each job
-Estimating necessary time, labor and materials for each job
-Managing inventory of available scaffolding in the warehouse
I'm also supposed to be in charge of setting up scaffolding. Some of the towers being built are huge, irregular, built around objects, and in tight spaces. As such, they require a bit of planning before just pinning pieces together.
However, this company is making me do loads of purely menial manual labor to apparently get a feel for how these jobs work. In the past nine weeks I've spent a good five of them on site doing glorious things like 12 hour shifts of stuffing insulation in bags and carrying buckets of demolished chunks of refractory out of boilers. Around the warehouse I've counted boxes of fasteners to get an inventory. As far as estimates go, I've looked at maybe 2 or 3 drawings just to get square footages of a few walls that needed insulation. The hours they have me work are not possible for me in regards to driving safely (read: falling asleep and wrapping my car around a tree or whatever) so this job is a bust regardless of the work.
I'm 100% sure I'd eventually do more things from the job description. Here's a screengrab of my resume with my current employment at the top of the experience list but with no descriptors

Obviously I can't put "dumped small buckets of stuff into bigger buckets for disposal" and "filled bags with stuff for disposal" on there. On the other hand, putting items from the job description on there wouldn't be all that truthful because I never got to the point of doing them, right?
How should I go about describing my current job on my resume?
Of course, any other pointers on my resume would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading
-Supervision of on-site construction, repair, and modification jobs
-Overseeing performance against schedule and estimates
-Developing work schedules for the execution of each job
-Estimating necessary time, labor and materials for each job
-Managing inventory of available scaffolding in the warehouse
I'm also supposed to be in charge of setting up scaffolding. Some of the towers being built are huge, irregular, built around objects, and in tight spaces. As such, they require a bit of planning before just pinning pieces together.
However, this company is making me do loads of purely menial manual labor to apparently get a feel for how these jobs work. In the past nine weeks I've spent a good five of them on site doing glorious things like 12 hour shifts of stuffing insulation in bags and carrying buckets of demolished chunks of refractory out of boilers. Around the warehouse I've counted boxes of fasteners to get an inventory. As far as estimates go, I've looked at maybe 2 or 3 drawings just to get square footages of a few walls that needed insulation. The hours they have me work are not possible for me in regards to driving safely (read: falling asleep and wrapping my car around a tree or whatever) so this job is a bust regardless of the work.
I'm 100% sure I'd eventually do more things from the job description. Here's a screengrab of my resume with my current employment at the top of the experience list but with no descriptors

Obviously I can't put "dumped small buckets of stuff into bigger buckets for disposal" and "filled bags with stuff for disposal" on there. On the other hand, putting items from the job description on there wouldn't be all that truthful because I never got to the point of doing them, right?
How should I go about describing my current job on my resume?
Of course, any other pointers on my resume would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading





RE: Resume questions
RE: Resume questions
RE: Resume questions
I don't know that I'd look at leaving your current position quite so quickly. In the end, potential employers may think that you're afraid of hard work. Suck it up and see if you're right about doing more from the job description. Unless they were shining you on, it will be a great learning experience for you.
Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog
RE: Resume questions
Call me lazy or unmotivated or entitled but I personally don't think it's okay to let an employee know on a Sunday at 9pm that they have to be on a job site that's 5 hours away by 630am the next morning.
I appreciate the concern about what impact this resignation may have on my future career. You guys know most likely better than anyone. However, I fell asleep several times driving to that site (and others in the past). I won't have a career if the safety features in my car fail to wake me up in time. Really, needing to rely on those features in the first place is kind of sick.
Now if there's any criticisms of my resume I'm absolutely all ears..
RE: Resume questions
RE: Resume questions
No, that is not acceptable, unless you are a (highly paid) essential person responding to an emergency.
Cheers
Greg Locock
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RE: Resume questions
TTFN
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Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com: http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
RE: Resume questions
You should see the kind of stimulants available now. Pfizer ought to just drop the charade and come out publicly as a cartel
I am curious though.. You say that "It will follow you where ever you go" and "Good Luck and you will need it"
Say I apply to some entry level engineering jobs and get one. I work there for a few years and then maybe/probably move on to a different job. What could possibly "follow me" regarding my current job that I left after 9-10 weeks? Especially if, in the future, I left it off my resume and pretended it never happened.
RE: Resume questions
I've had guys I worked with come back to our firm after two weeks with someone else. Their seat was still warm. Where I work now we have a name for them, "boomerangs". Just because it's your first job doesn't mean it's a prison sentence.
RE: Resume questions
Actually a short emploument might be easier to explain than a medium length. When asked tell the truth (or a version of it): It wasnt what you expected and there was no change in the future so you took the consequence.
RE: Resume questions
This might be a test to see how you react when you get pushed too far. If you blow a gasket, start screaming, and rage quit, that's not good. If you sit down with your boss and say "this isn't working so let's negotiate," that shows maturity.
By all means keep your options open and start applying, but in the meantime try to negotiate, take what you can get, and remember that you can still leave in 2 weeks. What sounds better, "I quit because I didn't like the situation" or "we negotiated, but just couldn't come to an acceptable arrangement" ?
RE: Resume questions
To paraphrase, how does one understand walls and roofs and aesthetic treatments without first understanding the footings and foundation? The real question is, is all of this menial stuff temporary, with greener pastures ahead? Do you have bigger and better things coming your way with this firm if you persevere through their vetting of your capabilities and character?
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
RE: Resume questions
_________________________________________
NX8.0, Solidworks 2014, AutoCAD, Enovia V5
RE: Resume questions
What I meant about "following you" is that future prospective employers well may inquire of all past employers as to your records there. I know of one engineer (a classmate of mine)who quit for a valid reason, but it left his employer there in a bind. It was an early job in his career. The attempts he made to get new employment, as an engineer,
resulted in the new prospects getting "an ear full" when they did some checking. At our 50th class reunion he told his tale of woe, having never been able to get an engineering job. Tee off that current employer and who knows the results.
Matter of fact that early job of his was a position I left earlier, but because of lack of enough work. Years later that boss told me "Cliff, I should have kicked my A.. for ever ever letting you go." Now that's the kind of record you should leave.
RE: Resume questions
That doesn't happen much, as far as I know. At every company I been at, HR admonished us to only get the facts, period. Any hint of of subjective assessments leaves us open to law suits. I had to think that your classmate wasn't serious about much of anything. He could have hired a lawyer; he could have pushed harder. The only things that are definite showstoppers are crimes and porn. Something that follows this guy that long has got to be something more than a mere short-timing of a company.
TTFN
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Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com: http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
RE: Resume questions
Building a cabinet of my own design from raw materials will show me, however, if I failed to recognize that screw 'B' can never be inserted once slot 'A' has been filled. I will learn the alloy I specified for the bracket, while the strongest possible, takes 4 hours and multiple diamond bits to manufacture a single one.
There's a difference between the former's menial labor and the latter's constructive process. Let's make sure the OP is being subjected to the latter and not the former before suggesting it's not a useful learning experience.
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Resume questions
It's funny that you should mention that exact scenario mcgyver..
RE: Resume questions
Sometimes, that's just life. Not everyone starts at the middle or the top. Many jobs require you to pay your dues before you are turned loose on more important endeavors. It's a very good judge of character to observe how one handles the menial tasks, if they buckle down and get the job done, or if they cop an attitude as though they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Frankly, someone who is too good to perform a "lowly" task isn't worth keeping. Ability can be taught, but attitude can rarely be fixed.
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
RE: Resume questions
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Resume questions
I once had a graduate engineer with a masters' as an assistant in a consulting civil engineering firm, who's dad owned a construction company. Can you imagine him not knowing what a back-hoe is, as example of what I had to put up with? He had never been exposed to the grunt jobs out there. It turned out that his relationships with contractors, as part of his job, were pretty crazy, to say the least. When I semi-retired and became my own "boss" as a consultant, those same contractors were mighty good clients for me. They had enough of the past problems with company's "new" engineers learning at their expense.
RE: Resume questions
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
RE: Resume questions
Regarding quitting so soon on your first job...if you can make it to the second job reasonably soon and you stay there for several years, it won't be such a black mark. However, if you leave this job after 10 weeks, then leave your second job after 5 months...probably not going to get a third one any time soon. Don't shy away from some manual labor, but I would definitely push back on the late notifications for significant travel, etc. Working 12 hours days (for some defined time period) is not a reason to quit a job, but unrealistic expectations for travel and starting times are justified. It's not too unusual for a highly sought-after engineer to have extremely short notice to get to a site to consult with someone in an emergency type situation, but as a new engineer, I doubt that's what is going on. If you stay on for a while, the next time your boss calls you Sunday night to be somewhere at 6 AM Monday, as politely as you can I would tell him that is not a reasonable request and you would be happy to leave at 6 AM, to arrive at 11 (or whatever is appropriate for the situation). You can also tell him that if he would give you more notice next time, you can make travel arrangements. When your interviewer asks you why you are leaving your current position (and they will after that short period), that story will give you a credible reason (just remember to keep your story factual and without emotion).
RE: Resume questions
RE: Resume questions
It's important to be loyal to a company, but exponentially more important to be loyal to your own dreams and aspirations. What good is an employee if they are not happy?
From reading the opening post, my advice to you is to find another place of employment once you have a clear goal in mind.
RE: Resume questions
RE: Resume questions
RE: Resume questions
If you're so concerned about this why not offer some resume advice yourself?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Resume questions
Nine weeks isn't anything, and as you note, the job has provided no relevant experience.
Just leave it off.
You are a fresh grad, looking for first job.
Be more descriptive about the plastic medical thing.
RE: Resume questions
RE: Resume questions
I once did some part-time design work for a small firm. I had to leave them quickly but didn't believe I left them in a bad situation. About 18 months later I was interviewing with a company that was very interested in my experience with them and asked to use them as a reference. I hadn't planned to use them as a reference, but I gave them the phone number and waited in the lobby; the next thing I knew the hiring manager came out the door with this really scared look on his face and I was told the interview was over and escorted out the door; I expect the conversation was something like "hire him and we'll sue your pants off for IP!". Lesson learned on that one.
Your 4 line summary of what the job was supposed to be looks great for a resume. Sadly, if you didn't do any of that this might be all you can pull from that experience:
"12 hour shifts of stuffing insulation in bags" - material handling
"counted boxes of fasteners to get an inventory" - inventory management
"looked at maybe 2 or 3 drawings" - -Estimating materials for each job
Z