General maintenance technicians and managers are primarily responsible for carrying out various tasks, including setting up & repairing manufacturing equipment, performing inspections to determine repairs needed, maintaining preventive maintenance records & required schedules, repairing or replacing defective parts, and troubleshooting electrical and mechanical systems.
Whether you are an experienced maintenance professional or a new entrant to the industry, several maintenance-related and repair job opportunities are waiting for the right candidates.
Suppose you’re also considering a career in the general maintenance sector but unsure how to get started. In that case, this is your guide to build a successful career as a general maintenance and repair manager.
We’re going to discuss 10 of the most important things that you need to add to make an excellent resume.
1. Great Interpersonal Skills
General maintenance is a people-based role in which every decision taken is centered around how you can better serve customers’ needs. Therefore, a large part of your success as a maintenance manager depends on your ability to communicate, inspire, and engage with your colleagues.
Having good interpersonal skills is a must-have in any maintenance manager resume. It allows them to remain calm during unanticipated problems and deal with grace under pressure.
Interpersonal skills are also important for general maintenance workers to maintain good relationships with their teams, colleagues, vendors, and customers at all costs.
2. Technical Expertise
To build a successful career in their chosen field of interest, maintenance managers need to have the required technical expertise in their specializations.
They need to have the appropriate educational training to easily identify, address, and resolve any technical issues and problems in the facility.
When it comes to compensation, candidates with high technical expertise enjoy various advantages largely in high maintenance manager salary.
The technical expertise you have also allowed you to manage your team and direct them to make the right decisions, and provide the correct technical solutions to equipment and systems involved.
3. Leadership Skills
Maintenance managers in any facility are required to exhibit exceptional leadership capabilities such as self-motivation, compassion, optimism, proactiveness, organizational skills, and trustworthiness.
An efficient general maintenance leader should have a strong and clear vision of project goals and know how to delegate them efficiently. In addition to this, they must have the ability to prioritize tasks and manage important timelines to ensure completeness of the tasks.
Among the other abilities that the maintenance managers need to demonstrate include-
- Setting clear and specific objectives
- Creating a fully transparent work environment
- Knowing how to foster motivation among the teams
- Establishing clear timelines
4. Problem-solving Skills
One of the other key skills that a maintenance manager should have in his resume is problem-solving abilities. A good problem solver needs to be a critical thinker and should possess the ability to assess situations properly, make good judgment calls, and take actions accordingly.
Having these skills will help maintenance managers effectively navigate the tough work situation, create timelines, supervise staff, prioritize tasks, create timelines and financial budgets.
5. Time Management Skills
General maintenance managers are often interrupted by workplace issues, sudden staff meetings, and other such distractions. This makes it important for a maintenance professional to have great time management skills.
A good and efficient time management professional knows well to manage his time, how much time to spend on each task, prioritizing various work duties to work as per the scheduled deadlines.
6. Active Listening
Being a good listener is an important skill that a maintenance manager should possess to run a maintenance department efficiently.
What is important to remember here is that listening should not only be about hearing the problems. A good maintenance manager should have the ability to recognize various underlying conditions that led to the problem in the first place so the team can act accordingly.
To do that effectively, a general maintenance manager should tell when his team of technicians is not sharing enough or don’t have the complete picture of what happened at the facility.
7. Neutral Attitude
Maintenance managers need to possess a balanced and neutral attitude when dealing with a problem. In the maintenance field, you will invariably come across situations where things won’t go exactly as per the plan. At such times, you would need to impartially evaluate everyone’s opinions to get to the bottom of the problem and come up with a feasible solution.
Further, having neutrality as a skill also allows you to play an important role when responsible for assigning the tasks to your maintenance crew. If you stay fair and neutral, only you would design a fair and balanced maintenance schedule without causing any friction between the team members.
8. Ability to Work in a Team
Teamwork is an essential skill to have in any manager, especially working in the maintenance field. It helps them identify ongoing issues and misunderstandings that might not be communicated to individuals members and could negatively affect the entire team.
It offers a great opportunity to share different perspectives, enhance your skills, and uncover various creative ideas. Knowing how to work in a team also enables the managers to brainstorm ideas and develop effective and workable solutions.
9. Organization skills
In any maintenance role, the importance of establishing work priority is immense. Having the skills to be organized and prioritize the tasks allow the maintenance manager to work with a clear objective and ensure that all the efforts are well directed and are aligned with the company’s goals.
10. Adaptability
General facilities management is a very dynamic profession where every day brings in a new challenge. This is why you need to maintain a level head and a go-getter attitude to see success in this role.
To Wrap
The maintenance manager is a high-pressure job where candidates must fulfill team members, colleagues, and superiors’ expectations.
Therefore, a maintenance manager’s resume should have a fine balance of technical knowledge and organizational skills, two of the most important qualities that make this position very demanding.
Including the skills mentioned above in your resume ensures that you build a successful career as a maintenance manager.
