Top 12 Entry Level Electrical Engineer Skills to Put on Your Resume

Landing your first role as an entry-level electrical engineer demands a resume that shows more than degrees and coursework. You need skills that match the real world, the messy constraints, the deadlines, the teamwork. Below you’ll find the top 12 to highlight—tools and domains that make hiring managers pause and think, this person can contribute on day one.

Entry Level Electrical Engineer Skills

1. AutoCAD
2. MATLAB
3. PLC Programming
4. Multisim
5. LabVIEW
6. PSpice
7. Python
8. C/C++
9. PCB Design
10. SolidWorks
11. Power Systems
12. Signal Processing

1. AutoCAD

AutoCAD is computer-aided design software for precise 2D/3D drawings and models. Electrical engineers use it to draft schematics, panel layouts, wiring diagrams, and neat, readable documentation.

Why It's Important

For an entry-level electrical engineer, AutoCAD enables quick, accurate creation and revision of electrical drawings. That means fewer mistakes, clearer intent, and faster collaboration with peers in mechanical, manufacturing, and construction.

How to Improve AutoCAD Skills

1. Practice with purpose: Recreate real schematics, panel layouts, and wiring diagrams. Time yourself. Trim the clicks.

2. Learn AutoCAD Electrical: Use symbol libraries, wire numbering, and PLC I/O tools built for electrical work.

3. Master shortcuts: Command aliases and hotkeys compound speed over a day’s work.

4. Customize your workspace: Palettes, templates, layers, and plot styles tuned to your projects cut rework.

5. Adopt standards: Title blocks, layer naming, and symbols aligned with company or IEC/IEEE norms keep drawings consistent.

Put in steady reps and your drawings become cleaner, faster, and easier to build from.

How to Display AutoCAD Skills on Your Resume

2. MATLAB

MATLAB is a high-level environment for numerical computing, modeling, and visualization. In EE, it shines for control design, signal processing, power system studies, and rapid prototyping.

Why It's Important

It lets you test ideas quickly—model systems, analyze data, tune algorithms—then pivot without burning days. Toolboxes for signals, control, and optimization make complex tasks approachable.

How to Improve MATLAB Skills

1. Nail the fundamentals: Arrays, vectorization, plotting, scripts vs. functions, debugging.

2. Work with toolboxes: Start with Signal Processing, Control System, Optimization, and Simulink if your role leans controls.

3. Build micro-projects: Filters, PID tuning, state estimators, FFT-based analysis on real datasets.

4. Adopt clean coding habits: Preallocate, profile, document, and version your work.

5. Replicate published examples: Rebuild classic demos and extend them to your domain.

Small, focused projects stack into fluency.

How to Display MATLAB Skills on Your Resume

3. PLC Programming

PLC programming means writing logic—ladder, function block, structured text—to control machines and processes. You wire inputs, wrangle outputs, and keep production humming.

Why It's Important

Factories run on PLCs. Knowing how to design, implement, and troubleshoot control logic turns you into someone who can restore a line, improve uptime, and make safety systems robust.

How to Improve PLC Programming Skills

1. Start with the core: Ladder diagrams, I/O mapping, timers, counters, state machines, and safety basics.

2. Use simulators: Practice with vendor tools (e.g., Siemens, Rockwell) to test logic without physical hardware.

3. Read manuals: CPU specs, memory models, scan cycles, and instruction sets matter.

4. Build mini-systems: Conveyor mockups, bottle fillers, traffic lights, interlocks. Add HMI screens.

5. Embrace standards: IEC 61131-3 languages and good naming, comments, and version control.

6. Troubleshoot methodically: Force I/O safely, monitor tags, log events, and keep change logs.

Hands-on beats theory here. Wire, test, fail, fix—repeat.

How to Display PLC Programming Skills on Your Resume

4. Multisim

Multisim is a circuit design and simulation tool that lets you prototype virtually. You place components, run analyses, and catch issues before ordering boards or soldering a thing.

Why It's Important

Simulation trims iteration time. You’ll explore corners, stress parts, and validate ideas swiftly—especially handy when budgets and timelines are tight.

How to Improve Multisim Skills

1. Work through guided examples: AC/DC analysis, transient response, op-amp circuits, filters, power stages.

2. Practice frequently: Model reference designs, then perturb values and topologies to see what breaks.

3. Use built-in instruments: Virtual scopes, Bode plots, signal analyzers—measure like you’re in the lab.

4. Create subcircuits: Build reusable blocks with parameters for faster iteration.

5. Compare to bench data: Sim-to-lab correlation teaches you where models lie.

Curiosity plus disciplined experiments equals mastery.

How to Display Multisim Skills on Your Resume

5. LabVIEW

LabVIEW is a graphical environment for data acquisition, instrument control, and test automation. You wire blocks, not text, to build measurement and control systems quickly.

Why It's Important

Testing eats project time. LabVIEW helps you automate it—repeatable, logged, and sharable. Perfect for validation rigs, calibration stands, and quick experiments.

How to Improve LabVIEW Skills

1. Grasp dataflow: Understand execution order, timing, and how wires drive behavior.

2. Learn DAQ and drivers: Configure hardware sessions, scale signals, handle errors cleanly.

3. Use design patterns: State machines, producer–consumer, queued message handlers keep apps sane.

4. Build real projects: Sensor logging, PID control loops, automated test sequences with reports.

5. Refactor: Modular VIs, strict typedefs, documentation, unit tests—treat it like software engineering.

The jump from toy VIs to robust systems happens when you adopt structure early.

How to Display LabVIEW Skills on Your Resume

6. PSpice

PSpice simulates electronic circuits so you can predict behavior under different conditions, probe nodes, and optimize designs before hardware enters the chat.

Why It's Important

It reduces costly board spins and reveals edge cases. You’ll explore tolerances, thermal drift, and non-idealities that demolish perfect-paper circuits.

How to Improve PSpice Skills

1. Start small: Bias points, sweeps, and transient analysis on simple amplifiers and filters.

2. Model real parts: Use vendor models or build your own with measured parameters.

3. Try advanced analyses: Monte Carlo, worst-case, sensitivity, and param sweeps to quantify margin.

4. Validate assumptions: Cross-check with hand calcs and lab measurements.

5. Build libraries: Curate trusted components, symbols, and templates for speed and consistency.

Confidence comes from convergence—and correlation.

How to Display PSpice Skills on Your Resume

7. Python

Python is a flexible language for scripting, data wrangling, automation, and simulation. In EE, it pairs well with NumPy/SciPy/Matplotlib for analysis and quick prototypes.

Why It's Important

Automate the boring, analyze the noisy, and glue tools together. Python lets you move fast—report generation, test orchestration, signal analysis, you name it.

How to Improve Python Skills

1. Strengthen fundamentals: Data types, control flow, functions, classes, exceptions, virtual environments.

2. Use the scientific stack: NumPy for arrays, SciPy for signal/control, Pandas for tabular data, Matplotlib/Plotly for plots.

3. Automate workflows: Parse logs, batch-run simulations, generate PDFs/plots, manage test rigs via APIs.

4. Write clean code: Type hints, docstrings, linting, packaging, and unit tests.

5. Ship small tools: Command-line utilities and notebooks that teammates actually use.

Utility today, maintainability tomorrow.

How to Display Python Skills on Your Resume

8. C/C++

C offers tight control over memory and timing. C++ layers in abstractions for larger systems. Together, they’re the backbone of embedded, firmware, and real-time work.

Why It's Important

You’ll talk to hardware directly, meet timing budgets, and build firmware that survives resets and noisy power rails. Many devices demand it.

How to Improve C/C++ Skills

1. Master the core: Pointers, memory layout, concurrency basics, and the standard libraries.

2. Think embedded: Interrupts, ISRs, RTOS basics, register maps, linker scripts, and build systems.

3. Practice on targets: Use dev boards, debuggers, and unit tests on hardware-in-the-loop.

4. Adopt guidelines: Follow modern C++ practices, MISRA where applicable, and code reviews religiously.

5. Read and measure: Study quality open-source firmware; profile and analyze with actual constraints.

Discipline beats cleverness in production code.

How to Display C/C++ Skills on Your Resume

9. PCB Design

PCB design turns schematics into manufacturable boards. You place components, route traces, control impedance, and make sure the thing can be built, tested, and cooled.

Why It's Important

A brilliant circuit can still fail with a bad layout. Good PCB design improves reliability, EMI performance, thermals, and cost. It’s where theory meets solder.

How to Improve PCB Design Skills

1. Start with rules: DRCs, clearances, creepage, stackups, and impedance targets—set them early.

2. Place with intent: Short critical loops, clean return paths, decoupling close and plentiful, keepouts respected.

3. Mind signal integrity: Controlled impedance, matched lengths where needed, reference planes continuous.

4. Power integrity first: Star vs. plane, thermal reliefs, current density, via stitching, and solid grounding.

5. Thermal thinking: Copper pours, heatsinks, airflow, hot-spot spacing, and realistic power dissipation.

6. Design for manufacture and test: Fiducials, test points, panelization, assembly notes, and clear silkscreen.

7. Iterate and review: Peer reviews, checklists, prototype tests, and post-mortems.

Great layouts are intentional, not accidental.

How to Display PCB Design Skills on Your Resume

10. SolidWorks

SolidWorks is a 3D CAD platform. Electrical engineers use it to design enclosures, cable routing, mounting features, and to collaborate with mechanical teams.

Why It's Important

Physical constraints aren’t negotiable. Visualizing how boards, connectors, and harnesses fit saves rework and enables clean, serviceable products.

How to Improve SolidWorks Skills

1. Lock down fundamentals: Sketching, constraints, assemblies, configurations, drawings.

2. Explore electrical workflows: Harness routing, enclosure design, board-to-mechanical integration, clearance checks.

3. Use templates and libraries: Standard hardware, title blocks, material presets, and design tables.

4. Practice with real assemblies: Import PCB step files, verify keepouts, and test cable bend radii.

5. Leverage mates and interference checks: Catch collisions and tolerance risks before they hit the shop floor.

Your designs become manufacturable when the model tells the whole story.

How to Display SolidWorks Skills on Your Resume

11. Power Systems

Power systems cover generation, transmission, distribution, and end-use. Big grids and small microgrids alike, all aiming for reliable, safe, efficient electricity.

Why It's Important

Societies run on stable power. Understanding protection, stability, and planning lets you design systems that endure faults, weather, and demand swings.

How to Improve Power Systems Skills

1. Learn the fundamentals: Per-unit systems, load flow, short-circuit analysis, protection basics, and power quality.

2. Study smart grids: AMI, DER integration, demand response, and grid automation practices.

3. Model and simulate: Run load-flow and fault studies; explore renewable intermittency and storage.

4. Focus on protection: Relay coordination, selective tripping, arc-flash boundaries, and grounding.

5. Think resilience and cybersecurity: Hardening, monitoring, segmentation, and incident response.

6. Stay current: Follow standards and forums (e.g., IEEE PES) and learn from real utility case studies.

Reliability is engineered—never assumed.

How to Display Power Systems Skills on Your Resume

12. Signal Processing

Signal processing extracts meaning from data—filters noise, compresses, detects, classifies, reconstructs. Audio, RF, imaging, sensors; the toolbox is broad.

Why It's Important

Clean signals drive good decisions. With the right transforms, filters, and estimators, systems communicate better, measure more precisely, and react faster.

How to Improve Signal Processing Skills

1. Own the math: Fourier transforms, z-domain thinking, convolution, sampling theory, and filter design.

2. Simulate often: Prototype in MATLAB or Python; compare windowing methods, filter orders, and numerical effects.

3. Work end-to-end: From sensor and ADC selection to algorithm to deployment on embedded hardware.

4. Study real signals: Record, label, and analyze messy data—then denoise and detect features.

5. Validate rigorously: SNR, latency, power, and memory trade-offs; measure, don’t guess.

Great DSP balances theory with gritty constraints.

How to Display Signal Processing Skills on Your Resume