Welder resume tips
A welder resume should name the process, the metal, and the test you passed. Shop fabrication, structural steel, and pipe are different. Write MIG, TIG, or stick only for work you have done on a job or a witnessed test, not for a booth you tried once in school unless you label the school. A qualification you cannot produce is not a qualification.
What to put first
State the shop type: production fab, structural, maintenance, or pipe. Then the process and the metal, such as carbon steel, stainless, or aluminum, only where you have welded it. Put the test or the code work you were qualified under in words you can match to a paper.
Process and position
Say whether you welded flat production, vertical structural, or pipe that could not be rolled. Those positions are the skill. Do not use a test designation you do not hold. Describe the position in words if you are unsure of the shorthand.
The paper
A shop test, a procedure you followed, or a code qualification belongs if you passed it and it is current enough to claim. Say who witnessed it if that was a foreman or a third party. An expired test is not a current ticket.
Reading the work
If you worked from drawings or a weld map, say so. If a fitter set everything and you only ran the bead, say that. Fit-up you did not do is not your line.
An example line
Adapt this only where it is true for you. It is a shape for a bullet, not a claim that a particular person did this work.
Production welder on carbon steel: ran wire-feed welds from shop drawings in the flat and horizontal positions and passed the shop's bend test for that procedure.
What to leave off
Leave off a process or a metal you have not welded on the job, a code test you did not pass, and a position you have not been qualified in. Leave off "certified in all processes." Leave off inspection credentials you do not hold.
Questions
- Should I attach a qualification paper?
- Bring it when they ask. The resume should name the process and the position even if nobody opens the paper.
- What if school was my only booth time?
- Label it as school and name the process you actually ran. Do not write it as a production job.