

You’re a versatile professional, but can you engineer a perfect resume? Follow our step-by-step guide and write an engineering resume that meets the ISO.
There are many people with engineering degrees, but not too many superb engineering jobs.
This means that to stay competitive in the job market, you need outstanding skills and expertise.
Is having abilities or knowledge enough, though? Not really, as they don’t always speak for themselves. But resumes do.
Want to write an engineering resume with an extra-long half-life?
This guide will show you:
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Sample resume made with our builder—See more resume examples here.
Benjamin D'Arcy
Engineer
(03) 8822 4328
ben.darcy@email.com
linkedin.com/in/ben.darcy1
Summary
A detail-oriented engineer with a proven production management and QA/QC record. Performed meticulous production maintenance and refinement at Comparch, raising the profits by a quarter and improving the overall output standard. At Enworks, monitored the manufacturing process with a focus on quality assessment, driving a 12+% annual improvement. Seeking to uncover new ways of evolving the product range at Recreed through adequate system management and data-driven process updates.
Experience
Production Engineer
Comparch, Melbourne
August 2019–April 2022
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Completed the production and assembly of products in accordance with the highest standards, reaching 98% precision.
Key Achievement:
Quality Control Engineer
Enworks, Lilydale
September 2016–June 2019
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Key Achievement:
Education
Master of Science in Industrial Engineering
Curtin University, Perth
September 2014–May 2016
Bachelor of Science in Industrial Automation Engineering
Engineering Institute Of Technology, Perth
September 2011–June 2014
Skills
Memberships
Chartered Engineer, Engineers Australia
Here’s how you write an engineering resume:
We’ve defined the problem: write a winning engineering resume.
Before we start prototyping (i.e. drafting), we need to plan the resume out.
Here are the basic machine elements we’ll use to construct it:
Now that the outline is there, note the rules you should follow to get the engineering resume format right:
Job ad asking for a CV instead? Don’t worry, that’s the same thing as a resume in Australia. Read more: What is a CV in Australia? Definition & example
Hiring managers don’t read—they skim—so they’ll be looking for certain indicators.
What are those? Keywords, for starters.
Every time the recruiter sees one in your resume, it works as a flashing light grabbing their attention.
Knowing that, you can strategically place ‘signals’ in your engineering resume that will be impossible not to notice.
And there’s more—so the mechanics for writing this section go as follows:
Talking about accomplishments on your resume always beats just covering your duties. Instead of listing what you did, go with the Problem-Action-Result formula and highlight your successes.
Where do you get those keywords? That’s easy—they’re right in the job description. Use words and phrases from the job description as you describe your experience.
Did? Worked? Forget about it. How about “addressed”? Or “facilitated”? “Overhauled” even? Those power verbs will definitely maximize your efforts.
As for the structure of your engineering resume, follow this scheme:
RIGHT |
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Production Engineer Comparch, Melbourne August 2019–April 2022 Key Qualifications & Responsibilities Completed the production and assembly of products in accordance with the highest standard, reaching 98% precision.
Key Achievement:
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Straightforward, number-backed, and packed with power verbs. The need was addressed effectively, wasn’t it?
WRONG |
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Production Engineer at Comparch, 2019-22 Responsibilities
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Even power verbs can’t save a job description if it’s not supported by something measurable.
Okay, but what if it’s a resume for engineering students? What if the work experience is limited?
No worries. Your engineering resume can still benefit from listing an internship, an engineering apprenticeship, or some assistant work you did at uni.
RIGHT |
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Engineer (Intern) Recreed, Melbourne February 2022–April 2022
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WRONG |
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Engineer, Recreed 2022
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You see what I mean, right?
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
According to research from Georgetown University, over 90% of STEM occupations require a degree.
This means that for a position in the field, the hiring manager will expect to see a degree on your engineering resume.
Here’s how you list it:
RIGHT |
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Master of Science in Industrial Engineering
Bachelor of Science in Industrial Automation Engineering September 2011-June 2014 |
RIGHT |
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BSc, Industrial Automation Engineering 2019-2022
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Another study proves that academic achievements carry the most weight for entry-level applications (in line with keeping the resume neat, error-free, and visually appealing), so it makes sense to craft this section extra carefully.
For engineers, the word “significant” might have a slightly different meaning than to us mere mortals, but this section is, indeed, significant.
In simpler words, getting it right takes your resume from average to an undeniable tenner.
Each industry will have specific hard/computer skills, but these prove to be universal and work on most engineering resumes:
Obviously, you can’t just list generic skills that don’t even make sense compared to the rest of your resume.
If you want the skills on your engineering resume to be “accurate”, i.e. agreeing with the accepted value (=the job offer), you definitely need to tailor them to the job listing. Make an “inventory”, i.e. a list of your relevant skills, then compare it to the job description. See any matches? Great, this is exactly what should be in your engineering resume.
It could look something like this:
RIGHT |
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Skills
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Read more: Skills to include on a resume: List of examples
Don’t let your resume lose momentum.
Additional sections are there to mention anything that’s relevant and can put you ahead of the crowd.
Is there a prestigious certification you’re proud of? An award you received a couple of years ago and would like to mention? A foreign language that you speak (maybe you’re bilingual)?
Knock yourself out. Now is your time to shine.
As I mentioned previously, the fact that these will stand separately on your engineering resume will ensure that those achievements get noticed.
RIGHT |
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Chartered Engineer, Engineers Australia
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WRONG |
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Pro Tip: Remember that resumes also have bandwidth. Don’t overload yours with too many details unless they can directly swing the chances in your favour.
Alright, pay attention to this one, as it’s the section that will bond all the parts of your engineering resume together.
It should contain your “concentrated” message to the hiring manager, being the summary of everything you’re saying below.
This section follows the header, but it’s a lot easier to get it right once you actually have something to summarize. So writing it last may be a good idea.
A few tips:
You can use the following formula for the engineering resume objective:
[Adjective + Job Title + Years of Experience + Achievements + Skills + What You Want to Do for the Employer]
Here’s what it could look like:
RIGHT |
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A detail-oriented engineer with a proven production management and QA/QC record. Performed meticulous production maintenance and refinement at Comparch, raising the profits by a quarter and improving the overall output standard. At Enworks, monitored the manufacturing process with a focus on quality assessment, driving a 12+% annual improvement. Seeking to uncover new ways of evolving the product range at Recreed through adequate system management and data-driven process updates. |
WRONG |
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A professional Quality Control engineer with a big experience in different fields. In my previous jobs I monitored the manufacturing process and was responsible for production maintenance and refinement. Would like to continue being involved with quality assessment at Recreed. |
The wrong example looks scruffy. On top of that, it doesn’t really say anything of the essence. It states what the person was doing, but not how successful they really were or what value they brought.
As for writing a resume for engineering students (or an engineering internship resume for freshers), slightly different rules apply. Instead of summarizing your experience, you focus on your career objectives, i.e. what you’re planning to achieve.
Like so:
RIGHT |
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A curious young professional with a background in Industrial Engineering. Won the EIT Senior Year Merit Scholarship. Through receiving an Engineer’s Australia accredited degree, managed to get a 3-month internship at Recreed, which was successfully completed. Looking to apply my knowledge at Comparch through research and further refining the production process. |
WRONG |
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I would like to work for Comparch, because I really want to start building my engineering experience. I have a degree from EIT, accredited by Engineers Australia. I also did an internship at Recreed. Working for a company like Comparch is a great opportunity, this is why I decided to apply—I want to make the world a better place through tech, and I’m a good fit for this job. |
You get the idea—don’t be needy, focus on what you already know, and paint a picture of what you’d like to achieve (and how you can be useful).
Read more: Resume objective: Good examples to use
Can you ballpark your chances of getting that interview?
I’d say they’re pretty high with a resume written with our guidelines, but they can get even higher.
How?
Through writing a cover letter for your job to keep the gears moving.
Don’t lose the recruiter’s attention, give them more and seal the deal. Think of it as a lever that will do the heavy lifting for you.
Follow these instructions:
Read more: Engineering cover letter: Writing guide
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Let’s go through those engineering resume tips again:
That’s it! Now, we’d love to hear from you:
Thanks for reading, and good luck with submitting your engineering resume in Australia.
Feel free to comment below with any questions!
Reference, comment, instance—synonyms and your job for today. Write a reference letter that comments on candidate’s skills and experience and gives instances of their achievements.
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