Chemical Engineer Resume Examples, Objective & Template

Resources for Your Next Career Move

Explore our complete resume examples selection for tips and resources tailored to every career path.

What to Highlight in a Chemical Engineer Resume

A chemical engineer is an important part of many companies that deal in chemical processes, manufacturing processes, production processes, and more, including everything from perfume to clothing and beyond. Chemical engineers have an incredibly broad array of skills centered around designing ways to produce, transform and transport materials. This can include chemical manufacturing and process design. If you’re looking to get a chemical engineering job, it’s not enough to just have the skills or the education. You also need a great resume.

A chemical engineer should have specific skills in their niche. For example, a chemical engineer working with highly explosive materials should list skills relating to safety in the manufacturing and transportation process. Additionally, knowing how to work with a team is deeply important, as you’ll almost certainly be part of a team during your career.

Here’s how to create a head-turning chemical engineer resume.

The Structure of a Chemical Engineer Resume

The first point to note is that your resume structure will depend heavily on your resume format. There are three resume formats: chronological, which emphasizes experience, functional, which emphasizes skills, and combination, which emphasizes both. Choose the right structure, then use these chemical engineer resume example sections to effectively structure your best resume.

Header

The first step is writing the header. Your resume header includes all your contact information, including your phone number, email and professional social media sites.

Resume summary or objective

Next is your resume summary or resume objective. This is a short paragraph, about 2-3 sentences, that goes over all your experience, knowledge, and qualifications. In a resume objective, you’ll also include an objective that you’re hoping to achieve in your career.

Skills

Chemical engineers have an incredibly broad skill set and depending on the job you’re applying for, you’ll emphasize different skills. Here are a few of those skills you can include:

• Product development
• Product quality testing
• Quality control measures
• Product optimization
• Ability to quantify product measures
• General plant operations
• Knowledge of reactors
• Unit operations
• Teamwork
• Experience with MATLAB and AutoCAD
• Ability to provide technical support
• Process engineering
• Project management
• Problem-solving
• Troubleshooting
• Verbal and written communication
• Interpersonal skills
• Raw material handling

Remember that your chemical engineering skills will have to do with your type of job. Although it’s true that both hard skills and soft skills are important for all resumes, the specific technical skills you list on your resume should be tailored to the job you’re applying for.

Work history

In your work experience section, you should include all the experience that you’ve previously had as a chemical engineer. If you’re a student, you may include academic or internship experiences as well. Focus on major responsibilities and achievements that tie into what the new job needs.

Education

Finally, include your college degree or any certifications you have in the education section. You’ll typically need at least a bachelor’s degree, but feature all advanced accreditations, such as a master’s degree.

Do’s and Don’ts for a Chemical Engineer Resume

Here are some points to keep in mind when writing your chemical engineer resume:

Do:

• Note the tasks you performed in previous jobs. A professional resume should include not just where you worked, but also what you did.
• Include as much contact information as you can, including a phone number and email address. You want to make it as easy as possible for a hiring manager to reach out to you.
• Tailor your chemical engineer resume to the specific job whenever possible. Use resume samples to find out how other chemical engineers are writing about their skills.

Don’t:

• List your high school education or GPA. Because you need a college education to become a chemical engineer, there’s no need to list your high school information.
• List more than 10 years of experience. Any experience past 10 years can typically go on your LinkedIn profile instead.
• Try to write your resume all by yourself. Use the ResumeHelp resume builder to create a better resume even if you have no experience.