Powering Up Your Application: Expert Resume Tips for Engineers

To showcase your skills and make a good first impression on potential employers you need a great resume. Knowing where to start and getting expert advice on how to perfect your engineering CV can be difficult, so to give you the inside track and help you stand out, we have gathered expert tips from our recruiters.   

Tailor Your Resume

If you are serious about standing out as the perfect candidate for a position, tailor your resume according to the job description to highlight the correlation between the requirements and your skills and expertise. This is also applicable if you have experience, for example, as a project manager and engineer. In this case, create one resume showcasing your project management skills and another to highlight your engineering skills. This approach demonstrates that you understand the requirements and ensures your resume will stand out as a good match for the position.  

Keep it Brief

For the best results, aim to keep your CV around 2 pages and try to keep the description of each position between 5-7 sentences. For each position, be sure to include your position, the industry you worked in, your duties, and the software and tools you gained experience in. If you mention a large project, it is useful to include the budget. Descriptions of experience from decades ago in an unrelated industry can be left out. 

Order responsibilities from largest to smallest

When describing your responsibilities within a function list them from the largest part of your job, which you spent the majority of your time on to the least. For example, if your primary function is designing LV systems and the smallest part of your function included scheduling meetings, mention the LV systems first then your other responsibilities, and end with the scheduling.  

Some suggestions for the questions your position descriptions should answer: 

• • What were your responsibilities?
  • What kind of projects did you work on and in which industry?
  • What size were the projects you worked on?
  • What did you personally design for the project, if applicable? 
  • In which phase of the project were you involved? 
  • Which software did you gain experience with and what kind of calculations did you make?
  • What kind of output did you have or which specific documents did you prepare? 
  • What kind of company did you work for, a consultancy, EPC, etc?

Looking sharp

Adding a picture to your CV is advantageous; if it is a good quality photo and looks professional. A photo that is poor quality, stretched, or visibly cropped from a wedding photo is best left out.

Some Insight Into Our Recruiting Process

Our recruiters specialize by engineering discipline

Are you an electrical engineer and see three of our vacancies in the electrical discipline which you are interested in applying for? Apply for the vacancy which you most strongly match with. Should there be other vacancies that could suit you, our recruiters will advise you which positions might be a better fit or could also be a good option for you. This means you only need to share your resume with us once and our recruiters will guide you from there.  

We will screen first and then we will investigate

Our recruiters will screen through multiple resumes before creating a shortlist of candidates for an open vacancy. During this process they are looking for the most relevant experience you have, so make sure your most recent experience appears on the first page of your CV and can be seen right away. Also, prioritize space for relevant experience and keep descriptions of less relevant, or dated experience brief. 

You only have one chance to introduce yourself to our clients

Once you reach the stage in our recruitment process where you are selected as a potential candidate for a position, we will share your CV, accompanied by our motivation, with our client. This is your opportunity to introduce yourself to our client through your CV, so make sure it reflects who you are and what you are good at to make the most of this introduction.

Craft an impactful resume by tailoring it to the position you are applying for, emphasizing relevant experiences, and prioritizing key information. But rest assured that our recruiters will guide you to ensure that you have the best chance of landing your dream job!

Ready to apply? View our vacancies here

Good luck!