How To Get A Job In FPGA – The Resume

Tips for Software Developers, Firmware Developers, Digital Designers

I’ve given dozens of interviews professionally over my career. By no means am I a full-time Human Resources person, but as a technical interviewer I can tell you a few things that I’ve learned how to how to write a good resume (or Curriculum Vitae, CV, for non US folks). A resume itself will never get you a job, a resume gets you in the door. So you need to still be able to interview well, but that’s a discussion for a different article. This page is focused on how to write a great technical resume that will get you that face-to-face interview.

When interviewing for any technical job, there is a certain level of technical competency that you can convey through your resume.. You want to show the employer that you understand FPGAs, you’ve worked in VHDL or Verilog in the past, and you have some knowledge of the larger field. Let’s dig into a few bullet points that will really help.

If you have < 2 years experience keep your resume to 1 page, never go above 3 pages

Too many times I’ve interviewed someone fresh out of college with a two-page resume, which is just too long. Cut it down to a single focused page. You need to realize that most employers will glance quickly at your resume and if they need to dig too much to find relevant experiences then they will be frustrated. Focus on the good, get rid of the embellishment, just make it short and clear and crisp. I’ll throw a 3 page resume right in the garbage, there’s just no reason for it.

Custom tailor your resume for the open position.

This should be obvious, but it takes some time to do so. For example, if you are comfortable working with Microcontrollers and FPGAs and you don’t have a strong preference you might be inclined to talk about both. If the job you’re applying for is strictly a SW dev position, they probably don’t care much about your FPGA experience and want instead to know more about your software development. So make sure your resume fits the job description.

Add lots of technical keywords

Technical keywords are great. People looking at resumes don’t have a lot of time, so be clear which technologies you have worked with. Keywords like SPI, I2C, MATLAB, Hi-Speed Serial (SERDES), PCI-E, LCD, Xilinx, Virtex, USB, UART, Git, IceCUBE2, Lattice Diamond, Modelsim, Quartus, Verilog, VHDL, FPGA, etc etc. These are keywords that jump off the page. Interviewers know these technologies/protocols/companies intimately, so if you are familiar with them and can talk to them, put them down! Keywords that are not great are fluffy ones, like synergy. Don’t use the word synergy.

Put link to GitHub repository

If you’re interviewing for a programming job, it helps to see whether or not you can program. Putting a link to your GitHub repository will show that you’re an active contributor, it shows the employer a sample of your code, and shows them that you know how revision control works. So that’s three great things. I see this often put at the top of a resume, under email for example. I personally love when I see a resume with a GitHub repo come across my desk.

Should I include my GPA?

Should you put your GPA (Grade Point Average) on your resume? If you have > 5 years experience, it doesn’t matter much if you do or you don’t. But if you are fresh out of college, I expect it to be there. If it’s not there it’s a red flag. Too often I’ve interviewed someone who did not put their GPA on their resume and it was clear why they did not do that. He or she was not a good student and it shows during the interview. I’ve heard that if you have a 3.0 or below you should not put your GPA on your resume, and I agree with that. All I can say is if you choose not to put your GPA on your resume, you had better be prepared to crush the technical interview, cause I’m going to be probing pretty hard.

Education vs Experience Sections

When you’re fresh out of college your resume is mostly about your education. What classes you took, what projects you worked on. If you don’t have much work experience that’s really all you can do and employers understand that. As you gain more work experience, the first thing to drop off is the education section. See the part above about keeping your resume short and focused and trim from education. I have 10+ years experience and my education section just shows that I went to college, nothing about classes or projects, my work experience is more relevant and interesting to potential employers at this point.

What if you never went to college?

I personally have not seen many resumes without an undergraduate degree. That said, I would love to interview someone who was a self-taught digital designer. If they could convince me via code examples and projects that they had a deep breadth of knowledge of the subject, I would happily bring them in for an interview. I believe that Engineering is more of a merit-based career than most. We are less interested in degrees and awards and more interested in talent. So show off your skills and surprise some people!

Does which College/University I went to matter?

100% no. Unfortunately for those of you who went to a $40k/year school, you’re not going to have a leg-up on the state-school kiddos just because you went to a prestigious university. Again, Engineering is (mostly) merit-based. So how well you present yourself, what experiences you have had, and what technical skills you have is more important than where you lived for 4 years. I went to a state school (Go UMass) and have never had a tougher time finding a job than my private school peers.