If you’re looking for a mechanical engineer job, I’m a little bit jealous. I’ve been fortunate to work closely with many types of engineers in my career (structural, civil, software, chemical, electrical, industrial, and mechanical), and mechanical engineering quickly grabbed my attention and still hasn’t let go. It’s such a wide-ranging, diverse field, with so many possibilities—and so many impacts on daily life.

Whether you’re interested in energy efficiency, product development, or facilities or systems management, mechanical engineering could be the right career path for you. Reading through resume examples can be a huge help in a job search for such a varied industry—they’ll give you insights about both your potential competition and your potential paths.

resume examples
If energy efficiency and thermal topics—such as thermal bridging—interest you, mechanical engineering could be a great career path.

“Mechanical engineers are in demand now, and projections for the future suggest a long-term need for professionals in this specialty,” according to the College of Engineering at Iowa State University. “About 20% of the nearly 3 million engineers in the United States are mechanical engineers.”

With all industries, it’s important to pay attention to job listings to see which keywords are used. With mechanical engineering, it’s especially important. Even if you know exactly the sort of mechanical engineering job you want, you have to pay attention to whether a listing uses “facility” or “building,” for example. They are both common and used interchangeably, but if you use one and an applicant tracking system (ATS) is looking for the other, your resume could get overlooked.

An ATS is a software application used by employers to store, filter, and rate resumes. Candidates are largely rated based on their resume keywords. And the higher you rank, the more likely it is that your resume will get noticed. Echoing the keywords used in the job listing is one way to demonstrate that you would be a good fit for the role.

The above word cloud was created using the text of a dozen mechanical engineering job listings. The larger the word is, the more times it appeared.

Mechanical engineer resume keywords

  • Analysis
  • BSME
  • Building
  • CAD
  • Design
  • Development
  • Drawings
  • Electrical
  • Engineering
  • Equipment
  • HVAC
  • Manufacturing
  • Mechanical
  • Performance
  • Product
  • SolidWorks
  • Systems
  • Team
  • Technical
  • Testing

Notes on keywords

“BSME” is the abbreviation for “Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering.” It was the most common form of a degree requirement that showed up across these job postings. Consider spelling out your degree in full, then adding the abbreviated term for it in parentheses.

“CAD” stands for “computer-aided design,” and appeared just slightly more often than “AutoCAD,” a commercial software for CAD produced by Autodesk. SolidWorks is a solid modeling CAD software program. Industry abbreviations and job-specific tools and technologies are common keywords—and you should use them on your resume wherever possible.

Targeting your resume

Customizing your resume for each job doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Just run it through the Jobscan resume analysis tool, and within seconds, you’ll receive a score showing how well your resume matches the job, plus personalized feedback on how you can use your keywords more effectively. You don’t have to be a mechanical engineer to see the value in that kind of efficiency.

See if your mechanical engineering resume is ATS-proof by scanning it here:

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Trista Winnie

Trista Winnie has been writing and editing professionally for nearly a decade, primarily covering the job search, investing, engineering, and health.

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