Engineering Surveyor Resume Examples

When seeking a job as a surveyor, it’s important to have an accurate and professional-looking resume. If you need guidance on how to create this, one of the best resources you can consult is surveyor resume samples. These will show you which sections to include when creating a resume and how the document should be formatted. Furthermore, in the guide below, you’ll find many useful tools, including surveyor resume samples, a discussion of different resume styles, mistakes to avoid, and job prospects for surveyors.

When creating your resume, the information you include will depend on the type of surveyor job you’re seeking as well as your particular background and experience. More specifically, resumes for land surveyors, engineering surveyors, and hydrographic surveyors will all list different qualifications. Therefore, there is no precise blueprint for how every surveyor resume should look, and surveyor resume samples will be quite diverse. At the same time, there are certain guidelines that can help you build your resume regardless of your qualifications and specialty. Your resume should include at least the following sections.

• Summary statement
• Skills
• Education
• Work experience
• Licenses and other credentials

When looking at surveyor resume samples, you’ll notice that there are two basic formats used. One is the chronological resume, which emphasizes your work experience. The other style is the functional resume, which emphasizes skills. Chronological resumes are generally used by applicants with relevant industry experience, while functional resumes are often used by people new to the job market or who are changing careers.

The summary statement is the brief yet crucial section that is usually placed at the top of a resume. In one or several sentences, you provide an overview of your qualifications and what you can contribute to potential employers. How you will phrase this section depends on your experience and skills. If you have extensive industry experience, you should indicate that. If you have less experience, you can focus on the transferable skills, education, and personal qualities that would make you an asset to the business. Here are some examples of surveyor summary statements:

• Conscientious, detail-oriented land surveyor, skilled at creating and reading maps, diagrams, and blueprints. Experienced with GIS applications and measuring property boundaries. Good communicator who is capable of working with architects, developers, and government agencies.
• Experienced hydrographic surveyor with thorough knowledge of global positioning systems and the latest hydrographic software. Familiar with and able to maintain hydrographic equipment. Comfortable working independently or on teams to conduct field surveys and tests as well as perform inspections based on local requirements and regulations.
• Engineering surveyor with extensive experience conducting surveys, monitoring mining operations, and installing electrical components. Proficient with a variety of industry software, including CADD systems. Able to coordinate with clients to ensure efficient completion of projects and compliance to safety standards.

In the education section of your resume, you should list any degrees that you’ve obtained. Surveyor jobs generally require a college degree, often from a college that is accredited by ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. You may also be able to qualify for some surveyor jobs with a degree in a related field, such as civil engineering. When including this information, list the name of the degree, the institution from which it was earned, and the city/state where the institution is located. Because surveyors need a great deal of technical training, it’s important to emphasize your academic background in subjects such as the physical sciences and mathematics. Computer skills are also important in surveying, as you need to be familiar with software such as CADD. It’s therefore advisable to mention courses and extracurricular activities related to computer science or programming.

Applicants for surveying positions also require licensing in order to be able to certify legal documents. If you are a licensed surveyor, you should include this information in the education section. If you are not yet licensed, you will have to work under a licensed surveyor in order to obtain your license.

You can consult surveyor resume samples to get an idea of how the work experience section of your resume should be formatted. If you have experience as a surveyor, you’ll want to use a chronological resume style, which highlights work experience. In this case, you should list your experience in reverse chronological order so that potential employers will see your most recent jobs first. Start each entry with your job title, followed by the company name, company location, and the dates you worked there. You should then discuss what you did in each position, with an emphasis on how you contributed to the business. These responsibilities and accomplishments can be listed as bullet points so that they’re easy for a hiring manager to find and digest.

If you don’t have relevant industry experience, you are better off creating a functional type resume, where your skills rather than work experience are highlighted. In this case, you will describe the skills and qualifications that would make you an asset to the business. You’ll want to create a bullet-point list of your skills so that potential employers will be sure to notice this section and read it easily. You will also want to list your work experience, including the job title, company name, location, and dates. Don’t go into detail about your responsibilities at, or contributions to, each job for this type of resume, as they aren’t relevant to the industry.

If you’re creating a chronological resume, it’s essential to communicate your strengths and how you contributed to the businesses where you worked in the past with dynamic language. A look at surveyor resume samples will reveal that action verbs help to showcase your skills and contributions. The following are some action verbs that can help make your resume more compelling.

• Engineered
• Measured
• Defined
• Calculated
• Surveyed
• Computed
• Interpreted
• Mediated
• Designed
• Specified
• Researched
• Analyzed

The skills section of your resume is where you indicate your most important qualities to prospective employers. You should place this section near the top of your resume, under the summary statement. Studying surveyor resume samples will give you an idea of the wide variety of skills that are needed for this profession. Surveyors must be precise and detail-oriented. All types of surveying require a great deal of technical expertise, so you definitely want to emphasize your familiarity with tools, equipment, procedures, and software related to the position.

Surveyors also need strong communication skills, as they must often arbitrate in disputes over property boundaries. They also must possess good analytical and time management skills. Since surveyors often work outdoors in a variety of environments, potential employers will also want to know that you have physical stamina and the ability to work in harsh weather and, when necessary, long hours.

There are certain mistakes that can cause potential employers to cross you off their list of applicants right away. When looking at surveyor resume samples, it’s a good idea to be aware of errors that can reduce your chances of getting an interview. The following are some typical resume mistakes you should avoid.

• Not handling gaps in your resume properly. Large spaces of time that are not accounted for can be problematic on a resume. If you have such gaps more than 10 years in the past, you can simply leave this time period out of your document. If they are more recent, you can describe activities other than employment that took up your time, such as education, volunteering, or caring for a relative who was ill. If you find it too difficult to account for gaps in your resume, you should consider creating a functional rather than a chronological resume.
• Including too much educational information. If you have a college degree, there’s no need to list your high school diploma on your resume. You should never list education prior to high school. Nor should you list information about your education that is irrelevant, such as clubs or fraternity memberships that have nothing to do with the position for which you’re applying.
• Using cliches. When describing your skills, avoid terms that are overused, such as ‘team player,’ ‘think outside the box’, or ‘results-oriented.’ Employers who see lots of resumes get tired of seeing the same terms used over and over. It’s better to describe such skills using full sentences, such as ‘experienced/comfortable working on teams’ or ‘able to think creatively and come up with original solutions.’
• Negative statements about previous employers. Even if you had a genuine grievance with a past boss or company, don’t mention this on your resume. This may cause potential employers to think you have a bad attitude or that you have difficulty getting along with people.
• Including contact information for your present job. If you’re currently employed, don’t include your boss’s name or contact information on a resume. This could cause you to lose your present job before finding a new one.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that surveyor jobs will grow by 10 percent between 2012 and 2022, which is about average. The occupational outlook for many surveyor jobs is closely related to other industries, such as construction. Land surveyors, for example, will have more job possibilities in parts of the country where construction is booming. As in many fields, surveyors are increasingly using technology such as CADD and GPS systems. Surveyors who are well trained in these and other emerging technologies will therefore have a better than average chance of finding employment.

You can improve your chances of finding employment as a surveyor by creating a resume that’s professional, informative, and easy for potential employers to read. Surveyor resume samples can help you create the kind of resume that will help you get more job interviews.