This answer can depend on your target industry and level of seniority, but in general, you should focus on industry-specific expertise that separates you from other jobseekers. Examples of this are knowledge of sustainable energy and energy resource management, such as in our industrial engineer resume samples, and knowledge of methodologies such as Kaizen and Total Quality Management systems.

If you’ve worked in industrial engineering for manufacturing, you would want to include keywords specific to manufacturing, such as “production line development” and “optimization”. If you’ve worked in industrial engineering for oil and gas, you would want to mention your knowledge of well-drilling processes and equipment, or other related and relevant skills. The important thing to always consider is whether the skills would have benefit to an employer.

Be succinct and direct. State your qualifications using no more than three sentences or bullet points written in a way that conveys confidence in your skills and employment history. The summary statement should touch on your years of experience, your level of seniority, and your greatest strengths. Make a powerful value statement that introduces you to the reader as a highly competent professional.

Considering that industrial engineering is a highly complex discipline, you may have a number of technical certifications atop any bachelor or master-level degree education. The most appropriate way to list them is to include your degrees first in reverse chronological order, starting with newest to oldest. Include graduation dates only if you recently graduated in the last five years, or if you need to explain a career gap. Include the name of the university as well. After your degrees, list your certifications in reverse chronological order along with the name of the institution.

Leave off any education that isn’t relevant to your target goals. You should also omit any expired or obsolete certifications or training. Try to keep your education section as brief as possible, as in our industrial engineer resume samples.

As mentioned previously, your certifications should always be in your education section after your degrees. However, some certifications have value in listing the acronyms after your name in the header. For example, if your name is Mike Smith and you have completed a Project Management Professional certification, you may wish to list your name as “Mike Smith, PMP”. This often only works well with certifications that condense easily to acronyms, however. Listing your Six Sigma Black Belt certification after your name may look awkward and clumsy, since it is never abbreviated to SSBB.

You can include an awards section if you would like, but a better way to list your awards is to place them in the achievements section of the relevant job. If you look at our industrial engineer resume samples, each target job lists several achievements to demonstrate how the jobseeker went above and beyond. Your awards stand out best this way with relevant context.