Machinist resume example

• Entry level

  Machinist with a two-year precision machining certificate and 14 months as a CNC operator on Haas mills and lathes. Loads, measures and adjusts offsets on aluminum and stainless parts held to ±0.002 in. Earned NIMS CNC Milling and CNC Turning Operations credentials and is learning Mastercam toolpaths after shift. Ready to move into a setup role.

• Mid level

  CNC machinist with seven years of setup and programming on 3-axis and 4-axis mills and twin-spindle lathes. Writes and edits G-code at the control and in Mastercam, builds soft-jaw and plate fixtures, and runs first articles through CMM inspection. Cut average setup time on a 40-part-number family from 3 hours to 70 minutes.

• Senior

  Lead machinist and CNC programmer with 16 years in AS9100 aerospace job shops. Programs 5-axis parts in Mastercam, sets machining standards for a 22-machine floor and trains apprentices in a registered program. Raised first-pass yield on titanium brackets from 88% to 97% and helped qualify the shop for two new prime contracts.

• Swiss-type specialist

  Swiss-type machinist with six years on sliding-headstock lathes making medical bone screws and pins from titanium and 316L stainless. Sets up guide bushings and live tooling, edits programs at the control and runs lot inspection under ISO 13485. Keeps four machines running unattended through the night shift.

• Technical college graduate

  Recent graduate of a two-year machine tool technology program with NIMS Measurement, Materials and Safety and CNC Milling Operations credentials. Logged 900 lab hours on Haas mills and lathes and wants a CNC operator role with a path to setup.

• Military veteran

  Former Army allied trades specialist (91E) who machined and welded replacement parts in a field maintenance shop for five years. Runs manual lathes and mills, is completing Fusion 360 CAM training and wants a CNC apprentice role.

• Listing machines without the work you did on them

  Fix: A line like "Haas, Mazak, Okuma" tells a lead nothing about your level. Under each job, say whether you loaded parts, touched off tools and set work offsets, built fixtures, or wrote and proved out programs. The gap between operator and setup machinist is the first thing a shop wants to know.

• Leaving out the materials you cut

  Fix: Cutting 6061 aluminum and cutting Inconel 718 call for different speeds, tooling and coolant strategies. Shops that run mostly one material look for it by name. Name the materials you machined regularly, such as 4140, 304 and 17-4 stainless, titanium, brass or plastics like PEEK and Delrin.

• Writing "ensured quality" with no method

  Fix: Say how you checked parts. Mention micrometers, bore gauges, height gauges, thread gauges and surface plate work, plus any CMM time. If you completed first article inspections, filled in in-process inspection sheets or kept SPC charts, write that, with the scrap or rework change it produced.

• Hiding setup and cycle time improvements

  Fix: Shops make money on spindle time. If you cut a setup from hours to minutes with a dedicated fixture or a quick-change vise, or shaved seconds off a cycle by changing toolpaths, put the before and after in the bullet. One change like that says more than a long equipment list.

Match these against the job posting you are applying to: the free resume checker shows which keywords your resume is missing.

CNC setup

Put "setup" in your job title or first bullet and name the machine and control you set up.

Mastercam

List the modules you use, such as Mill, Lathe or Multiaxis.

5-axis

Say whether it was full simultaneous or 3+2 positioning, and which machine you ran.

GD&T

Mention the callouts you machine or inspect to, such as true position or profile.

First article inspection

Give the number of FAIs you completed and the standard, such as AS9102.

CMM

Name the software and whether you ran existing routines or wrote new ones.

Tight tolerances

Quote the tolerance, the feature and the material together in one bullet.

AS9100

Mention it in the job entry with the traceability duties you handled.

• Held ±0.0005 in. on bearing bores in 17-4 stainless across a 600-piece run, verified with CMM checks and in-process bore gauging.
• Programmed 4-axis toolpaths in Mastercam for a family of valve bodies, cutting cycle time 22% and freeing a machine for new work.
• Designed a modular fixture plate that took setup on recurring aerospace brackets from 2.5 hours to 40 minutes.
• Completed first article inspections to AS9102 on 35 new part numbers, catching two drawing conflicts before production started.
• Edited G-code at a Fanuc control to add a finishing pass and peck cycle, dropping scrap on deep-hole parts by 30%.
• Wrote PC-DMIS routines for 18 recurring parts so second-shift operators could inspect without waiting for the quality lab.
• Turned titanium and Inconel shafts on a twin-spindle lathe to a 16 Ra finish, extending insert life 25% with revised speeds and coolant pressure.
• Trained and signed off 6 apprentices on tool touch-off, work offsets and part inspection during their first year in the shop.

• Match the machines in the posting

  Shop postings usually name the equipment: a Mazak multitasking cell, Haas VF-series mills, a Swiss lathe line. Move the closest match to the top of your skills and first job entry, using the same model names. If the shop cuts mostly stainless or titanium, put those materials in your summary. Tailor your resume to this shop's equipment

• Open the letter with a part you made

  Start the cover letter with one part: its material, the tolerance you held and how you fixtured it. Then connect it to the shop's work, such as its aerospace or medical customers, and say which shifts you can cover. Keep it short; a shop lead often reads it between setups. Write a cover letter for a machine shop

• Expect a print test or a bench test

  Machinist interviews often include reading a print and explaining the operation sequence, working out speeds and feeds, or measuring a sample part. Some shops add a short hands-on test at a machine. Rehearse how you would fixture an awkward part and what you do when a dimension drifts mid-run. Prepare for a machinist interview and bench test

• Give credentials and apprenticeship hours their own section

  Put NIMS credentials and an apprenticeship certificate in a separate section with exact names and years. If you are still an apprentice, list on-the-job and related instruction hours completed to date. Then check that the machines, materials and tolerances in your bullets line up with the posting. Check your machinist resume against a posting