How to Write a Winning Marine Engineer Resume

As a marine engineer, you already have the skills and the preparation to work in almost any ship you can imagine. But, to get the right job in a world-class shipping company, you need the perfect marine engineer resume.

If that is something you’re worried about, you’re reading the right article.

In this comprehensive guide, we will show you:

• How to find the best resume format for a marine engineer job
• How to write a marine engineer resume that is better than what most other candidates write
• How to write marine engineer resume experience section, even for an entry-level position

You will also find plenty of guidelines and best practices in writing your next resume.

If you’re already on a tide schedule or ready to hoist sails in the Atlantic, skip the reading: enjoy the view and check out our ready-to-fill resume templates to create your resume in 10 minutes or less.

Isn’t this what you were looking for? We’re so sorry!

Check out these similar resume examples to see if what you're looking for is there.

• Network engineer resume
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Salary & Employment Rates for Marine Engineers

A career as a marine engineer is well-paid and well-rewarding.

While the average marine engineer salary is $80,000/ year (Payscale.com), it could literally go double with the cash bonuses and overtime.

If you are excited about traveling to new areas around the world, meeting new people, and facing new challenges every day, it will be more rewarding than the salary.

How to Write An Outstanding Marine Engineer Resume

Marine engineers possess strong analytical and mathematical skills. Writing their resume differs from writing an administrative or marketing resume.

There are, however, some general rules and standard procedures to follow when writing your resume. Because in your resume, you’re talking to a hiring manager, generally someone specialized in HR and not in engineering or some who manages both areas.

To start, you need to define your layout and the format.

Marine Engineer Resume Structure

A structure makes your life easier. It also ensures that you don't miss any important information. Once you've defined the layout, you have to fill in the blanks.

We recommend this scheme for a marine engineer resume:

• Header: name and contact information.
• Professional summary statement/ objective summary.
• Work history.
• Education.
• Skills.
• Additional sections (certificates, languages, and publications).

You should start your marine engineer resume with the header introducing yourself to the hiring manager. While this order is generally followed, you can adjust it based on your strengths.

Best resume format for marine engineers

There are three ways to format a resume:

• The functional (skills-based) format emphasizes relevant skills rather than previous employment history. Ideal for candidates in their early career stages.
• The most recent experience is listed first in reverse chronological order (traditional) resume formats. Ideal for highly skilled candidates.
• You can also use a mix of the above two formats which is called Hybrid (combination resume)

For a marine engineer resume, we suggest you use the reverse chronological format: where you highlight your latest experience first. In reverse-chronological resumes, the priority is given to your latest experience.

For most jobs in marine engineering, hiring managers are mostly concerned about your latest experience in the field.

Make it easier for them to find what they're looking for. The whole purpose of following a proper layout and format for your resume is to accomplish this.

You will be invited to an interview if you make the hiring manager's job easy.

Begin Your Resume for Marine Engineering with the Header

Always start your resume by introducing yourself. This is the objective of your header. Make it short and clear.

There’re a couple of mistakes candidates make in the header section which we have highlighted here

A good & a bad header

CORRECT

David Brown

Marine engineer

dbrown@gmail.com

+1 265 76 98 34

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidb

INCORRECT

Marine engineer

David Brown

davidthemarineengineer@gmail.com

+1 265 76 98 34

12, main street, apt 21,

Washington DC

USA

Consider the following points while writing your header:

• Start your header with your name; not with your position.
• Provide a professional-looking email and send the application from the same email: do not use the current employer email.
• State your mobile number to contact you; do not state your physical address.
• If you have an updated LinkedIn profile. Put the link.

Describe Your Experience as a Marine Engineer

You should spend most of your time writing and refining this section. This is the key section on which hiring managers make their decisions.

Writing an experienced section from zero would be stressful right?

Try one of our ready-to-fill resume templates for marine engineers, which will make the job a lot easier for you.

Do you want to write it yourself?

Great! We will simply explain how to write a marine engineer experience section better than 95% of the candidates.

Read on!

Examples of Work Experience for an Experienced Marine Engineer Resume

INCORRECT

Aug 2016 to Present

Marine engineer

MT shipping

• Design and construction schedules
• Marine apparatus design
• Mechanical and electrical problems
• Preventative maintenance
• Repair marine equipment
• Equipment maintenance
• Efficient operation

CORRECT

Aug 2016 to Present

Marine engineer

MT shipping

• Carried out preventative and emergency maintenance on board and on-site
• Worked with both diesel and coal marine engines
• Developed maintenance schedules for vital plant equipment resulted in 15% fewer breakdowns
• Safe and efficient operations resulted in MT shipping getting the best shipping line award in 2019
• Collaboratively with the chief engineer, developed a planned maintenance system to oversee machinery status logs for each vessel

Describe your experience as a series of actions you performed. Add authority to your actions by using power words such as delivered, developed, and carried out.

Also, use numbers to add credibility to your actions. Use dates, percentages, and the amounts you saved in dollars.

There's a tiny difference between a good experience section and a bad one, but there's a huge difference between getting the job and being rejected.

Examples of Work Experience for an Entry-Level Marine engineer Resume

INCORRECT

Aug 2016 to July 2018

KL marines

Apprenticeship

• Routine maintenance
• Vessel systems knowledge
• Read and understand technical manuals
• Basic knowledge of diesel engines

CORRECT

Aug 2016 to July 2018

KL marines

Apprenticeship

• Became an important executor of operational procedures in the propulsion plant
• Worked in a sophisticated industrial setting
• Provided engineering support onboard completing 2000+ nautical miles
• Developed technical aptitude
• Acquired a deep understanding of marine regulations and standards

When applying for an entry-level marine engineer position, you can't rely on your experience section alone. Still, your hiring manager's priority would be to find someone who has been in the field.

Collect every experience you have acquired in your education and apprenticeship programs and process them into meaningful statements in your experience section.

Use power words, numbers, and a little bit of confidence in your writing to make your experience section look like it was written by someone with experience in the field.

Education - Reinforce Your Marine Engineer Resume

A marine engineer's education is a crucial component.

Most employers expect a Bachelor’s degree in marine engineering and/or a Master’s degree specializing in a related field.

Be consistent in your education section by stating the name of the degree, institution, date, and key learning outcomes.

State your GPA if it was above 3.0.

Education

The Top Skills for Your Marine Engineering Resume

Marine engineers possess a specific set of skills even when compared with other engineering fields. Some of the most related fields are mechanical engineering and structural engineering.

Apart from that, your hiring manager is concerned with some soft skills required for the job. Further, these skills define your personality and leadership skills; recruiters hire potential project managers and general managers for the future.

Therefore, you need to write a mix of hard skills and soft skills in this section.

Many organizations use applicant tracking systems to shortlist hundreds of job applications. Use the job advertisement to find the keywords they will be searching for in the resumes.

Skills that cannot be measured by a standard methodology: soft skills

• Effective communication
• Attention to detail
• Presentation skills
• Analytical skills
• Teamwork
• Organizational skills
• Problem-solving
• Interpersonal skills

Skills that can be measured: hard skills

• Identifying contract specifications
• Ventilation systems and HVAC
• Writing complete technical reports
• Marine expertise
• Hands-on experience in engineering department activities
• Electrical systems
• Engineering equipment handling and maintenance

About Me: Summarize Your Professional Profile

This section is one of the latest, but it’s going to be on the top of the resume, just below the contact information.

Most candidates spend most of their resume writing time on this section. But you don’t have to be Ernest Hemingway to write a professional summary statement.

It’s a simple process. Read the examples we have given and study the features. Make two statements in your professional summary: first, talk about your experience and enthusiasm for the new position, second, describe what you did in your previous role.

Examples

CORRECT

An experienced marine engineer with 7-plus years of experience on shipboards and in shipyards who seeks to continue with the high level of service quality at Capital Shipping. When I worked at MT shipping company, There, I introduced a safe and efficient operation procedure for a preventive maintenance program that saved the company $100,000 annually

INCORRECT

Marine engineer with 7+ years of experience is seeking to join Capital shipping to provide a high-quality service

Professional Objective

A professional objective is not a separate section of your resume.

As an entry-level marine engineer or as someone in a career transition to become a marine engineer, you might not have the experience required; so instead of a professional summary statement, you should write a professional objective summary.

There you should emphasize your enthusiasm and related experiences in your previous jobs.

Additional sections for your Marine Engineer Resume

If you’re still reading; meaning you have what it takes to make your resume stand out from the rest. Now is the perfect time to do that.

After writing the main headings of the resume, most candidates stop there. But 5% of the top resumes include a little surprise to the hiring managers with the additional sections.

There are a couple of reasons why you should use additional sections in your resume:

• The information you include in separate sections get more attention from the recruiters
• Marine engineers all have similar education and field experience, but what makes you an exceptional candidate is what you have accomplished in addition to those

Computing Skills & Certifications

Your skill certifications and licenses in marine engineering or related fields would help your resume to reach the top of the file.

If you possess a certificate in marine engineering (class 1 to 7) or you’re currently reading for one, you should mention it here with the year you’re expecting the certificate.

Any certification in computer technology or IT would add value to your resume. Especially if you have completed a certificate in naval information technology, CAD/CAM design, airflow and heat transfer simulation (CFD) software, or organizational ERP systems (SAP) would put you in advantage.

Languages

If you're fluent in a couple of languages, why not let your recruiter know that? As a marine engineer, you have the opportunity to travel the world and speak with people from different cultures.

Fluency in as many languages as possible will make you an ambassador for your company. You should indicate your proficiency in each language in a clear format when listing your languages.

Publications

Any research, journals, or publications of yours that are approved can be listed as a separate section to catch the recruiter's eye.

Your employer is keen to have a marine engineer who is creative and innovative.

Tips to Improve Your Resume for Marine Engineering

Let’s check some pro tips to improve your next marine engineer resume.

• Your marine engineer resume should be free of grammar mistakes. Make sure you proofread it
• Marine engineers are good with numbers. Add credibility to your experience by using numbers
• Consider obtaining a skills certification or license specific to marine engineers if you don't have one. Even if you have already begun the certification process, you can still mention it in your resume

Summary: Craft a Professional Resume as a Marine Engineer

• Your marine engineer’s resume should start with your name and contact information
• In two sentences, highlight your skills, experience, and expertise in your summary. Use the summary to hook the recruiter to read it further
• Use reverse chronological resume format to list your experience section
• Use a consistent format to list your education: state your learning outcomes with the exact keyword mentioned in the job description
• Compose a mix of soft and hard skills; place priority on hard skills
• Include separate sections for certifications, interests, and languages to give the hiring manager a pleasant surprise

Complement Your Resume with Your Cover Letter

Now with this guide, we hope you can create a great marine engineer resume for your next job. However, most recruiters expect a cover letter along with your resume.

Complement this winning marine engineer resume with a well-written cover letter to get their attention.

Your cover letter doesn’t have to be a long one. During the first paragraph, mention how you can address the most important concerns of your employer. In the second paragraph, describe how you already helped your previous employer achieve their business goals. In the third paragraph, explain why you are particularly interested in the company.

FAQs

What are the best shipping companies for marine engineers?

There are thousands of shipping companies around the world providing job opportunities for marine engineers, technicians, and officers. We have listed some popular shipping companies in the United States:

• Evergreen Line
• Orient Overseas Container Line
• CMA CGM Group
• COSCO Shipping Lines

What are the popular and demanding skills marine engineers can specialize in?

Having specialized in a demanding skill would make it easy for you to get jobs until you become a general manager, project manager, or engineering chief in a shipping company. Additionally, it allows you to niche down your job search and demand a higher salary.

Following are some of the areas you can specialize as a marine engineer:

• Naval engineering
• System engineering
• Plan and equipment maintenance
• Marine design engineering

Discover Some of our Best Templates for Marine Engineers