Engineering roles require a set of strong technical and transferable skills, and showcasing these on your CV is the first important step on your job search. First impressions count, and recruiters are time-poor people, so you want to make sure your CV stands out!
Below CV-Library offers advice on how to tick all the right boxes, whilst creating an engineering CV that is going to get you noticed. Follow these tips for job hunting success!
Use keywords
When writing your CV, you need to look carefully at the job description and ensure the two align. Read through the description highlighting any keywords or skills the recruiter is looking for. You then need to ensure you pepper these throughout your CV (if you have these skills of course!).
This technique not only ensures that you know what the job role requires, but it also makes it quicker and easier for recruiters to recognise your key skills and decide whether you’d be a good match for the job.
Tailor your CV
You need to make sure you tailor every CV and application you submit. Firing off a generic CV just won’t do, recruiters can spot this from a mile away. Be sure to read the job description, research the company and really understand what it is that the recruiter is looking for.
This way you can better tailor your personal statement, experience and skills to reflect the job role and company values. This will make your CV stand out and boost your chances of landing the role.
Keep it clear and concise
When we typically think of standing out, we think of being unique, bold or obvious. And while you want your CV to stand out from the crowd, you also want it to be clearly laid out and easy to digest. By all means, be creative with the design – you’re an engineer after all! But be careful not to go too far and make it confusing or distracting.
It’s helpful to use shorter paragraphs as big bodies of text can be off-putting. You should also use bullet points where necessary. This makes the information easier to digest, saving the recruiter time and clearly revealing why you’re right for the job.
Use examples
Throughout your CV you need to use examples to illustrate your skills. It’s all well and good saying you’re ‘creative’ or that you ‘work well in a team’, but you need to give examples of how you have put this into practice in the past. If you can quantify these examples, even better! You could do so by talking about timescales in which you completed projects or the size of the teams you’ve managed.
In doing so, this will help you to show the contribution you’ve made to companies or projects in the past, and any creative ideas you’ve had. It will also serve to show how you can make a real difference to the business should you land the job.
In summary
It can feel like there’s a lot to remember when it comes to writing a killer CV, but follow these simple tips and you could land yourself your next exciting engineering job in no time! In the meantime, check out CV-Library’s engineer salary guide to see how much you could earn.