Demolition Operative (Demolition Worker) CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a demolition operative with about five years on commercial jobs who has moved from hand demolition into running small plant. The name, the contractors and the college 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, programme and safety record. A contracts manager or site supervisor scanning your CV for twenty seconds is looking for four things.

• Cards and training. A CCDO card at the right level (or a CSCS card for general labouring), SSSTS if you want to lead, and asbestos training, a face fit test and confined space if the company does asbestos removal or remediation. Put the year on each one so they can see it is current.
• What kind of demolition. Soft strip, selective, structural, industrial dismantling and asbestos removal are different jobs. Say which ones you have done and on what buildings.
• Plant you can be handed on day one. Skid steer, mini excavator, high reach, breaker, saw, torch, MEWP. List the makes, sizes and plant cards (CPCS or NPORS) when you have them.
• Reliability and safety record. Hours worked, injuries, missed days, drug and alcohol testing if the site requires it. A line like "no lost-time or RIDDOR-reportable injuries in 5 years" carries weight because the contractor's insurance costs depend 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, site safety card, 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 UK demolition crews.

• CCDO card: the demolition industry's card scheme, run by the National Demolition Training Group and accepted on CSCS sites. Most NFDC member contractors expect one at the right level for your role. You need to pass the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test and the training for your level.
• Asbestos training: asbestos awareness (from a UKATA or other accredited provider) for everyone on a demolition job. Licensed removal work is only done by HSE-licensed contractors, and their operatives need full training, an annual refresher and medical surveillance. If you only hold awareness, say awareness.
• RPE face fit test: write the type (half mask, full face, powered respirator) and the date. Contractors care because an out-of-date fit test costs them a day.
• Plant cards: CPCS or NPORS for the machines you run (skid steer, 360 excavator, high reach, telehandler), with the category and the expiry date. If you are on a trained-operator card working towards the competent-operator level, say so rather than guessing.
• Lead awareness under the Control of Lead at Work Regulations: relevant when stripping old lead paint in older buildings.
• Confined space entry, PASMA (mobile towers), IPAF (scissor and boom lifts), harness, slinger/signaller and scaffold awareness training: list the ones you have had, with the year.
• C or C+E driving licence with a Driver CPC card: a real advantage if the firm runs its own skip or hook-loader lorries. Note your clean driving record.
• Emergency First Aid at Work or First Aid at Work, and SSSTS if you have done it.

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

"Demolition worker job description CV" 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 metres, floors, buildings, tonnes, skips, metres of wall.
3. 3Name the tool or machine you used, because that is what a contracts manager is matching against the next job.
4. 4Add the condition that made it hard: occupied building, night shift, enclosure, live services nearby, winter, hand demolition only.
5. 5Finish with the outcome when you have one: on programme, recycling rate, no injuries, no damage to the neighbouring structure, clearance passed.

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

Plant and tools:

• Skid steer (wheeled and tracked), mini excavator, telehandler, MEWPs (scissor and boom lifts)
• Hydraulic breaker, grab, shear and bucket attachments
• Pneumatic and electric breakers, chipping hammers, ride-on scrapers
• Floor saw, hand-held saw, ring saw, core drill, wall saw
• Oxy-fuel torch cutting and plasma cutting
• Chutes, chippers, dust suppression and H-class vacuums
• Negative pressure units, enclosure framing and polythene sheeting

Work and safety skills:

• Reading method statements, demolition plans, disconnection certificates and asbestos surveys
• Selective demolition and salvage of fixtures for reuse
• Load-bearing awareness and propping
• Silica dust control (wet cutting, H-class vacuum, RPE, COSHH assessment)
• Safe isolation and checking services are disconnected
• Slinging, signalling and banksman duties for plant operators
• Harness use, scaffold and ladder safety
• Waste segregation for recycling and site waste reporting
• Skip and RoRo weights, waste transfer notes and haulage coordination

Things worth saying in plain words: you turn 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 away from home 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.

• Pass the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test and get the card the contractor asks for (often a CSCS or CCDO labourer card, which also needs a short health and safety course). It is not expensive, and it removes the contractor's first objection.
• Put any physical job at the top: warehouse, landscaping, removals, farm work, roofing, kitchen work. Say the hours, the weights and the attendance.
• List your driving licence, whether you have reliable transport, and whether you can pass a drug and alcohol test if the site requires one.
• Say what tools you have already used, even from home or family work: sledgehammer, crowbar, breaker, angle grinder, chop saw.
• Add availability plainly: nights, weekends, working away, short-notice starts.

• One page. Two only if you have more than 15 years and a genuine foreman history. Demolition contracts managers read fast.
• Plain layout, black text, no columns, no graphics. Many contractors run CVs through an applicant tracking system or print them in the site cabin.
• Put a Cards and Training block above or right below Experience. It is the first thing checked.
• No photo, no date of birth, no marital status on a UK CV. Adverts often say demolition operative, strip-out operative or demolition labourer, so use the advert's title.
• List the cities or regions you have worked in if you are willing to work away; away work pays more and contractors look for it.

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

• Job type words: soft strip, strip-out, selective demolition, structural demolition, dismantling, site clearance, asbestos removal, remediation.
• Card words: CCDO, CSCS, CITB HS&E, asbestos awareness, face fit test, confined space, IPAF, PASMA, SSSTS.
• Plant words: skid steer, mini excavator, high reach excavator, breaker, grab, shear, torch, MEWP, telehandler, CPCS, NPORS.
• Site words: enclosure, negative pressure unit, silica, safe isolation, method statement, propping, skip, RoRo, waste segregation, CDM.
• Condition words: night shift, occupied building, working away, lodge or subsistence, day rate.