Construction work shows no signs of slowing down and with job sites popping up in increasing numbers all over the world, there’s no better time than now to learn how to craft the perfect construction worker resume. In the following guide, we’ll be walking you through everything you need to know to create the ideal resume. 

As well as providing tips about formatting, mentioning skills & experience, and how to list any additional achievements you have, we’ll also show you how to write the perfect resume objective and resume summary. We’ll be covering how to write a resume when you have no experience, while at the bottom of the article we’ll tell you how to make your resume really stand out from the crowd.

Multiple Template Examples

How to Write the Perfect Construction Worker Resume

How to Format It

Given that prior experience is so important in construction work, the ideal format for your resume is the classic chronological style. Prioritizing the work experience you already have under your belt will grab the recruiter’s attention right away. The chronological style will also help whoever’s reading your resume to see how your career has progressed over the years.

What Recruiters Will Look For

Recruiters hiring for a construction worker position will be on the lookout for a few key traits, irrespective of what the position itself entails. This is because the kind of work involved on job sites is highly technical and requires a lot of attention to detail, particularly because sloppy work can lead to serious safety risks for the entire team, as well as for the developer who is trying to get something built in the first place. 

Here’s what recruiters are going to be looking for when they’re poring through a stack of resumes:

1. Attention to Detail

As mentioned above, attention to detail is paramount to working successfully and safely as a construction worker. Of course, it’s easy for people to simply say that they’re capable of applying high levels of attention to detail to their work, but it’s a lot harder to prove it to the recruiter without letting them see you work firsthand.

One of the best ways to ensure that you’re seen as somebody who really does pay attention to the finer details is to make sure your resume is perfect. Not just good, and not just excellent — perfect. A lot of the time, resumes arrive at the recruiter’s desk riddled with errors. 

That might seem permissible, given that you won’t be writing resumes on the job, but if you can wipe out every single grammar, punctuation and spelling mistake from your own resume, you’ll be making an enormous impression on the recruiter’s subconscious. By doing this, you’ll effectively be packaging yourself as somebody who pays attention to detail without overtly stating it, which can have an impressive impact on how you’re viewed by your potential employer.

2. Experience with the Latest Technology

Construction work is an area that has been rapidly expanding over the last few years, particularly with the advent of new technology. As it happens, new systems and methods of handling the construction work required are popping up all the time. That means that you need to prove you’re up to date with the latest in construction technology.

If you do have experience with some of the recent advancements in the industry, you’ll be getting out ahead of your competition since you won’t need to be trained on the newest developments to the same extent. 

In a working environment that relies so heavily on advanced techniques and processes, having experience with the latest construction industry technology is a huge plus, and you can rest assured that recruiters will be looking out for such ability in every resume they go through.

Which Skills to Mention and How to Do It Correctly

Given that the role of a construction worker can involve a range of different daily tasks, it’s important that the skills you choose to highlight make it clear to the recruiter that you’re versatile enough to take on any challenges you encounter. Here are some of the main skills you’d want to mention in a resume:

Practical Skills

Your practical skills will indicate to what extent you’ll be able to handle the work itself on the job site. When you mention them, be sure to provide examples of direct experience you have using the skills themselves, as this will help to ground your resume in the eyes of the recruiter. The best practical skills you could include are:

• Flooring
• Working with concrete 
• Cabinetry
• Framing
• Drywall
• Painting
• Forklift operation 

Personal Skills

Your persona skills have less to do with the technical things you’re going to be doing on the job, and more to do with how you’ll be able to present as well as handle yourself in a professional environment. 

Construction workers need to be reliable, efficient and flexible if they’re going to be able to handle the day in, day out nature of the job. Here are the most important personal skills you could mention:

• Attention to Detail
• Time Management
• Interpersonal Effectiveness
• Physical Fitness

It’s also a good idea to mention some of the following abilities, which will be highly prized by any recruiter in the construction sector. Although they may not be things you use on a daily basis, having the below skills as part of your resume will present you as the complete package to whomever is reading it, which could give you the edge in a tight hiring process.

Additional Skills

• OSHA Compliance
• MS Office Competence
• First Aid / CPR
• Problem Solving
• Record Keeping 

Which Achievements to Mention and How to Do It Correctly

When it comes to mentioning achievements, you should focus on those which are relevant to your work as a construction worker in some way or other. For example, when it comes to management roles, prior experience working in a position of responsibility is a major plus. 

Similarly, if you’ve taken additional courses in your trade — or if you’ve been expanding your skill set by doing some online certifications — that’ll count as a significant point in your favor.

Hobbies & Interests

Your hobbies & interests play a bigger part in construction worker jobs than in some other positions. Focus on hobbies that require you to use your hands, such as woodworking, carpentry, metalwork or similar activities. This will show that you have been expanding your knowledge in the area and practicing more.

Online Certifications

Online certifications are always an impressive thing to include in a resume, since they demonstrate to the recruiter that you’ve got the drive to pursue your own education, and the determination to see a commitment through to the end. Any online certification is likely to be impressive, so feel free to mention courses you’ve done even if they’re not construction-specific.

Volunteering 

While volunteering isn’t directly relevant to the work you’ll be doing as a construction worker, it is a great way to show that you’re a team player, as well as that you’re generous with your time. Both of these are exciting qualities in the context of hiring a new construction worker, since both are conducive to getting the job at hand done sooner rather than later, given that you’re not likely to slack off.

What to Avoid Mentioning

When you’re crafting your resume, it’s a good idea to know what not to mention as well as what to mention. In the case of a construction worker, that’s a little more complicated than it is with some other jobs, purely because of the sheer amount of variability you can find with different construction worker jobs.

The best way to get a handle on what might be best to leave out of your resume is to take a good, close look at the job listing itself. Keep an eye out for different keywords that might indicate more clearly what’s going to be required of you during your work. There are a few broad categories that you can divide construction worker resumes into. In each case, it’s important that you only mention the skills which are relevant for that particular job.

Mentioning other skills might make you seem more well-rounded, but in the end all it’ll show the recruiter is that you haven’t spent time poring over the job listing in enough detail.

Construction Tradespeople

Perhaps the most common kind of construction work you might find when you’re searching the job market is for tradespeople. Tradespeople are those who have specific skills depending on their trade in question. Here are some of the keywords that will indicate a tradesperson is needed for the job:

• Brick laying
• Carpentry
• Concrete mixing / cement mixing
• Plumbing
• Drywall installation
• Carpeting / roofing / trim detailing
• Iron work / masonry / metal lathing

If you find any of those keywords in the job listing, don’t mention your supervising or management skills, since that’s not what they’re looking for. Instead focus on aspects of your trade you know inside and out.

Construction Supervisors / Managers

Similarly, if you see any of the below keywords in the job posting, odds are they’re going to be looking for somebody with management experience to take on an overseeing role, which will typically involve significantly higher amounts of responsibility and interpersonal skills:

• Project management
• Inspection
• Site supervision
• Contracting
• OSHA
• Hazardous materials / HAZMAT
• Building, electrical, or environmental codes
• Scheduling
• Time management 

If any of those terms crop up in the listing, they’re looking for somebody with management experience and aptitude to handle leading a team and to take responsibility for all aspects of the job site. You should not mention your abilities with different trades in this case, unless it’s as an addition to your management qualities, since they’re simply not looking for a tradesperson - they’re looking for a supervisor.

Too many times, applicants fall into the trap of trying to seem like they can do everything. For some positions that can work out, but in the case of construction work, it’s a critical error that must be avoided at all costs.

How to Write a Resume Objective and Examples of This

A resume objective should be a dispassionate, detail-heavy explanation of how you’ll be able to meet the recruiter’s requirements. Instead of focusing on the value you can provide to their organization, as you’ll be doing in your resume summary, it’s important to spend as much energy as you can making it crystal clear that not only do you thoroughly understand what they’re looking for, you’re also up to the task of meeting those demands. 

Here are a couple examples of well-written resume objectives:

1. Detail-focused construction supervisor leveraging project management and supervision experience to guarantee thorough, precise, and timely completion of job site projects. Capable of handling budgets, contracting, and taking on cost-control responsibilities. Practiced at inspiring workers to push harder and more accurately, helping to keep to strict schedules and deadlines.
2. Labourer with 8+ years of experience in inspection, repairs, and construction, seeking role as Site Manager. Proven history of management skills and experience in a leadership position, as well as in-depth familiarity with all aspects of foremanship.

How to Write a Resume Summary and Examples of This

In contrast to a resume objective, a resume summary is your chance to make it obvious just how much value you, personally, can bring to the recruiter’s organization. The language you’ll use will be different, and should be focused on figures as well as hard details about your prior success as opposed to the more dry tone of voice that should be used in writing a resume objective. 

See below for two examples of excellent resume summaries for construction worker positions.

1. Highly skilled Construction Worker who works equally well as a team manager or leader. Physically fit and effective on the job site, focused on delivering projects ahead of schedule while taking proactive steps at all times to ensure that safety protocols are correctly implemented. 
2. Foreman with more than 10 years of experience on a variety of jobs interested in leveraging his skills to fill that role at XYZ Inc. Proficient at reading and dealing with blueprints and schematics in all the standard formats. Natural leader, practiced at motivating team members in order to keep work quality high without ever dropping behind schedule.

How to List any Additional Details

Construction work is jam-packed with granular, specific skills the workers need to have. You may well feel like these details — such as which machines you have experience operating, how much weight you can lift, and what kinds of documents you’re familiar with — are an important part of your package, but you just can’t figure out where to include them.

The best way to mention additional details on your resume is to tie them in to your experience. Consider two situations:

In Resume A, the applicant lists how much he can lift and what schematics he’s able to read in a bullet-point list, one by one.

In Resume B, the applicant takes some time to talk about their miscellaneous work history, and describes how being able to read a certain schematic or the ability to operate a given machine help them to complete the job at hand more quickly and effectively. 

Which of the two presents a more impressive overall candidate? It’s applicant B, who has been able to ground his additional details in experience, which will improve their overall impact on the recruiter. By mentioning his skills as well as including cases where he actually got the chance to use his skills, applicant B is presenting himself as a stronger, more dynamic candidate. 

Although applicant B probably won’t be able to mention as many additional details as applicant A, thanks to the fact that he spends more time describing them and therefore takes up more space, those skills that he is able to mention will pack much more of a punch.

How to Write a Resume When You Have No Experience

Writing a construction worker’s resume with no experience is more challenging than if you’ve had a long and proven work history, but that’s not to say it can’t be done. The key concept to get your head around is that you’ll need to fill in the experience gaps with proof of your skills. You want to sell yourself as somebody who is worth the time and expense of giving a chance to, and the only way to do that is to convince the recruiter you’ve got the right mindset and attitude.

Focus on providing some kind of substantiated backup for the skills you mention. For example, in the case of using the Microsoft Office suite, it’s worth your while doing a quick certification online. 

This will prove that not only do you have the skill, you’ve actually taken the time and hassle to go ahead and make your competence official. Over and above the level of skill your certification proves, this will also help you look like a resourceful, clever candidate who knows the value of going the extra mile.

How to Target your Resume for Each Application

If you imagine a recruiter digging through a large pile of resumes, it’s easy to see why focusing on even the most minute details is a worthwhile use of your time. It’s not going to be easy to make an impression on anybody when you only have a few seconds of their time in such a situation, but one way you can announce yourself is by clearly targeting your resume for the job listing in question.

For example, take a good, critical look at the job in front of you and try to read between the lines. If it’s an industrial project, it’s possible that carpentry won’t play a huge part in your day to day workflow on the site. Similarly, if you’re going to be working on a small, residential building, there’s no reason to think being able to mix concrete is the most important aspect of your skillset.

Once you’ve identified which skills are likely to matter the most, make an effort to highlight those in your resume, while relegating the less important abilities you have to an Other Skills section or whatever your equivalent is. It’s important to include them, they just shouldn’t occupy the same space in the document as the skills you’ve targeted in particular. 

There’s no guarantee it’ll make the difference when the time comes, but it will make an impression on whoever’s hiring you for the job, and any positive association you can tie into your own name will pay dividends down the line.

How to Make Your Resume Stand Out

Making your resume stand out is a difficult task, but it’s worth every minute you spend on it. Here are some of the main ways to make your construction worker resume stand out from the crowd:

1. Make it Easy on the Recruiter

Making life easy for the recruiter is something they’ll thank you for, particularly if they have to wade through a massive stack of papers in the search for a perfect candidate. By including lots of white space throughout your resume (i.e., keeping your writing from clogging up all the pages) as well as clearly highlighting your contact information, you’ll already be ahead of competitors who haven’t taken the time to ensure their resume is easy to read.

2. Make it Obvious You’ve Read the Listing

We’ve mentioned this point throughout the guide, but it’s difficult to overstate the importance of making it blindingly obvious that you actually have read the listing in detail and know what’s required. You’d be amazed by how many people don’t prioritize this point enough, resulting in bloated, sloppy resumes that aren’t nearly as effective as they could be.

3. Write Impeccably

The attention to detail in your writing is just as important with a construction worker’s template than it would be with a regular office job. Make a rule for yourself that you’ll never submit anything with even a single mistake, and you might just find yourself being interviewed much more often for the jobs you do apply to.

How Resumebuild Can Help You to Write the Perfect Construction Worker Resume

If you’ve read to the end of the guide, you might feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of information you’ve just gone through, in addition to wondering how on Earth you’ll be able to craft the perfect resume with so much to include. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution to the problem.

Resumebuild’s resume building tool is an intuitive, elegant resume builder that makes crafting a visually-stunning, highly impressive resume a walk in the park. With hundreds of custom-made templates to choose from, all the hard work is already done for you. All you need to do is pick the template that looks the most appealing to you, fill out your personal details, then download the finished product, and you’ll be well on your way to dominating the next construction worker’s job you apply for.