Explore Network Engineer Resume Examples and Writing Tips to Land Your Next Job

You need to have a significant number of skills to be able to apply as a network engineer. One of the most important things to emphasize is your general knowledge of computer science, especially if you’re working for a specific company, it’s up to you to make sure their entire IT system functions. Showing off your professional experience and your ability to enhance network uptime will seriously benefit your resume on the whole.

The structure of your resume will necessarily depend on your resume format. There are three resume formats you can choose from: the chronological resume, which highlights your work history, the functional resume, which highlights your skills, and the combination resume, which attempts to highlight both. A network engineer should typically have enough work history to use a chronological resume, but all of these formats can be beneficial in different ways. Here’s how your sections will look regardless of the format you use.

 

 

The first section will be the resume header. This is more part of the resume design than the resume content. It typically includes your full name, contact information and professional portfolio links. In some resume examples, you’ll also see some special design elements around the header.

 

 

This is the first thing a hiring manager should see on your resume. This short two to three-sentence paragraph is going to be full of all the best achievements, skills and experiences possible, covering a wide area of knowledge.

 

 

Resume skills are a huge part of getting a network engineer job. This skills section should include the network engineer skills that you feel you’re the best at. Here are a few bullet points you might see in network engineer resume samples:

• Knowledge of networking companies (Cisco, Juniper Networks, VMware)
• Firewalls
• Load balancers
• Managing network devices
• Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
• Network upgrades
• Usage of a VPN
• Data center information
• Area network and routing protocols (LAN, WAN, OSPF, BGP, EIGRP, DHCP
• Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
• Domain Name Systems (DNS)
• Network components
• Network infrastructure and network systems
• Network security
• Network administration
• Network design and network technologies
• Network performance
• Project management
• Interpersonal skills
• Communication skills
• Problem-solving skills

As you can see, this is a massive collection of soft skills and hard skills. As a network professional, match skills from the job description to the skills on your list when you create your skills section, so recruiters know you have the right abilities to manage a network.

 

 

The experience section is where you include all of your work experience. Whether you have many years of experience or just a few, use this section to showcase where you learned your skills and how you benefited previous companies by implementing a better network. List these experiences in reverse chronological order, with the most recent ones first.

 

 

Most network engineer positions require at least a bachelor’s degree, and even an entry-level network engineer resume should showcase this education. Especially if you’re going for a more senior network engineer position, show off certifications as well. The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certifications are Cisco career certifications that are extremely popular, while CompTIA offers professional certifications as one of the top engineering associations.

Do:

• Note specific experiences that you’ve had. Action verbs present yourself as an energetic, take-charge employee to recruiters, and help show how you connect your skills to your experiences.
• Discuss operating systems that you regularly use. Expressing which operating systems you’re most comfortable with will help a hiring manager choose the right applicant.
• Use resume templates for your resume. A resume template allows you to present your skills in a professional format.

Don’t:

• Exclusively list technical skills. Although technical skills are certainly important here, you need soft skills and interpersonal skills to seem well-rounded.
• Use unnecessary technical jargon. Use whatever wording is necessary to discuss your skills, but unnecessary jargon can confuse a hiring manager.
• Include a long list of dozens of skills. You should typically include up to about a dozen skills at the most to highlight skills you’re truly great at.