Network Engineer Resume Examples & 2025 PDF Template

What Should I Highlight on a Network Engineer Resume?

A network engineer is someone who can plan, construct and manage a network. Essentially, a network engineer needs to be responsible for an entire IT system. You need to know how to create the system, troubleshoot any issues, and optimize its function. That means you’re the backbone behind the network infrastructure, which requires a significant amount of talent. Here’s how you can write a network engineer resume that looks great and helps your company.

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 a Network Engineer Resume

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.

Header

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.

Resume summary or objective

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.

Skills

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 resume skills examples 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.

Work history

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.

Education

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.