If you’re applying for an academic or research role in engineering, the employer may prefer that you submit a CV rather than a resume. A CV can help them get a more in-depth look at your educational background, research and experiences. Learning about the primary components included on a CV can help you write a more effective one.

In this article, we review an example of a CV for an engineer and share a template and a list of steps you can use as a guide when creating your own.

Engineering CV template

Here’s a template you can use to write your own CV as an engineer:

[Your Name]
[Phone number] | [Professional email address] | [City, State]

Professional Summary

[Two or three sentences about your industry experience and key skills]

Work Experience

[Job title], [Start date–End date]
[Company name], [Location]

• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]
• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]
• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]
• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]
• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]

[Job title], [Start date–End date]
[Company name], [Location]

• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]
• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]
• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]

[Job title], [Start date–End date]
[Company name], [Location]

• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]
• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]
• [Strong verb] + [job duty] + [impact]

Skills

[Relevant skill] | [Relevant skill] | [Relevant skill] | [Relevant skill] | [Relevant skill]

Education

[Degree], [Major]
[Name of School or University]

Certifications

• [Certification], [Certifying organization]–[Year earned]

 Additional Information

• [Information about honors, awards or other qualifications or achievements]

How to create a CV of an engineer

Here are the basic steps you can use to create an impactful engineering CV:

1. Use proper formatting

When you create a CV, it’s important to use proper formatting to ensure that hiring managers can easily scan it. This includes using an easy-to-read font in an appropriate size and having a one-inch margin on all sides of the document. Some of the best fonts are Arial, Helvetica and Calibri, and the font can be between 10 and 12 points in size.

2. Add your contact information

After choosing your font, start your CV by adding your contact information to the top of the page as a header. In this section, include your name, phone number, email address and city and state. It’s appropriate for your name to be larger and more prominent than the other text on the page.

3. Write your professional summary

Next, write a professional summary that gives the hiring manager an idea of your background, including your current job title, essential skills and personal characteristics. It’s important to be concise with your personal profile, so it can be best to keep it between two and three sentences. You can also highlight specific details about your experience, such as the number of years you have in the field and the types of engineering you know how to perform.

4. Detail your work experience

After your professional summary, create a section for your work history. Include details about all relevant work experiences, such as full-time and part-time jobs you’ve held, internships, volunteer work, research projects and any other experience in your field. Employers value hands-on experience, so it’s important to include all of your relevant work experiences, even if they were unpaid. For each entry in this section, add your job title, your employment dates, your employer’s name and location and a list of your key job duties.

5. List your relevant skills

Next, create a list of your most relevant skills. Review the job description carefully and note the most essential skills that an employer is looking for in a candidate. Include any of the required and preferred skills that apply to you, such as technical skills, certified skills or soft skills, when appropriate. For example, if a job description lists electrical wiring in its skills section and you have experience as an electrical engineer, including this skill on your resume can relate your application directly to what the hiring managers want.

6. Include your education

Since many engineers earn degrees that are specific to their jobs, it can be important to add your education to your CV. List your education in reverse chronological order with your most recent degree at the top of the section. For example, if you have a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree, list the master’s degree first. When creating each entry, include the degree you have, the school you attended and the year you graduated, if it’s within the last three years.

7. List your certifications

After your education, list any certifications you have. Many employers ask for certain types of engineers to have specific engineering certifications, so highlighting your certifications might help you secure a position. For each certification you add, include the name of the credential, the certifying organization and the year you earned it.

8. End with additional information

The last section you can add to your engineering CV is one for additional information. Here, you can include any honors or awards you’ve earned that relate to engineering or your previous jobs. List the name of each achievement and year that you received it. If you don’t have any awards, you can also include other qualifications, such as professional associations and affiliations, or leave this section off of your CV.

Tips for creating the CV of an engineer

Here are some additional tips that you can use to create an engineering CV that stands out from the competition:

• Research the company. Before you create your CV, research the company to better understand its role in the industry and the technology they use. You can then use this information to highlight any relevant experiences on your resume.
• Focus on achievements. To get the hiring manager’s attention and give yourself a competitive advantage over other candidates, focus on achievements and results in your work experience section. Emphasizing quantifiable results shows the hiring manager what you accomplished in the past and what you’re capable of doing if they hire you.
• Look at keywords. Recruiters and hiring managers scan CVs to look for keywords before reading the documents more closely. For this reason, it’s important to review the job description to identify which keywords the employer uses and include the most relatable and applicable keywords on your CV.
• Proofread carefully. Engineers generally have strong attention to detail, which is why it’s particularly important to proofread your CV carefully for any typos or grammatical errors. You may want to consider letting someone else review the document for errors before you submit your application.