Bricklayer (Brick Mason) Resume Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a journeyman bricklayer with about nine years in the trade: a three-year union apprenticeship, three years with a residential and restoration masonry company, and three years on commercial jobs. The name, contractors and training center are made up. Keep the layout and swap in your own production numbers, wall types and certifications.

Masonry contractors hire through the foreman or superintendent, sometimes through the union hall, and they rarely use a recruiter. They are reading your resume to decide whether to put you on a wall Monday. Four things decide it.

• Can you produce? Brick or block per day on straight runs is the number every foreman knows for their crew. Give yours, and say what kind of wall (veneer, backup CMU, foundation block). 500+ modular brick or 150–200 block a day is a solid journeyman rate; be honest.
• Is your work plumb, level and clean? Corners and leads, tolerances, passing inspections without rework, matching bond and joint profile on restoration work. "Attention to detail" says nothing; "held corners to 1/8 inch in 10 feet" does.
• Will you hurt yourself or the crew? OSHA 10 or 30, scaffold training, silica controls, fall protection, zero recordables. Masonry has some of the highest injury rates in construction, and insurance rates follow.
• Can you show up and travel? Your own tools (trowels, levels, jointers, line blocks), a driver's license and a truck, willingness to travel between job sites and to work through winter with heated enclosures.

“I want the number of brick you lay a day, whether you can run a corner, and your OSHA card. Then I want to see your trowel work on the first morning. If a resume gives me those three, the guy is on the wall by Monday.”

Most bricklayer resumes list the trade in general terms: "laid brick and block," "mixed mortar," "followed safety rules." Every mason does that. Rewrite each line with how many, what type of wall, what tolerance and what result. Six rewrites using real masonry work:

List 10 to 14 skills, wall types first, then layout and print reading, then tools, equipment and safety. A foreman reads this section to see if you can do their kind of work.

Masonry work:

• Brick veneer (modular, utility, queen), running bond and pattern bonds (Flemish, English, stack, soldier and header courses)
• CMU block: 8-, 10- and 12-inch, bond beams, lintels, pilasters, reinforced and grouted walls, block foundations
• Corners, leads, story poles, keeping course heights and joints consistent; joint profiles (concave, weathered, raked)
• Restoration: repointing and tuckpointing, mortar matching, brick replacement, lime mortars, parapet and chimney rebuilds, cleaning and sealing
• Flashing, weeps, wall ties, control and expansion joints, joint reinforcement, rebar and grout lifts
• Mortar types N, S and M; mixing, batching and cold-weather masonry practice

Layout, tools and equipment:

• Reading architectural and structural drawings, specs and shop drawings; laying out from control lines with a laser or transit
• Hand tools you own: brick and pointing trowels, jointers, levels (2- and 4-foot), line blocks and pins, brick hammer, chisels, tape and story pole
• Masonry saws (wet and dry), grinders and splitters with silica dust controls
• Scaffold: frame, system and mast-climber; erecting, inspecting and tagging
• Rough-terrain telehandler, skid steer, mortar mixer and hoist operation

Safety and work habits (state them as facts, not adjectives): OSHA 10 or 30 card, silica and fall protection training, recordable-free years, attendance in bad weather, willingness to travel, a valid driver's license and your own transportation.

A summary looks back; an objective looks forward. Use an objective if you are applying for an apprenticeship or a tender (laborer) spot with the aim of getting on the trowel. Three or four lines, with your daily rate and your safety training in the first two.

Bricklayers in the US do not need a state license to work for a contractor; the contractor holds the license. What counts on a resume is your apprenticeship and journeyman status, your safety cards and your equipment evaluations. List them with the issuer and the year.

• Registered apprenticeship and journeyman status: through a union program (International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, BAC, with training from the International Masonry Institute) or a non-union program (Associated Builders and Contractors chapters, Home Builders Institute, or a contractor's own registered program). Give the hours and the completion year.
• NCCER Masonry credentials, if you trained through a school or ABC program that uses them. List the level you completed.
• OSHA 10-Hour Construction card as a minimum; OSHA 30 for lead and foreman roles. Some states and cities (New York City, for example) require them by law for work on larger sites.
• Scaffold training: user training for everyone, competent person training if you inspect and tag. Say which.
• Respirable crystalline silica training (OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1153) and fall protection training. Masonry contractors get cited for these two more than anything else.
• Equipment: telehandler or forklift operator evaluation (employer-issued, renewed every 3 years), skid steer, aerial lift and mast-climber user training.
• Education: a high school diploma or GED plus your apprenticeship is the standard line. Trade school masonry programs go under education with the hours.

Nobody is hired as a bricklayer with no experience. The way in is a mason tender or laborer job (mixing mortar, stocking scaffold, cutting brick) or a registered apprenticeship, and contractors fill both from people who show they are strong, safe and steady. Your resume should make that case with numbers from whatever work you have done.

1. 1Put the title you are applying for under your name: "Mason Tender / Laborer" or "Bricklayer Apprentice Applicant." Not "Construction Worker."
2. 2Get an OSHA 10 Construction card before you apply. It takes two days online, costs under $100, and it is the first thing a foreman asks about.
3. 3Write a two-line objective with your physical readiness (lifting, outdoor work, all weather), your license and transportation, and your goal of an apprenticeship.
4. 4Pull physical and safety work from any job: warehouse, landscaping, moving, farm work, demolition, roofing tear-off, concrete. Give each a number: pounds lifted, hours a week, days worked in a row, incidents (zero).
5. 5Mention anything masonry-adjacent: helping on a family project, a high school building trades class, a pre-apprenticeship program, practice panels you have laid, tools you own.
6. 6Apply directly to masonry contractors and to the apprenticeship coordinator at the local training center; many programs take applications only during set windows, so ask when.
7. 7One page, no photo, PDF, and carry printed copies to job sites and the union hall.

• One page. A foreman reads it in a truck cab or at the trailer. Two pages only for foremen and superintendents with a project list.
• Order: header with title and travel or license note, summary, certifications and safety cards, skills, experience, education. Cards go high because the OSHA and scaffold questions come first.
• Plain, single-column layout like the cvplex construction or ats-classic template. Print it in black and white; it will be photocopied and handed around. No photo, no date of birth.
• Use the title in the posting in your header: bricklayer, brick mason, mason, block mason, blocklayer, masonry worker. Keep your real title in the experience section. Applicant tracking software at larger contractors searches for the exact word.
• Gaps between jobs are normal in masonry (winter layoffs, project ends, union hall time). Label them as "seasonal layoff" or "between projects" rather than leaving them blank, and list short jobs with the contractor name and the project type.
• State plainly: own tools, valid driver's license, willing to travel (and how far), and whether you are a union member or open to either.

Words to mirror from the posting when they are true for you: bricklayer, brick mason, block mason, masonry, CMU, veneer, leads and corners, blueprints, layout, flashing, reinforcement, grout, repointing, restoration, stone, scaffold, telehandler, OSHA 10, OSHA 30, silica, fall protection, journeyman, apprenticeship, commercial, residential, travel.