Electrical Engineering Resume: Template for an Engineer

Crafting a professional electrical engineer resume will be decisive for your future career. Why? IEEE describes electrical engineering job trends nowadays with one word: high. High growth, high salaries, high demand, and, at the same time, extremely high competition.

The good news is, you are going to beat all your competitors. Just follow the proven resume writing advice I’m about to share.

Read on, and I’ll show you:

• An electrical engineering resume sample better than 9 out of 10 other resumes.
• How to write an electrical engineer resume even if you have no experience.
• Tips and examples of how to put skills and achievements on an electrical engineering resume.
• How to describe your experience on a resume for electrical engineer positions to get any job you want.

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Writing a resume for a specific engineering occupation? Check out these guides:

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• Best Resume Examples for All Professions

Here's how to write an electrical engineer resume:

1

Choose the Best Electrical Engineering Resume Format

Before you start writing a resume for electrical engineer jobs, you need to pick a good resume format. It will help recruiters find the most important details about you in a flash.

What should you do?

Long story short—pick the respected, elegant reverse-chronological resume format.

Recruiters are familiar with it, plus, it helps you highlight your best assets.

Here’s what sections to include in an electrical engineering rev-chron resume format.

Electrical Engineering Resume Template

1. Contact information
2. Resume objective or summary
3. Work experience in reverse-chronological order
4. Education
5. Skills
6. Additional Sections (Certifications, Awards, Conference Participation, Volunteer Experience, or Hobbies and Interests)

Pro Tip: Once you finish crafting your electrical engineer resume, save it in PDF so that your resume layout stays intact. But make sure to read the job ad carefully. Some employers don’t accept PDF files—if such is the case, send your electrical engineer resume in DOC.

Writing an entry-level electrical engineer resume with no experience to show off? Check out the best tips for your fresher EE resume here: Entry-Level Resume: Sample and Writing Guide

For more information on resume formatting, visit our comprehensive guide: Resume Format: How to Choose the Best One

Now, have a look at how to write each consecutive section of your resume:

7 seconds.

That’s how much time, on average, recruiters spend scanning each resume they receive, according to our HR statistics report.

But here’s the twist—

You can make them read your electrical engineering resume in full. How?

Start your EE resume with either a resume summary or resume objective—a brief paragraph that explains why you’re the perfect electrical engineer for the job.

Think about it as a trailer for your job application. If it’s interesting for the hiring manager, they’ll want to read on.

If you’re an experienced electrical engineer writing a senior electrical engineer resume, use a resume summary. Highlight your career progress and skills set.

Writing a fresher electrical engineering resume? Go for a resume objective. Show what you’ve already learned and what you can offer your employer.

Whichever one you choose, remember—

In the headline of an electrical engineering resume, don’t write about what you want out of the job. Focus on what you have to offer instead.

Check out these sample electrical engineering objectives and summaries to see what I mean.

Electrical Engineering Objective for a Resume

Wow, right?

Despite no working experience, this candidate delivers a clear message—

I’ve got what it takes to perform well in this job and I can help you with your challenges.

Electrical Engineer Resume Objective Sample

Why is it so bad?

Because it reads like something along the lines of: I want any job so I can learn more.

You won’t land your next job if you don’t show what you’ve got to offer.

Now, let’s have a look at two very different professional summaries for an electrical engineering resume.

Electrical Engineer Resume Summary

This one’s guaranteed to make every recruiter think: “We’ve got a future Nikola Tesla over here! I’d have to be a lunatic not to hire this one.”

Senior Electrical Engineering Summary Resume Example

Do you think you could be any more generic?

“Clients in diverse industries?!” What industries exactly?

The biggest problem with this summary is that it fails to achieve its main purpose—introduce the candidate to the employer in a brief but comprehensive way.

Pro Tip: In every resume objective or summary for electrical engineering positions, address the company by name and indicate the position you’re targeting. Yup—that means you cannot send an identical resume for every application. And that’s the point. Personalize every resume you send!

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.

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When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

Writing the perfect electrical engineering resume objective or summary can be challenging. For more expert tips and real-life examples, check out our handy guides: How to Write a Professional Summary for a Resume and How to Write a Resume Career Objective

3

Describe Your Electrical Engineering Experience

What matters most for recruiters is your work experience. This section of your electrical engineering resume gets the most attention.

If you want to land that dream job, your resume’s work experience section has to be perfect.

How to make it happen?

Don’t talk only about your duties and responsibilities. Highlight your achievements and accomplishments instead.

Take a look:

How to Write an Electronic Engineering Resume Experience Section

1. Start with your current or most recent job.
2. Follow it with your previous position and the one before that, and so on. In each entry, include your position name, the company, and the dates worked.
3. Add up to 5 bullet points describing your duties and, more importantly, your achievements.
4. Quantify whenever possible. Don’t say you “significantly reduced manufacturing time.” Say how much exactly. Numbers pop!
5. Use action verbs throughout your work experience section. “Coordinated,” “created,” “reviewed,” not “responsible for coordinating, creating, and reviewing.”
6. At the bottom, add a “Key achievement” subsection where you show off your most impressive success.
7. Last but not least—pick phrases from the job ad, and refer to them in your work experience section. List relevant duties, not every single task you’ve performed. It’s called tailoring or targeting a resume.

Let’s see how it works in practice.

Senior Electrical Engineering Resume Sample—Work Experience Section

Example Electrical Engineering Internship Resume With No Experience

See the difference?

The right electrical engineering resume sample showcases quantifiable achievements and specific duties. Plus, it’s packed full of action words.

The wrong one? That reads like a re-written description of responsibilities listed in the job ad.

Pro Tip: The common advice is to keep your resume one-page. But you know the old saying: the most expensive wire is the one cut short. The same goes for your electrical engineering resume. It’s better to have a two-page resume than to omit any important information.

If you want to learn more useful tricks on how to put work experience on a professional electrical engineering resume, see this handy guide: How to List Work Experience on Your Resume

Good news!

Listing education on your resume is usually easy. Here’s what to include:

• Degree type
• Your major (or your minors if applicable)
• School name
• Graduation date

List only your highest degree of education (the only exception is if you’ve completed graduate studies—in this case, include your Bachelor’s too).

If you’ve got more than 6 months of working experience, skip your GPA. Also, don’t include it if it’s lower than 3.5. It could do you more harm than good.

Have a look:

Resume for an Electrical Engineer Fresher

These are the basics.

Things get a bit more tricky if you’re writing a fresher electrical engineering resume, an undergraduate EE resume, or any other entry-level electrical engineering resume. If this is your case, elaborate on your education a bit more.

Consider including:

• Relevant coursework
• Favorite fields of study
• Academic achievements
• Extracurricular activities

Pro Tip: Eyeing graduation and unsure what should your next career step be? Check out this report and see the highest-paying industries for electrical engineering graduates.

If you want to learn more about listing your education on a resume for electrical engineers, check out this piece: How to Put Education on a Resume [Tips & Examples]

The rules for writing an electrical engineering internship resume or an electrical engineering student resume are slightly different from general resume writing principles.

The first thing you should do is to put your education section above the work experience section.

If you’re an electrical engineering student, your education is probably your best asset. Lead with it and put it right under your resume objective.

As explained in the section above, provide additional info about your academic experience.

Have a look at this example.

Entry Level Electrical Engineering Resume Education Section

What about your experience section? Should you omit it altogether?

Not at all.

You might not have full-time professional experience, but if you’re an electrical engineer student, any experience can dazzle recruiters.

For instance:

• Freelance work
• Part-time jobs
• Volunteering
• Prior internship experience

It doesn’t have to be strictly related to electrical engineering. Check out the sample below.

Sample Electrical Engineering Internship Resume—Freelance Work

Yup, that’ll do the trick. You don’t need fancy achievements at this point of your career. But recruiters want to know you’re willing to constantly learn and self-develop. That’s one of the most crucial qualities they seek in prospective interns.

Want more in-depth information on writing a killer electrical engineering student resume? Visit this guide: Student Resume: Sample and Writing Guide

Desperate to land that dream electrical engineering internship? Go here: Internship Resume: Sample and Writing Guide

At the end of the day, your skills are what’s of most value to employers.

But that doesn’t mean your electrical engineer resume should feature a list of 20+ skills listed in whatever order you see fit.

Again, relevance is key. Take a look:

Electrical Engineering Resume Skills Section Step by Step

• Start with a spreadsheet that lists all your professional skills.
• Read the job description carefully. Look for skills-related keywords.
• Check how many of these are there in your spreadsheet. Quite a few? Great. That’s your skills list.
• Don’t just put the names of your EE skills. Provide evidence that shows your level of proficiency.

Pro Tip: Apart from the skills section, you should also mention your best electrical engineering and technical skills throughout your work experience section and refer to one or two of the most relevant ones in your electrical engineer resume objective or summary.

Need some inspiration?

Check out our list of the most desired electrical engineering resume skills.

Electrical Engineering Resume Skills

See more examples of job-winning skills sets that could supercharge any electrical engineer resume here: 30+ Best Examples of What Skills to Put on a Resume (Proven Tips)

So far so good—

You’ve got your career objective or a professional summary at the top of your electrical engineering resume, you’ve described your experience, education, and skills.

That’s a really decent resume you’ve got there.

Want to take it from decent to the best electrical engineering resume on the recruiter’s desk?

Add an extra section that not only shows but proves your value. Mention your verifiable achievements.

Such as?

Have a look:

Examples of Electrical Engineering Resume Extra Sections

• Industry awards
• Professional certifications
• Conference participation
• Trainings attended
• Industry blog

Don’t have any of the above? Don’t fret. A junior electrical engineer resume can still greatly benefit from an extra section. Here are some ideas:

Examples of an Entry-Level Electrical Engineering Resume Extra Sections

• Hobbies, Activities and Interests
• Volunteer Experience
• Freelance Work
• Projects
• Extracurricular activities

Not sure what to include in that additional section of your professional electrical engg resume? See this handy guide: What to Put on a Resume to Make It Perfect

Yes, you do need a cover letter.

Why?

Because almost half of the recruiters won’t even bother to cast a glance at your resume if there’s no electrical engineer cover letter attached.

Yup. You read that right.

Plus, a well-written cover letter can be used to your massive advantage.

Think about writing an electrical engineering internship resume or a student resume for electrical engineering jobs. Daunting, right?

Here comes your savior: the cover letter.

In it, you can showcase your creativity and explain why you’re interested in electrical engineering career.

Your cover letter can prove to the recruiters that you’re motivated and really mean business.

But it’s not only freshers who should include a cover letter in their application.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve got 1 year experience, if you’re a mid level electrical engineer, or a seasoned professional in marine electrical engineering.

Attaching a cover letter doubles your chances of getting hired. There’s no arguing with hard numbers, is there?

Pro Tip: Once you send your electrical engineer resume and a cover letter—follow up. A nudge by phone, email, or in person can prove your follow-through ability!

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

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See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Need an example cover letter for your engineering resume? See the sample in this guide: Electrical Engineering Cover Letter Sample & Step-by-Step Guide [15+ Examples]

For general cover letter writing tips, give this article a read: Cover Letter in 8 Simple Steps

Key Takeaway

To have the best electrical engineering resume possible, follow the key steps we covered:

• Open your electrical engineer resume with a resume career objective or a resume summary. Say what makes you a great candidate and make an offer.
• In the work experience section, focus on your achievements, not just responsibilities. Use action verbs and quantify whenever possible.
• Match your skills list with the skills required in the job ad.
• Include additional sections that prove your value as a candidate.
• Personalize every resume you send. Use the name of the company you’re applying to and tailor the contents of your resume to the requirements in the job description.

All check? Well then—Good luck at your big interview!

Got any questions? Need further help? Want to chat about writing your electrical engineer resume? That’s great cause I can’t wait to hear your thoughts! Drop me a line in the comments and I’ll make sure to get back to you right off!