How to write a CV for a welder role

What a hiring manager scans for first

Someone hiring a welder is not reading your CV top to bottom looking for personality. They are scanning for three things, in this order: which processes you can run, which positions you're qualified in, and whether your ticket is current. MIG, TIG, MMA (stick), flux-cored, submerged arc — these are not interchangeable, and a CV that just says "experienced welder, all processes" reads as someone who either hasn't done much coded work or doesn't understand why the distinction matters. If the advert says TIG on stainless pipe and your CV opens with a paragraph about being a team player, it goes in the no pile before anyone reaches the second line.

The same applies to position codes. 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G for plate; 1F to 4F for fillet welds; 5G and 6G for pipe, where 6G (fixed, 45-degree incline) is the one that tells a supervisor you can weld in every position without repositioning the work. If you've only ever qualified in 1G, say so — don't let "pipe welding experience" imply 6G when it isn't. Overstating position or process is one of the fastest ways to fail a weld test on day one and lose the job you just got.

The certificates and tickets that have to be named

Generic CV advice tells you to list qualifications. For welding, the qualification is only useful if you name the standard, the process, the position, the material, and the date, because that's what determines whether your ticket is still live and whether it covers the job on offer.

Specifically:

• Coded welder certificates issued under ASME IX, EN ISO 9606, or AWS D1.1 — name which one, the process (e.g. GTAW), the position (6G), the material group, and the thickness range you tested on. "Coded to ASME IX, GTAW, 6G, carbon steel, 3–25mm, tested March 2025" tells a supervisor everything they need in one line. "Fully coded welder" tells them nothing.
• Ticket validity. Most coded tickets need re-testing periodically, and a lapsed ticket is treated differently from a live one. State the test date. If you don't know whether it's still valid for the employer's purposes, say when it was last renewed and let them judge — don't leave the date off because it's old.
• NVQ or City & Guilds Diploma in Welding (Level 2 or 3) — these are the underpinning qualification route in the UK and worth stating alongside your coded tickets, not instead of them. A diploma without a current coded ticket usually reads as someone early in their career or between contracts.
• CSWIP qualifications if you hold any (these sit more on the inspection side but some welders progressing toward inspection roles hold them — only include if genuinely relevant).
• CSCS card (or equivalent — CCNSG for some sectors) if you'll need site access. This is not a welding qualification but its absence can stop you getting through the gate, so state which card and its colour/level.
• Sector-specific extras: coded pipe welder status for oil & gas or petrochemical, shipyard-approved welder status, NORSOK qualification for Norwegian offshore work, or a welder qualification test certificate (WQTC) number if you have one on file — these are worth a line each if they apply, and worth nothing if invented.

If you hold no coded ticket at all and are working from the NVQ/diploma route, don't pad the CV to disguise it. Say what you're qualified to do and let your named processes and positions carry the weight.

How to make your experience read as evidence, not description

The weakest welding CVs are full of adjectives — "skilled", "reliable", "high standard of work" — and short on anything that could be checked. The strongest ones read like a weld procedure specification: process, material, thickness, position, standard, and outcome.

For each role, state:

• The materials you worked with by name and grade where you know it — mild steel, 316 stainless, duplex, aluminium 6082 — not just "metal fabrication".
• The thickness range, because a welder who's only run thin-gauge sheet and one who's welded 25mm pressure vessel plate are doing different jobs even if the process is the same.
• The welding procedure specifications (WPS) you worked to, if you know the reference numbers or can describe them ("welded to client WPS for X65 pipeline steel").
• Whether the work was production welding (repetitive, often on a jig, high volume) or one-off fabrication (bespoke, structural, or repair work) — these draw on different strengths and a supervisor wants to know which one you're used to.
• Any non-destructive testing (NDT) pass record you can point to — first-time pass rate on radiography or ultrasonic testing is a real, checkable measure of weld quality, and if you know your figures (even informally, from a foreman's feedback) it's worth a line. Don't invent a percentage; if you don't have a documented figure, describe it qualitatively — "consistently passed RT inspection on pipeline welds" is honest and still useful.
• Shutdown, turnaround or outage work, if you've done it — this is understood in oil, gas and power generation as high-pressure, time-critical work and it's a distinct line on the CV, not folded into "industrial welding".
• Onshore versus offshore experience, since offshore welding usually implies additional survival training (BOSIET or equivalent) and a different pay and contract structure entirely.

A photograph of finished welds, or a portfolio referenced as available on request, is common in this trade in a way it isn't in most others — supervisors are used to being shown weld beads and appreciate being able to see the work rather than take your word for it.

What welders routinely leave off their CV

A few things come up again and again as omissions, usually because the welder assumes they're obvious or doesn't think of them as CV material:

• The expiry or last-test date on tickets. Leaving this off makes an employer assume the worst and ask, which slows things down or gets you filtered out before you get the chance to explain.
• Right-to-work and site-access documentation status, particularly for contract or agency roles where this is checked before you're even offered a start date.
• Working at height or confined space training (if held) — relevant on a lot of structural, pipework and vessel jobs and easy to forget because it doesn't feel like a "welding" qualification.
• Which side of the fence you sit on for inspection — whether your welds are typically inspected by an independent third party or self-certified. Third-party inspected work generally carries more weight as evidence of consistent quality.
• Fabrication versus installation. Some welders only ever weld in a workshop; others weld on site, often in worse conditions and awkward positions. State which, because it changes what the employer expects on day one.
• Named referees who can confirm your coded status, not just character references. A foreman or QC inspector who can vouch for your test results carries more weight than a generic reference.

What to do next

Go through your CV and replace every general claim with the specific one behind it: which process, which position, which material, which standard, which date. If you're applying against a specific advert, check the process and position it names and make sure that's the first thing your CV proves, not the fifth. If you hold a coded ticket, put the test date on it even if it's old — an honest old date is better than a suspicious gap. jobmarket.pro reads the advert and your work history and builds the application from your actual coded qualifications and experience, without inventing anything you haven't done.