It’s your foot in the doorway and your chance to gain the attention of potential employers, so it’s important to take the time to get it right.

However, knowing you need to write a good engineering CV and actually being able to do it are two very different things.

Luckily for you, the team at PurpleCV have put together this comprehensive guide on how to write a successful graduate engineering CV.

The basics

Your contact details

You may have the best engineering CV in the world, but if you don’t get the basics right, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

When we talk about the basics, we mean exactly that: your name, contact details (both phone and email, if possible) and home address.

Without these neatly placed at the top of your CV, you don’t just make yourself impossible to reach – you come across as amateurish at the same time.

Make sure to check your details, double-check them and then check them once more for luck. That typo you spot might be the difference between getting an interview and not.

Additional links: are they worth it?

When it comes to additional links, such as your LinkedIn profile or a link to your website, you should only include them if they are relevant and add value to your CV.

A LinkedIn profile you last posted on six years ago isn’t going to add much; however, a link to a portfolio of engineering projects you’ve worked on in the past will help demonstrate your experience and expertise.

Experience and employment history

When it comes to creating a standout graduate engineering CV, the more internships and work experience you can list, the better.

If you’re able to write about the work you’ve already done within the engineering industry and the skills you’ve acquired, this will be a huge plus on your CV.

We know that for many graduates, however, relevant experience is hard to come by, especially if you’ve spent your recent years in full-time education – so it’s important to know how to sell yourself on your CV.

Don’t forget soft skills

Fortunately, a lack of experience doesn’t have to be the end of the world. You just need to know how to market your soft skills.

Make sure to show potential employers just how invaluable your verbal communication, teamwork, flexibility and critical thinking skills are.

Tailor your CV to the role

Once you’ve identified your soft skills, you need to showcase how they are relevant to the specific role you’re applying for, and then tailor your CV to the job description accordingly.

Whatever relevant work experience you do have, make sure to format it appropriately – it should be listed in reverse chronological order, with your most recent work experience listed first and older positions listed beneath.

If you lack experience, explain how you plan to gain more

Employers are more understanding than you might think and they’ll be aware of how few opportunities there are for student internships.

But if you can demonstrate a go-getting, proactive attitude towards gaining more experience, it shows your determination and work ethic, which will be highly appealing to potential employers.

Graduate engineering CV length

This is a big one – a concise CV is often a better CV.

We’re not saying that it has to be short, necessarily, but rather that you shouldn’t waffle. Say what you need to say as efficiently as possible.

If you don’t have a lot to say, the worst thing you can do is pad your CV out with additional ‘empty’ words. Typically, your CV should be about two pages in length.

Don’t include irrelevant hobbies, skills or qualifications

If you can justify the relevance of a hobby or qualification to the position to which you’re applying, then great.

If not? It doesn’t need to be there. For example, if you’re applying for a graduate internship at a top engineering firm, then it’s hard to find a reason that your 100m swimming badge might somehow be relevant.

However, some extracurricular activities can be used to display that you’re a more rounded individual, which is something employers are always on the lookout for.

If you played for a football team for five years straight, for example, then you can use this to showcase your value as a team player, as well as your communication skills and commitment to a position.

Language and tone

The engineering industry is known more for its mathematics and schematics than its use of language, but when it comes to your engineering CV, you still need to get the language right.

Firstly, before you sit down to write your engineering CV, get yourself in the right mindset.

If you sit down to write with the confidence that you deserve the jobs that are out there, this will translate into a more assured, confident CV overall.

Similarly, write in a positive, friendly manner, but make sure you remain professional. There’s a difference between self-confidence and arrogance, and between an approachable, friendly tone and one which is too familiar and unprofessional.

Given the highly technical nature of engineering roles, you should try to use industry-specific language where relevant throughout your CV.

However, you must make sure that you’re using any technical language correctly – don’t try to use words you don’t fully understand!

Accuracy

In the world of engineering, precision, accuracy and attention to detail are key skills that any hiring manager will be looking for.

This means it’s critical to exhibit these skills throughout your CV by making sure it’s free from typos, grammar mistakes and inaccuracies.

It’s vital that you proofread every part of your job application several times so you can spot any errors and avoid being rejected due to a careless mistake.

You may find it helpful to ask a friend or family member to check your CV too, as a fresh pair of eyes may spot an error that you overlooked.

Final thoughts: how to write a graduate engineering CV

So, there you have it, our steps to writing a competitive graduate engineering CV.

Every engineering CV should have several key features, but how you fill in the blanks – your personality, experience, soft skills and career goals – is up to you and the specific role you’re applying for.

If you’re struggling to write the perfect CV, you may find it useful to use a professional CV writing service to get a CV tailored to your dream engineering role.

The post How to Write a Graduate Engineering CV appeared first on Career Advice.

Where to start

So this is proof that you need to make sure first impressions count. This means being polite, smiling, keep eye contact, dressed smartly, not fidgeting and speaking clearly – even if your interview is virtual. This is your big chance to sell yourself and land that dream job. Do your research on the company and find out key information about what they do and the role you will be interviewed for. Make sure you answer questions clearly and concisely in your engineering interview and be as enthusiastic as possible throughout.

Asking the right questions

When it comes to that part of the engineering interview where they want to hear from you, make sure you ask the right questions. Many interviewers take note of what kind of questions candidates ask – it gives them an insight into how creative or motivated you might be in the role. So it’s important you are asking the right kind of things, not just ‘how many days holiday do I get?’

Asking the right questions is also a fantastic opportunity for you to get to know a little bit more about the company you might be working for. For example, what kind of culture they have, what development opportunities they offer or what their current employees are like.

Remember, when you apply for a job, you’re also trying to establish whether you want to work there and whether they’re the right fit for what you’re looking for. It’s a two-way process and it’s not just about whether they think you’re the right fit – it needs to work for you as well.

What to ask

Here are a few interview questions for you to consider:

• As a business, what would you say sets you apart from your competitors?
• What would I like about working here?
• What type of culture would you say you have?
• What are your company values?
• What is your company strategy and goals for the next 1-5 years?
• What initial or ongoing training opportunities do you offer?
• How can you develop me as a person?
• Where do you see this role progressing over the next couple of years?
• What performance incentives do you offer?
• Tell me about the team I would be working with?
• When did you last promote an employee promoted and why was that?
• How many employees have resigned in the past 12 months and why?

You probably won’t get time to ask all of these questions. But, if you pick out a couple that you like, then ask away! It’s okay to write these questions down in a notebook so you don’t forget them. This is handy to make note of the interviewer’s answers too. It just shows that you are organised and that you care about their responses.

Additional questions

Another thing you might want to ask is if you can meet the team you will be working with, or see the area you might be working in. It’s a really good opportunity to get a real insight into what it might be like to work there and can help you make a decision on whether it’s the right cultural fit for you. Even better if you can actually meet the people you will be working with. You could even ask them what they enjoy the most about working there.

Final thoughts

So now you know why it’s so important to ask the right questions in an engineering interview – it can give you a real insight into the business and what their main values and work ethics are. It’s really beneficial getting a ‘feel’ for a company and trying to understand their culture a bit more – you wouldn’t buy a house without looking at the rooms first would you!

Remember…try to relax, hold your head up high, smile, be polite and enthusiastic and you’re good to go. But most of all, be yourself. Let your personality shine out so they don’t forget you and ask some GREAT questions – good luck!

For more information, check out our full interview guide.

About the author: Craig Burton is Managing Director of The Works Recruitment, based in Leeds. The company has been connecting great talent with great business for more than 25 years. Recruiting responsibly is what makes The Works unique, with forward thinking and thoughtful recruitment methods and a direct approach to talent sourcing. To find out more get in touch on 0333 3449 444 or visit their website at www.theworksrec.co.uk.

The post What to ask in an engineering interview appeared first on Career Advice.

But if you’re applying straight out of university, you’re up against plenty of other bright and tenacious graduates. Not to mention the candidates who’ve been working in the industry for a number of years.

Thankfully, we’ve got some great tips to help you write an entry-level engineering CV which will stand out to recruiters and land you that all-important interview – no matter how little experience you have!

Facilitate for ease of reading

The structure and format of the document should lead to an engineering CV which:

• Looks professional and well thought-out
• Helps readers to navigate to the information they’re looking for
• Is easy to read and not time-consuming for recruiters

How to achieve this? Firstly, make sure you use a simple, clear font with a neutral colour palette – black will do! Use plenty of bullet-pointed lists and bold any key achievements, qualifications or skills which you’d like to stand out.

Secondly, don’t overwhelm the page with information. While your entry-level engineering CV should be detailed, you need to leave some white space to ensure it’s easy on the reader’s eye.

Lastly, think about the structure before you start writing. Consider building your CV around these headings:

Contact details – Name, e-mail, phone number and location

Personal statement – An introductory paragraph

Work experience – Detail any placements, internships or projects you’ve been involved in

Education – Include dates, governing bodies and outcomes

Interests – Describe any relevant industry interests to showcase your passion

Lead with a strong personal statement

Your personal statement should be punchy and compelling. You’re basically selling yourself and convincing the recruiters who read your CV to continue to the bottom of the document.

The idea is to introduce yourself by summarising your skills, knowledge, education, relevant interests and career goals in one powerful paragraph. This is your chance to compensate for your lack of experience by showcasing your qualifications, the skills you’ve picked up in university and expressing your sheer passion for the industry.

Aim for a paragraph which entices readers without boring them. Do this by writing sharp and snappy sentences, totalling to around 10-15 lines of text

Showcase your education

You might not have much work experience, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got nothing to talk about. You’ve studied hard at University for years on end, picked up loads of skills and been part of tons of academic projects – so shout out about it!

Don’t just note your degree or masters title and grade. Give details about your dissertation, as well as individual modules or assignments you completed. Also make sure to highlight any impressive grades or findings. If any of the modules link well to the position you’re applying to, make these the star of the education section.

Show off your work placements

If you’ve just graduated, it’s unlikely you’ll have any full-time work experience other than your university placements. So, use them to your advantage. Think about what you learnt during your placement. How did you help the business, what did you gain from the experience and what skills did you develop. Work the points which are most relevant to the role you’re applying to into the work experience section of your CV.

Part-time jobs or roles outside of the industry may be worth mentioning too, as long as you can note down transferable skills that would help you in your new role.

Tie in relevant hobbies and interests

If you have any interests or hobbies related to the industry or have attended any industry conferences or events, it could be worth including them in your CV.

However, you should only include interests which allow you to utilize engineering or project management skills, a technical mind, or focus.

For example, you could include model making if you’re applying for an architectural role, or playing an instrument (which requires focus and attention to detail) if you’re seeking a career in civil engineering.

Ready to perfect your entry-level engineering CV?

Hopefully these pointers should give you some food for thought and offer a helpful starting point. Remember, alongside your engineering cover letter, your CV is the first impression the employer will have of you – so make it a good one!

About the author: Andrew Fennel is the founder of StandOut CV; a leading resource centre for CV and job search advice, including engineering CV writing guides.

The post How to write an entry-level engineering CV appeared first on Career Advice.

Everyone’s CV is different and people may offer you advice based on their experience. However, everyone’s circumstance is different. Instead, you need to focus on ensuring your own CV is accurate, relevant and exhibits what you have to offer the company.

Our general advice will help you get started, or further improve your CV and develop your career in engineering.

Balance

Balance is always important when building an engineering CV. Focusing on your practical skills along with any technical skills shows diversity. Combine this with your personal skills and you’re on your way to building a well-balanced CV.

Regardless of which industry, structurally a CV should always be tailored towards the employer. We advise keeping a master copy aside and tailoring each CV before sending it out to the company.

Structure your CV

Ease of navigation is crucial. Avoid having a badly written CV with the right structuring and cut down any chunks of text that could put off potential recruiters. Ensure your CV is easy to read and choose a font such as Arial or Calibri. Not only does this make your CV more modern, it also allows you more space to show why you’re the perfect fit.

Start with a personal statement that summarises your achievements, experience and differentiating skills. This should parallel each job you’re applying for and must always aim to engage the recruiter immediately, encouraging them to read on.

Focus on the chronological format of your CV based on what your strengths are. If you’ve developed any transferable skills throughout your career or extracurricular activities, then make sure you convey this in your CV.

It’s best to always take the occasional keyword from the job description and apply it to your CV. However, always make sure it reads naturally and focuses on why you’re the best candidate for the position.

Skills

Draw upon your work experience, education and interests to demonstrate any transferable skills that will be useful in the role. For example, exams and dissertations require thorough research, excellent written communication and proofreading skills. Playing sport requires focus and often a team based mentality.

These are all transferable skills that you can apply to your engineering career. Alongside this, consider times where you’ve been able to demonstrate your problem solving skills and provide examples of working well under pressure. These are highly sought after attributes in engineering that make you stand out.

Organise this into sections and use headings to help draw attention to relevant skills. Try to use bullet points here – these help break up any lengthy paragraphs.

Evidence

Providing evidence of your knowledge and skills is important because it gives credibility as opposed to making empty claims. For example, rather than just stating you have experience in engineering, include previous projects and any associated engineering institutes. Include your technical skills and any engineering and design software that you may have used, for example AutoCAD or Autodesk Architectural.

Although, don’t fall into the trap of listing everything you’ve ever worked on. Instead, keep it concise and focus on the experience that’s most relevant to the position.

Communication

Engineering, along with most industries, depends on accuracy and attention to detail. Therefore, you should make sure your CV represents your communication skills effectively. If written communication isn’t your strongest asset then refresh on basic punctuation and grammar before drafting up your CV.

You can also ask a friend or family member to proofread your CV before sending it out. Remember that an accurate and professional CV will always reflect positively on you. It needs to be a professional representation of who you are.

Avoid including any private information such as your marital status, salary expectations and religious views. This takes up valuable space and is irrelevant information.

While social links can be useful to include, such as LinkedIn, remember to check your Facebook and Twitter account to avoid recruiters seeing anything that warranted as unprofessional. Novelty email addresses can also be harmful to your career so check yours isn’t potentially discriminating or reflects poorly of you. It’s best to have an address that includes your first name and surname, where possible.

Conclusion

The purpose of your CV is to exhibit what you have to offer. It shows why you’re the perfect fit for the job, prompting a potential employer to bring you in for an interview. In order to achieve this you must demonstrate that you have the specific skills, experience and personal attributes for your target roles.

Engineering employers want to see examples of strong technical skills, relevant project experience and unique personalities. Always remember to cater your engineering CV to demonstrate your commitment to the individual role. It should convince a potential employer that you have what it takes to succeed in their distinctive workplace and meet the recruiter’s needs.

Ready to start your career in engineering? Search through thousands of roles on Engineering Jobs.

The post How to write a CV: A guide for engineers appeared first on Career Advice.

The good news is, that a gap or two on your CV doesn’t have to make job hunting difficult. In fact, if you play it carefully, you might even be able to use your career break to your advantage.

Check out these top tips for dealing with career gaps in your CV.

Don’t try to hide them

If there’s one thing you shouldn’t do when addressing career gaps in your CV, it’s lie or try to hide them.

Choose to ignore it? Recruiters will immediately notice the gap. And, if you haven’t explained what you were doing during that period, they’ll automatically assume you were doing nothing.

What if you try to fake dates, create an imaginary job or pretend you were freelancing when you weren’t? Well, if they request a reference or ask you to produce a portfolio, you’ll have got yourself into a very sticky situation.

Every employer is looking for integrity – as always, honesty is the best policy.

Treat them as a previous role

Whether you volunteered and travelled the world or cared for an ill family member, list this time as you would other jobs in your CV.

Include a title, for example, ‘Volunteer’ or ‘Year travelling abroad’ with a ‘job description’ and dates. This way, you can pick out transferable skills and experiences, which we’ll get to next.

On the flipside, if you took time out to study, it’s even simpler. Add the course to your education section, making sure to point out that you were studying full-time and listing your new, relevant skills.

If you cared for an ill family member, brought up your children or were recovering from an illness, it’s still best to reference this in your work experience section rather than leave an obvious gap. Recruiters are more sympathetic than you think. So in this case, simply explaining the gap is more than enough.

Highlight skills and knowledge learnt

Your career gap doesn’t have to be a negative. Instead, use it to your advantage and pick out the transferable skills you gained during your break. Write these down where you’d normally list the job description/responsibilities.

What experiences did you gain whilst unemployed? What skills did you acquire from them? If you spent a year travelling, you’re sure to have become a more confident, adaptable and resilient person. If you were made redundant, you might have attended networking events, worked on personal projects or undertook short courses to strengthen your skills.

Writing about these things shows recruiters you’ve effectively used your time away from work to develop into an even stronger candidate. Make sure to match your skills to the job description as much as possible.

Prepare to answer questions about them

Hopefully, picking out your transferable skills and showcasing your career gaps in a positive light will mean you land an all-important interview.

But during the interview, it’s highly likely you’ll be asked about your career break. So the best thing you can do is be prepared. Have a good think about what you can say to show your career gap in a positive light and how the skills learnt will be of benefit in the position.

This way, you won’t be caught off guard; instead, you’ll have a positive, confident answer ready and waiting.

Address career gaps in your CV

A career break doesn’t have to cause a job hunting nightmare. By picking out your transferable skills, framing gaps in a positive light and remaining confident in your abilities, you’re sure to land an interview before you know it.

About the author: Andrew Fennel is the founder of StandOut CV; a leading resource centre for CV and job search advice, including engineering CV writing guides.

The post How to deal with career gaps in your CV appeared first on Career Advice.

But it can be tricky to know what exactly constitutes an achievement and how to decide which are CV-worthy and which aren’t.

Not to mention that you want to seamlessly include these throughout your application as naturally as possible.

Below, we’ll look at the importance of showcasing your achievements on your engineering CV, where to put them and how best to demonstrate your value.

Why are achievements so important for your CV?

Your CV is your chance to sell yourself to potential employers. And what better way to do this then by showing them how you can add real value to their business?

Sharing your achievements is the perfect way to prove that you’ve made an impact in the past. Plus, it shows your potential for doing so in future roles.

Look at the example below to see the instant impact that adding a hard fact and/or figure can make:

• ‘Designed and implemented an automated test system.’

Vs.

• ‘I designed an automated test system, which helped to cut qualification procedures by 36%, saving the business time and money’.

Simple listing your skills and responsibilities is OK. But, by displaying the results of your efforts, your CV will make far more of an impact. Especially to employers who’re looking for people who go above and beyond in their role.

How can you demonstrate your achievements?

The best way to demonstrate an achievement is by quantifying your results; or by presenting some sort of measurable action that allows the employer to better understand the impact of your work. This means you should include relevant hard facts, figures and percentages that help to show how valuable you are.

Start by stating the action or duty you undertook that lead to your result. For example, ‘Created and submitted tenders for 200 contracts’.

Then, add the result that was achieved through those efforts. For example, ‘Created and submitted tenders for 200 contracts, resulting in a win-rate of 85%’.

What could be classed as a CV-worthy achievement?

What constitutes a CV-worthy achievement will, of course, vary depending on the industry you work in. But for engineering roles, there are several ways you can show your value.

Your accomplishments might include:

• Saving your employer time, money or resources
• Increasing profits
• Raising quality
• Improving processes
• Identifying problems and solutions
• Securing clients or projects
• Managing large budgets, teams or projects
• Receiving exemplary feedback on a project
• Winning an award

To help you understand further, here are some examples of achievements you could tailor to include on your engineering CV:

• Consistently completed projects under budget, saving the business over £20,000 in 12 months
• Implemented a new project management system, allowing me to successfully oversee a team of 50 workers, both remote and in-house
• Highlighted technical faults and corrected them; potentially saving over £10k in project costs and resources
• Successfully lead 15 projects with budgets totaling over £20m
• Negotiated prices with suppliers, achieving a 15% reduction in spend and a saving of around £1m per year
  

Do remember, of course, that honesty is always the best policy. It’s tempting to exaggerate on results or make up figures out of thin air. But ultimately, your claims can be vetted; and CV lies always have a way of coming back to haunt you!

How can you incorporate achievements throughout your CV?

Peppering results and achievements throughout your CV can help to keep the recruiter captivated.

The best place to include your top achievement is in your personal profile. You might also choose to have a dedicated achievements section in your CV; particularly if you’ve got lots to share. This should ideally come after your ‘core skills’ section and you should format it in short and snappy bullet points.

Then, be sure to litter your achievements throughout your work experience section. Start by outlining the job title, company and dates of employment; before providing a punchy list of your duties and responsibilities. At the end of each role, add a ‘key achievements’ section and list one to three of your standout results or accomplishments.

You could also add any awards or outstanding degree grades in your education section.

It’s time to showcase your achievements

Your achievements are one of the most effective ways to sell yourself on your engineering CV and help you to stand out from the crowd.

Remember to quantify these where you can by sharing facts or figures – and don’t be shy! If you’ve done something truly valuable, make sure the employer reads about it on your CV.

About the author: Andrew Fennell is the founder of CV writing advice website StandOut CV – he is a former recruitment consultant and contributes careers advice to websites like Business Insider, The Guardian and Fast Company.

The post How (and why) to add achievements to your engineering CV appeared first on Career Advice.

This means, if they’re looking for someone with a certain set of essential qualifications or skills, they can automatically search thousands of CVs to find the most appropriate candidates.

If your engineering CV includes relevant keywords, it’s more likely to be read and you’re more likely to get an interview for the engineering roles you want.

With that said, here are 10 essential engineering keywords your CV should include.

1. Your discipline (electrical, civil, mechanical…)

It seems obvious, but it’s surprising how easy it is to miss this essential keyword. Your specific engineering discipline is an essential part of the job description and application, so you should clearly mention it in your profile right at the top of your CV, as well as in previous roles when relevant.

2. Simplified

Whatever your specialism, engineering roles often focus heavily on simplifying processes. Be sure to mention how you’ve streamlined, developed a faster method or created something other staff members can use easily. If you have any percentages to back it up, even better.

3. Your specific skills (technical drawing, risk assessment…)

Recruiters are looking for all sorts of desirable engineering skills. Some will be specific to your discipline; while others will relate to the practical side of the job.

Include whatever skills you have that are relevant to the role. You’ll be giving the recruiter exactly what they want to see.

Your CV’s skills section: To make your skills clear and prominent, list them in the top quarter of your CV underneath your name, contact details and profile.

4. Management/managed

Applying for a more senior role? Recruiters and employers will be looking for terms like ‘managed’, ‘led’, and ‘coached’. It’s not always enough to say you set quality standards or trained people – management experience needs to be clearly pointed out, even if it was just for one or two projects.

5. Your qualifications (university degree & industry training)

Engineers are specialists, so the right pieces of paper are important. With this in mind, your core qualifications should be listed after your recent roles and experience.

If you have specific experience with software or machinery, and that’s desirable or required on the job ad, mention it along with your core skills.

6. Supervised

Supervision experience doesn’t just include managing people. Supervision demonstrates you’ve monitored processes, looked after quality control and can keep things running smoothly.

If you’ve previously been in charge of any kind of observation or decision making, explain it in your CV.

7. Trained/training

Successfully training colleagues is a skill in itself. So, if you regularly work closely with junior colleagues, roll out consistent training or teach on the job, give the reader a quick summary.

Here’s a tip! Try to include both ‘trained’ and ‘training’ in different contexts if you can, just in case employers are searching for one keyword and not the other.

8. Designed

Show off your innovation skills. Outline why and how you’ve created new technology, equipment, software, and processes. How you apply your skills and training to your roles is more relevant to employers than your degree classification.

9. Maximised

‘Maximised’ could relate to time, profits, efficiency, energy usage, material choice and more. Results matter to an employer, so they want to know that you achieved them, or contributed to achieving them, in previous roles.

10. Resolved

Problem-solving is a valuable engineering skill. So, under each of your previous roles, briefly describe the problems you solved, if relevant. Use positive, proactive verbs like ‘resolved’ or ‘ensured’. This information is easy to feedback to a hiring manager.

Include these keywords in your CV

Competing for engineering jobs is tough. But there’s always plenty you can do to improve your chances of landing a role. It’s not all about having the perfect set of qualifications and skills.

If recruiters have a better chance of finding your CV in the pile, you’ll be well on your way to getting an interview invite.

The post 10 essential keywords for your engineering CV appeared first on Career Advice.

Having all that behind you is great; but a CV that runs over more than two A4 pages could bore your reader and make them move onto someone else’s. Being concise and specific is just as important as what you can do.

Recruiters and hiring managers are always busy. So, they’ll initially skim your CV and read it in more detail if they’re interested. To stand the best chance of being noticed and snagging an interview, you’ll need to edit your lengthy engineering CV down to something short, punchy and impactful.

Determine what’s relevant

Short and sharp CVs focus on the most important information, which is refreshing for anyone who reads a lot of them. Wordy paragraphs encourage us to switch off.

It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in, your CV should change slightly for every role. Each hiring manager will be looking for specific areas, so your CV should give them exactly that.

One might be keen to see experience with a certain type of machinery, while another wants to see more leadership skills. Check the job description for keywords and skills – and if you’ve got them, focus on them!

Always check your CV for anything irrelevant or repetitive before you send. Clarity is more likely to get you an interview.

Cut down on older roles

If you’re an experienced candidate, you don’t need to go into too much detail about the roles you had 10+ years ago. If you’ve had lots of short-term contract roles, up to five years is often plenty.

Start with your most recent and work backwards, focusing on what you learned and the impact you made. Recruiters also like to see which stakeholders you’ve worked with, the environments you’re familiar with and the responsibilities you’ve held.

How to format job roles on your engineering CV:

• The top-level facts – job title, employer name, how long you worked there
• Brief outline – the purpose of your role, seniority, who you worked closely with
• Responsibilities – the details of what you actually did, including equipment used, skills learned, and work produced
• Achievements/successes – the stuff you’re proud of and the difference you made

Still in the first few years of your career? You can afford to take up a bit more space with your role/roles – but don’t let yourself ramble.

Focus on results

The responsibilities you’ve had do matter; but the results you achieved matter more. Each role should summarise what difference you made in the role, rather than just what you did on a day-to-day basis.

Numbers and facts look especially good here because they illustrate the difference you’ve made in a concrete, transferable way. After all, if you did it in your previous role, you can do it in your new role too!

Reconsider the format

Your CV is fairly formal, but that doesn’t mean full sentences are essential throughout. Margins, bullet points and lists can illustrate your points clearly whilst saving space, and helping the reader spot the most important stuff.

Readability is priority number one, so choose a clear font, keep the formatting uniform and don’t overcomplicate things with images or boxes and charts. Remember – once your CVs been attached or uploaded, your reader’s laptop might not read image files properly. The last thing you want is your carefully structured CV looking like gibberish!

Chime in on language

The words you choose are really important when you don’t have much space.

Proactive, positive language shows you in the best light, while passive language is unclear and takes you out of the sentence. For example, ‘I supervised apprentices’ is much better than ‘Apprentices were supervised’.

Clichés aren’t a good idea either because many are so overused they’ve become meaningless. Instead of saying you’re a ‘go-getter’, prove you’re motivated with your experience and quantified achievements. Recruiters are much more likely to believe it.

Shorten your lengthy engineering CV

Engineering jobs are in high demand, but a concise, accurate CV will massively improve your chances of getting an interview for the roles you want.

About the author: Andrew Fennell is the founder of CV writing advice website StandOut CV – he is a former recruitment consultant and contributes careers advice to websites like Business Insider, The Guardian and FastCompany.

The post How to shorten a lengthy engineering CV appeared first on Career Advice.

It’s no surprise that engineering graduates are now in demand. But not enough students are considering a career in engineering and they’re losing out on the rewards and opportunities on offer in this sector. At the same time, not many parents know of the excellent opportunities that are out there.

Did you know that engineering enterprises employ over 20% of the UK work force?

And that engineering employers are projected to need 1.82 million people with engineering skills from now until 2022?

The advantages of a career in engineering

• Opportunities are continuously growing. As modern world technology advances, so does a career in engineering. A career in engineering can open many doors as these skills are crucial in today’s world – and will only become more vital with the advance of new technologies
• Engineering is not a boring career or irrelevant to the real world – a career in engineering can make a positive difference to the world! Engineering is behind everything – from smartphones and trainers to the car you travel in and the food you eat
• Careers in engineering can be well paid and very rewarding. Average wages in the engineering sector are well above the UK average. There’s also lots of exciting opportunities to grow personally and develop your skills

Types of engineering careers

There are thousands of unfilled positions at various levels in engineering and skilled people are always in demand and never out of work in this sector. And it’s not just welders and engineers that are required.

There are also a lot of opportunities for business sales executives, technicians, design engineers, project managers and commercial roles such as finance and marketing.

How to get into engineering

There are many ways to get into the world of engineering. And you don’t always need qualifications to apply. Generally, you will need a pass in GCSE Maths, English and Science, but many employers don’t require these grades. Some businesses will offer on the job training and mentoring or apprenticeships for school leavers.

Your school or college Careers Adviser should be able to help you if you if you need some more advice, or you can give our office a call on 0113 320 1130 for recruitment tips.

Helping your child to get a career in engineering

There are many skills which are good to cultivate if your child is considering a career in engineering – ones that will stand them in good stead for a job in this sector. These are:

• Problem solving
• Innovation
• Invention
• Self-reliance
• Logical thinking

What next?

If all of this sounds interesting to you as a parent, it’s your job to encourage your child to consider a career in engineering. You could start off by visiting museums or reading articles on this sector so that they can see what it’s all about.

Another idea is to encourage them to get some work or volunteering experience at a local engineering business. That will give your child the best opportunity to see what it’s like working in that environment and what areas of engineering might be interesting to work in.

It’s also a really good way of developing skills and building a network of useful contacts. And it looks really good on your CV too! More information and useful tips on how to find work experience in engineering can be found at www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk.

About the author: Craig Burton is Founder & Managing Director at The Works Recruitment

The post A parent’s guide to a career in engineering appeared first on Career Advice.

So, how can you make sure that your CV makes its way to the interview pile? The answer lies in making your CV look as attractive and engaging as possible. Here are five things that you can put in place that recruiters will love to see on your CV.

1. A simple layout

A recruiter spends just six seconds looking at a CV. With this in mind, having a clear and simple layout is essential so that recruiters can find the information that they are looking for. If your CV is messy or cluttered, it is likely that recruiters won’t even bother trying to find the necessary information.

Following a structured layout will not only help recruiters to read the CV but will also help you when it comes to amending your CV to suit different job applications.

2. Technical skills

For engineering roles, a large part of a recruiter’s focus will be on the technical skills you possess. It is important to be honest about the technical skills you possess, and not to exaggerate. Secondly, consider removing the skills that are outdated, your technical skills should be relevant to the job you are applying for. Thirdly, make sure the primary technical skills you want to highlight are at the top of the list so that the recruiter is more likely to see them.

One of the ways you can demonstrate technical skills is through a list format where you also include the skill level (such as intermediate/expert) and the number of years of experience you have with that particular skill.

3. Business acumen

One key aspect that engineers need to consider to advance their careers is their level of business acumen. This business acumen goes beyond the technical aspect of the engineering role and understanding and developing a service that better suits customers, stakeholders and the financial position of the business.

There are many ways that engineers can demonstrate business acumen in their CV, such as explaining a process that you have implemented which has saved time or money. Another example is to demonstrate your ability to find improvements and opportunities within the business that offers a greater good.

4. Facts and figures

While your work history can help recruiters to build up a picture about you, it can be difficult for recruiters to fully assess a candidate, especially if they are not aware of the size and scale of projects you worked on for previous firms.

For example, you were the lead engineer on a project worth £3.5 million, or you were the supervisor of a team of twenty, you need to communicate these figues. Even explaining how big the organisation is can help recruiters to understand your role and fit in organisations.

5. The impact you have made

The best way to show why you’re a must-hire candidate is to demonstrate your abilities with proven results. Recruiters will want to see a time when you have used your initiative, skills and knowledge to make improvements to your work, a particular project or the business in general.

As mentioned above, one of the easiest ways to demonstrate the impact you have made is by using facts and figures.  If a process you implemented has saved the business money, evidence this in your CV. Similarly, if you have reduced process time for an activity then make sure to include a figure or percentage to show the difference you have made.

About the author: Andrew Fennel is the founder of StandOut CV; a leading resource centre for CV and job search advice, including engineering CV writing guides.

The post 5 things recruiters love to see on your CV appeared first on Career Advice.