Metal Fabricator Resume Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is a welder-fabricator with about ten years across a steel service center, a sheet metal shop and a custom structural and equipment shop. The name and shops are invented. Keep the shape, change the processes, machines and tolerances to your own.

A fabrication shop hires because a job is late. The foreman reading your resume wants to know what you can be handed on Monday.

• Can you weld what we weld, and are you certified on it? Process, position and code. "AWS D1.1, 3G and 4G, FCAW" tells a foreman more than "experienced welder." Most shops will still weld-test you, but the certification gets you the test.
• Can you read a print alone? Fabricators are hired for layout, not just for burning wire. Say that you work from prints and weld symbols, develop flat patterns and check first articles.
• Which machines can you set up? There is a large pay difference between running a press brake somebody else set and doing your own setup and programming. Be honest about which one you are.
• How tight do you hold it, and how much do you scrap? A number like "plus or minus 1/16 inch on weldments" or "scrap cut from 3.1% to 1.8%" is the single most convincing thing on the page.

“Tell me your process and position, what you can set up on your own, and how tight you hold a weldment. If those are on page one I will bring you in for a weld test. If all I see is "detail-oriented team player," the resume goes in the second pile.”

Three or four lines. Years, shop type, processes and certifications, then a tolerance or a scrap figure. Use an objective if you are new or switching from a pure welding job into fabrication.

Write what you personally do at the bench, not the posting's duty list. Every bullet should carry a process, a machine, a material or a number, and ideally two of them.

Twelve to sixteen, processes and machines first. A foreman scans this block before the work history.

Welding and joining:

• FCAW (flux-cored), GMAW (MIG), GTAW (TIG), SMAW (stick)
• Positions you are qualified in: 1G through 4G, or 2F and 3F on fillet work
• Carbon steel, stainless (304, 316), aluminum (5052, 6061)
• Oxy-fuel and plasma cutting, air arc gouging
• Distortion control, weld sequencing, preheat where the spec calls for it
• Spot and resistance welding, if you have run it

Machines and setup:

• Press brake setup and programming (Amada, Trumpf, Cincinnati)
• CNC plasma table, fiber laser, turret punch
• Shear, ironworker, notcher, roll, tube bender
• Horizontal band saw, cold saw, drill press, mag drill
• Overhead crane, jib crane, rigging and slings; forklift

Layout, measurement and drawings:

• Blueprint reading, weld symbols, section views and bills of material
• Flat pattern development, bend allowance and K-factor
• Tape, square, protractor, calipers, micrometer, height gauge
• GD&T basics and tolerance stack-up
• SolidWorks sheet metal, AutoCAD, DXF handling, nesting software
• First article inspection and shop travelers

Write certifications exactly. Foremen know these documents and will ask to see the card or the welder performance qualification record.

• AWS Certified Welder. Name the code you tested to (D1.1 for structural steel, D1.2 aluminum, D1.3 sheet steel, D1.5 bridge), the process, the position and the material thickness. Certification lapses if you go too long without welding that process, so note that continuity is maintained.
• ASME Section IX qualifications, if you have welded pressure vessels or piping. These are held by the employer against a specific welding procedure specification, so say which employer qualified you and when.
• API 1104, if you have done pipeline work.
• NCCER credentials in welding or core craft skills. Common in industrial and construction shops and easy for an employer to verify in the registry.
• OSHA 10-Hour or 30-Hour cards. General Industry for shop work, Construction if you also do field installation.
• Overhead crane, rigging and forklift. In the US, forklift certification is employer-issued under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178, not a state license; name the truck types.
• Any in-house weld tests you have passed for a customer or a shop, with the year. Shops respect these even when they are not formal certifications.

Fabrication shops hire helpers and train them, especially when they can see you have hands and will show up. School hours count if you describe them like shop hours.

1. 1Put the shop's target title under your name: Fabricator Helper, Entry-Level Fabricator, Welder-Fabricator.
2. 2List your welding hours by process and material, and any plate test you have passed, even a school test.
3. 3Turn school projects into deliverables: what you built, from what drawing, in what material, to what tolerance.
4. 4Include any hands job that shows tool sense and reliability: auto repair, farm work, construction, small engine repair, machine operating.
5. 5Add the cheap cards that make you useful on day one: OSHA 10 and a forklift evaluation if a previous employer gave you one. State your shift availability.

• One page. Shop foremen read on a clipboard, standing up.
• Order: name and target title, three-line summary, certifications, work history, skills, education. Certifications go high because they gate the weld test.
• Plain one-column layout, PDF. Sidebars and graphics are what get scrambled in the application system at larger manufacturers.
• No photo, no date of birth. Standard for a US resume.
• If you also do field work or installation, say so and name your travel or per-diem availability. Structural shops care.
• Steel fabricator, sheet metal fabricator, welder-fabricator and structural fabricator are different corners of the same trade. Aim your title at the shop: a precision enclosure shop and a bridge girder shop do not want the same person.

Words worth mirroring when they apply to you: fabrication, weldment, fit-up, layout, blueprint reading, weld symbols, AWS D1.1, FCAW, GMAW, GTAW, SMAW, press brake, shear, ironworker, plasma, laser, turret punch, flat pattern, bend allowance, tolerance, first article, GD&T, stainless, aluminum, mild steel, gauge, overhead crane, rigging, grinding, deburring, powder coat.