Find the Key Skills the Job Needs

First, research companies you’re interested in and identify the key skills they require for your desired role. LinkedIn is a great resource for this. List the main 5 skills needed and put them forward on your CV. If you lack a core skill, spend a week learning it and complete a quick project demonstrating the use of this skill. For example, if you are a robotics software engineer missing machine vision skills, learn the basics and create a MV project using a popular library like OpenCV or Detectron2.

 

Improve Your CV's Content

• Profile: Start with a short profile about yourself, mentioning your key skills (relevant to the desired role), years of experience, and the types of robots you’ve worked on. Keep this section to 4-6 lines.

• Projects: Select the most relevant projects you have worked on for the job you’re applying for, highlighting the skills the job description mentioned. Include 3 projects on your CV, listing the skills used and what you have achieved. Include at least one professional project if possible. Personal projects are also valuable as they show your initiative and genuine interest in robotics!

• Education: List your degree title and level you have or planning to achieve (e.g: BEng, MEng), your university, and your top 3 projects. If you don’t have work experience yet, provide more details here, mentioning specific robots, platforms, and software you’ve used.

• Extra Activities: Include participation in robotics challenges, hackatons, or robotics university societies. This section should appear at the end of your CV.

• Additional Information: On the side of your CV, include all links to your LinkedIn, GitHub, and portfolio, as well as a list of your Skills, Achievements, language spoken, and hobbies. Including hobbies can make you more relatable and might spark interest.

 

Length

Companies get hundreds of CVs. Recruiters often skim through them quickly, so keep it concise and easy to read (see below the Template section). Aim for a maximum of 2 pages.

 

Template

Choose a nice template! Too often I see lines and lines of just text, which can be off-putting. A visually pleasing template with short sentences makes your CV much easier to digest and recruiter will feel grateful for it. Canva has free templates that you can use.

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Template from Canva.​

 

Profile Picture

It’s up to you whether you put a profile picture on your CV or not. Since applicants usually provide LinkedIn profiles, recruiters will see your photo if they are interested in your CV.

If you have space left, add a picture of a project you’ve worked on and mention it in your CV. This makes your CV more memorable and engaging.

 

Make a Portfolio

If recruiters like your CV, they and the technical team will want to see more of your work. A portfolio is a great way to showcase your projects! For each project, include a paragraph describing the main objectives, your role, achievements, and a picture. You can create your portfolio as a PDF or a website using platforms like GitHub or Wix.

 

Extra Information

For robotics engineers, I strongly recommend you have a LinkedIn and a GitHub profile. Include these links on your CV. If reviewers are interested, they will want to see more details about your experience and projects. LinkedIn is a great place to display your projects with pictures and other activities (e.g: attending robotics conferences or participating in a robotics club). On GitHub, reviewers can view your coding style and the programming languages you use.

Extra tip: you can modify your LinkedIn url to make it more professional.