Painter and Decorator CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a painter and decorator with nine years in the trade who came up through an apprenticeship, spent three years on commercial jobs and now leads a domestic redecoration team. The name and employers are invented. Copy the layout and swap in your own square metres, equipment and job types.

Most decorating firms are small. The owner or a foreman reads the CV, often on a phone, and decides in under a minute whether to call. Here is what they are scanning for.

• Speed with quality. "Painted walls" tells them nothing. "350 m² a day sprayed and back-rolled, under 2% snagging callbacks" tells them you can carry your share of a price.
• Spray experience. Airless for walls and exteriors, HVLP for kitchens and woodwork. Name the equipment. Many decorators can roll; fewer can run a sprayer without runs, tails or overspray on the neighbour's car.
• Preparation and making good. Contractors lose money on callbacks caused by poor preparation, so they want to see scraping, sanding, filling, caulking and priming named as skills, not assumed.
• Job type. Domestic redecoration, new-build production work, commercial, industrial coatings and kitchen respraying are different speeds and different standards. Say which ones you have done and for how long.
• The cards. Your NVQ level and CSCS card, IPAF for MEWPs and PASMA for towers. A full driving licence and your own tools are often listed as requirements too.

“I do not need a paragraph about attention to detail. Tell me you can spray a ceiling without hitting the walls, that you have run a lift, and how many callbacks you had last year. If you have the right cards I can put you on half my jobs the same week.”

The most common search behind this page is "painter and decorator job description for a CV." People want to know how to turn the duties into bullets. The trick is the same every time: add the surface, the method, the amount and the result. Eight rewrites below.

If you are writing a CV for a small domestic decorating firm, lean on redecoration numbers, kitchen respraying, wallpapering and customer reviews. If you are aiming at a commercial or production decorating job, lean on square metres, flats per day, spray equipment and access equipment.

Keep the skills list to 10–14 items and put the ones from the job advert first. Group them the way a foreman thinks: application methods, preparation, materials, equipment, then site and customer skills.

Application and preparation skills:

• Airless spraying and back-rolling (name the unit: Graco, Titan, Wagner)
• HVLP fine finishing for kitchens, doors and woodwork
• Brush and roll, freehand cutting in on ceilings and woodwork
• Preparation: pressure washing, scraping, sanding, caulking, spot priming
• Filling and making good plaster and plasterboard, including small patch repairs
• Wallpapering: hanging and stripping lining paper, vinyls and patterned papers
• Staining and varnishing decking, fences and joinery
• Decorative finishes such as graining, marbling or stencilling, if you have them (this is the "decorator" half of the title)

Materials and equipment a contractor will recognise:

• Water-based and oil-based primers, undercoats and gloss, lacquers, masonry paints, epoxy floor systems, intumescent (fire-protective) coatings if you have applied them
• MEWPs (scissor and boom lifts), mobile towers, podium steps, ladders and trestles
• Sanders, heat guns, pressure washers, H-class dust extractors
• Estimating basics: measuring square metres and working out coverage per litre

Site and customer skills that get checked at interview:

• Reading finish schedules and specifications on commercial jobs
• Protecting floors, furniture and gardens (a contractor's biggest source of complaints)
• Colour and sheen advice for homeowners
• Leading a small team and ordering materials for the day
• A second language helps on some mixed site teams; name it if you have it

Three or four lines under your name. Say what kind of painter and decorator you are, how many years, your daily output, your equipment and your cards. Versions for the common situations:

There is no licence you need to work as a painter and decorator in the UK, but employers ask for several qualifications and cards. Only list what you actually hold, with the year.

• NVQ Level 2 or Level 3 in Painting and Decorating (or a completed painter and decorator apprenticeship). This is the qualification most contractors screen for. Give the level and year, and say if it came through an apprenticeship.
• CSCS card. Not a legal requirement, but most commercial and main contractors will not let you on site without one. The card type follows your qualification (an NVQ Level 2 usually leads to the Blue Skilled Worker card, Level 3 to the Gold Advanced Craft card), and you need to pass the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test.
• IPAF and PASMA. IPAF training (the PAL card) for operating scissor and boom lifts, and PASMA for building and using mobile towers. Usually asked for on commercial jobs. List the categories and year.
• Face-fit testing for RPE. Needed for spray work and dusty or lead jobs. Worth one line because it shows you can start spraying straight away.
• Lead and asbestos awareness. Old lead paint is common in older UK properties and work on it falls under the Control of Lead at Work Regulations, so name any lead-safe training. Asbestos awareness training is expected for anyone working in older buildings; give the year of your last refresher.
• Self-employed and subcontract work. No contractor licence is needed. If you work on a self-employed basis for contractors, you will be registered for the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS); membership of a trade body such as the Painting and Decorating Association is optional and worth a line if you have it.
• Industrial coatings: ICATS (Industrial Coating Applicator Training Scheme), abrasive blasting and confined-space training matter for plant, bridge and steelwork. Only list them if you have taken them.

Education is simple: GCSEs, with English and maths at grade 4 or above, are what apprenticeships usually ask for. Put your NVQ, apprenticeship or college course above them. If you have none of these, the education section is one line and your experience does the talking.

"Painter and decorator" is the standard job title in the UK and Ireland, and "decorator" includes wallpapering, coving and decorative finishes. In the US the same trade is simply "painter," and wallcovering is often a separate specialty. If you are applying in the UK, or comparing with a US example, here is what changes and what does not.

• The document is called a CV in the UK and a resume in the US. Two pages is normal in the UK; one page is expected in the US.
• UK CVs list a CSCS card and an NVQ Level 2 or 3 in Painting and Decorating. In the US the nearest equivalents are an OSHA safety card and a completed union or contractor apprenticeship. If you send a UK CV abroad, explain the CSCS card in a few words: "UK construction site card."
• Neither country expects a photo, date of birth or marital status. Leave them off in both.
• Spelling: UK CVs use "colour" and "labour"; US resumes use "color" and "labor." Match the country you are applying in.
• What stays the same: output per day, job types, spray equipment and callback rate are what a decorating firm in Manchester and a painting contractor in Denver both want to see. Only the units change (square metres in the UK, square feet in the US).

• One to two pages. Most painters and decorators fit on one; with 15 years, two pages is normal in the UK. Older jobs can be one line each: title, type of firm, years.
• Order: name and contact (include "full UK driving licence" and "own tools" if the advert asks), 3–4 line personal statement, skills, experience, qualifications and cards, education.
• Reverse chronological with dates in months and years. Contractors want to see how long you stayed with a firm; a skills-only format hides that and looks like you are hiding gaps.
• Plain layout, no photo, no date of birth, no graphics. Many decorating firms post on Indeed or local job boards and read on a phone. Bullet points beat paragraphs.
• Save as PDF named "Firstname-Lastname-Painter-Decorator-CV.pdf." If you apply in person, bring two printed copies. A short cover letter or email is normal alongside it.
• Gaps for winter slowdowns are normal in this trade. Write "Winter 2024: private work and kitchen resprays" rather than leaving a blank.

The cvplex construction template used above is a single column with a bold skills block, which reads well on a phone screen and passes the applicant tracking systems (ATS) used by larger contractors.