The other day, I spent a couple of hours reviewing resumes and CVs for students in my department. What can I say? I am a sucker for professional development who likes using a red pen. I reviewed the advice from the classics (google what Harvard and MIT tell their students is all I am saying), and they all highlight how you should be showcasing skills and using specific phrases from the job listing.
This is not a summary about highlighting skills on your resume, quite frankly, you can find that advice from much better sources (the aforementioned) than me. I want to outline some skills so you can develop them before it comes time to write that resume. It is crucial to highlight your technical and soft skills relevant to the specific job you are applying for, so I’m going to flip 10 skills you’ll probably be advised to highlight and talk about how to begin developing them.
1. Technical Proficiency
Depending on the job, this will be anything from specific software to tools or equipment, maybe even coding languages. I’d say to find a way to incorporate these things into your work or volunteer life. Research or internships are a great stepping-stone, but those are not the only avenues. I’ve taught several iterations of free coding workshops, and there are student groups who will organize skill sharing/development (hopefully) until the end of time. Reach out to more senior students in your program to ask them how they acquired the skills you’re looking at developing.
That was all super vague because I’d like this to be somewhat evergreen and generic. For the people I’ve worked with CAD, python, version control, vacuum chamber setup, rudimentary electrical work, and pump operation have all served them well moving on from their undergrad and graduate careers.
2. Problem-Solving
Problem-solving implies something I don’t think people emphasize enough in their early career, problem-defining (the scope, gaps in the literature, the impact you can have, etc). Regardless, this is another area that someday you’ll want to highlight on your resume. You should seek out opportunities like design teams/competitions and research with the intent of putting yourself in a problem-defining and problem-solving role.
Even as an undergraduate researcher, you should take writing out your thoughts and notes in concise, technical language as seriously as what you keep in your lab notebook. Your goal doesn’t have to be a publication (though those are nice), but developing the thought process is a hugely beneficial side effect of writing.
3. Analytical Skills
Related to defining/solving problems, your analytical skills are another category to highlight on your resume. Emphasizing your capacity to collect and analyze data, make data-driven decisions, and draw meaningful conclusions from technical information will hopefully be near the top of your list. When it comes to developing those skills, it will take consistent practice reading papers, visualizing data, and applying your statistics/probability knowledge. One of the best things to do in my opinion is to summarize papers and useful concepts in your own words.
You're going to amass, in your paper reading quests, libraries worth of papers. You can use a reference manager like Zotero to keep track of them and attach notes with why you read the paper, what you took away from it, and what it relates to. If you're like my friend Peter, you can organize your references into an Obsidian Garden.
4. Mathematics and Numerical Analysis
To paraphrase the MC from Paris is Burning, it’s a well-known fact that an engineer do carry their calculator at dinner time. Your numerical skills are going to be right up there with your analytical skills, but to get there you’re going to have to take courses in numerical analysis, statistics, and probability. These don’t have to be through your university—-I have taken part in several free online courses and boot camps that have all contributed to my technical skills in addition to courses.
5. Design and Modeling
When people talk about modeling, at least in my lab, it often means larger-scale or higher-fidelity simulations, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes a model could be as simple as a back-of-the-envelope calculation or analytical solutions to well-known equations. To actually develop these skills, you should become passingly familiar with common coding languages or software in your field.
That being said, the most important aspect you should be developing is identifying what level of design or modeling you will need to solve a problem. Not everything needs to be an in-depth, atomic-scale simulation. Being able to parse through what techniques you should and shouldn’t be employing on a problem is a great design skill demonstration.
6. Project Management
You might not see it this way, but you’re already working on your project management skills by gaining a foundation in time management and organization for your personal work. Setting clear project goals, creating comprehensive project plans, and adhering to deadlines and budgets are fundamental aspects of your course and volunteer/project work. Learning how to communicate effectively with team members (taking these skills beyond your work), stakeholders, and superiors will help make the next step to “real-life” project management.
Though you might be in a subordinate position now, you can still practice managing upwards (keeping higher-ups informed of project progress, challenges, and potential solutions while seeking their guidance and support). Additionally, you can explore project management methodologies to adapt to various project requirements. Practical experience through internships or collaborative projects can further hone these skills, helping you become an effective project manager in your future careers.
7. Communication Skills
To excel in conveying complex technical information, you have to start simple. Your professors will stuff your brain with knowledge and jargon for the next few years. The next step (as I see it) is to get involved in outreach in your community. You can talk to nearby grade school science classes or current students from the schools you graduated from on your breaks. The first time I do a presentation, I always run through it at least 10 times (using different words and phrasing each, so I’m prepared if I get off script during the actual talk). Additionally, interpersonal communication skills are vital when collaborating with teammates, clients, and superiors. Listening actively, asking clarifying questions, and simplifying complex concepts for non-technical listeners are skills you should be working on. Joining engineering clubs, participating in group projects, being a tour guide, serving on external-facing groups who need to interface with different groups often, and seeking feedback from peers and mentors are all things I have done to work on my communication skills.
8. Teamwork and Collaboration
I can’t think of any job where you wouldn’t want to showcase teamwork and collaboration on your resume. Start by actively seeking opportunities to collaborate with peers from diverse backgrounds and disciplines on design teams and in volunteer work. What that would look like for someone in nuclear engineering is hard to say because there isn’t exactly an analog to solar car projects or concrete canoe teams; however, what will make your case stronger is for you to do some leg work to figure out the technical aspects of teamwork that your future employer will be looking for so you can look for opportunities wherever they present themselves.
9. Technical Writing
I’ll never forget my Freshman year of undergrad when a classmate wore a shirt that said, “I’m an engineer, I don’t grammar good,” and one of the professors laughed at it, saying she was disappointed. That’s better told over coffee when I know if you know all the players in that particular diatribe. The irony in that shirt has only become clearer to me as time passes. Improving your written communication through meticulous technical report writing, emphasizing clarity, coherence, and concise explanations is your first step. I highly recommend you take a technical writing in the sciences course or three to improve your writing.
I would argue that this particular skill has the most immediate potential. Strong writing is a skill that will serve you wherever, and there are so many places you can go to start developing it. Full transparency, I maintain this blog as a consistent place to write about whatever comes across my mind. I don’t do much editing, but just setting aside time to construct a coherent set of thoughts is an easy thing you can do to work on your technical writing. Be it your own blog, notes on papers you read, or your lab journal, the biggest thing I can say is to write as you go (through experiments, projects, or computer projects).
10. Innovation and Creativity
This one is going to be a tricky one to show on a resume. But when you are interviewing, and they ask you about the projects you have worked on, the difference in being the person who came up with or contributed to the idea could be your job. To cultivate innovation and creativity you should participate in extracurricular projects, hackathons, or design competitions. Collaborate with your peers to brainstorm and exchange ideas so you can always keep a project-level view (it is so easy to get bogged down in the details, I do it all the time).
You will also want to stress your willingness and ability to learn and adapt to new technologies, methodologies, and industry trends. To do that, stay updated on emerging technologies and trends in your field—I have Google alerts set up to let me know when things are published in my particular area of work. Cultivating innovation skills will make you a more valuable engineer and position you to address complex challenges with novel and efficient solutions in your future career.
The final thing I will add (and this isn't a skill, just something to think about) is that you should always keep in mind what's needed for your next couple of career steps. Some things that feel important now may not be valued at all in grad school for example, so keep your eye out for things people say are important but don't seem to back up with who they hire or how they will evaluate you in the future.
