Demolition Worker Resume Example & Writing Guide

This sample is for a demolition worker with about five years on commercial jobs who has moved from hand demolition into running small machines. The name, the contractors and the schools are made up. If you are newer, keep the same layout and shorten the bullets; there is an entry-level version further down.

Demolition hiring is fast and it is driven by insurance, schedule and safety record. A superintendent scanning your resume for twenty seconds is looking for four things.

• Cards and clearances. OSHA 10 at minimum, OSHA 30 if you want to lead. HAZWOPER, respirator fit test and confined space if the company does remediation. Put the year on each one so they can see it is current.
• What kind of demolition. Interior strip-out, selective, structural, industrial dismantling and remediation are different jobs. Say which ones you have done and on what buildings.
• Equipment you can be handed on day one. Skid steer, mini excavator, high-reach, breaker, saw, torch, man lift. List the makes or sizes when you know them.
• Reliability and safety record. Hours worked, injuries, missed days, drug screen and background status if the site requires it. A line like "zero recordable injuries in 5 years" carries weight because the contractor's insurance rate depends on it.

“I hire off two lines: what cards do you hold, and what have you actually torn down. A guy who writes "interior strip-out, 200,000 square feet of office and hospital, OSHA 30, current fit test" gets called that afternoon. "Hard worker, team player, demolition experience" tells me nothing I can put on a job.”

Only list what you actually hold, with the issuing body and the year. Demolition contractors check cards, and a false claim ends the hire on day one. These are the ones that come up most often on US demolition crews.

• OSHA 10-Hour Construction: the basic outreach card most sites require before you walk on. OSHA 30-Hour Construction: expected for foremen and often preferred for experienced workers.
• HAZWOPER 40-Hour (29 CFR 1910.120) plus the annual 8-hour refresher: needed on hazardous waste and remediation sites. If you only hold the 24-hour, say 24-hour.
• Respirator medical evaluation and fit test under 29 CFR 1910.134: write the type (half mask, full face, PAPR) and the date. Contractors care because an out-of-date fit test costs them a day.
• Asbestos abatement worker or supervisor license: this is issued by your state, and the training and renewal rules differ state to state. Name your state and the year, and if you are not licensed, say so rather than guessing.
• EPA Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) certification: relevant for work in housing and child-occupied buildings built before 1978.
• Confined space entry, scaffold user, aerial and scissor lift, fall protection, rigging and signalperson training: list the ones you have had, with the year.
• Commercial driver's license (CDL), Class A or B, with endorsements: a real advantage if the crew hauls its own debris. Note your clean driving record.
• First aid and CPR, and a competent person course if you have taken one.

Three or four lines at the top. Years, type of demolition, machines, cards, one record fact. No objective statements about seeking a challenging opportunity.

"Demolition worker job description resume" is one of the most searched phrases for this job, and it is usually a sign that people are copying a generic duty list off a job board. Do not do that. A duty list makes you look like everyone else. Build each bullet the same way instead.

1. 1Start with the demolition verb: strip, break, cut, torch, dismantle, load, contain, salvage, sort.
2. 2Say what and how much: square feet, floors, buildings, tons, containers, linear feet of wall.
3. 3Name the tool or machine you used, because that is what a superintendent is matching against the next job.
4. 4Add the condition that made it hard: occupied building, night shift, containment, live utilities nearby, winter, hand demolition only.
5. 5Finish with the outcome when you have one: on schedule, recycling rate, no injuries, no damage to adjacent structure, passed clearance.

Split the section so a reader can find things fast. Machines and tools first, because that is what gets matched to the next crew.

Equipment and tools:

• Skid steer (wheeled and tracked), mini excavator, telehandler, man lift and scissor lift
• Hydraulic breaker, grapple, shear and bucket attachments
• Pneumatic and electric breakers, chipping hammers, ride-on scrapers
• Walk-behind saw, hand saw, ring saw, core drill, wall saw
• Oxy-fuel torch cutting and plasma cutting
• Chutes, chippers, dust suppression and HEPA vacuums
• Negative air machines, containment framing and poly

Work and safety skills:

• Reading demolition plans, utility disconnect sheets and engineering surveys
• Selective demolition and salvage of fixtures for reuse
• Load-bearing awareness and shoring support
• Silica dust control (wet cutting, HEPA vacuum, exposure control plan)
• Lockout/tagout and utility verification
• Rigging, hand signals and spotting for machine operators
• Fall protection, scaffold use and ladder safety
• Debris sorting for recycling and diversion reporting
• Roll-off weights and haul coordination

Things worth saying in plain words: you show up, you can lift and work long shifts, you take direction from a foreman, you speak up when something looks unsafe, and you can work nights or travel if the job calls for it. Those are the soft skills that matter in demolition. Skip "detail oriented".

Demolition is one of the easier construction trades to enter, because much of the work is learned on site. What a contractor wants from a first-timer is proof that you will turn up, work hard in bad conditions and take instruction. Build the page around that.

• Get an OSHA 10-Hour Construction card before you apply. It is inexpensive, it can be done online, and it removes the contractor's first objection.
• Put any physical job at the top: warehouse, landscaping, moving, farm work, roofing help, kitchen work. Say the hours, the weights and the attendance.
• List your driver's license, whether you have reliable transport, and whether you can pass a drug screen and background check if the site requires one.
• Say what tools you have already used, even from home or family work: sledge, pry bar, jackhammer, angle grinder, chop saw.
• Add availability plainly: nights, weekends, out-of-town travel, short-notice call-ins.

• One page. Two only if you have more than 15 years and a genuine foreman history. Demolition superintendents read fast.
• Plain layout, black text, no columns, no graphics. Many contractors run resumes through an applicant tracking system or print them in a trailer.
• Put a Certifications and Cards block above or right below Experience. It is the first thing checked.
• No photo, no date of birth, no marital status. That is standard in the US. In the UK the same job is often advertised as a strip-out operative or demolition labourer, and a CV there follows the same rules.
• List the cities or states you have worked in if you are willing to travel; travel work pays more and contractors look for it.

Larger demolition and remediation companies screen applications with software before a human sees them. You do not need tricks, you need the same words the posting uses. Read the ad and copy its exact phrasing where it is true for you.

• Job type words: interior demolition, selective demolition, structural demolition, strip-out, dismantling, site clearance, remediation, abatement support.
• Card words: OSHA 10, OSHA 30, HAZWOPER, respirator fit test, confined space, fall protection, competent person.
• Equipment words: skid steer, mini excavator, high-reach excavator, breaker, grapple, shear, torch, man lift, telehandler.
• Site words: containment, negative air, silica, lockout/tagout, engineering survey, shoring, roll-off, debris diversion.
• Condition words: night shift, occupied building, travel, per diem, union or open shop.