Graduate mechanical engineer CV example (UK)

A complete CV for a fictional graduate engineer, on A4 in the Clarity template, with notes on why it works.

Ethan Kowalski

Graduate mechanical engineer

Profile

MEng Mechanical Engineering graduate with a year in industry at an automotive supplier and three seasons on a Formula Student team. Interested in design and test roles in automotive or aerospace, working towards chartered status (CEng).

Education

MEng Mechanical Engineering (with a Year in Industry), University of the Don Valley

Sheffield | 2021 – 2026

First-class honours; IMechE accredited; modules included finite element analysis, vehicle dynamics and control engineering

Topology-optimised a suspension upright for the final-year project, cutting mass by 22% while keeping a safety factor of 2 under peak cornering load
Validated the design with strain-gauge testing on a rig built for the project, matching FEA predictions within 8%

A levels: Maths (A*), Physics (A), Further Maths (A), Ridgeway Sixth Form College

Leeds | 2021

Work experience

Industrial Placement, Design Engineering, Hallam Precision Components

Rotherham | Jul 2024 – Jun 2025

Redesigned a machined gearbox bracket for casting, reducing unit cost by £3.40 across 40,000 parts a year
Produced 60 SolidWorks drawings to company standards, all signed off at first or second review
Ran 120 hours of vibration testing on 3 prototype mounts and wrote the test reports used in the customer review
Set up a tolerance stack-up spreadsheet now used by the team of 7 design engineers

Projects

Formula Student, Chassis and Suspension, University of the Don Valley Racing

Oct 2022 – Jun 2026

Led a sub-team of 5 designing the 2026 suspension, saving 1.8 kg of unsprung mass on the previous car
Machined and assembled 24 suspension components in the university workshop to a 3-week build deadline

Skills

Design and analysis: SolidWorks, Ansys Mechanical (FEA), MATLAB and Simulink, GD&T, tolerance analysis
Manufacturing and test: CNC and manual machining, strain gauging, data acquisition, DFMEA
Other: Python for test data analysis, full UK driving licence

The same CV as plain text (what you'd paste into a job portal)

ETHAN KOWALSKI
Graduate mechanical engineer
ethan.kowalski@example.com | 07700 900738 | Sheffield | linkedin.com/in/ethankowalski-example

PROFILE
MEng Mechanical Engineering graduate with a year in industry at an automotive supplier and three seasons on a Formula Student team. Interested in design and test roles in automotive or aerospace, working towards chartered status (CEng).

EDUCATION
MEng Mechanical Engineering (with a Year in Industry), University of the Don Valley
Sheffield | 2021 – 2026
First-class honours; IMechE accredited; modules included finite element analysis, vehicle dynamics and control engineering
- Topology-optimised a suspension upright for the final-year project, cutting mass by 22% while keeping a safety factor of 2 under peak cornering load
- Validated the design with strain-gauge testing on a rig built for the project, matching FEA predictions within 8%

A levels: Maths (A*), Physics (A), Further Maths (A), Ridgeway Sixth Form College
Leeds | 2021

WORK EXPERIENCE
Industrial Placement, Design Engineering, Hallam Precision Components
Rotherham | Jul 2024 – Jun 2025
- Redesigned a machined gearbox bracket for casting, reducing unit cost by £3.40 across 40,000 parts a year
- Produced 60 SolidWorks drawings to company standards, all signed off at first or second review
- Ran 120 hours of vibration testing on 3 prototype mounts and wrote the test reports used in the customer review
- Set up a tolerance stack-up spreadsheet now used by the team of 7 design engineers

PROJECTS
Formula Student, Chassis and Suspension, University of the Don Valley Racing
Oct 2022 – Jun 2026
- Led a sub-team of 5 designing the 2026 suspension, saving 1.8 kg of unsprung mass on the previous car
- Machined and assembled 24 suspension components in the university workshop to a 3-week build deadline

SKILLS
Design and analysis: SolidWorks, Ansys Mechanical (FEA), MATLAB and Simulink, GD&T, tolerance analysis
Manufacturing and test: CNC and manual machining, strain gauging, data acquisition, DFMEA
Other: Python for test data analysis, full UK driving licence

Why this works

With one placement and no graduate job yet, Ethan’s degree is the strongest evidence, so Education comes first. The final-year project gets bullets of its own, written like work experience, because that is the work an employer will ask about.
Results from university projects can be measured too: mass saved, test hours, accuracy against a simulation. A recruiter reading “cut upright mass by 22% while keeping a safety factor of 2” learns more than from a list of modules.
The industrial placement is written with the same discipline as a full-time job, with a number in most bullets. Saying what changed because the student was there is what separates this from a placement description copied from a handbook.
The student motorsport team shows teamwork and deadlines with real stakes. It sits in Projects rather than Hobbies, because it is engineering work and should be read as such.
One page is right for a graduate. Grades are given once and precisely (predicted or achieved), and A levels are kept to a single line because the degree now matters far more.

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Ethan Kowalski is a fictional person. Every employer, school, number and contact detail on this CV is invented.