Welder resume examples by experience level

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A welder resume is a one to two page document built around one thing: the qualification record. Processes, positions in code letters, base materials and thicknesses, the code you tested to, and the date that proves it is still live.

Nobody hires a welder in general. A shop hires against a specific welding procedure specification, and the only question in the foreman's head while he reads your file is whether you are already qualified to run it or whether he has to pay for a test to find out.

Resume guide for a welder resume

This guide and the corresponding welder resume example will cover:

• How to write a welder resume, section by section
• How to write your qualification record so a foreman can read it in four seconds
• Three adaptable summaries: structural fitter, pipe welder and weld shop foreman
• What the AWS Certified Welder credential is, and why continuity keeps it alive
• What the trade pays and where the work sits

How to write a welder resume

Five sections: contact header, summary, qualification record, work experience, and education with certifications. One page for your first ten years. Two once you run a shop, hold procedure documentation or train testers.

The qualification record goes directly under the summary, above experience. It is the only block a hiring foreman is guaranteed to read, and burying it inside job bullets is the single most common mistake on a welding resume.

Run the finished file through the free Rezoom ATS resume checker before you send it. Large fabricators and mechanical contractors run applications through a parser, and a qualification table in two columns is exactly what a parser scrambles.

Choosing the best resume format for a welder resume

Reverse chronological, with the qualification record hoisted to the top as its own block. That hybrid is standard in the trade and no foreman finds it odd.

Do not use a functional format. Welding hiring is suspicious of gaps for a specific reason: continuity of qualification. A format that hides when you were welding also hides whether you have been welding, and that is the question the format is being asked.

Include your contact information

The second line is doing more work than the rest of the page. Process, position, code. A foreman scanning twenty files is looking for exactly those three tokens and nothing else.

Make use of a summary

Four lines: your trade and years, the processes and positions, the materials and code, and one number about output or quality.

Structural fitter and welder with three years on plate in a steel fabrication shop, running FCAW and SMAW in the 1G through 4G groove positions and 1F through 4F fillet positions on carbon steel from 3/16 in to 1 in. Qualified to AWS D1.1 on carbon steel plate and read shop drawings and weld symbols to set up my own fit-ups. Averaged a 2.1% weld repair rate across 14 months of visual and magnetic particle inspection on structural beams and base plates.

Pipe welder with eight years on process and utility piping, qualified 6G in GTAW root with SMAW fill and cap on carbon steel and 316L stainless, tested to ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section IX and current on continuity. Run shutdown and turnaround work as well as shop fabrication, including socket weld, butt weld and small-bore tubing. Held a 97.4% radiographic first-time pass rate across roughly 900 welds on the last two turnarounds.

Lead welder and weld shop foreman running a nine-welder shop across structural and pressure work, qualified in SMAW, GMAW, FCAW and GTAW and personally current to AWS D1.1 and ASME Section IX. Write and maintain the shop's welding procedure specifications and procedure qualification records, run in-house test coupons before welders go to an accredited facility, and keep the continuity log for every welder on the floor. Cut the shop weld repair rate from 4.6% to 1.8% over two years.

Right vs wrong: the same welder summary, twice

The right column can be put on a joint on Monday. The left column has to be tested first, and testing costs the shop money before you have made it any.

Outline your welding experience

Employer, what the shop builds, and dates. Then three to five bullets naming the process, the material, the joint type and a number.

Pipe Welder, Front Range Mechanical Contractors, Colorado Springs, CO, April 2021 to Present. Process and utility piping for food, chemical and municipal water clients.
Weld 2 in to 12 in carbon steel and 316L stainless process piping, GTAW root with SMAW fill and cap, qualified 6G to ASME Section IX.
Held a 97.4% radiographic first-time pass rate across roughly 900 welds on the last two plant turnarounds.
Work shutdowns and turnarounds on live sites, including hot work permits, confined space entry and fire watch, with no recordable incidents in five years.
Do my own layout, bevel prep and fit-up on spool fabrication, working from isometrics and weld maps.
Log every heat number and weld identification against the weld map for the client's turnover package.

Process, position and procedure: your qualification record is the resume

Every other section is context. This is the section a foreman reads.

A welder is not hired as a welder. A welder is hired against a welding procedure specification, a WPS, which fixes the process, the base metal and thickness range, the filler, the position, the joint design, the preheat and the electrical parameters. Your qualification either falls inside that procedure or it does not. So write your record in the same vocabulary the procedure uses.

Processes, in their code letters. SMAW for stick, GMAW for MIG including short circuit and spray transfer, FCAW self-shielded or gas-shielded, GTAW for TIG. Write the abbreviation and the common name together the first time, then use the abbreviation. Naming four processes when you are genuinely fluent in two is a mistake, because the test will find out.

Positions, in code. Groove welds run 1G flat, 2G horizontal, 3G vertical, 4G overhead, plus 5G and 6G on fixed pipe. Fillet welds run 1F through 4F. Say plate or pipe, because they are not the same test. 6G is the one most pipe shops test on: the pipe is fixed at a 45 degree angle and cannot be rotated, so it puts every position into a single weld.

Base materials and thicknesses. Carbon steel, stainless by grade, aluminum by alloy, chrome-moly, duplex. Give the thickness range on plate and the diameter and schedule range on pipe. A shop that runs thin-wall stainless tube has a different problem from one running 1 in structural plate, and both need to see the number.

The code you tested to. AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code, Steel, is the usual structural test. ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section IX governs procedure and performance qualification on pressure work. Name the code, name the test facility, and give the date.

Processes: GTAW, SMAW, FCAW gas-shielded, GMAW short circuit and spray
Positions: 6G and 5G on pipe; 1G through 4G groove and 1F through 4F fillet on plate
Materials: carbon steel; 304 and 316L stainless; pipe 1/2 in to 12 in, schedule 10 through schedule 80; plate 3/16 in to 1 in
Codes: ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section IX, performance qualification, current. AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code, Steel, carbon steel plate.
AWS Certified Welder: tested at an AWS Accredited Test Facility, maintenance documentation submitted and current to September 2026.
Inspection experience: radiographic, ultrasonic, magnetic particle and dye penetrant testing on my own work; weld map and heat number logging for turnover packages.

Then the part almost nobody writes down, and the part that makes the whole block worth something.

And the negative case, which is worth stating plainly. "Certified welder" with no process, no position and no code named tells a shop nothing at all. It cannot be matched to a procedure, it cannot be verified, and the reader has to assume the least favorable interpretation, because the applicants who could name their scope did.

Build a snapshot of your key skills

Ten to fourteen entries in three groups: processes and equipment, fabrication skills, and site skills.

Processes and equipment: GTAW, SMAW, FCAW, GMAW, oxy-fuel and plasma cutting, carbon arc gouging, orbital tube welding, inverter and engine-driven machines
Fabrication: Blueprint and isometric reading, weld symbols, layout and bevel prep, fit-up and tacking, pipe fitting, grinding and finishing, preheat and interpass temperature control
Quality and inspection: Visual inspection, weld map and heat number logging, working alongside radiographic, ultrasonic, magnetic particle and dye penetrant testing, WPS and PQR documentation
Site: Hot work permits, confined space entry, fire watch, rigging and signaling, aerial lift, turnaround and shutdown work

List your education and certifications

Certifications with dates and the testing facility, then the trade program, then the safety cards.

AWS Certified Welder, American Welding Society, tested at an AWS Accredited Test Facility, GTAW and SMAW; maintenance documentation current to September 2026
ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section IX performance qualification, 6G, carbon steel and 316L stainless, employer-held, requalified 2025
AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code, Steel, carbon steel plate, 3G and 4G, 2018
Associate of Applied Science, Welding Technology, Pueblo Community College, Pueblo, CO, 2017
OSHA 30-hour Construction, 2023. Confined space entry and rescue awareness, 2024. First aid and CPR, 2025.

Choose the right layout and design

Single column, 11 or 12 point, no photograph, no graphics, no skill bars. Put the qualification record in plain labeled lines rather than a table, because that is the block you cannot afford to lose to a parser.

Welder job market and outlook

A large trade with slow growth and steady replacement demand, concentrated in manufacturing but paid best outside it.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025-35 projections and May 2025 wage data.

What salary you can expect as a welder

The median annual wage for welders, cutters, solderers and brazers was $53,750, or $25.84 an hour, as of May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $39,240 and the highest 10 percent more than $77,530 (BLS, May 2025).

For comparison, the whole production occupations group had a median annual wage of $46,990 in May 2025, so welding sits meaningfully above the average production job (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025).

Three things move a welder up that range: the position and code you are qualified in, whether you can fit up your own work, and whether you will travel for shutdown and turnaround work. All three are things a resume can prove in one block. None of them is a personality trait, which is why the qualification record earns its place at the top of the page.

Key takeaways for a welder resume

1. Put the qualification record directly under the summary, above experience.
2. Name processes in code letters and positions in code numbers, and say plate or pipe.
3. Give base materials by grade, plus thickness on plate and diameter and schedule on pipe.
4. Name the code you tested to: AWS D1.1, ASME Section IX, or an employer procedure.
5. State the currency of your AWS maintenance documentation, not just the year you tested.
6. Say whether you do your own layout, bevel prep and fit-up.
7. Give one quality number: repair rate, radiographic pass rate, or rejects per weld count.

Build your welder resume in 15 minutes.

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Pair it with a matching welder cover letter.