Industrial Engineering Resume Templates
Choose a modern resume template that compliments your industry and suits your personality. For most industries, Biodata-type boring applications no longer work.
You only have about 5 seconds to catch the attention of the hiring manager – you miss it, and your application ends up in the trash.
Great templates make your resume stand out from the rest of the applications.
We have created a set of awesome resume templates for engineering resumes. Pick the right template that matches your requirement and fill it in 10 minutes.
If you’re comfortable using Microsoft Word or a similar application, you could create your own resume template.
Take the following guidelines into account while doing so:
- Define font groups, sizes, and colors for headings, subheadings, and text.
- Create a color theme that matches your personality.
- Keep consistent margins throughout the document.
- Save the document in PDF and Text formats.
Keyword Research
Most manufacturing organizations use Applicant Tracking Sytems (ATS) to shortlist candidates for jobs. The ATS checks each resume for the inclusion of the relevant keyword for the position and the keyword density – pick the predesignated number of resumes for manual screening.
Your industrial engineering resume should be capable of passing both the ATS test and the manual test to receive a call for an interview.
Identify the relevant keywords for industrial engineers and include them naturally on your resume. Here’re a couple of sources to find the right keywords:
- The job advertisement
- Company website
- Industry Blogs and forums
- Keywords for your resume
Begin Your Resume for Industrial Engineering with the Header
The header is where you introduce yourself to the recruiter – it's the first interaction. Put your name and contact information. This should be a short section.
We have highlighted the typical mistakes candidates make in this section👇
A good & a bad header
CORRECTDaniel Casey
Industrial Engineer
dcasey@gmail.com(234)765-8756
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcasey
INCORRECTIndustrial Engineer
Daniel Casey
danielcasey@mcbmanufacturers.com(234)765-8756
10, main street, apt 4,
Washington DC
USA
Here’s how the recruiter distinguishes a good resume header from a bad one:
- Start your resume with your first and last names – make it bigger than all other text.
- Put the job title of the position you’re applying for (not your current position): this is a powerful keyword to include in the header.
- Provide a professional-looking personal email that the recruiter can use to contact you. Do not use the current employer’s office email.
- State your personal mobile number.
- Do not write your physical address – you may put the country or the region you live in if it’s relevant.
- Put the link to your LinkedIn profile or the portfolio – make sure they’re up to date.
Demonstrate Your Experience in industrial engineering
Your hiring manager is keen to know about your field experience – the work you carried out in the manufacturing facility – the tools and technologies you used – and the results you achieved.
In fact, many hiring managers make their shortlisting and hiring decisions based on the experience section.
Every great resume is made up of an exceptional experience section.That is exactly why your resume with a set of roles and responsibilities of industrial engineers doesn’t get you interviews – you need a solid experience section that demonstrates your expertise and the value you can bring to the table.
Refer to the following examples to learn the difference between an INCORRECT experience section – one that most candidates write – and a CORRECT experience section – one that gets you interviews.
Experience section for Senior industrial engineers
INCORRECTAug 2016 to Present
Industrial Engineer
MLT Plastics
- Designed layout plans for new machinery
- Installed robotic arms to the existing machines
- Carried out continuous improvement projects
- Used technical expertise to make decisions
- Involved in supply chain management
- Used standard operating procedures in plant maintenance
- Involved in other business processes as required by the management
CORRECTAug 2016 to Present
Industrial Engineer
MLT Plastics
- Designed the layout plan to accommodate new machinery increasing the factory production capacity by 12%
- Managed a $200,000 project to install robotic arms to a highly labor-intensive part of the machinery saving $160,000 annually
- Promoted continuous improvement throughout the factory including the back office introducing an incentive scheme for innovation – highly appreciated by the management
- Introduced key performance indicators to machine operators aligning with the new labor management system
- Reviewed technical documents and provided suggestions to improve the manufacturing process flow
As a senior industrial engineer, you should identify your specialization – be it in supply chain and logistics, factory automation, maintenance, manufacturing facility design, or quality control. If the job you’re applying for requires the same specialization, you would have a better chance to get shortlisted if you use the right keywords.
Do not write a list of roles and responsibilities in your previous job (that’s what most candidates do) – your hiring manager is well aware of the job description – repeating it again on your resume won’t get you the job.
Write a comprehensive list of actions you performed, the decisions you made, and the results you achieved. Keep one position to 4-6 sentences. Give priority to the most important achievements and accomplishments in your job.
Start each sentence with action verbs (power verbs). Here’s a list of power verbs you could use on your industrial engineering resume:
| Carried out | Demonstrated | Developed |
| Designed | Created | Provided |
| Reviewed | Involved in | Installed |
| Managed | Led | Assisted |
Use numbers to add credibility: the number of years you took to achieve something, the percentage increment to the profit due to your action, and the amount of money you saved in dollars, would make your statement more credible.
Experience section for entry-level industrial engineers
INCORRECTAug 2021 to April 2022
Kaif Metal Manufacturers
Trainee Industrial engineer
- Introduced a routine maintenance framework
- Carried out continuous improvement programs
- Increased the efficiency of material handling in the factory
- Completed a brand changeover analysis project
- Implemented 5S concept on the factory
CORRECTAug 2021 to April 2022
Kaif Metal Manufacturers
Trainee Industrial engineer
- Analyzed the supply chain from raw material procurements to finished goods dispatching and mapped the process using process flow charts for management decision making
- Worked with the plant personnel to develop a brand changeover analysis for 12 products reducing the changeover time by 14%
- Upgraded the inventory control by introducing an automated daily material flow measuring system which increased the accuracy to 1 g
- Presented management with key manufacturing reports for their decision making
- Worked under a certified manufacturing engineer with six sigma green belt certification
You can’t say you don’t have experience while you’re applying for your first job as an engineer – you should probably have worked in an industrial engineering internship. Use that exposure to demonstrate your expertise in your work experience section.
If you’re applying for your first internship, write about a relevant project you were involved in while you study – ideally, a consulting project for a manufacturing company.
Education - Reinforce Your Industrial Engineer Resume
Your education is a key component of your industrial engineer resume. Recruiters specifically mention the level of education they are looking for in the job advertisement.
In most cases, to apply for an industrial engineer job, you should possess a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, production engineering, supply chain & logistics, or equivalent qualification.
Having a post-graduate diploma or a Master’s degree in a related field would be an added advantage.
Place your education section just after your experience section. Use a consistent format to present your education. Give the hiring manager a complete idea about your education by providing the name of the degree, institution, date, and key learning outcomes – state your GPA if it was above 3.0.
Education
Stanford University
- Lean manufacturing
- Manufacturing automation
- Advanced metal processing
GPA- 3.4/4
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, 2015-2018
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Manufacturing
- Supply chain management
- Machine learning and AI
GPA- 3.6/4
The Most Sought-After Skills in industrial engineering
Industrial engineers need a specific set of skills to perform complex tasks in a manufacturing environment. You could make a page-long list of technical skills that are essential for your job – but how could you pick the right skills for your resume?
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do I have this skill?
- Have they mentioned this skill in the job advertisement?
- Does the industry require this skill?
- Does the company’s future expansion plans require this skill?
- Does the position I apply for demand this skill?
List down the industrial engineer skills and pick the ones that answer “YES” to the above questions. Order them based on their importance.
You need to include a mix of soft skills and hard skills in your resume skills section.
Hard skills are the technical industrial engineering skills while soft skills are your personality traits.
Soft Skills for Industrial Engineers
- Leadership skills
- Communication skills
- Analytical skills
- Attention to detail
- Time management
- Presentation skills
- Teamwork
- Organizational skills
- Problem-solving
- Interpersonal skills
Hard Skills for Industrial Engineers
- Project management
- Supply chain management
- Cost accounting/ cost analysis
- Labor management
- Data analysis
- CAD/CAM
- Process flow charts
- Lean manufacturing/ six sigma/ 5S/ JIT
- Inventory control
Write a Winning Industrial Engineer Resume Summary
Despite its recent addition, this section is going to appear directly beneath the contact information on the resume – making it the sales pitch of your resume.
You can greatly increase your chances of having the hiring manager read your entire resume by writing an effective professional summary – one that provides the hiring manager a clear idea about your passion, expertise, and the value you can bring to the organization.
The professional summary is a two-sentence statement: In the first one, you should state your current experience, key skills, and your interest to join the company: in the second, you should mention your greatest achievements in your career, the problems you solved, the amounts you saved, and the profits you acquired.
Examples
CORRECTA senior industrial engineer with six sigma black belt certification seeks to join a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility to share my expertise. In my previous role at Being used lean manufacturing methods to drastically cut the aluminum wastage saving $12 million per annum.
INCORRECTA senior industrial engineer with 10 years of experience seeks to join a world-class manufacturing company to further my career.
Professional Objective
Just like an experienced candidate write a professional summary on the resume, an entry-level candidate could write an objective summary. Both statements are pretty much the same – except that the objective summary communicates the candidate’s career objectives and passion for the industry.
Examples
CORRECTGraduated industrial engineer specializing in lean manufacturing and quality control is looking for an opportunity to put my technical knowledge and expertise into practice. During my internship at Tesla, developed a data analysis on the factory floor layout and presented it to the management to make decisions on the parameters related to productivity, cycle time, and quality.
INCORRECTA dedicated industrial engineer with no field experience applying to get a placement in a manufacturing facility to put my academic knowledge into practice.
Additional sections for your Industrial Engineer Resume
What would be the role of additional sections on your industrial engineering resume?
Some candidates state that they have plenty of key technical experience listed in the main sections and they do not need additional sections on their resumes. How true is this?
As a candidate, do not underestimate your competition. For most key engineering positions, from the hundreds of resumes, recruiters only shortlist about 10 resumes for interviews – and only one candidate gets the job.
Therefore, you should do whatever it takes to convince the hiring manager that yours is a complete candidate profile that matches the requirement.
Even though you worked in the best-of-its-kind manufacturing facility in the world if your resume only includes that, you’ll be at disadvantage. Consider your resume a balanced meal – with vital proteins and carbohydrates to function, it should also include the vitamins required for your body. Additional sections provide the vitamins for your resume.
Information in additional sections build up the personality of the candidate and communicate their background. These sections are more visible to the recruiters.
Here’re some of the additional sections you can include on your resume:
- Computer skills
- Skills certifications
- Publications and patents
- Languages
- Interests
Computing Skills & Certifications
Your resume will reach the top of the file if you have the relevant industrial engineering skill certifications. Following are some of the highly demanded certifications in the industry:
- Six Sigma Black Belt Certification
- Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
- Business Process Reengineering (BPR) Certification
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
Any IT certification related or non-related to the field would add value to your profile as you’ll get to work mostly with IT systems.
- CAD/CAM design
- Organizational ERP system knowledge
- Manufacturing Material Requirement Planning (MRP) systems
- Airflow and heat transfer simulations (CFD)
- Mathlab
- Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Access, Office)
- SQL/ Python/ C++/ Java
Languages
As an industrial engineer, you’ll get to work in a multicultural environment communicating with multiple nationalities in the factory and outside. Most factory machinery comes from countries like China, Japan, and South Korea – sometimes you got to travel to different geographical areas to negotiate deals and adopt new technologies.
Use your resume to showcase your language fluency – the more languages the better. Make sure you indicate the level of proficiency in each language for the hiring manager to get a clearer idea.
Creating a template from scratch by yourself could be difficult. You may check out our ready-to-fill resume templates where you could find stunning drag and drop sections to showcase your language fluency and other additional sections in the most beautiful way.
Publications and Patents
There’re two ways to demonstrate to the hiring manager that you’re an innovative candidate: you could either state it on the resume or you can state the results of your innovativeness.
State any publications, research papers, industry journals, or patents in an additional section to get the extra attention of the hiring managers. One of these could act as a catalyst to get you the job.
Tips to Improve Your Resume for Industrial Engineering
Take a note of these Pro Tips to improve your next Industrial Engineer resume.
- Proofread your resume using a tool such as Grammarly.
- Consider obtaining the relevant industrial engineering licenses based on the industry you apply for.
- Reread your professional summary to see whether it is tempting enough to hook the hiring manager.
- Spend most of your resume writing time optimizing the experience section
- Use a pro resume template with multiple columns to effectively structure your resume sections.
Key Takeaways: Writing a Resume for Jobs in industrial engineering
- Start your industrial engineer resume with the header: include your name and contact information.
- Write a professional summary describing your expertise in the field and the value you could bring as an industrial engineer – write an objective summary for an entry-level position.
- Use reverse chronological resume format to list your experience section – write a skill-based resume if you’re applying as an entry-level candidate.
- Write your education section describing fully the academic qualifications you’ve achieved – state the key learning outcomes of each degree program.
- Compose a mix of soft and hard skills: keep the list to about 4-7.
- Use additional sections such as skill certifications, publications & patents, IT skills, interests, and languages to add a pleasant surprise to the hiring manager.
