Skip to Main Content

Welder Must-Have Resume Skills and Keywords

Are you interested in improving your job outlook and increasing your salary? How can you demonstrate that you are the most qualified candidate for a Welder position? Of course continuing to gain experience working as a Welder may be your best qualification, but there are other ways you can also develop your skills, like continuing education or volunteer opportunities. More immediately, however, you can be ready for your next opportunity or promotion by educating yourself about the duties, responsibilities, and required skills of a Welder and making sure your resume reflects your experience properly.

We designed the ZipRecruiter Career Keyword Mapper to help you solve this problem and hopefully improve your resume. Using machine learning tools paired with industry research, our Marketplace Research Team helped analyze millions of job postings and resumes to identify the most important keywords related to Welder jobs. Our goal is to help you discover opportunities to improve your resume or to help you understand what skills and qualifications you need to be a Welder or to advance your career into beyond this role.

Top Skills Mentioned in Job Descriptions

Top
10
Job Skills
The top three keywords employers use in Welder job descriptions are Welding appearing in 25.87% of postings, Blueprint Reading 12.81%, and MIG Welding appearing in 12.68%. 51.36% of Welder job postings have at least one of these terms indicating the value employers place commonly place on these experiences when hiring candidates. Steel Manufacturing, Assembly Line and TIG Welding represent an additionally healthy share of the employer Welder job postings with their combined total of 27.52%. At 21.12%, Grinding, Measuring Tools, Torching, and Hand Tools appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Welder skills and requirements according to employers.

Top Skills Mentioned in Resumes

Top
10
Job Skills
Job seeker resumes showcase a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Welder positions. The top three keywords represent 48.5% of the total set of top resume listed keywords. Look to the Resume Checklist below to investigate how Welding, MIG Welding, and Blueprint Reading match up to employer job descriptions. Steel Manufacturing, TIG Welding, and Assembly Line represent a very decent share of skills found on resumes for Welder with 25.16% of the total. At 26.34%, Forklift Experience, Grinding, Gas Metal Arc Welding, and Piping appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Welder skills and qualifications found on resumes.

Most Important Skills Required to Be a Welder as Listed by Employers and Employees

Here is a simple table of the top 10 skills and qualifications as listed by employers in Welder job postings since January of 2018, followed by the top 10 skills and qualifications most commonly listed by people who held the title of Welder on their resumes.
Top Welder Skills
Skills Required by Employers Share
Welding 25.87%
Blueprint Reading 12.81%
MIG Welding 12.68%
Steel Manufacturing 11.54%
Assembly Line 8.14%
TIG Welding 7.84%
Grinding 7.30%
Measuring Tools 4.79%
Torching 4.60%
Hand Tools 4.43%
Skills Listed by Employees Share
Welding 23.97%
MIG Welding 13.23%
Blueprint Reading 11.30%
Steel Manufacturing 8.93%
TIG Welding 8.92%
Assembly Line 7.31%
Forklift Experience 7.10%
Grinding 6.71%
Gas Metal Arc Welding 6.37%
Piping 6.16%

Welder Resume Checklist

Our Resume Keyword Checklist is based upon an analysis of the most commonly found terms within both job descriptions and resumes for Welder roles. Our algorithm helps isolate phrases and patterns to identify the most frequently recurring and reused keywords from each data source, while correcting for uncommon and outlier results. Various heuristic methodologies are then applied to ultimately create two top 20 lists of the most important and significant skills, certificates and requirements found within Welder job postings and resumes. We then merge the two lists together and use a combination of statistics and rules-based scenarios to create a list that is audited by the Marketplace Research team, and finally turned into the checklist you see below. Our hope is that knowing this information can help you make your best impression with your next potential employer.
Uncommon Keywords on Welder Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Innovation
Employer job listings frequently list Innovation as requirements in Welder job descriptions; however, job seekers mention them far less frequently on their resumes. If you possess this experience, including this keyword prominently on your resume when applying for a Welder role may help you stand out more to hiring managers.
Common Keywords on Welder Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Measuring Tools
Clamping
Wiring
Both employer job listings and resumes from people who’ve held the role of Welder tend to always include skills and requirements found in this list. Whether you’ve only got Measuring Tools, Clamping or Wiring in your background and experience, make sure to highlight the term prominently on your resume. As a job seeker you’ll be competing with many others who are bound to have as many as you (or more!) of these common resume keywords highlighted in their application for a job as a Welder.
Uncommon Keywords on Welder Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Hand Tools
Steel Manufacturing
Detail Oriented
Blueprint Reading
Electricity
Assembly Line
Grinding
Welding
MIG Welding
Torching
Technical
TIG Welding
Crane Operator
Metal Fabricating
Trucking
Arc Welding
Gas Metal Arc Welding
Employer job listings rarely list Hand Tools, Steel Manufacturing, Detail Oriented, Blueprint Reading, Electricity, Assembly Line, Grinding, Welding, MIG Welding, Torching, Technical, TIG Welding, Crane Operator, Metal Fabricating, Trucking, Arc Welding or Gas Metal Arc Welding as important skills or qualifications in Welder job descriptions. Nevertheless, job seekers mention them much more commonly in their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Welder role may go unnoticed or even discounted by hiring managers.

FAQs about Welder Skills and Resume Keywords

What are the most important Welder job skills to have on my resume?

The most common important skills required by employers are Measuring Tools, Clamping and Wiring. These skills and requirements are just as likely to be mentioned by employers as well as on resumes of people that held a job as a Welder, suggesting that having these keywords on a resume are important for success as a Welder. Additionally, employer Welder job descriptions list Innovation as a desirable experience, even though Innovation appears 3.3 times less on resumes, suggesting that it's worth considering including this keyword if you possess the experience.

What are the least important Welder job skills to have on my resume?

Although you'd probably love to load up your resume with every possible keyword you can, employers tend to look for the things they specify in the job description. Our analysis suggests that highlighting too prominently terms like Hand Tools, Steel Manufacturing, Detail Oriented, Blueprint Reading, Electricity, Assembly Line and Grinding may be something to reconsider. These 7 terms appear 2.00, 2.03, 2.22, 2.31, 2.34, 2.35 and 2.41 times less frequently, respectively, than in job descriptions for a Welder position. This indicates that highlighting any of these keywords on your resume may not be a great way to impress a potential employer.

How do I make sure my resume has all of the right keywords for a Welder position?

Unless your resume has a good density of the following skills and experience listed, you may not be considered for the role of Welder. Make sure to include a strong showing for the following keywords on your resume:
  • Measuring Tools
  • Clamping
  • Wiring
Additionally employers frequently list the following as desirable qualities in a Welder candidate, but they are far less common on most resumes:
  • Innovation
Finally people who held the position of a Welder and list it on their resume are adding these terms that are less likely to be noticed by employers. You may want to consider downplaying these terms on your Welder application:
  • Hand Tools
  • Steel Manufacturing
  • Detail Oriented
  • Blueprint Reading
  • Electricity
  • Assembly Line
  • Grinding
  • Welding
  • MIG Welding
  • Torching
  • Technical
  • TIG Welding
  • Crane Operator
  • Metal Fabricating
  • Trucking

Before applying for a Welder job

At ZipRecruiter, we understand better than anyone the importance of using the right keywords to describe your experience — it’s crucial to attracting the right employers! We built our business on the ability to effectively match job seekers with employers using AI-technology that understands your resume and how likely you are to be noticed by a potential future employer. Having a ZipRecruiter profile that showcases your most relevant skills and abilities can help you get recruited into a new role as a Welder. Get started on your journey with a new ZipRecruiter Profile today!