Glazier CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a commercial glazier with about ten years: residential and shower work first, then shopfronts, now curtain walling and chargehand duties. The person and companies are made up. Keep the structure and put your own systems, square metres and cards in.

Glazing companies are small enough that a foreman or the owner reads your CV directly. They are looking for four answers.

• Which systems. Shopfronts and curtain walling are the money work. Naming the systems you have installed (Schüco, Kawneer, Reynaers, Technal) shows you have been on real jobs.
• Can you measure. Site measuring for fabrication is where money is lost. A remake percentage on your CV is unusual and it works.
• Height and lifting. Boom lift, scissor lift, cradle, crane setting, vacuum lifter. If you are comfortable at 30 m, say so, because plenty of glaziers are not.
• Breakages and call-backs. Glass is expensive and leaks are worse. A breakage rate or a no-call-back stretch is proof you slow down at the right moments.

“Anyone can say they install glass. What I want to know is whether you can pull a field measure that fabrication can build to, and whether you can set a 550 kg unit off a lifter without putting it into the mullion. Two numbers on a CV, remake rate and breakage, and I already know how you work.”

Three or four lines. Years, the kind of glazing, a volume or a size, then your cards. If you have less than a year, write a career objective and put your training and your willingness to work at height in it.

Take the duties from a glazier job advert and turn each one into something measurable. The right side is what gets read.

Keep it to things you can be handed on site. Systems, glass types, tools, then the physical side.

Systems and glass:

• Stick and unitised curtain walling
• Aluminium shopfront and entrance systems (Schüco, Kawneer, Reynaers, Technal)
• Window walls, ribbon windows and punched openings
• Sealed units, toughened, laminated, low-E and spandrel glass
• Interior glass: partitions, balustrades, mirrors, shower enclosures
• Rooflights, canopies and sloped glazing
• Fire-rated glass and fire door glazing

Hands and tools:

• Glass cutting, edging, arrissing and hole drilling (annealed glass)
• Glass vacuum lifter, suction cups, glass trolleys and A-frames
• Structural and weather silicone, wet and dry glazing, gaskets, setting blocks
• Sealant gun, backing rod, tooling a clean joint
• Door ironmongery: closers, pivots, panic hardware, thresholds, locks
• Site measuring, templating, fabrication drawing and elevation reading
• Boom and scissor lifts, cradles, scaffold, slinging and crane signals
• Site water testing and leak tracing

The physical facts worth stating:

• Comfortable working at height, clipped on, in wind and cold
• Lifting and carrying glass with a partner all day, 35 kg and up
• Loading a glass rack correctly so nothing breaks in transit
• Working in occupied buildings and tidy working habits in shops
• Call-out rota for boarding-up and emergency reglazing

Glazing has no individual licence in the UK, so what counts is your apprenticeship or NVQ, your CSCS card and your safety training.

• Apprenticeship and NVQ. A glazing or fenestration installation apprenticeship and an NVQ Level 2 or 3 in glazing are the strongest credentials on a glazier CV. List the qualification, the awarding body and the year you finished.
• CSCS card. Blue Skilled Worker with an NVQ Level 2, Gold for Level 3 and supervisors. Most main contractors expect one at induction, and chargehands are often asked for SSSTS as well.
• IPAF for boom and scissor lifts, plus separate training if you work from a cradle or other suspended access.
• Slinger/signaller card (CPCS A40 or the NPORS equivalent) if you sling glass to a crane, and training on the specific vacuum lifter you use.
• Telehandler or forklift card (CPCS, NPORS or an accredited forklift certificate) if you move glass stillages on site.
• Working at height, manual handling, silica dust awareness and PASMA for mobile towers.
• Emergency First Aid at Work (1 day) or First Aid at Work (3 days).
• Manufacturer and handling training: system courses from firms such as Schüco, Kawneer or Reynaers, and glass handling or vacuum lifter courses, are worth a line each.

Some schemes belong to the company, not to the worker. Replacement windows and doors in England and Wales must meet the Building Regulations, and installers usually self-certify that work through a competent person scheme such as FENSA or Certass, which the firm joins, not the individual. Safety glass in doors and low-level glazing is covered by the Building Regulations too, and the Glass and Glazing Federation is a trade body for companies. If you plan to work for yourself, check the scheme and insurance rules before you claim anything on a CV. As an employee, the honest line is that you work under your employer's registration.

• One page. Glazing foremen do not read two.
• No photo, no date of birth, no full address (town is enough). Many free CV templates still include them; take them out.
• Put a cards and qualifications block right under the personal statement. Access and lifting cards are the first thing an estimator checks before putting you on a high-rise job.
• List the systems you have installed by manufacturer where you can. It is the closest thing this trade has to a keyword.
• Say whether you have your own hand tools and a van, if you are applying to a small repair firm.

Mirror the advert: glazier, glazing, shopfront, curtain walling, window wall, sealed units, IGU, toughened, laminated, spandrel, structural silicone, wet glaze, dry glaze, setting blocks, site measure, fabrication drawings, boarding-up, reglazing, IPAF, cradle, slinging. If the advert says "glazing operative", "window fitter" or "glass installer", use their title in your headline once, because that is what their tracking system will search for.