Drone Operator Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Drone Operator resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Drone operators are responsible for the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. Working as part of a larger team that includes camera operators, directors, and producers, drone operators control the movement of these aerial vehicles to capture footage for use in television shows, movies, commercials, documentaries, and more.
If you’re looking for a challenging, fast-paced job that will allow you to push the limits of your creativity while staying on the cutting edge of technology, then you might be ready to become a drone operator yourself. Before you start writing your resume, however, you’ll need to think carefully about what experience you have that will make you competitive in this field. Here are some tips and an example resume to help you do just that.
How to Write a Drone Operator Resume
Here’s how to write a resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
When you’re writing bullet points, it can be tempting to simply list your responsibilities and duties. But that’s not enough to make a strong impression. Instead, you should use your bullet points to demonstrate your value by highlighting your accomplishments, results, and key skills.
For example, rather than saying you “operated drones to collect aerial footage for real estate videos,” you could say you “operated drones to collect aerial footage for real estate videos, resulting in a 50% increase in views on YouTube and a 20% increase in website traffic over six-month period.”
Notice how the second bullet point is more specific and provides more detail about the project, its outcome, and its impact on the company.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you submit your resume for a drone operator role, it’s likely that it will be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. This program will search your resume for terms related to the job, like “drone pilot” or “UAV operator.” If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right terms, the ATS might not rank it highly enough to be seen by a recruiter.
To make sure your resume makes it past the ATS, use this list of common drone operator keywords as a starting point:
- Drone Operation
- Aerial Photography
- Aerial Videography
- Drones
- UAVs
- Geopositioning
- Photography
- Videography
- Adobe Photoshop
- GIS
- MATLAB
- Aerial Mapping
- Autodesk Maya
- Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW)
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)
- Aerospace
- Videoconferencing
- Robotics
- Programming
- UAS
- Remote Sensing
- Geomatics
- Surveying
- GIS Software
- Drone Pilot Certification
- Ground Control Points (GCP)
- Drone Training
- 3D Mapping
- Precision Agriculture
- Google Maps
Showcase Your Technical Skills
As a drone operator, you need to be proficient in the use of specific software and systems in order to do your job effectively. This might include familiarity with drone-specific software, such as DJI GO 4, as well as with other types of software that are commonly used in the drone industry, such as video editing software. Additionally, drone operators need to be able to use technology to communicate with other members of the drone team, including pilots and camera operators.