Mechanic CV Example & Writing Guide

Ensure your CV format is structured to best highlight your unique experience and life situation.

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How to write your mechanic CV

Whether you’re a school leaver looking for a mechanic apprenticeship or an experienced mechanic seeking an MOT testing position, you need a well-written CV to get hired at your preferred garage.

So put the same attention to detail that you use for repairing vehicles into the process of writing your CV. Fine-tune your mechanic CV by following these three writing & formatting tips:

1. Start with a strong personal statement

A good personal statement drives the employer to read the rest of your CV by summarising your most job-relevant mechanic skills in 3–4 sentences or bullets.

To craft the perfect personal statement for your mechanic CV, diagnose the job advert to determine which of your skills and experience will impress the garage’s recruiter. Then feature that information in your personal statement.

If you really want your relevant abilities to stand out, you can use bold text to emphasise them, as the following CV personal statement example does:

Professional Motor Mechanic with over 9 years’ experience and many highly-developed technical trade skills. Extremely hard-working with an outstanding record of success and achievement on the job — repairing and maintaining different vehicles ranging from cars and lorries to motorbikes and scooters. Service-oriented, driven to achieve goals, and able to supervise projects to meet challenging deadlines and objectives.

2. Choose the proper CV format for your experience level

You have two CV layouts to choose from — the standard CV layout and the skills-based CV layout. The way you should set out your mechanic CV depends on how much experience you have:

Inexperienced or early-career mechanics: Skills-based CV layout

If you don’t have much car-servicing experience, move your job-specific skills and training to the top of your CV by using the skills-based CV layout, listing your information in this order:

• Your name & contact details
• Personal statement
• Relevant skills
• Education
• Work experience
• Hobbies & interests

Then, build out your skills section by writing your top skills as headers followed by 3–4 descriptive bullets per skill. Here’s an example of a skills section written for a mechanic apprenticeship application:

Car-Servicing Skills

• Have been changing oil on family and friends’ vehicles for 5+ years
• Helping father & grandfather rebuild a Jaguar AJ-V8 engine
• Answer basic car-repair questions on Reddit and Quora

Experienced mechanics: Standard CV format

The standard CV format is best if you’ve already worked as a motor mechanic because it emphasises your relevant experience by placing your work experience section right below your personal statement.

You’ll still make a skills section, but it should simply be a bulleted list of relevant mechanic skills that you didn’t work into the rest of your CV.

3. Emphasise your mechanic skills with hard numbers & examples

Just saying you have mechanic skills on your CV isn’t enough to convince a recruiter to interview you. Instead, describe your skills with examples and numbers to show specifically how you can help your target garage thrive.

For example, let’s say the job advert you’re responding to requires a mechanic who can train apprentices. Here’s an example of an unconvincing statement about apprentice mentoring, followed by a repaired version with numbers and an example:

❌ Able to train apprentice mechanics

✅ Guided 3 trainees from apprentices to full-time mechanics, delivering hands-on training and sharing useful industry knowledge

Other data and examples you can use on your mechanic CV include:

• Amounts of money saved by finding new parts providers
• Repair times reduced via developing efficient processes
• Specific mechanical issues solved
• Number of employees supervised
• Average number of customers assisted per day

Need more ideas?

Our library of CV examples has hundreds of tailored CVs you can use to fine-tune your job application and stand out from other applicants.

 

Mechanic job outlook in 2025 — things to know

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), mechanics in the UK earn an average annual salary of £31,568.

You can find information about the gender pay gap for mechanic on the ONS’ website.

The ONS also notes that this role faces a skills shortage, with 58.09% of employers reporting difficulties filling similar vacancies.

To strengthen your CV for a mechanic role, highlight these key qualifications and licences:

• Complete apprenticeship
• NVQ (Level 2or 3 recommended)
• ONC/BTEC in relevant field
• Light Vehicle Repair Level 2
• MOT Tester certification
• Relevant operational licences (including driving)

If you’re missing any of these qualifications, consider enrolling in a course, training programme, or work-based learning scheme to boost your profile.

Data source: The Office for National Statistics, an agency of His Majesty’s Government. The information contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 and reflects the ONS’s most recent salary (1/11/2023), gender pay gap (4/2023), and skills shortage data (6/2022).

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