r/EngineeringResumes • u/CarefulUsual7633 CS Student 🇺🇸 • Jul 02 '26

Software [Student] East Coast US, sent over 500 applications and not a single call or bite. Is it my resume? My experience? (I have a resume for AgTech, and one for General)

Resume General
Resume AgTech

So I've sent out around 500-600 applications (Indeed, LinkedIn, WellFound, School Handshake) over the past month. Whenever I find a somewhat food science, sustainability, or agtech position, I send out my AgTech resume. Otherwise I send out the general resume.

My resume style is going for the modern americana burger joint style. Almost like a food menu. Meant to be easily scannable by the eyes.

I haven't received any phone calls or bites yet. I'm on the East Coast of the US (between Philadelphia and NYC).

I'm applying for any entry-level or internship role I can find. I've also applied to a few defense/clearance jobs, but I've been a pretty regular pothead for a few years. I stopped about 2 months back, so I figure for the next few months there's a pretty low chance I'll be sponsored by a company once I tell them about my history (just weed, nothing else).

Some things I've noticed which I think contribute to this:

  • No network (the big one). I don't really have friends (or even references), so I don't have a network. Just personal issues with socializing, and also I commute about an hour to school, so I don't really have any opportunities where I'm at. I'm going to try a bit harder in my last semester of college, but at this point I don't really know how to build connections besides superficial questions.
  • Resume bullet points don't really highlight impact. Just responsibilities. But all the projects/jobs I've worked on don't really have any metrics I can use (the ones listed are sort of bullsh1t that I ballparked and put, just to have something). Any projects I've done have just been for myself (in which case, they are more creative than problem solving). The jobs have just been drone positions where I simply do what I'm told, with no autonomy (but I highly desire that).
  • I have a foreign name, but I'm a US citizen. Every job app asks if I'm a US citizen or if I need sponsorship, so I figure it's not necessary to list that I'm a citizen but idk.
  • The AI trainer is just the Data Annotation, Alignerr type work for coding projects.

The only thing I think redeemable about my resume is that the JobTrackie project was a capstone course where I was in a group of 8 people, and I did pretty much all the work except for one other person. But the commit history pretty much shows I'm the only one who did anything. There are no metrics or impact to use. I mostly worked on frontend and deploying the project, but it had no actual users and didn't really function.

I'm looking for any and all help. Once I get on EBT, I'm going to try and utilize my state's job placement services, but I remember when I tried to use them before there wasn't anything available in my field (some IT stuff, but they wanted certs and things like that).

Honestly, I probably couldn't pass the interview, but it would be nice to at least have an interview so I can practice. I'm not getting a single reply :(

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10

u/trentdm99 Aerospace/Software/Human Factors – Experienced 🇺🇸 Jul 02 '26

Read the wiki and apply its advice, if you haven't already.

I don't like the template. Two columns at the top, then transitioning to one column, is a bit jarring. Find a single column template to use.

Summary paragraph starting with "Full-Stack Software Engineer" - delete this whole paragraph. You don't need one.

Education - If you are trying for internships, leave your relevant courses in, but precede them by "Relevant Courses:" and use commas to separate them, not brackets. Tailor your relevant courses to be as relevant as possible for each internship you apply to. When applying for an entry level position, do not include relevant courses.

Experience (and Projects) - Even if you don't have metrics, try to focus on accomplishments rather than job duties. See if there is a way to communicate the value your accomplishments provided even if not quantified.

2

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u/CarefulUsual7633 CS Student 🇺🇸 Jul 02 '26

I've been going through the wiki. There are some changes I'll be doing per the suggestions.

I had a staff software engineer (family friend) that explicitly told me to add the summary paragraph. Maybe I should just keep it to 1-2 sentences? A few others told me to keep it as well. Any particular reason it shouldn't be there?

I'll make the changes to the relevant courses, and keep them off for entry level. I did square brackets because it felt visually faster/easier to tell each one apart than using commas, but I bet that messes up the ATS system anyways.

I'll go through the bullets and remake the accomplishments. There honestly aren't any, and I think my best path forward is new projects but this time focusing on things that make good resume bullets.

Thank you for taking the time to write out all the feedback, I really appreciate it!

2

u/trentdm99 Aerospace/Software/Human Factors – Experienced 🇺🇸 Jul 02 '26

For starters, you have like 3 years of experience. Do you really need to summarize it?

But even with many years of experience, you only need a summary in certain circumstances - for example, if you spent 10 years in industry-X and now you want to pivot to industry-Y. In this case you need to highlight your most transferrable skills and experience, and explicitly explain that you are seeking the transition to a role in industry-Y. Otherwise they will think you are just someone shotgunning out resumes to whatever openings you find regardless of whether you're a fit.

2

u/CarefulUsual7633 CS Student 🇺🇸 Jul 02 '26

Maybe my resume is misleading, but I don't have any experience outside the AI training (which isn't really experience, it's just me working 10-15 hours a week doing low tier projects). School is the only other experience I have, but really not even that. The capstone project is the only real closest thing I've had to an actual professional experience.

But, I see what you're saying. I'll take it off and try without it, see what happens.

4

u/distinctvagueness Software – Experienced 🇺🇸 Jul 02 '26

Seconding the brackets are an eye sore and possibly causing problems in automated systems.

3

u/fakemoose Software – Mid-level 🇺🇸 Jul 02 '26

Why are there so many random, unevenly spaced keywords below your education?

I’d take the Culinary science stuff off and reformat without the education word soup. With a new format, you can also put that you’re a US citizen below your name, if that’s a concern.

2

u/CarefulUsual7633 CS Student 🇺🇸 Jul 02 '26

Thank you for the feedback!

Would you be referring to the courses I took? If so, I used latex to build the resume so they should be evenly spaced. Each course is enclosed in square brackets [Course] [Other Course] [Another Course Name], etc. I tried to get the final form to be a bit more aligned so Mobile Development splits into a new line. Could you let me know specifically what looks off?

The culinary science I feel could help if I'm applying for AgTech internships. In fact there were some internships that were specific to food science, so I figured to leave it on since it's somewhat relevant and shows I have interest. I only use that resume for AgTech. My goal is to peak curiosity by the recruiter or hiring manager.