Locksmith CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a locksmith with about eleven years across a mobile locksmith company, a commercial door hardware contractor and a family shop. The person and the businesses are invented. Swap in your own hardware brands, call volumes and training.

Locksmithing is a trust job. Someone is sending you into houses, schools and cash offices with the tools to get past a lock. That changes what the CV has to prove.

• Trust: a clear DBS check and any extra vetting a contract has required. There is no locksmith licence in the UK, so put this on the page so nobody has to ask.
• Range: rekeys and lockouts are entry work. Master key suite design, safe work, auto key programming and access control are what get you paid more. Name which you can do without supervision.
• Throughput: calls per day, first-time fix rate, callback rate, average arrival time on emergency calls.
• Money: locksmiths on a van are a small business inside a business. Weekly billed labour, review score, and how you handle quoting all matter.
• Driving record and on-call willingness. Most firms ask about the on-call rota in the first phone screen.

“The CVs that stand out tell me what they can do alone at 2am. Rekeys and lockouts, fine, everyone says that. Tell me you can key a master system, open a safe without drilling it, or program a 2019 van key, and you have moved to the top of my pile.”

Three lines: years and specialism, one throughput number, then your training, vetting and availability.

If you search 'locksmith job description CV' you will find lists of duties. Duties alone do not get calls. Take the duty and hang a number or a hardware name on it.

Group them by the kind of work, so an employer hiring for one side can find it in two seconds.

Residential and general:

• Rekeying pin tumbler and wafer locks
• Fitting mortice deadlocks, sashlocks, nightlatches and uPVC multipoint locks, door prep and boring
• Key duplication and cutting by code
• Lockout entry, non-destructive where possible
• Smart lock and keypad lock fitting and set-up
• Hinge, strike plate and frame repair

Commercial and institutional:

• Master key and grand master suite design
• Key control records and issue logs
• Mortice locks, tubular locks and euro cylinders
• Panic and emergency exit hardware and door closers
• High-security cylinders and restricted key profiles
• Fire door hardware and inspection support
• BS EN hardware standards and ironmongery schedules

Specialisms that raise your rate:

• Safe servicing, combination changes and openings
• Auto key origination and transponder programming
• Access control retrofits: electric strikes, maglocks, readers
• CCTV and intercom basics on small commercial jobs
• Estimating and quoting on site

The soft side employers actually name: talking to an upset customer standing in the rain, explaining a quote before you start, keeping a tidy van, and writing a job sheet someone else can read.

There is no licence for locksmiths in the UK. The trade is not regulated, so anyone can call themselves a locksmith, which is exactly why employers and customers lean on vetting, training and trade body membership instead. Name what you hold precisely.

• Vetting: with no licence to list, a DBS check is the next best thing. Many employers, and many school, healthcare and housing contracts, ask for one. Write 'Basic DBS check, clear, [year]', or the level a contract required.
• The Master Locksmiths Association (MLA) is the best-known UK trade body. It runs training courses and approves locksmith businesses after vetting and inspection. List the exact courses you completed and the year, and if your employer was MLA-approved, say so without implying a personal licence.
• Safe engineering training is offered separately by specialist providers and some manufacturers. Only claim a qualification if you sat the assessment.
• A full UK driving licence and a clean record matter because you are on a van. Say 'full UK driving licence, clean' if it is true.
• Manufacturer training on specific hardware or key systems counts. Write it as 'manufacturer training, 2 days, high-security key system' rather than inventing a certificate name.

Most locksmiths learn on a bench next to someone else. A firm taking on a trainee is buying attitude, hands and a clean record, so build the CV around those.

1. 1Open with a career objective saying you want an apprentice or trainee role and that you will start on the bench.
2. 2Say plainly that you will pass a DBS check and that you hold a full UK driving licence. Those two lines answer the firm's first two questions.
3. 3List any hands-on trade: vehicle work, plumbing and heating, joinery, machining, electronics, even bike or small engine repair. Locksmithing is fine motor work plus mechanical reasoning.
4. 4Mention any self-training honestly: practice locks, pinning kits, course hours. Give the hours, not a grand claim.
5. 5Add customer-facing experience with a number, because half the job is talking to the person whose door you are working on.

• One page, two at most. Firms are small and the owner is often the one reading.
• Reverse-chronological, with the type of business next to each employer (mobile, commercial contractor, in-house estates team, retail shop).
• No photo, no date of birth, no marital status: UK convention.
• Put vetting and training high, not at the bottom, because they gate the job.
• Add a 'Territory and availability' line: how far you will travel, whether you can be on call, whether you have your own tools or van.
• In-house roles at universities, hospitals and councils run applications through an applicant tracking system, so keep the layout single column and plain.

Mirror the advert's words where they are true for you: rekey, master key, key control, euro cylinder, exit device, closer, electric strike, access control, transponder, safe engineer, service call, first-time fix, on-call. If an advert names hardware brands you have worked with, use those exact brand names in a bullet.