About This Resume

An engineering resume is read more closely than you realize and gets judged on more than just your degree and software list. The projects you describe may show your technical range, but more importantly they show how you make decisions when budget, schedule and physics all push back. While a recruiter may screen it first, the person who decides is usually an engineer who notices when a claim has no number behind it. Vague bullets lose that reader fast.

The engineer most managers want will be a careful and practical designer able to take a part from sketch to production drawings with little supervision from a senior engineer. They'll be curious and exact. They'll also be able to explain a design choice to a machinist and a manager in the same afternoon. Managers go looking for that person in your most recent project.

What to Include

  • A skills line with the CAD, analysis and programming tools you've used on real projects
  • Projects with scope and outcome: what you designed, the constraint that mattered and the result
  • Your Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam result or Engineer Intern (EIT) status, then your PE license with state and number once you have it
  • Codes and standards you've worked to, such as ASME, ASTM or local building codes
  • Senior design, co-ops and internships while you're early in your career
  • Test work: fixtures you built, data you collected and reports you signed

Engineering Resume Sample

Sample resume. The person, employers and contact details are fictional.

Priscilla Yazzie

Mechanical Engineer
Santa Fe, NM | priscilla.yazzie@example.com | (555) 017-2254

Summary

Mechanical engineer (EIT) with six years designing and testing equipment for solar power plants and water utilities. Takes parts from first sketch to production drawings and writes test reports that hold up in a certification review.

Experience

Mechanical Engineer II, Mesa Lumen Solar Structures, Santa Fe, NM 2022 to present

  • Redesigned a tracker bracket to use 2.1 pounds less steel per unit and still pass 150 mph wind-load tests
  • Run finite element analysis on 30 or more parts a year and check the results against lab tests
  • Wrote the test plans and reports for two product certifications, both approved on the first submission
  • Worked with three suppliers to fix weld quality problems, cutting rejected parts from 40 a month to fewer than 5

Associate Engineer, Organ Pass Water Systems, Deming, NM 2020 to 2022

  • Specified pumps and valves for eight lift station upgrades
  • Created 3D models and drawing packages in SolidWorks for the fabrication shop
  • Logged vibration readings on 25 pumps, which caught two failing bearings before they seized

Education

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Sagebrush State University, 2020
Senior design team lead: low-cost water filter housing for rural homes

Skills

SolidWorks and AutoCAD, Finite element analysis, Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T), Test planning and data collection, Design for manufacturing, Pumps and fluid systems, MATLAB, Technical writing

Licenses

  • Engineer Intern (EIT), New Mexico, 2020
  • PE exam (mechanical) scheduled for April 2027

Tips for Your Engineering Resume

  • Put the constraint and the result in the same bullet, as in "Redesigned a tracker bracket to use 2.1 pounds less steel per unit and still pass 150 mph wind-load tests." Interviewers can test that.
  • If you're a recent graduate, list your senior design project in the experience section with a title, the team size and dates, the same way you'd list a job.
  • To become a licensed Professional Engineer, in most states you will need an accredited degree, a passing FE exam, several years of supervised work and a passing PE exam. And, as long as you're on that path, show where you are on it, such as "EIT, New Mexico, 2020" or "PE exam scheduled for April 2027."
  • In some cases, a posting names a code or standard you've worked to, such as the ASME rules for pressure vessels. Use its exact name. Both the screening software and the engineer reading your resume will look for that name.
  • Whether you're fresh out of school or ten years in, a referral from an engineer at the firm usually gets your resume read sooner, so ask former classmates and co-op supervisors before you apply cold.
  • Although a new graduate's resume fits on one page, an engineer with a decade of projects can use two, as long as the top half of page one carries the strongest work.

Next steps: the resume writing guide covers every section in detail, and the template library has layouts for other fields and career stages.