2018 Issue

50 Being Real W hen I got my first job out of school, my resume proudly showed my alma mater, Texas A&M. Three-hundred other electrical engineers grad- uating at the same time said the same thing. I displayed my GPA for all to see. It was decent, but wasn’t a 4.0. I showed elective electrical engineering classes to distinguish me. To top it off, I showed leadership skills, as I was involved in our IEEE student branch. The first claims were easy for a pro- spective employer to verify because they received a copy of my transcript. My last claim, involvement in our IEEE stu- dent branch leadership, was not so easy. There is no official transcript to point to. What I could point to is the things I did as a leader. Why should they believe me? The problems I faced when I looked for my first job, are problems we face throughout our careers. How do people tell we are real? The reality of some things is easy to verify. If your degree is questioned, all someone needs to do is call your alma mater and they will verify your degree. What about your ac- tivities after university? How do you show your professional accomplishments? Are there accomplishments outside your work that a potential employer will value? All these things need to be real and verifiable. Traditionally, resumes say, “References available upon request.” We’re not con- tent with showing our engineering prowess to those who request it. We want anyone who is looking for us to know that we are great engineers. How do we do that? We put ourselves out on the Internet through web sites, blogs or social networking. Some smaller companies proudly list their talent. This is something, but is it under your control? Does it give the message you want prospective clients or employers to see? By having your own website you can control the message that people see about you. Owning your own domain can cost less than $20 a year. Shared hosting services can be had for under $10 a month. The key to remember when fill- ing your website is that it needs to reflect positively on you. Not just the content, but the quality of the site. This doesn’t mean you have to hire a professional, it means you need to make sure the care you put into it shows. A subtype of a website is the blog (short for web log). There are many easy-to-use content management systems