Chemical Engineer Resume

Despite a wide range of applications across multiple industries, chemical engineers all share something in common: involvement in the design and development phases of new concepts. These professionals are relied upon to consider health, safety, and cost issues while creating valuable new materials and techniques.

Given the job’s focus on raw, potentially hazardous materials, it’s important to highlight your technical understanding in addition to soft skills to demonstrate your value to employers.

The following tips offer a broad overview of what to include in your chemical engineer resume to give you the best chance of securing a job in this fast-paced, competitive field.

1. Highlight your chemical engineer skills

Including an eye-catching resume skills section offers a quick snapshot of your technical skills and knowledge to impress hiring managers. For example, these computer programs are often a valuable resource for chemical engineers, and listing them in your skills section will show you have the know-how to succeed in the field:

• MATLAB
• AutoCAD
• Microsoft Office Suite
• Minitab

To show you’re a well-rounded employee, be sure to include a few character traits (soft skills) as well as learned techniques (hard skills).

The following hard and soft skills have a wide range of applications across chemical engineer positions:

• Complex problem solving skills
• Critical thinking
• Lean Six Sigma
• Judgment and decision making
• Mathematics
• Budget management
• Time management skills
• Analytical skills
• Deductive reasoning
• Collaboration

In addition to self-professed skills, training and certifications make your resume stand out. Including the Licensed Professional Engineer (LPE) certification on your resume is especially useful for helping you progress from new grad to mid-career.

Required skills and certifications are often included in job ads, so ensure you’re not missing any skills listed as essential or desired. Doing so also makes you more likely to get past companies’ applicant tracking systems (ATS). Making an ATS-friendly resume will boost your chances of scoring an interview.

2. Open with a strong chemical engineer resume summary

A resume summary is a snapshot of your career highlights, providing busy hiring managers with an easy-to-read description of your most relevant skills and value. It’s likely the first thing they’ll read so it should grab their attention.

Chemical engineering is a multidisciplinary field with a wide range of applications across a variety of industries, including:

• energy
• oil and gas
• food and drink
• toiletries
• plastics
• water treatment
• pharmaceuticals

So it’s essential that you tailor your resume summary to your target industry. Here’s an example of an effective resume summary for the pharmaceuticals industry:

By emphasizing your best soft skills, measurable results, and qualifications/certifications in your resume summary, you can effectively summarize your key selling points to show your value to your target company.

3. Add hard numbers to your achievements

Include hard numbers in your resume to demonstrate your achievements in measurable terms.

Chemical engineers are valued for their focus on the following success measures:

• Driving efficiency
• Meeting strict budgets and timelines
• Ensuring compliance with internal and external regulations
• Maintaining stringent health and safety measures
• Any of the above are good themes to consider when generating your own hard numbers.

Here are a few examples of how to include hard numbers in your resume:

Boosted compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) agency by 37%

Implemented Lean Six Sigma health and safety checks to reduce errors by 45%

Executed innovative oil and gas processing target 3 weeks ahead of schedule and on budget

By including statistics like these in your resume, you’re clearly outlining your measurable contributions to prospective employers and showing them you have an analytical mindset in the process.