Engineering Student Resume: Examples and Guide [10+ Tips]

First—congratulations. It’s a long, rough road from physics 101 to that hard-won engineering degree in your back pocket. You’ve consumed 4 million gallons of coffee and burned more midnight oil than Windle Poons. But you still don’t have the dreaded e-word. Experience. Ugh. How will you get hired?

The answer?

With a first-rate engineering student resume. I know it sounds impossible to prove you’re hirable with a sheet of dried, pressed tree-pulp 0.1 millimeters thick. But—people do it all the time. Once you learn the process, you’ll get more interviews than Tony Stark.

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Engineering student resume made with our builder—See more templates and create your resume here.

Are you seeking jobs that use engineering student skills? See these resume guides:

• Chemical Engineer Resume Examples
• Chemist Resume Examples
• Civil Engineering Resume Examples
• Computer Engineering Resume Examples
• Consultant Resume Examples
• Database Developer Resume Examples
• DevOps Engineer Resume Examples
• Electrical Engineering Resume Examples
• Electronic Technician Resume Examples
• Engineering Resume Examples
• Engineering Internship Resume Examples
• Industrial Engineer Resume Examples
• iOS Developer Resume Examples
• IT Technician Resume Examples
• IT Resume Examples
• IT Support Resume Examples
• Machine Learning Resume Examples
• Manufacturing Engineer Resume Examples
• Mechanical Engineering Resume Examples
• Network Engineer Resume Examples
• Quality Control Resume Examples
• Quality Engineer Resume Examples
• Tableau Developer Resume Examples
• Technical Resume Examples
• Job Resume Examples for All Professions

Sample Engineering Student Resume Template

Here’s how to write your own job-winning engineering student resume:

1. Format Your Engineering Student Resume Correctly

Engineering students graduate from college with high-level skills in chemical, biological, mechanical, electrical, civil, geotechnical, or computer engineering. They face an uphill battle to get hired for entry-level engineering jobs in a field of 70,000 new graduates each year in the U.S. An engineering student resume needs a standout format.

The perfect resume for engineering students has to show you pay attention to detail. To win over your next employer from the first glance, follow these resume formatting rules:

• Decide on which of the three resume types will get you hired fastest. For most engineering students, that’s a modified reverse-chronological order resume.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel. Start with a minimalist resume template to get you to your goal faster.
• Select a modern resume font like Arial, Cambria, or Helvetica. 
• Set common one inch resume margins on the bottom, left, right, and top.
• It’s vital for your resume to fit on one page—and make sure it fills the page.
• How should you name your resume file? “Name-Job Title-Resume.pdf” works best.

Read more: Parts of a Resume

2. Get Attention With a Resume Profile Statement

You need a professional resume introduction to make sure they read your resume. That’s just a quick summary that shows off the key features of your resume.

For entry-level engineering jobs, you’ll write a resume objective statement. In the horse-and-buggy days, that meant you talked about your personal career goals. That’s a no-no in the modern world. Today, talk about your goal to help the company. But show you can help the company by adding your best 2–3 engineering achievements.

What about resume summary statements? Those are basically the same thing, but they’re for more experienced job candidates. Steer clear of those unless you’ve got 15 internships in your rearview.

Read more: How To Make Your Resume Stand Out

3. Write a Winning Engineering Student Resume Education Section 

Education on your resume has a special job to do. It has to fill up extra space you can’t fill with work experience.

• Put your current educational institution at the top. Skip adding high school to your resume.
• Include your degree, the name of your institution, graduation date (or a prospective graduation date if you’re still in this school), your major and minors (if applicable).
• Break your education section up to add length. You can add sections to it like relevant coursework or school projects to show how you’ve used engineering skills.
• You can also add activities, clubs, groups, and list accomplishments in each. Think hard. Did you write articles? Belong to clubs? Lead teams of students?
• Add your GPA to your resume. You can list both weighted and unweighted GPAs.

Read more: How to Add Unfinished College on a Resume

4. Design an Expert Engineering Student Resume Job Description

Got internships? Even one engineering internship? Then show it in a Relevant Experience section. But there’s a special way to do it to get hired. Take a peek first at the employer’s job description online. What skills do they need that you have?

Show those skills off through engineering accomplishments from classes or projects. Add those to a few bullet points under each internship.

The best resume experience section imaginable is designed to wow employers:

• Start with your most recent internship and then add older ones lower down.
• Customize your resume by showing how you used MATLAB, chemical engineering skills, or helped create the budget for a new public works project.
• List the job title, organization name, the dates you were employed, and 3–6 bullet points that show how you made a Thomas Edison sized impact.
• Start every bullet point with a resume action verb like collaborated or designed.
• Make every one of your bullet points show something Elon-Musk-level that you did. Achievements on a resume carry more weight than a list of responsibilities. 

Read more: How to Add Internships to a Resume

5. Showcase Your Best Engineering Student Skills

Yikes. As many as 75% of engineering majors don’t get jobs in their field. That’s terrifying, but you can easily rise above that stat. It works by listing out the engineering skills in the job offer, then proving them out in your bullet points.

Here's how to show your engineering skills are SME-worthy:

• Write up a master list of your best resume job skills. This will take some time, but it’ll make your life so much easier later.
• In your list, put all your hard skills, soft skills, technical skills, computer skills, and anything else an employer could conceivably be interested in.
• Find the most important 7–10 skills in the employer’s job description. Pull from your master list to build your list of resume skills.

Pro Tip: Prove every skill you list with an accomplishment in your education or experience sections. A skills list without proof is like a car without a drive shaft.

Engineering Student Resume Skills

• Organizational skills
• MATLAB
• Prototyping
• Time management
• Troubleshooting
• Communication skills (verbal and written)
• Testing
• CAD
• Lean
• IT skills
• Workflow development
• Problem solving
• Computer skills
• Customer service
• Project management skills
• Attention to detail
• Conceptual skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Teamwork skills
• Decision making
• MS Office skills

Pro Tip: When you custom-fit your resume to the job posting, take some time to find the right resume keywords. They’ll help you go from a generic part to looking like an OEM replacement.

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.

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When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

6. Consider Additional Sections for Your Engineering Student Resume

You don’t have to add “other” sections to your resume, but it can fill space and add skills:

• Add sections for professional associations you belong to, as well as licenses and certifications.
• Include volunteer work if you’ve done some that proves you’ve got the right skills.
• Also add projects on your resume and foreign languages.
• Struggling to fill the space? You can even add a hobbies section, though that should be your last resort unless it proves your engineering skills somehow.

Read more: What Sections Belong in a Resume?

7. Write a Cover Letter for Your Engineering Student Resume

When your resume is done, you’ve still got a little work to do. See—most employers think resumes without cover letters are just job spam. That is, they think you sent a million resumes and you don’t care about this job.

Prove them wrong.

What is a cover letter for? It’s to show this entry-level engineering job matters more to you than most. You hand-picked it and aren’t just clicking auto-apply and hoping for a win.

Here’s how to cover the right parts of a cover letter:

• Begin with a modern cover letter template. 
• Don’t write a Dear Hiring Manager cover letter. Go on LinkedIn or call the company to learn the hiring manager’s name. Then use it in your letter.
• Write a cover letter introduction that hooks them fast, to make sure they read every word.
• Use the second paragraph to tease the best bits of your engineering student resume.
• In your cover letter ending, say what you like about their company. Then ask for the interview.

Why are most cover letters one page in length? Because nobody will read a two-page cover letter. Keep yours brief and to the point. Three paragraphs is plenty.

Read more: College Student Cover Letter

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.

That’s all—

Now you know everything you need to write a great engineering student resume!

Thanks for reading! Do you have another question on how to make a great engineering student resume? Give us a shout in the comments section!