Automotive Resume Builder. Your resume made professional

Write ASE certifications the way shops talk about them: by test number and name, such as A5 Brakes or A8 Engine Performance, with the year you passed. If you hold A1 through A8, say you're an ASE-Certified Master Automobile Technician, and show that each certification is current, since ASE certifications expire after five years unless you retest or extend them with the ASE Renewal app. Working on A/C? Add your Section 609 certification, which the EPA requires for anyone paid to service motor vehicle air conditioning.

Next, name the vehicles and tools you know: makes, diesel or hybrid systems, ADAS calibration, scan tools, factory software and any dealer training level. Then back the skills with numbers the shop already tracks. Technicians can show flagged hours per week and comeback rate; service advisors, hours sold per repair order and customer satisfaction scores; collision estimators, cycle time and supplement rate; parts staff, fill rate.

An example of a technician bullet: "Averaged 46 flagged hours a week at a six-bay independent shop, holding comebacks under 2%."

• What skills should I put on a mechanic resume?

  Sort your skills the way a service manager hands out work: brakes, steering and suspension, electrical, climate control and engine performance. Under each system, say whether you diagnose the fault yourself or replace parts once someone else has found it. If you work on hybrids or electric vehicles, give your high-voltage safety level; ASE's xEV Level 2 certification is the technician tier, covering isolating the high-voltage system and work on it once de-energized. Keep traits like teamwork out of the list and prove them in a bullet instead, such as the apprentice you trained. The Mechanic examples have skill and certification lines to adapt.

• What goes on a mechanic resume when you have no shop experience?

  Lead with your training: the program, whether the ASE Education Foundation accredits it, and the hours you spent on live vehicles in the lab. ASE offers entry-level certification tests in automobile, collision repair and medium-heavy truck work, so list each one you pass by name. If your program is ASE accredited, passing eight specific ones and logging six months of full-time work, or a year part-time, lets you claim the G1 Maintenance and Light Repair certification. After that, add hands-on work outside school, such as a tire or lube shop, a parts counter or a car you rebuilt. Aiming at trucks? Compare the Apprentice Heavy Diesel Mechanic examples.

• What should a diesel mechanic resume include?

  Open with the equipment you service, such as Class 8 tractors, transit buses or trailers, and the engine families and aftertreatment systems you diagnose. List ASE truck tests by number: the medium-heavy truck series runs T1 through T8, and certification in T2 to T8 earns Master Medium-Heavy Truck Technician status. Inspection work deserves its own line, too. Under federal motor carrier rules, whoever does a truck's annual inspection must qualify through a federal or state training program or certificate, or at least a year of training, experience or both, and the carrier keeps that evidence on file. A line like "Qualified annual inspector (49 CFR 396.19)" says it plainly.

• Which resume bullets should a mechanic rewrite to move into service advising or shop ownership?

  Each step trades wrench time for customers and money, so rewrite the bullets as you go. Mechanic: the systems you diagnose and repairs done right the first time. Service Advisor: customers checked in per day, inspections you explained and work you sold; ASE's C1 Automobile Service Consultant certification takes the test plus two years of service-writing experience, and technician years don't count toward it. Auto Repair Shop Owner: car count, staff, parts margins and the books. In California, a shop that services passenger vehicles for pay must register with the Bureau of Automotive Repair as an automotive repair dealer, so put that registration with your licenses.