Car Valeter CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample covers both sides of the trade: high-volume wash work and paid detailing. The name and employers are made up. If you only work the tunnel, keep the layout and use the wash attendant bullets. If you detail full time, lead with the job value and coating numbers.

These jobs get a lot of applicants and very few good CVs. Four things decide who gets a call.

• Do you have a full driving licence and a clean record? You will be moving customers' cars, so many sites cannot take you on without one, and their insurance may set a minimum age. Put it in the top third of the page, not the bottom.
• Have you damaged a car? Nobody asks it that bluntly in an advert, and every manager thinks about it. A line saying no damage claims across three years and about 5,000 vehicles handled is worth more than any adjective on your page.
• How many vehicles can you do? Cars per hour at a tunnel, cars per day in vehicle preparation, or full valets per day. Speed and quality are the entire economics of this business.
• Can you sell? Drive-through washes increasingly rely on monthly subscriptions and detailing businesses live on add-ons. If you have a sign-up rate or an average job value, put it in. Very few applicants do, and it moves you to the top of the pile.

“Two things get somebody hired here: a clean driving licence and a number of cars per shift. The third thing, if they have it, is memberships sold. Somebody once got hired here off one line about sign-ups per week, because that pays for the whole position.”

The adverts look alike and the jobs are not. Decide which one you want before you write, because the numbers that impress one manager mean nothing to the other.

Two or three lines. Vehicles per shift, driving licence status, any qualification, and your availability for weekends. Saturdays are the business, so say you can work them.

Most CVs for this job say washed and cleaned vehicles. Put the count, the time target, the chemical or the money in the same sentence and the manager can picture your shift.

Split exterior, interior, equipment and the business side. A manager should be able to see straight away whether you can be left alone with a customer's car.

• Exterior: two-bucket hand wash, snow foam, pressure washer, wheel and tyre cleaning, iron and tar decontamination, clay bar, drying with blowers and microfibre
• Paint work: dual action and rotary polishing, pad and compound selection, one-stage and two-stage correction, sealants, waxes, ceramic coatings, trim restoration, headlight restoration
• Interior: vacuuming and crevice work, hot water extraction, leather cleaning and conditioning, steam cleaning, pet hair removal, odour treatment, glass without streaks
• Equipment: tunnel conveyor and brushes, dryers, water reclaim systems, daily equipment checks, extractors, steamers, polishers and their maintenance
• Chemicals: dilution ratios, pH-neutral products, COSHH and safety data sheets, PPE, knowing which product not to put on trim or a matt finish
• Business side: subscription and add-on selling, average job value, booking appointments, before and after photos, customer walk-rounds at handover
• The practical facts managers screen for: full UK driving licence and clean record, manual licence, weekend and bank holiday availability, working outdoors in rain and cold, standing and bending all shift

No licence exists for washing or valeting cars in the UK. What matters is your driving licence, any valeting or coating training, and evidence of the finish you produce.

• Full UK driving licence and a clean record. Say it plainly. Dealers and car hire branches check your licence (usually with a DVLA check code you generate online), and penalty points are the most common reason applications end.
• Valeting qualifications: a Level 2 vehicle valeting qualification from a college or training provider shows formal training, and detailing academy courses help for paint correction roles. The US-based International Detailing Association certification is recognised by some specialist detailers. Hardly anyone applying has any of these.
• Manufacturer ceramic coating applicator training. Coating brands train and register applicators, and businesses that sell those packages need someone trained to apply them. Name the programme you completed.
• COSHH awareness if you have it, plus manual handling and any safety data sheet training.
• Any dealer vehicle preparation or manufacturer approved-used standards training you completed.

Photos are the strongest evidence in detailing and cost nothing. Put one portfolio link in the header: eight to twelve before and after shots taken in the same light, including a swirl-mark correction, an interior extraction and a coated panel. Say how long each job took. In the US this job is usually advertised as car washer, detailer or reconditioning technician and the document is called a resume; for UK applications use valeter, detailer or vehicle preparation technician.

This is one of the easiest first jobs to get and the CV still matters, because most applicants send half a page with no dates. Beat them on specifics.

1. 1Career objective, three lines: the role, your availability for weekends and bank holidays, and your driving licence status.
2. 2Put the driving licence and record near the top. It is the single most common blocker.
3. 3Any physical outdoor work counts: landscaping, removals, warehouse, construction, farm work. Say the hours and the conditions, because standing outside in January rain is the part people quit over.
4. 4Count anything you have washed or cleaned: family and neighbours' cars, a gardening firm's vans, bikes, boats. Say how many and what you used.
5. 5Customer-facing work is a real plus at a drive-through wash, because attendants sell subscriptions. Give the customers per day and any sales numbers.
6. 6Take photos of three cars you clean this week and link them. That alone will put you ahead of most applicants for a detailer role.

• One page, and half a page is fine early on. Fill it with specifics rather than stretching it.
• No photo of yourself and no date of birth on a UK CV. Photos of your detailing work go behind a link.
• Plain single column with clear headings. Dealer groups and national car wash chains use an ATS.
• Availability line near the top: weekends, bank holidays, early mornings, and whether you want full or part time.
• Use month and year on every job. Managers in this field are used to gaps and undated CVs, and dating yours makes it look serious.
• Match the advert title: car valeter, car wash attendant, vehicle cleaner, mobile valeter, detailer and vehicle preparation technician all appear, and the filter is literal.