Tired of being asked the same questions by recruiters and hiring managers? Don’t want to be left out of a job because you don’t know what they’re looking for?
If so, then this is the guide for you! We’ll show you how to build a professional network engineer resume in just a few minutes.
Methodology
To build our network engineer resume guide, we analyzed 39 network engineer resumes and 46 network engineer job postings using machine learning to identify the most common elements of good network engineer resumes and the things employers ask for most often when hiring.
We’ve also built a database of over 600,000 publicly available resumes from different professions & analyzed how the best resumes were written.
It’s always good to make your resume unique and to follow best practices. This guide will help you understand what you need to include to make it competitive based on a large set of data from real resumes and real job listings.
You can read about our methodology in more detail here.
Network engineer resume objective data + network engineer objective examples
Do network engineer’s need to include an objective on their resume?
The general advice for resume objectives and professional summaries is still true (read our guide on resume objectives), but here’s what the data says for network engineer’s specifically:
- 26% of network engineer’s included an objective section
- 40% of network engineer’s included a professional summary
- 41% of network engineer’s included neither an objective nor a summary
Network engineer resume objective examples
Prolific and flexible engineer able to drive outcomes independently or as part of a team. Seeking to join a reputable company as a engineer to help meet new global targets.
To secure a job as a network engineer in a company that will enable me to build my abilities, move my career forward, and work as part of a team.
To assume a challenging position as a IT/AV Support Specialist that will allow me the opportunity to utilize my skills and have room for advancement.
A quality driven, service-oriented Storage Area Network engineer with over 25 years of experience in the state government and public safety market sectors. A skilled Microsoft system administrator and EMC Proven Professional that maintains a customer-centric focus while providing precise problem solving, decision-making and administrative expertise.
A qualified and Cisco Certified Network Engineer with working knowledge in the field with configuring and supporting Cisco Routers, Switches and Firewalls. Excellent troubleshooting and designing skills in LAN, WAN and VPN solutions. Excellent team player and problem solver with strong communication and interpersonal skills, Ability to take and assume complete responsibility for all actions in timely manner to meet deadlines.
Skills for network engineer resumes
The best skills to put on any resume will be the ones most relevant to the job, but based on our analysis, these skills are among the most common on network engineer resumes, which means they can be a strong foundation and are probably good to list on yours (if you’ve got them).
To learn more about how to fully leverage your skills section, check out our guide to resume skills.
*Note: our machine learning essentially picks up common words and phrases in skill sections, so you may have to extrapolate what skills are needed based on your own professional experience.
Most common network engineer resume skills
Most common hard skills for network engineer resumes: firewall configuration, network troubleshooting, voltage, virtualization, and cloud computing.
Most common soft skills for network engineer resumes: concentration, creativity, critical-thinking skills, math skills, and initiative.
Other good network engineer resume skills
- Cisco
- Firewall
- Wireless
- Network systems installation
- Cloud management
- Network security oversight
- Network repairs and maintenance
- Troubleshooting
- Data backups
- Security
- System upgrades
- Cat5e cables
- Wireless devices
- Cisco routers
- Port address translation
- Wireshark
Network engineer skills section examples
Note: we formatted all these examples the same way here for the sake of simplicity, but you can read about skills section formatting in our guide to resume formatting.
Network engineer skills example 1
Cisco | management | wireless | network systems installation | construction | voltage| cloud management
Network engineer skills example 2
Firewall | concentration | network security oversight | creativity | network repairs and maintenance | creativity | troubleshooting
Network engineer skills example 3
Cisco routers | data backups | initiative | critical-thinking skills | system upgrades | creativity | cat5e cables
Work experience for network engineer resumes
Work experience is perhaps the most important part of any resume, and it’s no different for network engineer resumes.
For more detailed info on work experience sections specifically, check out our guide for writing a good work experience resume section and our guide for building a resume with no experience.
In general, when applying for network engineer jobs, you want to highlight the experience most relevant to each specific position. Here are a few samples.
Network engineer work experience examples
WORK EXPERIENCE
Sr. Associate Network Engineer
Go Figure, 2019-2022
Responsibilities
- Analyze customer needs and determine the requirements, capacity, and cost for developing an electrical system plan
- Analyze problems to see how mechanical and thermal devices might help solve a particular problem
- Analyze the test results and change the design or system as needed
- Confer with clients about product specifications, vendors about purchases, management personnel about manufacturing capabilities, and staff about the status of projects
- delivering goods from a company to customers, including finding the most profitable places to locate manufacturing or processing plants
WORK EXPERIENCE
Associate Network Engineer
Eco Focus, 2015-2022
Responsibilities
- Design control systems to coordinate activities and production planning in order to ensure that products meet quality standards
- Design electronic components, software, products, or systems for commercial, industrial, medical, military, or scientific applications
- Responsible for the maintenance and repair of complex electronic security systems including but not limited to perimeter detection, intrusion detection, electronic access control and close circuit televisions systems.
- Worked closely with Project managers, and design team.
- Reading and understanding wired diagrams, installation and maintenance of telecommunication, and security systems and other electronic equipment.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Network Engineer Intern
Storm Solutions, 2010-2012
Responsibilities
- Migration planning of multiple EMC storage arrays across several data centers to EMC VMAX storage array
- Create volumes and map to fiber adapter ports via EMC Solutions Enabler
- Create zones for hosts to see to storage ports via command line
- Create masking view, storage, port, and initiator groups for hosts connecting to VMAX
- Data gathering to design migration methods from various storage vendors to single storage vendor depending on storage tier required.
Education for network engineer resumes
Unless you’re applying for academic positions or don’t have any work experience, your work history will be more important than your education.
Still, education is usually listed on resumes, and often, network engineer job postings list a minimum education requirement.
See our guide for education on resumes for more detailed information.
Data from our sample of 630 network engineer resumes
- 5% network engineer resumes listed an associate’s degree
- 53% network engineer resumes listed a bachelor’s degree
- 39% network engineer resumes included a masters degree
- 0% network engineer resumes mentioned a doctoral degree
Network engineer resume education examples
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Management Studies
Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2019
Awards & Honors
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Foreign Language Award
- Magna Cum Laude
EDUCATION
Associate of Applied Arts
Piedmont Community College, 2015
Certifications for network engineer resumes
Not every job requires certifications, but certifications can almost always improve your odds of landing an interview, and there certifications for (or related to) nearly all jobs.
In fact, we wrote a playbook for listing certifications on resumes.
Here are a few certifications that can help network engineer’s specifically, according to CareerOneStop.
Network engineer certification examples
CERTIFICATIONS
Cisco Certified Network Engineer
Cisco, 2019
Cisco CCNP and CCNA
Cisco, 2015
CERTIFICATIONS
Cisco Certified Network Engineer, Cisco CCNP and CCNA, Certification in Aerospace Physiology
Network engineer resume action verbs
After analyzing over 600,000 resumes, we built a huge library of of action verbs and cross-referenced it with our sample of 630 network engineer resumes and job postings to find which action verbs are most commonly used by network engineer’s and network engineer employers.
The most common action verbs on network engineer resumes are: test, design, engineer, process, and field.
The most common action verbs on network engineer job postings are: build, code, lead, create, and program.
Other action verbs for network engineer resumes:
- Report
- Plan
- Develop
- Review
- Manage
- Perform
- Track
- Drive
- Improve
- Complete
- Report
- Plan
- Develop
- Review
- Manage
Full network engineer resume example
We created a couple complete network engineer resume examples to help you see how all this fits together. Yours can be better than this. This is just a basic illustration.
To see “perfect” examples, check out our showcase of resume examples.
Network engineer resume example
Michael Fletcher
Network Engineer
1362 Turkey Pen, Brooklyn, NY
A quality driven, service-oriented Storage Area Network engineer with over 25 years of experience in the state government and public safety market sectors. A skilled Microsoft system administrator and EMC Proven Professional that maintains a customer-centric focus while providing precise problem solving, decision-making and administrative expertise.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Sr. Associate Network Engineer
Go Figure, 2019-2022
Responsibilities
- Designed new fiber infrastructure and planned fabric switch migration
- Setup and configure CISCO 9148T SAN switches
- RecoverPoint EX to replicate data from VMAX950F (Marietta, PA) to Dell EMC Unity XT480F (Le Mars, IA)
- Migrate data from Dell Compellent SC4020 (Marietta, PA) to Dell Compellent SC4020 (Le Mars, IA)
Associate Network Engineer
Eco Focus, 2015-2022
Responsibilities
- Create scripts for migration of data from DMX to VMAX for both host base migration and array base.
- Migration planning of multiple EMC storage arrays across several data centers to EMC VMAX storage array and Hitachi storage arrays to Hitachi AMS 2300.
- Data gathering to design migration methods from various storage vendors to single storage vendor depending on storage tier required.
- Designed new fiber infrastructure and planned fabric switch migration
Network Engineer Intern
Storm Solutions, 2010-2016
Responsibilities
- Creation of zones and alias for new fabrics
- Drove ITIL standards in the Infrastructure team with a Change Management procedure to document and add accountability to team. Delivered Incident, Problem, Event and Change management standards.
- Introduced a complete redesign that collapsed the footprint of major application into smaller more efficient design. Documented and executed overall communication strategy and transition plan that delivered a seamless shift into new Infrastructure model.
- Designed and Implemented Chef scripts to allow Infrastructure as a Service model.
CERTIFICATIONS
AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty
Amazon.com Web Services, 2019
Certified Telecom Professional – Gold
Association of Telecom, Mobility, and IT Management Professionals, 2015
SKILLS
Cisco | cloud management | voltage | creativity | concentration | operations | data backups
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Management Studies
Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2019
Associate of Applied Arts
Piedmont Community College, 2015
What experts say about network engineer resumes
Before we wrap it up, we want to leave you with some advice from other experts we admire.
“Only include absolutely relevant information. Do not include information that is not important to get that interview. You’re just wasting time of the person reading your resume.” – How to write a Network / Systems Engineer Resume
” Your resume needs to be easy to read. So, your spelling, grammar, and formatting must be perfect. This not only makes your resume easy to read, but it also creates that good first impression.” – How to write a Network / Systems Engineer Resume
” By rule of thumb you should have at least 40 percent of what has been mentioned in the job description in your resume” – Best Resume/CV for IT Support Roles – Helpdesk Technician, Network Engineer – (CCNA, Network+, A+)
Want help with your network engineer resume?
We put a lot of love into our guides, so we hope you found them useful. We know that writing a top-notch network engineer resume is hard—and if you made it this far, we’re impressed.
If you see anything we missed or anything that could be improved on, let us know!
