Are you looking for a new job as a General Laborer? Why don’t you take a look at our General Laborer resume sample detailing every aspect to consider when crafting your own unique resume document?
General Laborers are perceived as strong, dexterous individuals doing physical, back-breaking work. However, you need more than muscle power and endurance to be shortlisted for a job, and the competition is tough out there.
Using our General Laborer resume guidelines may assist you in presenting an application that stands out from the rest and of course, landing the job in the end.
What you can read in this article
(Free sample downloads are at the bottom of this page)
1. Contact Information:
2. Resume Summary:
View this as the 30-second elevator pitch to your application, which will prompt recruiters to continue reading the meatier part of your resume. Stick to one paragraph and no more than three sentences (seen examples below)
3. Qualifications Summary:
General Laborers can find jobs with or without formal qualifications. The more qualifications you have, the better your chances of securing the job and also increase your pay grade.
4. Relevant General Labor Experience:
This is a tricky section because General Laborers are employed in almost every industry imaginable. Just remember that the skills that you learn in one job can often be applied to another job in a completely different industry. Present your employment history from front to back and also give details about apprenticeship or in-service training if applicable. Remember to use brief but informative descriptions about your duties under each role you have had.
5. Skills Summary/Key Skills:
The skills section is the area that would set you apart from the rest. General Laborers require technical, physical, and soft skills. Make sure to sprinkle the required job skills stated in the job description throughout your resume summary, and accomplishment, reinforcing them yet again in your skills section. This approach will add more validity to your application.
6. Licenses/Certifications/Relevant Coursework/Training:
General Laborers can go from unskilled to semi-skilled to skilled by supplementing work experience with training programs, accreditations, and licenses. Any post-school education (safety, maintenance, occupational compliance) will significantly boost your chances of being shortlisted for a job.
Regardless of your experience as a General Laborer, recruiters, and employers are looking for certain things in your resume that would point to other you are a fit for the role at hand.
Firstly, you need to mention if you are a skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled General Laborer.
The second aspect to highlight is the industry you are working in. General Laborers can work in agriculture (permanently or seasonally) where they assist ranchers and farmers in maintaining crops, and livestock, or doing general maintenance on machinery. General laborers are also found in the logistics and warehousing industry where they are responsible for moving objects, packages and pallets of freight and stock inside storage facilities for manufacturing, consumer goods, or pharmaceutical companies.
Similarly, a general laborer could also be tasked with operating, maintaining, or cleaning equipment and machinery in these industries. Pickers and packers are also identified as general laborers, and the individuals work in retail and wholesale sectors. Material-moving machine operators are falling under the General Worker classification, and they would use machinery to transport various objects around work sites in construction, mining, harbors, or airports.
Now you need to specify the purpose of your job. Think of what you do and describe that in one sentence. For example:
Next is a section dedicated to your physical abilities, for example, your dexterity to life more than 50 pounds, your nimbleness to climb into small spaces or your endurance to stand on your feet for long hours. Exemplary hand-eye coordination is imperative in manual labor work (you may lose an eye or a hand after all) and so is multi-limb coordination to climb ladders or descend via a rope into a utility hole. For most hard labor dobs excellent vision and depth perception are a must-have to firstly perform your job well, and secondly for your own safety and the safety of those around you.
Numerical and reading adeptness is next on the list. Understanding drawings, schematics, and ability to interpret blueprints and other work-related documents are vital to General Laborer roles in mining or construction, for instance. Mathematics and geometry comprehension and mechanical knowledge are also required in various skilled laborer jobs.
Finally, pay attention to ‘’the tools of the trade”. General Laborers should also have experience in using mechanical tools, operating machines, repairing, and maintaining equipment. (Examples include: claw hammers, lifting hooks, power hoists, pallet jacks, slings, cranes, saws, winches, hoses, wrapping machinery, banding machines)
Hiring Managers and Recruiters are drowning in resumes most of the time. Make their lives easier by presenting them with a well-constructed resume document. To do that you need to write a stellar career summary that hits the proverbial nail on the head by being concise, packed with relevant information, and instantly eye-catching.
Every General Laborer job has its own sets of terminology and buzzwords. Use these as SEO for your resume to highlight technical ability, soft skills, years of working experience, and qualifications. The more your resume resonates with the job description of keywords, the better fit you will seem. A career summary should consist of 3-6 lines that take no more than 20 seconds to read through.
Experienced and tenacious General Laborer with five years of working experience as a crew member for the metropolitan refuge department. Holds a perfect attendance record and the physical capacity to lift and load commercial refuse bins exceeding 25 pounds. Physically in mint condition and used to working long hours in adverse environmental conditions clearing debris and removing garbage sidewalks, pavements, and public walkways.
An energetic youngster with 8 months of experience as a General Laborer in the construction sector. Physically fit with oodles of endurance to perform site duties such as drilling and sawing/cutting construction materials as per the specifications of the bill of work document. Involved in prestigious building projects including the new waterfront gated estate where building works were finalized two months ahead of schedule. Mathematically orientated to interpret drawings, schematics, and blueprints backed up by a diploma in AutoCad Rivet.
General Laborer with green fingers and a passion for gardening, landscaping and cultivating lush vegetation for upscale country clubs. Over a decade of experience in pruning. Mowing, mulching, fertilizing and watering large-scale gardens exceeding 228 acres to perfection.
An employer would expect to see the following proven foundational duties and skillsets within an applicant’s resume, depending on the type of role they fulfill as a General Laborer. We have provided a few examples below to help you formulate your own list of job duties.
Under your accomplishment section, you may be tempted to copy and paste one or two of your everyday tasks just to fill up the section. Believe it or not, If you contemplate for a moment and think about what sets you apart, what you are most proud of, or what you accomplished in your previous roles, the accomplishments will start dropping fast and furiously onto the resume page.
The trick to writing compelling accomplishment statements is to quantify each statement with a number, timeframe, percentage ore score. By quantifying your achievements in this way, you are effectively providing concrete proof of your capabilities as a General Laborer.
When writing your resume, you should be answering questions such as, “How much?” or “How many?”. For instance:
Examples of General Laborer accomplishment statements:
General Laborers can secure jobs without having completed any formal education. However, the more post-school qualifications you have, the better your chances of securing higher-paid jobs. In short, indicate What, Where, and When regarding your qualifications, certifications or courses or workshops completed. The name of your qualification, institution, and date of completion is more than sufficient.
Completed Secondary and Post School Education must be listed as follows:
Start with the commencement date and completion date for diplomas, associate degrees, and bachelor's degrees. For courses, you can just list the date of completion. Next comes the full name of the qualification, then the full name of the institution, and then the City or abbreviated State name. List your high school diploma details similarly, but only include this when you have less than five years of working experience.
Here are some examples of a General Laborer Resume in terms of education:
2018 Public Certificate in Basic Construction & Maintenance, Houston Community College, Houston, TX
Course Curriculum:
Measuring and estimating building materials
Job site management techniques
Coordinating the construction process
Quality and safety standards in the construction industry
2012-2013 HVAC Certificate, Altierus College, Washington DC
2011 – Trades Diploma in Carpentry, Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids, IA
2010 – Waste and Refuse Disposal Course, Graduate, Penn Foster College, Ridgefield, NJ
2009 – Hazardous Materials Transportation Training, KMI Learning Institute, Columbus, Ohio
2008 – Forklift Driver Certification, Forklift Training USA, Clinton, MI
2012 High School Diploma, Geneva High School, Ackley, IA
Prospective employers may have different requirements listed in the job advertisement, therefore your skills section may need to be customized for each role that you apply for. (This entails extra work on your part, but well worth the effort in the end). Instead of listing your key skills and attributes in bulleted format spanning over two pages, rather present them in a skills matrix. For this, insert a three by ten table and dedicate a column to physical traits, one to technical skills and one to personality attributes, also called soft skills.
| Physical Skills | Technical Skills | Soft Skills |
|---|---|---|
| Manual Dexterity | Numerical | Punctual |
| 20/20 Vision | Reading | Trustworthy |
| Hand/Eye Coordination | Forklift Operation | Communication |
| Multi-Limb Coordination | Power Tools | Detail Orientated |
| Endurance | Mechanical Repairs | Team Player |
| Ability to life 70 pounds | Calibration Techniques | Energetic |
| Nimble & Agile | Safety Regulations | Self-Managed |
| Depth Perception | Blueprints & Schematics | Determined |
| Peripheral Vision | Scaffolding Set Up | Committed |
| Excellent Health | Mine Vehicles | Problem Solving |
| OSHA Certification | GED | High School Diploma |
| HVAC Certificate | Flagger | Cargo Warehouse Operations Course |
| CPR | Supply Chain Management (SCM) Certificate Elevating work platform license | CDL Class A |
| Hazardous Materials Transportation Training (HAZMAT) | CPUT – Certificate In Storemanship | Certified Forklift Driver |
| Coordinating | Scheduling | Monitoring |
| Controlling | Problem Solving | Improving |
| Tracking | Moving | Detecting |
| Organizing | Lifting | Onloading |
| Listing | Checking | Allocating |
| Stacking | Placing | Wrapping |
| Loading | Carrying | Picking |
| Digging | Removing | Hoisting |
Sectors: Various
Career Type: Unskilled, Semi-Skilled, Skilled
Person type: Laborer, Worker, Picker, Handler, Sorter, Mover, Cleaner, Packer, Sweeper
Education levels: From no formal education to post-school qualifications
Salary indication: $27,456 and $37,651 per annum / $13 – $18 per hour
Labor market: 12% growth from 2016 – 2016 (BLS)
Organizations: Plants, Factories, Production Facilities, Manufacturing Operations, Drop Shipping Facilities, Retail, Wholesale, Mining, Cargo, Shipping, Utilities, Construction, Commercial, Corporate, Agriculture