Hey there!

Rahul & Lani here,

“Unfortunately, we have decided to pursue other candidates”. The last thing you want to see after you applying to 100+ jobs or cramming for that midterm you should of started studying for way earlier.

This week’s Thursday Tip breaks down something most students misunderstand:

How to Make Your Resume ATS-Friendly and Actually Get Into the Interview Process.

Most resumes aren’t rejected by engineers. They’re rejected by software.

Before a hiring manager ever sees your resume, it has to pass through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that scans for keywords, structure, and relevance.

If your resume can’t be read by the system, it never reaches a human.

Your experience might be strong. But if it isn’t positioned correctly, it stays invisible.

LinkedIn: Lani Aremu, Rahul Lakdawala

It’s a filter-passing document.

Your job is simple: Make it easy for software and humans to understand what you did. Make your skills, impacts, and how it was achieved, easy to understand make you stand out.

Many students try to make their resumes look unique, or stand out visually.

Graphics, columns, icons, and fancy formatting might look good to you.

But ATS systems often can’t read them properly.

Stick to:

Your resume isn’t being graded for design.

It’s being parsed for information.

Most students send the same resume everywhere.

That’s lazy positioning.

Job descriptions contain the exact keywords the ATS is searching for.

Look for repeated phrases such as:

If you’ve done those things, use the same language.

Also, using industry wide jargon lets you apply into industries that you want break into much easier, as your previous experience is bring presented as relevant work experience.

Many resumes read like this:

“Assisted with mechanical design tasks.”

That tells a recruiter nothing.

Instead show what changed because of your work. Follow STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result)

For example: Reduced component weight by 18% using topology optimization in SolidWorks

Recruiters don’t read resumes. They scan them.

Most follow an F-shaped pattern, looking first at the top and left side of the page.

Make sure key items stand out immediately:

• Role titles
• Tools used
• Quantified results

If someone can’t understand what you did in 10 seconds, your resume isn’t clear enough.

Your resume isn’t supposed to tell your whole story. It has one job.

Get you into the interview.

Once you're in the room, your projects, thinking, and communication take over.

But first you need to pass the filter.

If you're applying to internships or new roles soon, treat your resume like an engineering optimization problem, not a creative writing exercise.

See you next Thursday 👊

— The BeaverPrints Team