We personalize your experience.
We use cookies in our website to ensure we give you the best experience, get to know our users and deliver better marketing. For this purpose, we may share the information collected with third parties. By clicking “Allow cookies” you give us your consent to use all cookies. If you prefer to manage your cookies click on the “Manage cookies” link below.
Electrical engineers need an excellent resume to land the right job. Follow these expertly prepared electrical engineer resume examples and resume writing tips to create your own strong resume.
Our customers have been hired by*:*Foot Note
Put together a strong electrical engineering resume using this example's structure and organization.
Follow these four keys to build a well-written electrical engineer resume.
When career experts suggest that job candidates customize each resume for every job application, it’s not to give you more work. It’s because within each job description, there are important qualification-related keywords that must be included in your resume. Employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to select qualified candidates based on keywords. For example, if a job posting requires you to have “knowledge of commercial building construction and local building codes and a keen understanding of renewable energy,” address those keywords in your job application documents, including your resume and cover letter.
On a resume, your first impulse might be to list out your daily tasks. However, consider that other electrical engineer candidates will probably feature similar work experiences on their resumes. To stand out, list your most impressive accomplishments: unique highlights of your electrical engineering career that can be told using quantifiable numbers. For example: “Designed, developed and implemented an automated control system, resulting in a 21% increase in production efficiency.”
Your electrical engineer resume should emphasize your hard skills and soft skills to show you have the technical qualifications and the traits representing a good work ethic and the ability to work efficiently along with a team of engineers. Hiring managers will be looking for hard skills like electrical code compliance, circuit design and analysis and programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Soft skills for engineers would include problem-solving, critical thinking and project management. Look further down on this page for more electrical engineering skills to consider including in your resume.
In addition to highlighting your impressive engineering degrees, you can also add a separate section to your resume to mention any certifications (e.g. AutoCAD or MATLAB certificate) or additional training that proves your technical expertise as an electrical engineer. It’s also wise to include your state-issued Professional Engineer (PE) license or Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, if applicable.
Hiring managers don’t want to read resume after resume with a boring laundry list of electrical engineering experience. Instead, communicate your career highlights using action-packed verbs, energizing energize accomplishments in both your summary and work experience sections. For example: “Executed system level requirements analysis, sub-system level requirements development and conceptual design.”).
Here are action words for an engineering resume:
Before you begin building your electrical engineer resume, you need to select the best resume format for your situation. A chronological resume format focuses on work history, while a functional resume format will emphasize skills. The combination format, also known as the hybrid format, highlights a combination of work history and skills.
Here is a guide to selecting the best resume format for your engineering career level:
The reverse-chronological resume format highlights your years of engineering experience as well as relevant skills.
The functional resume format shifts the focus off your work experience (or lack of experience) by highlighting your relevant transferable skills instead.
The combination format equally prioritizes experience and skills.
An electrical engineer resume needs to feature a well-rounded list of hard skills and soft skills. Your hard skills are those engineering abilities learned through acquiring your degree and on-the-job training, while soft skills are the personality-driven traits that make up who you are as a person.
Here are some electrical engineer skills to include on a resume:
Here are the steps to building a well-written resume:
Your contact information is presented in the header of your resume. The hiring manager should be able to easily locate your information to set up a job interview. Include links to your career networking portfolios like Linkedin or a portfolio that displays your technical skills. Browse the electrical engineering resume samples to see different examples of headers.
A resume summary is a short statement about the work you have done in the past. A resume objective includes this as well as your goals for the job if you get hired. Which one you choose to use can depend on how many years of experience you have in the industry already. A more experienced engineer will write a resume summary. An entry-level, recent electrical engineering graduate, career changer or engineer with less experience will write a resume objective. Remember to focus on the value you can bring to the company.
Be specific in your skills section by listing soft skills and hard skills relevant to the position, especially those listed in the job description. Make an impact by using bullet points to list your most impressive skills and don’t fill your skills section with skills unrelated to the position.
Here are a few bullet points you may want to include:
Include up to the last 10 years of relevant engineering experience in your work history section. Relevant experience is typically defined as work from the same industry. However, as an engineer, you may include work that has similar skills such as project management, computer programming or design. You can expand on any work history older than 10 years in your Linkedin or other online profile. Remember to include your profile links in the resume header with your other contact information.
Ordinarily, you should shoot for 3-5 bullet points per job.
In your resume education section, include all levels of higher education including your electrical engineering certifications. The extras like a master’s degree and certifications can elevate you over job candidates who only hold a bachelor’s degree and lack engineering certifications. This may even earn you a higher salary for holding extra credentials. Also, be sure to include academic honors you received such as cum laude or dean’s list.
Build my resume
Do:
Don't:
Have questions? We’re here to help.
To write a resume for an electrical engineer job search, include your most impressive engineering skills and experience specifically relevant to the type of engineering you’re applying to. Make it clear that you have the right level of education, engineering certifications, any subject matter that is your expertise such as aerospace and space defense systems, biomedical engineering, robotics, automotive or communications.
If you’re an entry-level candidate or a career changer, include relevant coursework, special projects, internships or volunteer work. Include powerful examples of your accomplishments such as when you suggested energy-efficient, cost-cutting measures in a commercial building or through your automation innovation, a mall lighting project was completed two months early based on your recommendations.
p>“Current master’s degree student with two years of engineering experience seeks an electrical engineer role to improve skills designing innovative solutions for automation, renewable energy and distribution systems. Supported senior engineer with the 2023 Main Street Commercial Building Project in increasing production efficiency by 20% and reducing energy costs by 20%. Proficient skills in electrical design and implementation, troubleshooting and safety systems. AutoCAD or MATLAB certifications.”
As you can see in the junior electrical engineer resume objective above, the job candidate mentions a current pursuit for a master’s degree, the number of years working as an engineer, a notable accomplishment, skills and certifications. A hiring manager looking for a junior engineer would consider hiring such a motivated and proven successful candidate.
Job descriptions for electrical engineering positions would include responsibilities like these:
Electrical engineers need to possess both hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills (learned with education and work experience) will be needed to design, build, implement and troubleshoot complex electrical systems. However, you’ll also need soft skills to work collaboratively with your team (interpersonal, patience and active listening), communicate your ideas both written and verbally, and manage a multitude of simultaneous projects efficiently (time management, multitasking and organization).
Yes. It’s important that you customize a resume for each job role that you apply to. This ensures that you meet all the specific job responsibilities and qualifications that the hiring manager placed in the job description. By editing your resume skills, work experience and education to include keywords used in the job posting, you will enhance your chances of passing through applicant tracking systems (ATS) that are programmed to scan electrical engineer resumes to select only qualified candidates.
Yes. In addition to your resume, you should create a new cover letter for each job you apply to during a job search. A cover letter will help to give the hiring manager a more comprehensive view of who you are. It also expands on the information that you listed in your resume and is a place to explain any gaps in your resume, such as unemployment, maternity or paternity leave, relocations or career changes. You can use ResumeHelp’s Cover Letter Builder as a guideline to create a professional cover letter in just minutes.
While there are many different types of electric engineering jobs, some examples of what an electrical engineer might do on a daily basis are:
To learn how to match your engineering skills and experience with a specific engineer job description on a professional resume, look at an electrical engineering resume example on this page as a guide.
Couldn't find the answer you're looking for?
