Maintenance Resume Example

This comprehensive guide will give you all the tools you need to craft a maintenance resume that positions you strongly against other candidates. You'll find useful insights on constructing a resume that makes the most of your unique skills, experience and strengths. You'll also learn how to tailor your resume according to the job description, and depending on your experience levels. Read on to learn the tips Jobseeker careers experts recommend as the best for your maintenance resume.

What to include in a maintenance resume

Although the content of a maintenance resume may differ according to your experience and seniority, the main sections will remain the same. If you're lacking relevant work experience, you might choose to add sections that showcase your skill set earlier than in a traditional resume layout. These sections might include projects, education, hobbies and interests, skills and other optional sections.

You will have some choice over your resume layout and structure, but be sure to include these sections as the core of your document:

Resume Header and Personal Information

A maintenance resume header contains your name and contact information. Add your first and last name, your phone number and your email address. Include your address or location, but avoid adding any other personal information. If you have a LinkedIn profile, you can add the URL to your header so the hiring manager can get a better understanding of your work history and experience. Be aware of the amount of space your resume header takes up. You don't want your contact details to take space away from the main content of your resume, so keep this section as brief as possible.

Use an email address that's professional and appropriate for professional communication. Typically this would be an email address based on your first and last name, or your initials. If necessary, you could include your profession or another unique identifier. Avoid using old email addresses that could be considered unprofessional or inappropriate. Additionally, always check your contact details before sending your resume to ensure they're up-to-date.

Resume Summary

Your resume personal profile is a short, concise paragraph to highlight two or three key skills and achievements in maintenance worker roles. You may also see this section named as 'resume summary' or 'resume objective'. Resume summaries tend to focus on your career experience, while resume objectives cover your ambitions and plans for the future. Always make sure your summary reflects the job description and highlights some of the key skills required for maintenance worker roles.

Alternatively, use this summary to introduce your personal career ambitions and explain why maintenance worker roles are a good fit for you at this stage of your career.

A great resume summary should highlight why you're an ideal candidate for maintenance worker roles by showing key skills and qualities that reflect the job description and provide evidence to support them. It should also introduce your personality and unique qualities to the reader, to help them start to form an opinion about you as a candidate. You can see some positive examples of a resume summary for maintenance worker jobs below.

On the other hand, a resume summary can be ineffective if it lacks specific information about how your skills align with the job description, or fails to paint a picture of your unique qualities and talents. See above for some examples of things to avoid when writing your maintenance resume summary.

Hard and Soft Skills

Adding a list of your key skills provides a quick reference for the reader of what you can bring to a maintenance worker role. Skills such as electrical systems maintenance or problem-solving skills are particularly useful for maintenance worker jobs. Again, refer to the job description and make sure you include skills that the employer has listed as essential or desirable for employment as a maintenance worker.

Showcasing hard skills on your maintenance resume

Hard skills are specific skills related to the job you're applying for. They include particular abilities, technical skills and industry knowledge that relate directly to jobs as a maintenance worker. Furthermore, your hard skills list helps to show employers how competent and experienced you are at key maintenance worker duties and responsibilities. Include around four or five key hard skills that are listed in the job description. These skills will help to convince the hiring manager that you're a good fit for the position.

The best resume hard skills sections focus on specific technical skills necessary for the job, showcasing skills that you have particular expertise in. There are some examples of valuable hard skills for a maintenance resume below.

Adding soft skills to your maintenance resume

In your list of soft skills, add any personal strengths, qualities or transferable skills that make you a good fit for the job. Soft skills are often less specific to different industries, but that doesn't make them any less important. In fact, as technology develops, soft skills are growing in importance for recruiters and employers, so be sure to add several of these to your resume. In this section, add four of five transferable skills that match the job description.

An effective maintenance resume soft skills section should be targeted to include skills that reflect your personality and unique characteristics, while also matching the job description. The graphic below includes some examples of good resume soft skills.

Education

In this section list any educational qualifications or degrees that are relevant to maintenance worker roles.

Candidates aren't usually required to have a degree for maintenance worker positions, but it's still worth listing your highest or most relevant qualifications. If you have a recognized certification or qualification, such as EPA Refrigerant Certification, be sure to include this. You might also want to include any educational achievements that showcase plumbing systems maintenance or HVAC system repair.

List your relevant qualifications in reverse-chronological order. Add the name and level of the award, the institution, its location (if this isn't obvious from the name) and your dates of study. Include bullet points to show any specialist modules you studied, awards or exceptional grades and achievements that can set you apart from other candidates. These will all contribute to creating a positive impression on employers.

If you took part in any volunteering or you were a leader or member of any university societies, you could also mention these in your education section.

Certifications and Training

In this section, include any maintenance worker certifications, training or licenses you hold that are relevant to the job. You could list accreditations for certain professional roles or licenses for certain activities that help to make you a strong candidate. Therefore, include the details of any licenses and professional certifications required for maintenance worker roles, along with completion dates so employers can see you're up-to-date.

Read on to see some relevant example certifications for a maintenance resume:

Work Experience

Under your work experience section, add any jobs you've had in the past that are relevant to the position of a maintenance worker. Include any relevant jobs you've held in reverse-chronological order. Start with your current or most recent roles and work back through previous roles. For each job, list your title, the name of the company, its location and the dates you worked there.

In addition, include a few bullet points under each job, highlighting your key achievements so the hiring manager can see how they led to successful outcomes. Back up each point with evidence to show how you meet the job description.

A good work experience section pulls the reader in with clear examples of where you've put the skills necessary for the job into good use in your career to date. This typically includes evidence of how your skills and activities contributed to positive outcomes for the organization. See the examples below for some ideas of what a great resume work experience looks like.

Above, you can see a weaker example of a resume work experience section to best avoid. Less effective resume work experience sections might take a more vague, descriptive approach to previous jobs. They focus on responsibilities and everyday duties rather than referencing career achievements and the value you've added for previous employers.

Additional Information

In addition to the core sections of a maintenance resume, there are several optional sections you could include to enhance your chances. Add any of the sections below that help you showcase your key skills and experience.

Personal Interests

Hobbies and interests can be a useful way of showing your skills and experience beyond your work and education. They also help to show a different side of your personality, and can help your resume create a more memorable impression on hiring managers. If you're short on real world work experience, hobbies and interests can be a useful way of providing more information about your qualities. Just make sure any hobbies and interests you include in your resume add genuine insight into your personality, in ways other sections of the resume can't.

Volunteer Experience

Adding voluntary roles can be a useful way of showing relevant experience and skills for maintenance worker roles beyond your main employment history. Add your volunteer job title or role, the name of the organization, its location and the dates you were involved.

References

Standard maintenance worker resumes don't tend to include references, but you might find them requested occasionally. Check the job advert to see if you'll need to add references to your resume. Include a maximum of three professional references, being sure to check with your referees before including them in your resume.

Best words to use in a maintenance resume

Add strong verbs to your work experience section to show the hiring manager the impact you made in your previous roles. Choose from the list of words below to increase the impact of your work experience section.

Jobseeker's clean, attractive resume formats can help your applications make a strong impression on employers. Check them out for help designing a winning resume, and see our cover letter templates to help win over recruiters and hiring managers.

Sample maintenance resume

The maintenance resume example below incorporates all the information from above into a full-designed resume template, so you can see how a final resume will look:

Guide to making your resume ATS-friendly

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is just one of the tools employers and recruiters can use to streamline their hiring practices. This typically includes screening candidates by scanning and ranking their resumes based on their likely suitability for any vacancy. If you follow a few simple tips when writing your maintenance resume, you'll give yourself a better chance of ranking highly in the ATS screening and progressing to the next stage.

Here a some simple tips to follow for an ATS-friendly resume:

• Opt for an established, traditional resume format such as a reverse-chronological or functional structure. These will ensure your resume includes all the necessary details ATS systems scan for.
• Use keywords throughout your resume that reflect the job description, so ATS resume scanners can recognize a strong connection between your skills, and those in the job description.
• Add each section with clear headings that match the established resume conventions, so ATS software can easily identify each part of your resume.
• Use design elements that help make your resume more readable. These might include white space, clear, professional fonts and subtle color accents to help certain elements stand out.
• Adopt simple, professional language to keep your resume as concise as possible. This tends to make your document more readable, and easier for ATS software to scan.

Key takeaways for your maintenance resume

An effective resume is a concise, professional summary of your relevant skills and career achievements, showcased through a chronology of your career history. Select a resume format that suits your experience levels and the job you're applying for, and make sure you tailor your resume for each application.

Jobseeker has a wealth of resume tools, including resume templates and examples, to help you create a winning job application. Sign up today to get started. To make the best possible impression with your applications, write a cover letter with the help of Jobseeker. You can also find plenty of expert-designed cover letter examples for inspiration.

Sources:

(1) Writing a Resume, California Department of Human Resources: https://www.calhr.ca.gov/employees/Pages/resume-tips.aspx

(2) Resumes, Cover Letters and Job Applications, New York State Department of Labor: https://dol.ny.gov/resumes-cover-letters-and-job-applications