BlogResume WritingMaking an Electrician Resume: Practical Guide With Samples

Making an Electrician Resume: Practical Guide With Samples

electrician resume

Are you an electrician who is tired of short-circuiting while looking for a job? Do you feel confident in your skills and experience, yet you’re not sure how to show them to recruiters? If yes, chances are that your electrician resume needs a couple of tweaks before it is ready to impress  potential employers.

Just like a solid circuit is necessary to keep the current running, a sturdy resume will streamline your job-hunting endeavors and help you get noticed by potential employers. That’s why we wrote this article, which is filled with handy guidelines and beneficial tips.

By the time you’re finished reading, you’ll know exactly how to create a shocking electrician resume. Let’s dive right into it!

Key Takeaways

  • The majority of candidates have the most success with the chronological resume format, with functional and combination formats being commonly used as well.

  • Grab the recruiters’ attention with a catchy resume objective or summary, and then impress them with a well-written work history section.

  • Skills for an electrician resume should be presented as a strong collection of technical and interpersonal abilities.

  • You should always make an effort to submit a cover letter that matches your resume and features additional skills and experience.

What is the Right Format to Use for an Electrician Resume?

resume format

When you have an organized toolbox, you know exactly where to look for a specific tool. The same goes for your resume. By arranging information in an optimal way, you allow recruiters to easily find what they are looking for—and that’s why you need the right format for your electrician resume.

The three most common electrician resume formats are:

3 Common Resume Formats

  1. The chronological format, which neatly presents your work history in reverse-chronological order, emphasizing your latest job first. This orderly arrangement makes it ATS-proof, as well, which is why this format is used by the majority of candidates.

  2. The functional format, which makes your electrician resume skills its centerpiece. This format is great for entry-level candidates who have little to no work experience.

  3. The combination (hybrid) format incorporates features of both chronological and functional resume formats. It lists your skills and backs them up with relevant workplace achievements, making it good for senior candidates, those with gaps in employment, and individuals who changed careers but have transferable skills to showcase.

Resume Layout

A resume layout represents its visual aspect. It works in tandem with a format to create a clean, professional, and presentable document. Since recruiters often have to examine numerous resumes in short periods of time, your goal is to be brief and concise, fitting as much valuable information on one page as possible.

Here’s a list of guidelines you can follow to achieve that:

Resume Layout Guidelines

  • You should use bullet lists instead of blocks of text whenever possible.

  • Pick a resume-friendly font that’s professional and easy to read. For example, you can use typefaces such as Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri.

  • Use 10–12 pt font size for the body of text, with section headings being 2–4 pts bigger.

  • Add 1-inch margins on all sides and utilize white space between sections to make them distinct.

What Sections Should an Electrician Resume Contain?

Certain sections are mandatory, and they should be present on every electrician resume. These sections are:

Mandatory Sections

  • Contact information

  • Resume objective/summary

  • Work experience

  • Education

  • Skills

Then, there are optional sections that you can use to add more valuable information to your resume and make it stand out among the competition. Optional sections include:

Optional Sections

  • Certifications

  • Languages

  • Hobbies and interests

You can use these lists as starting points in the resume-crafting process to ensure you don’t forget to add any vital details to your document. And if you want a foolproof method of creating your resume that can also save you a lot of time, you should check out our resume-builder.

We created this feature-packed user-friendly tool for beginners and veterans alike. You can start by finding a professional electrician resume template that suits your needs. Then, you can use an extensive set of controls to adjust every aspect of the template while filling in the blanks with your information. That way, your resume can be finished in a matter of minutes!

Electrician Resume Contact Information

collaboration skills

The contact information section is simple and straightforward. Its purpose is to introduce recruiters and potential employers to what you do and give them the option to contact you.

Adding this part to your resume is simple as well. Just add the following details to your resume header:

  • Your name

  • Job title

  • Phone number

  • Email address

Optionally, you can also include your:

  • Location, but only if the job ad asks for it or if you’re applying for a position abroad.

  • LinkedIn profile, as this social network is commonly used in the professional environment.

Let’s see what that looks like in practice:

Contact Information Example

Joseph Petersen Electrician + 443 312 1220 josephpeterson@example.com Baltimore, MD linkedin.com/in/lucyanderson23

Electrician Resume Objective or Summary

resume objective

How do you grab the recruiter’s attention right from the get-go and ensure they thoroughly examine your entire resume? The answer is: with a strong opening paragraph that highlights your key strengths in 2–4 sentences, of course.

If you’re an entry-level electrician, you’ll write a resume objective that focuses on your knowledge, skills, and goals.

If you’re a master electrician with a lot of experience, you should use a resume summary to point out a few of your most prominent achievements.

Electrician Resume Objective

To write a standout electrician resume objective, you should include some important job-related skills. You can also display potential and dedication to the craft by talking about your career goals and highlighting your desire to work with the company that you’re applying to in particular.

Here’s a good example:

Good Example

“Technical-minded electrical apprentice looking for an entry-level position at [your company]. Completed 200 classroom training hours, covering residential, industrial, and commercial work. Looking forward to new challenges while working towards a journeyman license.”

Now compare that to the following bland and uninspiring resume objective:

Bad Example

“Knowledgeable electrical apprentice looking for a first job to gain real-world experience.”

Electrician Resume Summary

A strong electrician resume summary should feature the amount of experience you have along with a couple of impressive achievements to grab the reader’s attention.

Let’s see a well-written example:

Good Example

“Reliable master licensed electrician with 11+ years of experience with industrial electrical installations. Extensive circuit knowledge with a focus on diagnosis, troubleshooting, and remedy. Proficient in operating heavy equipment such as forklifts, boom lifts, and pallet jacks. Notable achievements include overseeing a team of electricians install more than $3.5M worth of wireless technologies.”

In contrast, here’s a poorly-written resume summary that features no palpable results and gives no indication of the candidate’s skill and experience:

Bad Example

“Seasoned electrician with years of experience looking to apply my extensive skill set at a new job.”

Electrician Resume Work Experience

work experience resume

One of the easiest ways to impress your future employers is to show them your past performances. That’s what the work experience section is for, so let’s see how you can get the most out of it.

General Tips

So, how do you condense your entire career into a couple of bullet-point lists?

First off, there’s a proven formula to follow when listing your past work experience. It goes like this:

  • Your role

  • The company you worked for and its location

  • Start and end dates of employment

  • Notable achievements and results obtained

There are a couple of tricks you can use to make your list of achievements pop and demonstrate your competence in the best way possible.

For starters, avoid including everyday tasks and responsibilities that every electrician out there regularly does. Instead, you should focus on outstanding accomplishments that portray you as a distinguished professional.

To do that, you should include 3–5 bullet points for each previous job. You can make those points more prominent with the following methods:

  • Make an effort to incorporate catchy action verbs and power words instead of overused terms like “hardworking” or “team player.”

  • Try to quantify your achievements and results whenever possible with numbers, statistics, and percentages. That will make them more concrete and impactful.

Electrician With No Experience

When you’re writing an electrician resume as a beginner, you likely don’t have a lot of work history. In that case, you can highlight activities such as volunteer work, internships, school projects, and so on.

Here’s a good example:

Electrician With No Experience Example

Work Experience

Electrician Apprentice Atom Systems Fort Collins, CO

November 2021–August 2022

  • Assisted in the installation of smart home automation systems to increase property values by up to 10%.

  • Collaborated with team members to increase installation efficiency by 15% by standardizing processes.

  • Optimized inventory management to minimize surplus ordering and reduce material waste by 13%.

Experienced Electrician

Experienced electricians offer much more than their technical prowess—they can help drive the success of entire businesses. That’s what you want to highlight. Show your potential employer how you excelled in your past jobs, increasing companies’ revenues, leading teams, training newcomers, and more.

Let’s see that in an example:

Experienced Electrician Example

Work Experience

Senior Electrician ABC Electrical Services Houston, TX

July 2018–Current

  • Managed teams of up to 20 journeyman electricians and apprentices, overseeing project timelines, budgets, and work processes.

  • Headed the expansion of the electrical maintenance and service department, increasing the company's revenue by 25%.

  • Implemented safety training programs and procedures to reduce work-related accidents and injuries by up to 65%.

Electrician Resume Education Section

education resume

Work experience is king in the job-hunting process, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore your education. It’s another way for you to emphasize your competence, which can be the tipping point that secures you an interview with the hiring manager.

The education section is another straightforward one where you should include the following details:

  • Your degree

  • The institution that issued it

  • Years of attendance

  • (Optional) Notable achievements

Here’s an example:

Electrician Resume Education Example

Education

High School Diploma Hampton High School, Allison Park, PA 2012–2016

You can put more emphasis on this section if you lack work experience. In that case, you can add a bullet list with relevant courses, extracurricular activities, school projects, etc. 

Electrician Resume Skills

skills for resume

There are two types of electrician resume skills:

  1. Hard skills are specific to your profession as an electrician, and they are necessary for the job.

  2. Soft skills are transferable people skills that affect your productivity, efficiency, interpersonal relationships, and more.

A strong combination of both can help you stand out among the competition. However, you need to present your skills optimally for the best chances of success. To do that, you need to accomplish two things:

  1. Your skills need to be relevant to the position that you're applying for. To find out which skills recruiters want to see, you can research the company that you’re applying to and carefully read the job ad.

  2. You need to prove your skills to recruiters. That’s best done by mentioning some of your most important skills throughout your resume. Connect them with quantifiable achievements and results in your resume summary and work history sections, and you’ll substantiate your skills.

Finally, recruiters need a concise overview of your skillset, which is why you want to list your skills in a dedicated section. Keep in mind that soft and hard skills are rather different in nature, which is why you should list them separately.

Hard Skills

Some of the hard skills for your electrician resume include:

  • Mathematics

  • Construction proficiency

  • Wiring diagrams

  • Schematics

  • Process evaluation

  • Risk evaluation

  • Blueprint analysis

Soft Skills

Soft electrician skills for resume that employers look for include:

  • Communication

  • Organization

  • Problem-solving

  • Accuracy

  • Decision-making

  • Teamwork

  • Dependability

Electrician Resume Optional Sections

Improve your resume with optional sections and add more valuable information to grab recruiters’ attention.

Certifications

One of the best ways to provide undeniable proof of your skills and dedication to the profession is to add certifications, such as Certified Professional Electrician (CPE). For maximum effect, you should create a separate section and list your certifications there. Simply include the name of the certification and the institution that issued it.

Languages

Language proficiency can be essential if the position that you’re going for involves communication with foreign clients and colleagues. Even if that’s not the case, adding these abilities to your resume can make you look like a multi-talented and accomplished candidate.

The best way to add language skills to your resume is to pick a framework of reference for language skills. Then, you should list them in descending order, starting with the language you’re most knowledgeable about.

Hobbies & Interests

What do you do to kick back and relax after a long day of hard work?

While that information might not necessarily be related to your skills and experience, it can add a much-needed dose of personality to your resume. You’ll show recruiters that there’s a real person behind it with hobbies and interests, which will help them remember you among countless other candidates.

Should You Submit a Cover Letter With Your Electrician Resume?

cover letter

What better way to display diligence and dedication than to go the extra mile from the start during your job application process? One of the easiest ways to achieve that is to write a position-specific cover letter that matches your resume.

Show that you’re an ambitious doer by submitting this document, which many applicants consider optional. Moreover, you’ll get 3–5 additional paragraphs to go in greater depth about your work-related skills and achievements.

Expert Tips for Creating an Electrician Resume

Here are a few final expert tips to help you refine your resume:

  • It’s often recommended to submit a soft copy of your electrician resume as a PDF file. It’s a versatile format that preserves its composition regardless of the device it’s viewed on. Keep in mind, however, that some job ads might specifically ask for other file types.

  • Your job title in your contact information section acts as a keyword for the ATS, which is why it should be professional, matching the role mentioned in the job ad.

  • While transferable skills are valuable to every employer, they shouldn’t overshadow your hard, technical abilities. Choose a few prominent soft skills and try to keep a longer list of hard electrician skills on a resume.

  • Your resume should be spotless. Make an effort to proofread it a few times. You can also ask a friend to give it another look.

Closing Thoughts

To sum it up, creating an effective electrician resume is essential for any professional in the field looking to advance their career. By following the guidelines, tips, and tricks outlined in this article, you’ll give your resume the spark it needs to get you ahead of the competition.

Remember to keep it concise, professional, and focused on relevant skills and experience that you know recruiters are looking for. With a little bit of effort and attention to detail, you’ll electrify your job search ventures and achieve your career goals in no time!

Sheila Kravitz
Sheila Kravitz
Content Writer & Head Editor
By day, Sheila Kravitz writes stellar content and works as a head editor. At night, she spends her time winning at trivia nights or playing Dungeons & Dragons with her friends. Whether she’s writing or editing, she gives her maximum effort and ensures no error gets past her watchful eyes. When she’s doing none of the above, Sheila likes to spend time with her cats and her partner, endlessly watching crime documentaries on Netflix.

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