Build an ATS-friendly CV

• Your name as on your passport or degree certificate, in English letters.
• A professional title that matches the jobs you apply for, e.g. “Production Engineer”, “Reservoir Engineer”, “Petroleum Engineering Graduate”. It is the first thing a recruiter and an ATS search read.
• A professional email address and a phone number with the country code (+964 for Iraq).
• City and country only; a full street address is not needed.
• Leave out date of birth, marital status, religion, gender, ID numbers and photo. They are not needed, and many employers prefer not to receive them.

Two to four lines (about 40–80 words), written without “I”. A simple pattern:

1. Who you are: title + years of experience + where (onshore/offshore fields, company type).
2. Your two or three main technical areas, e.g. well testing, artificial lift, water injection.
3. One concrete strength you can prove, e.g. a type of project or result.
4. Optional: the kind of role you are looking for.

Pattern (replace everything in brackets with your own facts):
“[Production Engineer] with [6] years in [onshore oil fields in northern Iraq], focused on [well testing, ESP and gas lift operations] and [daily production optimisation]. [Led a programme that …]”

Avoid empty phrases such as “hard-working”, “results-driven”, “dynamic team player” or “passionate”. Facts show them better.

• Most recent job first; the CV sorts them for you.
• Responsibilities: 2–5 lines on what you did, with what (wells, equipment, software, crews).
• Achievements: real results only, with a number when you have one (bbl/d, %, days, wells, cost). Never estimate a figure you cannot support in an interview.
• Start each line with an action verb: Monitored, Analysed, Optimised, Designed, Supervised, Conducted, Interpreted, Evaluated, Planned, Coordinated, Commissioned, Reduced, Increased, Restored, Prepared.
• Avoid “Responsible for…”, “Duties included…”, “Worked on…”.

Patterns (replace the brackets with your own facts, or do not use them):
“Optimised gas lift injection on [number] wells, adding [figure] bbl/d”
“Supervised [build-up / multi-rate] well tests and interpreted results in [software]”
“Reduced [ESP / compressor] downtime from [x] to [y] days per month by [what you changed]”
“Monitored water injection of [rate] bbl/d into [number] injectors with the reservoir team”
“Prepared daily production allocation reports for [number] wells across [number] stations”

For graduates and students, industrial training is valuable experience. Name the company and department, the dates, and what you actually saw or did: rig operations, well testing, laboratory tests, reports you prepared. Leave this step empty if it does not apply.

Patterns: “Followed daily drilling operations on a [depth] m [vertical/deviated] well”; “Ran [mud property / core] tests in the [department] laboratory”.

• Degree in English as on your certificate, e.g. “B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering”.
• GPA: include it when it helps (recent graduates, good grades), written as on your transcript, e.g. “78.5/100”.
• Graduation project: one line naming the topic; details can go under Projects.
• Still studying? Enter the expected year and tick “Not graduated yet”.

Recruiters search for exact terms. List the technical areas you have actually worked in, separated by commas. You may group them, one group per line, as “Group: skill, skill”.

Examples of technical skills: Production Operations, Well Testing, Reservoir Engineering, Drilling Engineering, PVT Analysis, Well Logging, Artificial Lift (ESP, Gas Lift, Rod Pump), Water Injection, Process Operations, Well Integrity, HSE (Permit to Work, JSA), Data Analysis.

Examples of software: Petrel, Eclipse, OFM, PIPESIM, PROSPER, MBAL, Saphir, Techlog, AutoCAD, MATLAB, Python, Microsoft Excel.

Only list what you can discuss in an interview. Leave out soft skills such as “communication” here: show them in your experience.

• Certifications: formal certificates with an issuing body, e.g. IWCF or IADC WellSharp well control, NEBOSH, H2S awareness, OPITO BOSIET. Add the expiry if there is one.
• Courses: training you attended, e.g. a software course or a company workshop, with the provider.
• Leave empty entries blank; they are ignored.

Useful for graduates and for engineers whose main work is project-based: graduation project, field studies, simulation models, improvement projects. Say what you built or studied, with which data and tools, and what you found.

• Memberships: professional bodies such as the Iraqi Engineers Union or the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
• Languages: be honest about levels; interviews often test English.

Add up to three short sections with a heading of your choice, e.g. Awards, Publications, Volunteering, Conferences. Most CVs do not need any.