Machine Operator Resume

Machine operators work in many industries, where they use and maintain different types of mechanical equipment to enable efficient production practices.

Machine operation is highly technical work. Employers must know you possess the skills and experience necessary to safely operate equipment in a fast-paced environment.

To ensure you write a great machine operator resume, we’ve included four professional writing tips below.

1. Start with a well-written resume introduction

Learning how to write a resume introduction is a valuable skill in itself. There are four introduction styles you can use for your machine operator resume:

• Resume summary
• Resume objective
• Summary of qualifications
• Resume profile

The two most common resume introductions are the resume objective (typically used by entry-level candidates) and the resume summary, which is meant for individuals with practical work experience.

Writing a machine operator resume summary that gets the attention of a recruiter or employer requires you to highlight your:

• Years of experience or education
• Specialty or area of expertise
• Industry-relevant skills
• Career achievements & accomplishments

Here’s an example of a machine operator resume summary that highlights all of this essential information:

Machine operator with 6+ years of experience monitoring and operating machines in a manufacturing setting. Proficient at determining faults and conducting repairs. Have excellent communication skills and can operate forklifts. Possess a Machining Level 1 Certificate, and maintained a 100% safety record throughout my career.

Machine operator resume objective example

If you’re an entry-level machine operator, writing a resume objective is a more suitable choice for your resume because you can emphasize your personality, education, and career interests instead of job experience.

When writing a resume objective, focus on the following three aspects:

• Mention your qualifications and work experience (if you have any)
• Describe your strongest provable traits
• Emphasize your career ambitions and how they relate to company goals

Here’s an example of a well-written machine operator resume objective:

Machine operator apprentice with six months of work experience, and a certified forklift operator. Aiming to use my proven communication and teamwork skills to effectively fill the machine operator position at your company. A dedicated worker seeking to achieve company production goals and take on more responsibility as quickly as possible.

If you lack experience, a resume objective that emphasizes your education, soft skills, and willingness to learn is one way to help get your foot in the door at a specific company.

2. Emphasize your machine operator skills

Working as a machine operator requires a mix of hard and soft skills in order to be proficient at the job. Your resume will need to show that you possess both if you want a hiring manager to take your job application seriously.

Regarding hard skills, machine operators need to be able to operate heavy machinery, such as forklifts and cranes, use a vast number of hardware tools, and be proficient at using computer-aided manufacturing programs like Mastercam CAD.

Having soft skills like patience and attention to detail is also a necessity because machine operators use heavy machinery, and safety is a big concern. You’ll also need interpersonal skills, such as communication, teamwork, and organization.

Luckily, these skills are transferable across industries. Even if you’re changing careers and applying to be a machine operator, you likely already possess them from past interactions with coworkers, customers, and clients.

Here’s an example of a machine operator resume skills’ section:

Helping hiring managers assess your ability to handle the job as quickly as possible will be appreciated, and could be the detail that elevates your resume above other candidates.

3. Fill your experience section with numbers and achievements

Where your resume’s introduction and skills sections are useful for catching the hiring manager’s eye and persuading them to keep reading, the real meat of your machine operator resume is your work experience section.

When listing work experience, you’ll want to first ensure you use industry-targeted action verbs to describe your responsibilities.

Action verbs give a positive impression to the hiring manager and show how you’ve taken initiative on the job and properly contributed to your employer. Such language is starkly different from bland, overused phrases like “responsible for” and “duties include”.

Here are nine action verb examples fit for a machine operator:

• operate
• monitor
• ensure
• interpret
• determine
• identify
• inspect
• minimize
• adjust

Next, you should quantify your work experience by adding hard numbers to your bullet points. Numbers help you illustrate that you’re results-driven, and can contribute to the company’s immediate and long-term goals.

Including accomplishments on your resume with hard numbers means using percentages, time frames, and dollar amounts to make your achievements measurable to the reader:

Here are two work experience bullet point examples with the hard numbers and actions verbs highlighted:

Even if you don’t have any big financial or productivity wins, you can use hard numbers to effectively describe your daily duties.

Ask yourself questions like:

• How many types of machines did you fix and operate?
• How often did you fill out inspection forms?
• How long were your shifts?

Remember, you don’t need to quantify every single bullet point on your resume. But for a machine operator working in a manufacturing setting, providing evidence that you’re a reliable and safety-conscious individual will give your resume a considerable boost.

4. Read the machine operator job description

Finally, you should scan the machine operator job description for keywords that highlight the main duties and responsibilities for the role.

Many companies, including those hiring machine operators, use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to scan job applications for keywords that are pre-determined by the employer. It’s impossible to know what all of the pre-determined keywords are, but they’ll often be scattered throughout the machine operator job description.

Want to ensure your application isn’t rejected by the employer’s ATS before it ends up on a hiring manager’s desk? Write an ATS-friendly resume that includes at least some of the keywords the job description highlights for you.

Here’s an example of a machine operator’s job description, with ATS keywords highlighted: