How to write the perfect graduate engineering CV

Writing CVs can be particularly tricky for engineers because of the need to balance technical and transferable skills. Our guide will set you in the right direction.

CV writing is a fine art. By the end of university you’ll likely have a broad range of skills and experiences – more than you probably realise – but summarising them in a way that will impress prospective employers is both vital and tricky.

Engineers can have a particularly difficult job when it comes to crafting a graduate engineering CV because, unlike many graduates, they often need to demonstrate technical knowledge, practical experience and soft skills such as communication.

The first thing to consider is the layout of your document. It’s the first thing employers notice and getting it wrong is one of the most common mistakes, says Peter Panayotou, co-founder of CV improvement service The Write Stuff.

‘It can be really simple things such as big blocks of text making it look it’s an essay,’ he says. ‘I prefer things to be laid out so it’s neat and easy to navigate on the page. That means breaking things down into bullet points.’