Welder Resume: Examples (2026)

A welding resume is really a list of answers to the shop's test. Which processes can you run? In which positions? On what material and thickness, to which code, and are your certifications current? A welding supervisor reads for those facts first, and if they are missing or vague, you may not get the chance to prove yourself in the booth.

This guide shows how to list processes, positions and certifications so they are impossible to miss, how to write welding bullets with real numbers, summaries for new, experienced and lead welders, the skills and equipment shops ask for, and a full example for a structural welder in Tulsa. If you are moving between shop and field work, the construction worker resume example covers job site basics.

These skills appear most often in postings for fabrication, structural, pipe and production welders. Use the process names and codes the posting uses.

Hard skills

• GMAW (MIG) welding
• GTAW (TIG) welding on steel, stainless and aluminum
• SMAW (stick) welding
• FCAW (flux core) welding
• Welding in flat, horizontal, vertical and overhead positions
• Pipe welding (open root, 6G)
• Reading blueprints and weld symbols
• Fit-up, tacking and distortion control
• Oxy-fuel and plasma cutting
• Visual inspection and measuring with weld gauges

Soft skills

• Steady focus on repetitive, precise work
• Following written welding procedures
• Safety habits around heat, fumes and heavy parts
• Working with fitters, inspectors and crane operators
• Owning mistakes and fixing them fast
• Teaching newer welders

Tools and software

• Miller and Lincoln welding power sources
• Wire feeders and spool guns
• Plasma cutters and oxy-fuel torches
• Angle grinders and die grinders
• Overhead cranes and forklifts
• Robotic welding cells (programming or operating)

Choose the one closest to where you are and change the processes, code and numbers to your own.

Entry-level welder

Recent welding program graduate with 900 hours of booth time in GMAW, FCAW and SMAW on carbon steel plate, including passing 3G and 4G practice bend tests. Comfortable reading weld symbols, grinding and cutting with plasma. Seeking a production or helper welding job where I can test for AWS certification.

Experienced welder

Pipe welder with eight years in the field on gas distribution and plant piping, running TIG roots and stick fill and cap in the 6G position. Qualified to API 1104 and ASME Section IX with an X-ray pass rate above 98 percent over the last two years. Seeking a pipe welding role on a mechanical or pipeline crew.

Lead welder or welding foreman

Lead welder with 14 years in heavy equipment fabrication, supervising a team of 9 welders and fitters on two shifts. Write work instructions, train new hires to the shop's procedures, and work with quality on weld defects, cutting repair hours by 25 percent in one year. Seeking a welding supervisor or production lead role.

Each example gives the process, the part or project, a number and a result. Borrow the shape and use your own facts.

• TIG welded stainless steel sanitary tubing for 4 food processing lines, passing every borescope inspection.
• Ran open root and hot pass with SMAW on 6-inch to 24-inch carbon steel pipe, averaging 12 joints a shift.
• Welded 40+ aluminum boat hulls a month with GMAW and a pulse spool gun.
• Kept an X-ray rejection rate below 2 percent across 1,500 pipe welds in two years.
• Set up and ran 2 robotic welding cells, raising bracket output from 300 to 450 parts per shift.
• Fabricated and welded 60 custom handrails and stair stringers from shop drawings for commercial projects.
• Repaired cracked buckets and booms on heavy equipment in the field with FCAW and air arc gouging.
• Cut and beveled plate with plasma and oxy-fuel torches, reducing grinding time on each joint by about 10 minutes.
• Trained 6 new hires on the shop's welding procedures and safety rules during their first 90 days.
• Completed 3 shutdown projects at a refinery with no lost-time incidents, working 12-hour shifts in confined spaces.
• Wrote 5 illustrated work instructions for common weldments, used by both shifts to cut rework.

Welding certifications prove you can make a sound weld with a given process, position and code. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that some employers require general or specific certification for particular jobs and may pay for the testing, and that welders must be licensed in some states and localities, so check with your state or local licensing agency. Here is what to list:

• AWS Certified Welder from the American Welding Society: a performance test given at an AWS Accredited Test Facility, with no education or experience prerequisites. Tests follow procedures used in structural steel, sheet metal, petroleum pipelines, pressure vessels and chemical refinery work, and may reference codes such as AWS D1.1 or API 1104. To keep it active you send AWS maintenance paperwork every six months confirming you still weld with that process.
• Employer or code qualifications: many shops test you to their own welding procedure under a code such as AWS D1.1 or ASME Section IX (welding qualifications for boilers and pressure vessels). List these as qualifications with the process, position and code, and note which employer tested you.
• Other AWS credentials, for welders moving up: AWS also offers the Certified Welding Inspector (CWI), Certified Welding Supervisor (CWS), Certified Welding Educator (CWE) and Certified Robotic Arc Welding (CRAW) credentials.
• OSHA 10-hour or 30-hour Outreach card from the OSHA Outreach Training Program: general industry for shop work, construction for field work. OSHA calls it voluntary safety training, not a certification.
• State or local welder license: required only in some places and for some kinds of work, so check the rules where you will weld.

The example is for Cody, a structural welder in Tulsa with 6 years in fabrication who wants a job at a bigger shop. Here is what each part does.

Headline: Structural Welder, FCAW and SMAW. The kind of work and his two processes, in the words the job posting uses.

Summary: what he welds and to which code (AWS D1.1), his certified processes and positions (3G and 4G), the 6-month maintenance that keeps them current, and the shift he wants.

Certifications: two AWS Certified Welder entries written the way the test reads, plus an OSHA 10 general industry card. Each has the issuer and the year (2021, 2022 and 2020).

Current job: five bullets. Volume first (25+ projects a year), then quality (under 1 percent rejects against a 3 percent target), a big job (180 tons in 11 weeks for a 4-story garage), a shop improvement (3 fixtures) and leadership (2 new welders who passed their bend tests).

Earlier job and training: one line of MIG production work, 8 to 10 trailers a week on a 3-person line, and a 1,080-hour welding certificate.

Skills: all three processes he runs, plus fit-up, cutting and crane work that make him useful beyond the booth.

• Writing certified welder with no details. A shop needs the process, position and code. Without them, your certification line tells them nothing.
• Listing processes you cannot pass a test in. Most shops test before they hire. If your TIG is rusty, leave it off or say so.
• No quality numbers. Reject rates, X-ray pass rates and inspection results are the best proof of a good welder. Include them when they are strong.
• Ignoring fit-up and blueprint skills. A welder who can read drawings and fit up their own parts saves the shop a fitter. Say so.
• Letting an AWS certification lapse. AWS requires maintenance every six months. If yours lapsed, either renew it or list it with its dates so nobody is surprised.

Other trades resume examples that are close to this one:

• Mechanic resume: automotive technicians, with ASE certification advice.
• Carpenter resume: framing, finish and remodeling carpenters.
• Electrician resume: for licensed electricians and apprentices.
• Military to civilian resume: for veterans turning military welding and maintenance training into civilian jobs.

Every example is in the resume examples hub, grouped by job and situation.