Engineer CV Examples and Tips.

Follow the tips written by aerospace recruiters hiring engineers for the most exciting engineering roles. This article was written in cooperation with the recruiters hiring engineers for the most exciting space jobs around the world.

Create a resume that works. The resume of a fresher engineer will vary from an experienced professional. An aerospace engineer resume is different from a mechanical engineer resume but the tips below can be applied to all engineering resumes.

Did you know a recruiter spends an average of 20 seconds before deciding to either discard your engineering CV or continue reading?

Before you start looking at job advertisements, send CVs and search for the company that may accommodate your skillset and experience – try to reverse the order.

Think about the company that would best suit you. What criteria should your ideal employer meet? Which values are important to you? What will give you satisfaction in your work environment? Are there things you would not accept?

Knowing the answers to these questions may help you identify the employers that you would like to work for (or that you would not like to work for!)

A mutual fit between you and your company of choice is necessary to be happy at work. Now comes the hard part – proving to the employer that you belong in their ranks, and you should start doing it from the very beginning – the application.

Write a summary at the top of your CV.

In a few (3-5) sentences, summarise your accomplishments. Define a clear goal for your career and mention the tools you have been using and that are relevant for the job you want to have. Mention the coding language you excel at.

Display experience relevant to the position you are applying for.

The top of your list of previous experience should provide all the information that a recruiter will be looking for regarding the job you are trying to land. If you have other experience that is not necessarily relevant to this job offer but still you wish to include it, place it at the bottom of the list.

You don’t need to be concise in your CV when presenting facts important from the recruiters' point of view. Structure your job descriptions.

Present yourself when describing your current or previous job positions. Start your roles with a brief intro that describes the company you work for, where you sat within the hierarchy and what the overall goal of your role was. Then bullet point your responsibilities to show the work you carried out and showcase your skills and output. Finish with highlighting some impressive achievements you have made during your time in the position.

Recruiters see plenty of CVs daily and work to tight deadlines. If your CV has the volume of a novella - perhaps you should work on it.

Check each point and ask yourself: “Will this persuade a hiring manager to interview me?” If the answer is no, then remove or reduce that point. Be careful though not to overdo and end up with a CV that lacks the necessary content, as described in the previous paragraphs.

Be specific in your engineering resume, use examples.

General statements won’t always do. Use examples that show your potential employer that you will fit right in. Have you previously taken part in projects that are in line with the position you apply for? Projects that left you with valuable and relevant experience? Have your actions influenced your company? Did they positively impact the company results, image, client relations? By all means, brag about it.

Do not leave gaps in your previous job listing.

If you had time off between employers, try not to leave it on display without comment. Perhaps you took on interesting personal projects, volunteered in a facility, completed various training courses, or traveled… A gap in your professional experience may very well be turned in your favour.

Similar to the above - add unique experiences

Without overdoing it, there is nothing wrong with including some unique attributes or experiences in your CV. Maybe you’re writing a book, maybe you play the Clarinet or like to go sky diving. These things, although not 100%, will make you stand out from the rest. It also shows your employer that you have other, soft skills and knowledge that might be beneficial to the job such as disciple or determination.

Use PDF format.

You never know what kind of capabilities the recruiter’s computer has. Successful reading of a .xdoc file is not as straightforward as one might think.

Very often CV document files are troublesome: fonts get lost or unidentified and switched, things get moved around in the layout…

PDF is the best format for your resume. It translates the text format of your document into a visual, fixed vector image so that the receiving end is getting exactly what you see. This way after exporting your document to the PDF format and opening it on any computer, the font is unchanged. If you happen to be using other programs such as CorelDRAW to create your resume, make sure the text will be exported to PDF as such and not, instead, converted to curves. Convert your documents into PDF here.