In any case, this guide is going to help you out and make it easier for you because we have discussed all the possible questions and confusions regarding the matter in this article.
Read on!
Professional resume guidelines
First things first, here are some guidelines on how to write a professional heavy equipment operator resume:
- When you are using a template, make sure you replace every sample detail and sample info with the info from your own professional profile. And edit the margins, white space, font color and font size in order to ensure symmetry and organization on your resume. It will make sure that your heavy equipment operator resume is visually appealing.
- Make sure you do not make up your layout of resume and utilize professional resume formats for your heavy equipment operator resume. We will discuss more about formats shortly.
- To make your heavy equipment operator resume have the maximum accuracy, get rid of any errors by proofreading your resume twice when you are done writing it.
- Only use past tense, third person language on your heavy equipment operator resume and include maximum action verbs, keywords and numbers to increase the impact of your resume's language.
Where should I begin?
Research
Job Descriptions
While researching about Heavy Equipment Operator jobs in the market, you must know what the job will entail even if you have experience. Some companies might have a different set of job descriptions, however, the main set will always be the same or very similar. For example, let's look at certain points under a Heavy Equipment Operator job description:
- Equipment Operation: You will be required to operate several heavy machinery as per the designation and routine
- Safety Procedures: As a heavy equipment operator you must be associated with the safety procedures as per the general guidelines received per your license. You need to be accustomed and ready to learn new safety procedures as per the heavy equipment to handle
- Equipment Maintenance: You will be required to regularly keep a check of the equipment through maintaining it as per the task list, and always make sure that the equipment is as per operating guidelines before using it
- Material Handling: You might be required to handle materials as per the requirement of transporting from one destination to another, which will also require you to use heavy equipments and machinery
- Site preparation: As part of the job, you will be required to perform site excavations, cleaning and digging
Job descriptions are essential to look at on the internet before writing your resume as you can pick up key words, skills, and even sentences that will represent your experience or point better. Do a thorough research on job descriptions on various websites and online platforms to make the most appealing resume within competition.
Industry Trends
Industry trends can keep changing and it is vital to stay on top of those when you are switching or planning to apply to jobs. You should always read news about the industry and the sector you are in on a regular basis, and also pay attention to any new innovation.
This will allow you to maximize on the knowledge about your profession and will greatly help you in job interviews. Moreover, staying on top of industry trends can help you know better keywords that are currently being used and thus can help you craft a better resume than your peers.
Resume Formats
There are essentially three types of formats, all of which will be covered in depth in the article, i.e., functional format, reverse chronology format, and combination/ hybrid format.
The functional format is used by people who are entering into the workforce, or are switching into another field of job or have less work experience. The reverse chronology format is used by professionals who are experienced, and lastly, the combination format is used by people who have moderate years of experience and might be switching into a similar field of profession where the skills are transferable.
Company information
When you are applying for job applications, it is given that you will be applying to multiple companies. Therefore, you need to research each company thoroughly and use the language the company uses on their websites and on platforms such as LinkedIn to incorporate it into your resume.
That is a whole separate point where you customize your resume, however, researching about the company you are applying to will give you the confidence while you are in the interview too, not just for your resume.
Read the mission and vision statement of the company to gain more understanding, and the abouts us page that tells the history of the company. Even the pages on social media platforms designed especially for networking will give insights about the company that can give you an edge.
Networking
Networking is a part of every job in this world. The word describes how you leverage your communications skills and your ability to approach people to talk about your future prospects or about your career or whatever is a mutual topic between you and the person you approach. Networking used to be physical before the internet came into the picture.
Now we have websites like LinkedIn where you create a profile and put only your information that is relevant to your professional life and interact with other working professionals. You need not have any bounds, and you can literally approach anyone and make them your connection.
You can speak to them on chat or exchange information however, you and the party are comfortable. You can also gain a variety of knowledge about the job market and the job description while you are networking. You can gain some insights about the job or the market when you interact with other people.
Resume writing guidelines
While you are researching your roles and applying to various jobs in the market for you relevant experience you will come across countless articles and guidelines on how to write a resume. Please refer to our website and guidelines as a reputable source to educate yourself on how to write a resume.
Always read our guidelines, our list of keywords, or strategies and examples which will give you enough knowledge to write a superb resume that will get you an interview. However, do research other websites too to get a wider understanding of what the market is, as it is ever evolving.
Quantifiable Achievements
You shall always push yourself to write your achievements in the form where you can quantify them. What this means is that if you have done something that garners the attention of the hiring manager then do so in numerical that garners more attention than just plain words. Where you can quantify your points it adds more value since you are showing progress in some manner.
Now whenever you are quantifying the achievements or any point on your resume, please keep the evidence for the same ready i.e., an email from your previous jobs manager, or a certificate of appreciation, or an e-award, or anything that is professionally recognised.
Customisation
Customisation as I touched previously, is when you tailor make your resume as per the company you are applying to, or the job role you are applying to. There are several ways you can do this, and one of them as I previously stated is go to the company’s website and read up about the company, their mission and vision statement, their history, which will allow you to know whether you are a fit for the company or not.
These words once incorporated into the resume will catch the attention of the hiring manager. For them to read familiar words will give them the notion that you have researched about the company and put in the effort to customize your resume.
Proofreading
There are several techniques that you can utilize and keep at your disposal to proofread the resume that you have written. Thus it is important you read up about them as this is the last step of writing your resume.
Proofreading, checking your grammar, the syntax and semantics, and the spellings of each word. You need to keep in mind all of the aforementioned as it will allow you to understand some of the nuances of the resume that you might have missed while writing it.
Formats
📌Types of professional resume formats:
- Functional resume format:
The Functional format is for those kinds of people who are getting into the job market, that do not have experience, people like freshers right out of college. Or other kinds of people who are switching their fields, which means they might not have the relevant experience, or transferable skills. Others could be people who only have little experience, perhaps, a few months, or a year.
The aforementioned people have one thing in common is the low work experience, anything that is valid from the perspective of a resume can be put in no particular order and can be maximized by using keywords/ action verbs. These things can enhance your resume and get you the shot at that job interview. Secondly, a functional resume can entail a lot of things, any internships, additional courses or certificates, degrees and diplomas, hobbies.
The reason why you can play around with a functional format of a resume is due to the nature of what experience you have, if you have slightly relevant experience then you can put that at the top even if it was the first ever job you did and subsequently you went on to switch it.
- Reverse chronological order resume format:
The reverse chronological format is for those people who have had several years of experience, and are applying to jobs in the same/ similar field and switching companies. These people have a lot to show on their resume and therefore, will put the most recent and relevant thing first.
This kind of resume takes up the most space on a resume, and therefore other sections are either overshadowed or forgotten i.e., hobbies. Moreover, one should include their education if they think it is relevant, perhaps high scores, or prestigious school/ university in reverse chronological order.
Reverse chronological as the name states is when everything you put in the resume in each of its sections is following reverse chronology. Your education, professional experience, certificates. It is a very common type of format used by people and therefore, is very prevalent in the market.
- Combination resume format:
Last but not the least the combination resume format, or the hybrid format. As the name suggests it is when you combine the functional and the reverse chronological resume formats together. You merge the characteristics as you please to suit your ambitions.
For example someone who is moderately experienced, enough to put it in the reverse chronological order except one particular work experience that added more value but was not the most recent, then you bring in that particular element of the functional resume format.
This particular format is the most widely used format as it can be customized for the most amount of people. There are few guidelines. In the beginning can come the skill based summary of the particular person, in the resume objective paragraph. The resume objective provides the hiring manager an overview vis-a-vis a snapshot of the resume to come. Followed by the work experience section.
Under this section you should ideally have it in the reverse chronological format, as well as a couple of detailed pointers under each experience, but since this is the hybrid format you need not detail out all the experience, only the key ones for which the skills are really important to the job you are applying to.
Followed by skills and achievements sections, these can be separate or together. Since the format is used by various types of people, at different stages of jobs application, therefore, this section becomes important, as this highlights the recognition you got for the skills you gained or had during the previous engagements. Therefore, pay extra attention to this section.
You can have the education and the certification section where you show your education in a reverse chronological format. You need not highlight every thing you did while you were in college, just the overview of the school and the degree/ diploma you received, and if need be the GPA.
Heavy equipment operator resume-A sample resume outline
Resume header
The header includes your contact information.
Full Name: as per your government ID
Mobile Number: which you can access at the earliest and is on you at all times
Email Address: should be a professional email ID, and not your personal one, create one if you must
Permanent Address: need not give the whole address, however, can give the area and the area code
LinkedIn Profile: only give the profile on your resume if you have thoroughly updated it. LinkedIn is your e-resume/ e-CV, therefore update it wisely.
Resume summary
The first narrative looked up by the hiring manager when looking at the candidate's resume. This is a narrative that weaves in any important achievements and work experience thus keeping it crisp and precise. The header is not more than 3-6 sentences and 4-6 lines long. If this extends then you will have less space to expand upon your work experience points.
Resume summary is also called the resume objective, the points you put in here give a sense of your personality to the hiring manager, whether you are an individual that is a good fit for the company.
Professional experience/Work history
Job title and Company:
You shall mention the job title/ designation along with the name of the company/ organization.
Dates of Employment:
The month and year of your employment in a 'from - to' format.
Job Description:
The job description is the crux of this section. You need to create concise and precise points that will fill in the white spaces of your resume. Use the correct key words and action verbs to convey your job description elements.
Key Achievements:
State your key achievements, awards, and recognition. Always quantify your achievements wherever possible, use numbers and have their respective evidence at your disposal.
Education
Every educational qualification you mention here will be in the reverse chronological order.
Degree Name:
Mention the degree/ diploma name as it is on your certificate.
Institution Name:
The name of the institution i.e., your university, college, school.
Location and Date:
The location of the institution and the ‘from-to’ date of your education
GPA (Optional):
The grade point average is an optional segment. However, if you have achieved a really high GPA throughout your academic career then you might as well put it as it shows that you have been consistent since your academic years.
Skills section
Use this section to use in your resume for keywords, or skills that you possess and also if you need to gain any of these skills. This section will give you a clear understanding of what sort of skills you need to put in your Heavy Equipment Operator resume.
📌List of relevant skills for your heavy equipment operator resumes' skills section:
- heavy machinery
- heavy equipment
- construction equipment
- construction sites
- experience operating heavy equipment
- safety procedures
- dump trucks
- heavy equipment operator skills
- construction projects
- tractor trailers
- routine maintenance
- safety regulations
- preventive maintenance
- preventative maintenance
- operating heavy equipment
- operate heavy equipment
- maintain heavy equipment
- heavy construction equipment
- operated heavy equipment
- auxiliary equipment
- construction job
- auxiliary sand trucks
- operate machinery
- construction tasks
- equipment usage
- proper operation
- technical skills
- technician skills
- power tools
- effective communication skills
- technical manuals
- skid steer
- safe operation
- manual labor
- safety policies
- physical fitness
- timely manner
- performed maintenance
- unload trucks
- operating bulldozers
- treating iron
- construction plans
- ensure safety
- sewer lines
- skid steers
- front end loader
- soft skills
Bonus Tips
Keywords
📌List of relevant keywords for your heavy equipment operator resumes:
- skid steers
- job site
- front end loaders
- front end loader
- labor statistics
- conveyor belt
- soft skills
- various equipment
- safe operation
- skid steer
- technical skills
- proper operation
- heavy machine operator
- equipment operators
- crew members
- operated heavy equipment
- heavy construction equipment
- operate heavy equipment
- preventative maintenance
- experienced heavy equipment operator
- preventive maintenance
- safety regulations
- job sites
- job description
- construction equipment operators
- heavy equipment operator jobs
- construction projects
- equipment operator
- high school diploma
- heavy equipment operator skills
- safety procedures
- dump trucks
- experience operating heavy equipment
- construction sites
- heavy equipment
- heavy machinery
- heavy equipment operators
- heavy equipment operator
Cover letter
The cover letter is an additional piece that goes along with your resume. It is a narrative or an essay provided by you as a candidate that is between five hundred to eight hundred words. In a cover letter one has to weave a narrative of who you are as a person. The essay is a great way to showcase your achievements in the professional environment as well as your personal life.
The format a cover letter follows is an introduction, then a main body consisting of the work you've done and key experiences, and then the achievements, followed by a conclusion. Under the introduction section you need to mention your education, any elements of your personality you would like the hiring manager to know, perhaps any hobby that is very interesting, or an interesting fact about you as a person.
The main body will contain a few of your key work experiences, a snapshot of your job description, and it will add value to your cover letter if you write things that were not under your gambit but you did show more enthusiasm and proactivity. Therefore, it becomes a great segue to achievements. You should be able to quantify these achievements, and also remember that these will also go in your resume. Both shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.
The last section is your conclusion. You can utilize this section by summarizing your personality in your precious jobs and mention any hobby if you hadn’t already. You can mention something outside of your professional life that adds value to you and your surroundings. This way the hiring manager has a holistic picture of who you are as a person, and can decide if you are a good fit for the company.
References
References are an external way to enhance your resume. Ideally one should only provide not more than three references. The references should not be extremely old, and preferably should be from your latest work experience/ job.
References need to be informed beforehand. References is a good way to tell the hiring manager that you are an ideal employee and will be beneficial to the company. The references themselves will not become a reference until they believe that you have been well at their company. Ideally the references are not your equal, but are managers or above who have seen you grow at the company, or have been with you on projects that can vouch for the work you have done. In the case of heavy equipment operator job profile, your previous employer if your reference can vouch about you approaching safety protocols, or maintenance of the equipments, or about your wide range of knowledge and skills of various equipment.
Conclusion
To conclude, we would recommend that you check out our resume examples collection along with our resume templates collection. And you must try our resume builder feature as it will save you a lot of time and energy. The resume builder is designed specially for resume writing and gives your AI driven suggestions similar to ChatGPT to cut your work in half!
And that's all you need to know about writing a professional heavy equipment operator resume! Good luck with the job search, we are sure that after having read this article, you will not only ace your resume but also get many interview calls!
