Made redundant from manufacturing, struggling to get back into engineering. Advice welcome

I do feel for you, and those are excellent questions.

1. What can I do outside of work to keep my engineering skills current, such as personal projects, courses or CAD work?

It is actually quite difficult to do meaningful engineering work outside the industry, however anything that keeps you current will help. CAD is a good one, because it doesn't matter what you are drawing, the fact that you are using a CAD tool at all will count in your favour. I'm out of date with what free tools are available, but try to go for the free versions of professional systems if possible rather than hobbyist systems - maybe Autodesk Fusion? Also hopefully your MIET will help. But be careful how you claim these, see next answer for hints.    

2. How do I present my current non-engineering role so it still supports an engineering application?

If you are doing any type of leadership or management, including anything involving money or time management, then claim that. Most engineers have very little management or commercial exposure, those that do are valuable. So play it as "for the last two years I have been developing my management / leadership / commercial / sales / client facing / etc skills, however I am now strongly looking to return to an engineering role but adding value with the skills I have developed in this role".

As in question 1, you want to claim any engineering exposure at all in this period, whether in work or out of it, but do be careful not to over-claim. Just drop it in as "as I had always planned to return to an engineering role I have worked to keep my skills up to date through exercising my CAD skills / through becoming a member of the IET so that I could read IET publications / rebuilding a motorbike / etc". Don't try to claim that any of these have made you an expert, that can make it look like you've forgotten what real experts look like, it's just a gentle message that you've kept up to date.  

3. How do hiring managers view a two-year gap from engineering, and how should I address it?

Let's be honest, they worry. BUT if you can get to interview and it's clear that you are genuinely interested then the right manager will understand that it happens - particularly if you can show that the skills you did develop in those two years will help the employer make money. Back when I was a recruiting manager (not very long ago) I would rather recruit someone enthusiastic who wanted to get back into engineering than someone already working in it who had no real interest. And the fact that someone wants to get back in shows real interest.

4. What makes an engineering CV stand out at the screening stage?

Almost impossible, good engineering CVs all look the same. When people apply for marketing jobs they need their CVs to stand out, but for engineering jobs you want your CV to blend in. It's all about not getting your CV rejected rather than getting your CV picked out. The key point is (as recruiters always say) is answer the questions in the job advert. The first sorting team - which may be a human resources team who know nothing about engineering - will only be looking to see if the words in your CV match the words in the advert. Most don't, so just getting that right will make yours stand out (by blending in).

Or, if you are applying cold, i.e. not to a job advert, make sure you really understand what the company does and therefore what will be of value to them. And when I say "the company" I mean the actual part of the company that you are applying to. I used to work for a company which was well known as an aerospace company, and I would get CVs all about the applicant's aerospace experience with a covering letter saying how interested they were in designing aircraft - thing was, our division made railway signalling products! Don't look at the corporate website, look at anything you can find out about the local division.

Don't spend ages on a personal statement at the top of your CV, every single applicant is "hardworking, dynamic, committed, reliable, an excellent communicator and works well in a team or by myself" - those descriptions are meaningless and will be ignored by everyone. But again, if the CV is responding to an advert with a few key words (e.g. CAD, optics, manufacturing, Ishikawa) which relate to skills or experience you have then do put them in a personal statement at the top of your CV. The recruiting manager will probably ignore them, they'll look for evidence of what you've actually done, but it will help get you through the HR screen. For a general CV I would keep any personal statement as vague as "mechanical engineering graduate with problem solving experience in a design and manufacturing environment". At your career stage it can be risky going more specific, e.g if you stated at the top of a general CV "Ishikawa" you could get rejected because "our company doesn't use that". (It's ok to quote things like that in the body of the CV, it's just if they're at the top it can make you come across as an inflexible specialist.)

Basically make it really easy for the reader to find the bits they are interested in, which is why all this above about understanding their needs is so important. When a recruiting manager (who is trying to get on with their other work) is trying to get 200 CVs down to a "long list" of 20 they will spend literally seconds looking at each one. Been there, done that. They are just trying to find the key words. Then it's while getting that long list down to the short list to interview that they will start to worry about things like career gaps.

5. How should I present a relatively short period of engineering experience so it carries as much weight as possible?

Focus on achievements. Mention teamwork (actual examples, not just "I worked well in a team"). Include liaison with other departments - this is a really important one. Presumably your work involved working with both the design team and the manufacturing team, that's very powerful.

Focus on skills you developed - employers do not expect you to be useful immediately on graduation, so what you learned in those two years is vital.

Be clear what YOU did. Not "I worked in a team that delivered...". Instead "I  investigated a recurring non-conformance, I identified the root cause as a design fault using 5 Whys and Ishikawa with the design team, (ideally) I proposed a solution to correct the problem, the corrective action that followed improved production rates by around 75%." (Incidentally this is good practice for your IEng application which you should write in the same style!) But of course do not lie or exaggerate, you must be able to show at interview that you did what you said you did, if you cannot the interview will be over.

Don't forget the boring bits - yes first emphasise the technical achievements, but then also did you improve a process (even if only in a minor way)? Did you develop a spreadsheet to track activities (even if only for your own use)? Employers want engineers who will deliver a whole service, not just the fun techy bits. Don't go into huge detail on small tasks, but do get across that you identified a need for them and did them.

If you did something exceptional at university then claim that. Particularly if it is about teamwork or solving a real world engineering challenge. Or if you won an award or similar. Normally four years after graduation you'd be dropping stuff like that from your CV, but in your case it may help you.

You mention working towards IEng / CEng, there's an excellent tool you can use there to help with your CV: look at UK SPEC and ask yourself if your CV shows all the UK SPEC competences (at some level). So again, not just tech skills but commercial awareness, a bit of leadership, maybe an awareness of health and safety, etc etc. Use UK SPEC to make sure that you come across as a well rounded engineer. Now, just like your IEng application, you mainly want it to focus on the A and B competences, and then some Cs, but having some examples of Ds and Es ("I can talk to people and I do my work professionally")  will really help you. And that will help you work out which experiences you've gained in the last two years, outside the industry, are relevant to working as an engineering professional.

And don't give up. Apply, apply, apply, apply. Don't get knocked back by rejections. Somewhere there will be the right fit for you. Every recruiting manager is different and looking for different things. We don't all go to one training school where we learn "only recruit people like this"! And it's important to keep remembering that so that you can approach each application with optimism - it can be hard but you do need to make sure that you can come across as positive in your interviews when you get there. Sadly if you go into an interview expecting to be rejected then you will be rejected - you'll just give off negative vibes. If you can go in thinking "maybe this time" then...maybe this time!  

If you look on my profile you'll find a path to my LinkedIn account, if you contact me through that I'll happily have a quick look at your CV and comment on it.

Good luck,

Andy