Mechanical Engineering Resume Keywords

Mechanical Engineer Resume Keywords

See below how we integrate specific keywords for mechanical engineering resumes.

We’re going to be doing a breakdown of the sample mechanical engineering oil and gas resume for keywords.

Additionally, we’ll go over specific keywords and how to include quantitative results and accomplishments on your resume.

Why are keywords important in your mechanical engineering resume?

Keywords, when used properly highlight the business impact you provide through your skillsets.

Recruiters are busy people and they don’t have the time to go in-depth when looking through your resume.

Additionally, many employers utilize ATS software (Applicant Tracking System). What this means is that when you submit your resume for a job, the algorithm will scan through your resume to ensure you have keywords.

Check out: Mechanical Engineering Resume Review

Keywords to include in your resume for mechanical engineers:

We’re going to be breaking this up into sections for your resume.

As a general rule, your resume should be one page and broken up into the three sections:

• Experience
• Education
• An additional section (this is where you capture skills, awards, etc.)

Experience

As a seasoned engineer you will be placing the experience section first in your resume. Like we said above, recruiters will quickly scan through your resume and look for keywords.

Along with which companies you’ve worked in, recruiters will be looking at your roles and skillsets that you have – this is where you capture keywords.

You must include keywords that are relevant to the job description and your role as an engineer.

See the highlighted keywords below.

See keywords that we’ve captured in the experience section:

Keywords in Oil and Gas Company 1

• Designing products
• PTC Creo 3.0 / ProEngineer
• Shafts, bearings, casings
• Bill of Materials
• Lead and coordinated design review meetings
• Strong performance and organizational impact
• Incorporate inspection and test requirements

Keywords in Oil and Gas Company 2

• Created and improved manufacturing processes
• Industrial grade assemblies and sub-assemblies
• Visual Aid Drawings
• Work Instructions
• Reduce manufacturing defects
• Lead and provide technical guidance and liaison
• technicians
• refinery hardware
• Structured Manufacturing Bills of Materials (MBOM) using CPLM
• Work alongside manufacturing teams
• quality, delivery, and cost objectives

Education

From an education standpoint, use the sub-bullets underneath the college you went to grab extra keywords.

Call out the university you went to, your major, your GPA (if above 3.0), and year you graduated.

Include specific awards, accolades, and accomplishments underneath as keywords

Use this formatting below:

Keywords

• Scholarship
• GPA 3.93/4.0
• Aeronautical Engineering Club
• Engineering Honor Society
• Cum Laude with Honors
• Cumulative GPA 3.5/4.0
• Dean’s List

The above keyword scan shows that this is a stellar student applying for this position. Based on the awards, GPA, and involvement in engineering academics, this student is highly competitive.

Scan your resume using the same framework we are using – do yours contain enough keywords?

Additional Items To Include In Your Oil and Gas Resume

The rest of your resume should consist of an Additional section, which includes skills, certifications, and awards.

This is a good section to also capture keywords that are relevant to the job description for oil and gas companies.

Technical Skills

These are important keywords:

• CAD – PTC Creo 3.0 / ProEngiener / Siemens NX / SolidWorks
• Programming – JavaScript / HTML / CSS / MATLAB / Python

Recruiters are trained to look for and even ask you about specific software experience. As a result, you’ll want to make sure you have the appropriate software called out on your resume.

Software varies depending on disciplines such as Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Product Design Engineering, or Research and Development Engineering.

Awards

Use this as a means to pad your resume with any specific awards you’ve gotten. This shows that you’re not just a doer, but an accomplisher.

Include awards such as Spot Awards, Dean’s Lists, Scholarships, Competitions, and anything engineering related.

Certifications pertaining to Oil and Gas jobs

Some engineering positions will require certifications such as Engineer In Training, Professional Engineering License, or Project Management Professional.

Engineering job openings also even have Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt requirements at times.

Companies are looking to streamline processes to cut on costs so these are some of the backgrounds they are looking for.

Keyword breakdown in sample job description

Job descriptions will be full of keywords that you must include in your resume.

The recruiter or application tracking software will scan through your resume VERY QUICKLY.

If you have the time, tailor your resume to each job description.

If you don’t have the time, then make sure the general mechanical engineering resume you use contains all the necessary keywords from various job descriptions that you’re interested in.

Let’s use the Mechanical Design Engineer – Studio Integration at Tesla for example.

Keyword implementation in your resume is easy. You would probably scan the resume and pick up these keywords too.

Keywords found:

• Styling and Ergonomics teams
• Creative engineering solutions
• Product styling theme direction
• Consolidate and coordinate surface development
• engineering/manufacturing
• advanced guidance to the digital modeling
• CAD based engineering and design criteria libraries
• BS – Mechanical Engineering
• engineering principles / vehicle systems
• Design, packaging, and 3D modeling skills
• CATIA/3DX
• leadership capabilities
• project management
• coordination skills
• studio engineering experience

If you already work in the industry as a mechanical engineer, you’ll notice that it’s not too hard to implement these keywords. Keyword implementation is easy, but so many job applicants struggle.

Aside from specialized experience such as studio engineering experience, any general design mechanical engineering position will include these core competencies.

For the example above, make sure you integrate these keywords into your resume.

Do not copy long tail keywords verbatim – you do not want to show that you merely copy pasted from the job description.

You want to integrate the experience that you have along with the keywords required for the job.

If you need help with this, check out our engineering resume rewrite service for mechanical engineers.

If you need more tips, check out 11 tips for writing an engineering resume.