Whether you're looking to hire an engineer for your company, or if you're an engineer on the job market yourself, it can sometimes be a challenge to know the skills you should prioritize.
This post is here to help you.
In it, we're breaking down the five most important skills that successful engineers include on their resumes and bring up in the interview.
Whether you're writing your resume or combing through dozens of applicants looking for quality engineer resumes, things like communication skills, technical expertise, and the ability to work as a team are essential.
If you're ready to get the level of engineering expertise that your company deserves, or if you want to land a position at your dream company, you need to read on.
1. Superior Communication Skills
One of most essential skills that successful engineers display?
It's not a degree from a top university, experience at a high-powered engineering firm, or even a mastery of mathematics.
That's not to say that engineering technical skills aren't important.
But employers are first and foremost looking for you to display soft skills -- things that are more difficult to address on a resume.
Above all, you'll need to prove you can communicate efficiently and clearly with your co-workers, clients, and everyone else a job requires you to come into contact with.
You'll need to show you can both generate and explain new ideas, that you can break down tough technical concepts to others, and that you possess both written and verbal communication skills.
You'll also need to let recruiters know that you can clearly assign and delegate tasks to others, communicate your expectations and responsibilities and that you can effectively monitor the progress of the task at hand.
2. A Commitment to Continuing Education
When companies are looking to hire engineers, they'll also take a look at your commitment to constantly improving your skill set, and whether or not you can keep pace with the rapid changes in the industry.
One of the best ways you can prove this?
By taking continuing education engineering courses.
Some of the topics you can focus on include:
- Green design
- Circuit analysis
- Structural steel engineering
- The crude oil market
- Energy Codes
Especially with green engineering and design on the rise, a focus on sustainable engineering will serve you especially well.
3. Critical Thinking Skills
As an engineer, you'll need to be able to approach a problem or even a project from lots of different angles.
You'll need to show that you can think on your feet, that you have excellent problem-solving skills, and that you can adapt your plan or strategy to account for sudden changes.
After all, a miscommunication on a job site could result in costly errors, and potentially even compromise the safety of others.
You'll need to show that you can identify these problems before they happen and that you can think logically and clearly under pressure.
To sharpen these skills, consider shadowing a successful engineer, taking on an internship, or even offering to lead projects in school or in an entry-level position.
To make your critical thinking skills clear on a resume, make sure you feature projects where you were in a leadership position. Then, talk about what you were able to prevent from happening, as well as what you accomplished on the project.
4. Strong Engineering Technical Skills
Of course, it goes without saying that you'll also need to make sure that your resume includes a list of your technical skills.
Though the skills that you list will vary based on the specific type of engineering you're interested in studying, there are a few key ground rules.
You'll need to show the types of machining, equipment, and tools that you have experience working with. Also, let the recruiter know which software programs you're familiar with.
You can also show off your technical skills by briefly describing your past work experience and the positions you held.
5. A Mastery of Computer Modeling
In recent years especially, an understanding of computer modeling has become one of the essential skills that successful engineers both put on their resume and bring up in the interview room.
Essentially, engineers use computer modeling systems to help them identify potential project pitfalls, give a rough sketch of what a finished project will look like, and much more.
Even if you'll likely never be in a position where you'll be responsible for creating a model for clients and your team?
You'll still need to show that you're able to read them, as well as that you can communicate what the models show to both clients and others on your team.
This means that you'll also need to show recruiters that you possess a strong attention to detail.
You'll need to show you can keep track of who is in charge of specific project elements, deadlines, and that you can work with your team to set attainable and tiered goals.
Ready to Become One of Many Successful Engineers?
From demonstrating softer skills like excellent communication practices to showing off engineering technicals skills like computer modeling and equipment experience, we hope that this post has shown you what successful engineers always put on their resumes.
Remember that hiring managers are looking for collaborative, detail-oriented team players that have a strong drive.
Ready to connect with the engineering job opportunities that you've always dreamed of?
We can help you with that.
We invite you to browse through our job board to find the right position for you across many cities in Canada.
Keep checking back with our blog to learn even more ways to make your resume stand out.
