Electrical Engineer CV Examples & Writing Guide

This is a mid-level CV for a chartered electrical engineer at a building services consultancy that designs power distribution for commercial, healthcare and industrial buildings. The name and firms are made up. Notice that the registration letters sit next to the name, each project has a size, and the software and standards are named exactly. That is what an engineering manager scans for in the first pass.

Electrical engineering is broad. A manager hiring for power distribution does not want a PCB designer, and a controls team does not want a substation engineer. Say which kind of electrical engineer you are in the first three lines. Four things decide whether you get a call.

• Professional status. CEng, IEng, working towards it on an accredited graduate scheme, or neither. There is no licence to practise in the UK, but consultancies and utilities often expect chartership for senior and lead roles; product and controls roles usually do not require it, but they still notice it.
• Field and scale. Power distribution, networks and renewables, controls and automation, electronics and embedded hardware, or building services. Then the size: kV and MVA, square metres and construction value, number of I/O points, boards shipped, units in production.
• Software and standards, spelled exactly. Revit MEP, Amtech, ETAP, SKM, PowerFactory, AutoCAD Electrical, EPLAN, Studio 5000, TIA Portal, Altium, MATLAB/Simulink, LTspice. Standards: BS 7671, the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, IEEE 1584, BS EN 61439, BS EN 60204-1, IEC 61131. Recruiters search for the exact string.
• Ownership. Did you run a project, sign off a design, own a subsystem, lead commissioning, or support someone who did? "Assisted with" on every bullet reads as junior regardless of your years.

“The first pass takes about fifteen seconds: registration letters after the name, then the field, then the software list. If a power engineer tells me the voltage and the biggest supply they have designed, the interview is half decided. The CVs that lose are the ones that list twenty tools and never say what they built with any of them.”

Your personal statement is where you state your field, your professional status, your years and the largest thing you have designed. Four lines maximum. Use a career objective only as a graduate or when changing field (for example, from networks to controls), and keep it about what you bring.

Engineering CVs often list responsibilities in the words of the job advert ("designed electrical systems", "performed calculations"). Managers want the scale, the standard you designed to, the tool and what your work changed.

Group the skills section into three short lists: engineering skills, software, and standards. Twelve to sixteen items in total. Match the list to your field; a power engineer does not need to list Altium, and a hardware engineer does not need BS 7671.

• Power and building services: load calculations, cable sizing, fault level and discrimination studies, arc flash analysis, earthing and bonding, standby power, emergency lighting, lighting design. Software: Revit MEP, AutoCAD Electrical, Amtech ProDesign, SKM PowerTools, ETAP, DIALux. Standards: BS 7671, HTM 06-01, BS EN 61439, BS 5266, BS EN 62305, IEEE 1584, Part L.
• Networks and renewables: protection and relay settings, substation and collection system design, load flow, grid connection studies. Software: PowerFactory, ETAP, PSCAD, PSS/E, IPSA. Standards: ENA Engineering Recommendations (G99, P2), the Distribution Code and Grid Code, ENA TS 41-24, BS EN 60076, IEC 61850.
• Controls and automation: PLC programming (ladder, structured text), HMI and SCADA, control panel design, motor control and VSDs, functional safety. Software: Studio 5000, TIA Portal, FactoryTalk View, Ignition, EPLAN. Standards: BS EN 61439, BS EN 60204-1, IEC 61131-3, BS EN ISO 13849, BS EN 62061.
• Electronics and hardware: schematic capture and PCB layout, power supply design, mixed-signal design, signal integrity, EMC. Software: Altium Designer, KiCad, LTspice, MATLAB/Simulink, Python. Standards: IPC-2221, IPC-A-610, CISPR, IEC 61000, UKCA and CE marking.

Copy the exact tool names from the advert. "Revit" and "Revit MEP" are searched differently, and so are "Studio 5000" and "RSLogix 5000". Use the advert's version.

In the UK there is no licensing exam and no licence to practise as an electrical engineer. Professional registration as an Incorporated Engineer (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng) is granted by the Engineering Council through a licensed institution, usually the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), after a review of your competence against the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment (UK-SPEC). Employers read the registration line carefully, so write it exactly.

• CEng: not a legal requirement to design or sign off electrical work, but consultancies, network operators and public-sector clients often expect it for senior, lead and design authority roles and value IEng or progress towards CEng at mid-level. The usual path is an accredited degree (an MEng, or a BEng plus further learning), several years of responsible experience, often on an accredited graduate scheme, then the institution's review and interview. Check the IET's current guidance.
• IET membership and graduate schemes: tell employers you are on the registration path. List them even in product or controls roles; it costs you nothing.
• Not registration but worth listing: BS 7671 18th Edition (City & Guilds 2382), Authorised Person (HV) training for site and network roles, CompEx for hazardous areas, a CSCS card, APM or PRINCE2 (project engineer roles), CIBSE membership (building services), functional safety courses (controls), and supplier PLC courses with the course name and year.

"No experience" for a new electrical engineering graduate means no full-time engineering job yet. You still have a final-year project, labs, possibly a placement or a year in industry, and IET membership. Graduate schemes are written for exactly that. Managers hiring graduates want to see that you can finish a design, use the standard tools and work safely. Keep it to one page if you can, two at most.

1. 1Header with your degree and status: "MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2:1 (IET-accredited), July 2026 · IET member" on the first line under your name.
2. 2Career objective, 3 lines: degree and date, IET membership, your specialism (power, controls, electronics), your strongest project and the type of role you want.
3. 3Education near the top: degree, accreditation, university, graduation date, classification (or predicted grade), and 4 to 6 relevant modules only if they signal your specialism (power systems analysis, power electronics, control systems, embedded systems).
4. 4Projects section, written like jobs: name, what it did, your part, tools and standards, the result. Your final-year project counts as your first engineering project. Two to four projects.
5. 5Placements and a year in industry with the same detail as a job. If you have none, include technician, electrician's mate or lab assistant work.
6. 6Skills: the software you have actually used for a full project, plus the lab equipment you can run (oscilloscopes, spectrum analysers, power analysers). Then qualifications (IET membership, 18th Edition, a CSCS card if you have them).

Engineering firms and network operators almost all use an applicant tracking system (Workday, SuccessFactors, Taleo, iCIMS), and recruiters search it by exact keyword. Format for the parser first and the manager second.

• Length: two pages is normal for UK engineers; one page works for graduates. A project list beyond that belongs in a separate portfolio or bid CV.
• Order: header with registration letters, personal statement, skills (grouped), experience, education, professional registration and qualifications. Graduates put education and projects above experience.
• No photo, no date of birth, no nationality line unless the advert asks about right to work or security vetting, in which case one line ("Holds SC clearance" or "Eligible for SC clearance") is normal for defence, nuclear and some infrastructure roles.
• One column, standard fonts, no text boxes or tables for the skills list; parsers drop them. Save as PDF unless the portal asks for Word, and name the file Priya-Natarajan-CEng-CV.pdf.
• Keywords to mirror from the advert: the field words (power distribution, protection, controls, embedded), the exact software names, the standards they list, the voltage or product type, "CEng" or "IEng", and the industry (healthcare, data centres, networks, automotive).

Outside the UK: in the US the document is called a resume and employers look for a state PE licence (after the FE exam) instead of CEng, and Ireland uses Chartered Engineer with Engineers Ireland. Keep the same structure and swap the registration line. Then run the file through the cvplex ATS checker with the advert pasted in; it flags a software name or standard you left out and any layout the parser cannot read.