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Welder resume example

Shops and contractors hiring welders read for processes, positions and codes first: which of SMAW, GMAW, FCAW or GTAW you run, plate or pipe up to 6G, and the AWS D1.1 or ASME Section IX tests you passed. Back each claim with X-ray, bend test or visual inspection results.

Updated

Dakota Renwick

Pipe & Structural Welder | GTAW/SMAW 6G | 1.4% RT reject rate on 2,100 joints

  • Tulsa, OK
  • dakota.renwick@example.com
  • +1 (918) 555-0153
  • linkedin.com/in/your-name

Summary

Combination welder with ten years on refinery turnarounds, plant maintenance and structural fabrication in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast. Qualified 6G GTAW root and SMAW fill on carbon steel and chrome-moly to ASME Section IX, and AWS D1.1 certified in FCAW. Held a 1.4% radiographic reject rate across 2,100 joints over three years.

Work Experience

Pipe Welder

Apr 2020 – Present

Redfork Industrial Services · Tulsa, OK

  • Welded 2,100 carbon steel and chrome-moly joints across 6 refinery turnarounds, holding a 1.4% radiographic reject rate.
  • Completed steam line tie-ins during a 21-day outage, finishing the welding scope two shifts early.
  • Worked 9,000 hours in hot-work and confined-space areas with no recordable injuries or permit violations.

Structural Welder and Fitter

Aug 2016 – Mar 2020

Arkansas Bend Steel Fabricators · Broken Arrow, OK

  • Fit and welded 600+ beams, columns and stair assemblies a year to AWS D1.1, passing every third-party visual inspection.
  • Halved distortion rework on long beams by changing the tack sequence and adding strongbacks.
  • Trained 4 new hires on FCAW settings and print reading; all four passed their D1.1 3G and 4G tests within 90 days.

Welder Helper

Jun 2014 – Jul 2016

Osage Hills Fabrication · Sand Springs, OK

  • Ground, beveled and prepped 3,000+ pipe and plate parts while logging practice hours toward D1.1 qualification.
  • Ran fire watch and kept hot-work areas clear on 40 field repair jobs with zero fire incidents.

Education

Certificate, Welding Technology

2013 – 2014

Tulsa Technology Center

Skills

Core competencies

  • 6G Pipe (GTAW / SMAW)
  • ASME Section IX & B31.3
  • AWS D1.1 Structural (FCAW)

Processes & Materials

  • GTAW Open Roots
  • SMAW E7018 & E8018
  • FCAW Dual Shield
  • Carbon Steel, Stainless, Chrome-Moly

Fabrication & Safety

  • Isometric & Shop Drawings
  • Fit-Up & Beveling
  • Plasma & Oxy-Fuel Cutting
  • Hot Work Permits & Fire Watch

Certifications

  • AWS Certified Welder, D1.1 FCAW 3G/4G · American Welding Society, 2016
  • ASME Section IX Welder Performance Qualification, 6G GTAW/SMAW · Redfork Industrial Services (third-party witnessed), 2020
  • OSHA 10-Hour Construction · OSHA Outreach Training Program, 2014

Languages

  • English · Native

The full sample as text. Rendered in the Summit template, a layout applicant tracking systems read in order.

Fictional person: the name and contact details are invented. Any resemblance to a real person is coincidental.

Welder resume summary examples

Pick the one closest to your level and replace the specifics with your own.

  • Entry level

    Welding program graduate with 900 booth hours in SMAW, GMAW, FCAW and GTAW on carbon steel, stainless and aluminum. Passed AWS D1.1 3G and 4G plate bend tests in school, reads weld symbols and fits small assemblies from prints. OSHA 10 trained and open to second shift or field travel.

  • Mid level

    Structural and fabrication welder with seven years in a steel shop building beams, stairs and handrails. Qualified to AWS D1.1 in FCAW and SMAW in all positions, and fits assemblies from shop drawings with little supervision. Delivered more than 600 assemblies last year with only 4 sent back after visual inspection.

  • Senior

    Pipe welder and welding foreman with fifteen years on refinery, power plant and pipeline work, qualified 6G in GTAW root and SMAW fill on carbon steel and chrome-moly. Keeps radiographic rejects under 2% across shutdowns, runs crews of 8 welders and fitters, and works with the CWI on repair plans. Open to travel.

  • Aerospace TIG

    GTAW welder qualified to AWS D17.1 on thin-wall stainless, titanium and nickel alloys for aerospace ducting and brackets. Works from detailed travelers, controls heat input on material under 0.040 inch and keeps purge records for every part. Comfortable with first-article inspection, dye penetrant results and strict foreign object debris rules.

  • Mobile repair

    Self-employed mobile welder running a truck-mounted rig for farms, construction fleets and small manufacturers. Repairs trailers, gates and heavy equipment on site with stick and wire, quotes jobs up front and handles invoicing. After six years independent, looking to join a field service team with steady hours.

Welder resume objective examples

An objective fits when you have no direct experience in the role yet. Name the role, the proof you already have and what you will bring to the team.

  • Welding graduate

    Welding technology graduate with 1,000 booth hours and AWS D1.1 3G/4G SMAW bend tests passed at school. Applying for a fabrication shop welder role on first or second shift, ready to take your shop's weld test this week.

  • Military veteran

    Navy hull maintenance technician with five years of shipboard welding, brazing and cutting under Navy welding procedures. Applying for a structural or shipyard welder position, with OSHA 10 and a TWIC card for port facility access.

Common mistakes on a welder resume

  • Writing "certified welder" with no details

    Fix: The phrase means little without code, process, position and material. Spell it out, for example "AWS D1.1, FCAW, 3G and 4G, unlimited thickness," and keep the test year. If you hold several, group them by code so a shop can match them to its procedures.

  • Skipping inspection results

    Fix: Weld quality is measured, so report it. Give your radiographic or ultrasonic reject count, bend tests passed, or production rework. A line such as "6 RT rejects on 400 carbon steel butt welds" belongs in experience, not only on a certificate.

  • Leaving out fitting, layout and cutting

    Fix: Many welding jobs are really fitter-welder jobs. If you read prints, laid out parts, cut with plasma or oxy-fuel, used a mag drill or press brake, and fit assemblies square before welding, say so. Shops value welders who go from drawing to finished part alone.

  • Ignoring hot work and fume safety

    Fix: Hot work permits, fire watch, confined space entry, fall protection and fume control on stainless or galvanized steel come up on refinery and shipyard jobs. List the safety training you hold, such as OSHA 10, confined space or a TWIC card for port sites.

What should a welder resume include?

A welder resume should open with a two or three line summary of your focus, then show each role as results rather than duties. Name the skills the posting asks for, such as SMAW, GMAW and FCAW. Start bullets with verbs like Welded, Fabricated and Fitted, and give each one a number where you honestly have one. If you hold a credential such as AWS Certified Welder (D1.1 Structural), list it in its own section.

Welding processes

  • SMAW
  • GMAW
  • FCAW
  • GTAW
  • Submerged Arc (SAW)
  • Pulse MIG

Positions and joints

  • 1G-4G Plate
  • 1F-4F Fillet
  • 5G Pipe
  • 6G Pipe
  • 6GR
  • Open-Root Butt Welds

Codes and standards

  • AWS D1.1
  • AWS D1.5
  • AWS D17.1
  • ASME Section IX
  • ASME B31.3
  • API 1104

Fabrication

  • Blueprint Reading
  • Weld Symbols (AWS A2.4)
  • Fit-Up
  • Plasma Cutting
  • Oxy-Fuel Cutting
  • Grinding & Beveling

Materials and inspection

  • Carbon Steel
  • Stainless Steel
  • Aluminum
  • Chrome-Moly
  • Visual Inspection (VT)
  • Radiographic Testing (RT)

Action verbs

  • Welded
  • Fabricated
  • Fitted
  • Qualified
  • Gouged
  • Repaired

Certifications

  • AWS Certified Welder (D1.1 Structural)
  • ASME Section IX Welder Performance Qualification
  • AWS Certified Welding Inspector (CWI)
  • OSHA 10-Hour Construction

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

Skills to put on a welder resume

List the hard skills the posting names in your skills section. Soft skills belong in your bullets, shown through something you did.

Hard skills

  • Open-root pipe welding with GTAW
  • Low-hydrogen SMAW (E7018) and rod oven control
  • Preheat, interpass and post-weld heat treatment limits
  • Purging stainless and chrome pipe
  • Reading a WPS and its essential variables
  • Weld symbol and isometric drawing interpretation
  • Plasma, oxy-fuel and carbon arc cutting
  • Distortion control through tack and weld sequencing

Soft skills

  • Reporting a fit-up out of tolerance instead of welding over it
  • Keeping steady focus through a 12-hour night shift on a turnaround
  • Asking why a weld was rejected and adjusting the same day
  • Keeping your bay clean and fire-safe without reminders

Welder keywords recruiters scan for

Use the wording of the posting itself, and back each term with a line that proves it.

6G pipe welder
Put the position, process and material in your headline.
AWS D1.1
List the processes and positions you qualified in and the test year.
ASME Section IX
Name the qualification plus the material group and pipe diameter range you tested on.
TIG / GTAW
Show a bullet with the material and thickness you weld with TIG.
Combo welder
Say which processes you run on one joint, usually a TIG root with stick fill and cap.
Fitter-welder
Give a bullet about fitting assemblies from prints before you welded them.
X-ray quality
State your radiographic reject count over a defined number of joints.
Blueprint reading
Name the drawings you work from, such as isometrics or travelers.
Turnaround or shutdown
List the plant types and outage lengths you have worked.
TWIC card
Add it to your credentials line if you hold one, since port sites require it.

Welder resume bullet examples

The numbers are illustrative. Keep the structure (verb, action, measurable result) and use figures you can back up.

  • Welded 1,400 carbon steel pipe joints during two refinery turnarounds with GTAW root and SMAW fill, totaling only 9 radiographic rejects.
  • Fabricated and welded 220 tons of structural steel for a parking garage to AWS D1.1, passing every third-party visual inspection.
  • Fit and welded 85 stainless steel sanitary process skids for a food plant, purging every tube weld to prevent sugaring inside the pipe.
  • Qualified 6G on chrome-moly pipe under ASME Section IX on the first attempt, opening the way to high-temperature steam line work.
  • Cut rework on a robotic GMAW cell 35% by adjusting wire feed, torch angles and fixturing after tracking porosity defects by shift.
  • Rebuilt 60 cracked excavator buckets and booms with preheat control and hardfacing, extending fleet equipment life between overhauls.
  • Laid out, cut and welded 140 custom stair and handrail assemblies from shop drawings, holding tolerances to 1/16 inch.
  • Welded aluminum truck bodies and tanks with pulse GMAW, building 24 units a quarter with no leak-test failures.

How to stand out as a welder applicant

Tailor every application to the posting: the resume, the cover letter and the answers you prepare for the interview.

  • Mirror the process and code in each posting

    Welding postings are specific: FCAW structural, TIG on stainless, 6G pipe or robotic GMAW. Put the posting's process and code in your headline, lead with the role that matches and move unrelated processes lower. If the shop uses a code you have not tested to, list your closest qualification instead of implying you hold it. Tailor your welding resume to the posting

  • Open the cover letter with your closest qualification

    Begin with the test or job that best matches their work, such as a 6G chrome qualification for a power plant contractor or D1.1 production work for a steel fabricator. Add your reject record, the shifts you can work and how far you will travel. Offer a date for their weld test. Write a welder cover letter

  • Prepare for the weld test and the questions around it

    Expect a practical test under the shop's procedure, plus questions on weld symbols, preheat, rod storage and the causes of porosity, undercut or lack of fusion. Practice the position you will test in, bring your own hood and gloves, and be ready to explain a weld you had to cut out. Practice welder interview questions

  • Build a qualifications table from your records

    Gather your test records and write one line per qualification: code, process, position, material, thickness or diameter range, date and continuity status. That table answers a supervisor's first questions. Then run a few local postings through a skills extractor to see which processes and codes come up. Pull welding skills from local postings

Welder resume questions

How do I list weld qualifications that belong to a past employer?

Qualification records usually stay with the employer who tested you. List them anyway with code, process, position and material, such as "ASME Section IX, GTAW root and SMAW fill, 6G carbon steel pipe," plus the year. A new employer will usually retest you, but this tells them which test to set up.

What is continuity, and should it go on my resume?

Under AWS D1.1 and ASME Section IX, a qualification generally stays in effect as long as you use that process at least once every six months. If you have kept continuity, note it for each process. If a process has lapsed, list it as past experience and expect to test again.

If the shop gives a weld test, does my resume still matter?

Yes. Many fabrication shops and contractors run a hands-on test before hiring, but the resume decides who gets invited and which test you take. Make that easy: list processes, positions, metals, thickness or pipe diameter ranges and the codes you have welded under. Bring your own hood and gloves to the test.

How should I describe structural, pipe and production welding?

Give each setting its own role or bullet group. Structural work means D1.1, beams, columns and field erection. Pipe work means open roots, ASME B31.3 or API 1104 and radiographic results. Production welding means fixtures, cycle time, robotic cells and defect counts. Each group scans for its own terms.

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