Plumber CV Examples & Writing Guide

A CV for a qualified plumbing and heating engineer with eight years in the trade: four as an apprentice on commercial new-build projects, then four in domestic service. Name and companies are made up. The qualifications and registrations sit under the name, every job names the type of work and the regulations, and the service job carries the numbers a service manager wants: calls a day, average invoice, callbacks and reviews.

Plumber CVs are read by a service manager, a contracts manager or the owner of the firm, rarely by HR. Service companies and construction contractors weigh things differently, but both look for four items.

• Level and registrations. Apprentice, improver or qualified (NVQ Level 2 or 3), and whether you are Gas Safe registered and for which ACS categories. There is no licence to be a plumber in the UK, but gas work by law needs Gas Safe registration. Say exactly what you hold and when it renews.
• Type of work. Domestic service, new-build housing, commercial M&E, industrial pipework, gas and heating, unvented systems, heat pumps, drainage. "Plumbing installation and repair" makes them guess; "domestic service, boilers and replumbs, 5 to 7 calls a day" puts you in a van.
• Service numbers or construction numbers. For service: calls per day, average invoice, revenue, callback rate, reviews. For construction: project types and sizes, metres of pipe, fixture counts, inspections passed, team size.
• Practical facts: clean driving licence (you drive a company van), own tools, a DBS check if the work involves schools, hospitals or vulnerable customers, and on-call and weekend availability.

“Registration first, then I want to know your callback rate and your average invoice. An engineer who writes 'under 2% callbacks, £310 average invoice, 4.9 stars' gets a call today. 'Skilled plumber with strong work ethic' gets nothing.”

There is no licence to work as a plumber in the UK, so employers check your qualification level and your registrations instead. The usual route is a Level 3 apprenticeship or an NVQ Level 3 in Plumbing and Domestic Heating. Gas work needs Gas Safe registration, which in turn needs ACS qualifications for each type of appliance, reassessed every five years. Copy the wording from your certificates and your Gas Safe ID card.

• Required by law for certain work: Gas Safe registration for any work on gas appliances and pipework. Building Regulations expect unvented cylinders to be fitted by a competent person, which in practice means a G3 certificate, and every installation has to meet the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations.
• Expected for specific work: WRAS approved plumber status for jobs you want to self-certify under the water regulations; a CSCS or JIB-PMES card for construction sites; PASMA or IPAF where you work at height; asbestos awareness for older buildings; confined space training for plant rooms and commercial work.
• Nice to have: manufacturer installer accreditations for boilers and heat pumps (they often come with extended warranties the company can sell), a heat pump or renewables qualification, and the 18th Edition (BS 7671) if you make your own electrical connections.
• Do not write "gas qualified" or "fully qualified" without the level and categories. Neither means anything to an employer until you name the qualification and the registration.

Three lines: qualification and years, the type of work and regulations you work to, one or two numbers that prove you are reliable and profitable. A career objective is only for apprentice applicants and people switching from another trade.

The standard plumber job description says: install, repair and maintain pipework, sanitaryware, boilers and hot water systems; read drawings; work to the regulations; respond to service calls. Those are duties every plumber shares. A strong bullet adds the kind of work, the size or count, and a result: inspections passed, callback rate, invoiced work, programme met.

List 10 to 14 skills a service manager or supervisor could test you on, ordered to match the job: boilers, drains and diagnosis for a service company; drawings, soil and waste layout and inspection preparation for a construction contractor.

• Service and repair: leak diagnosis, tap, valve and WC repairs, boiler breakdowns, unvented cylinder servicing, pressure-reducing valves, hidden leak detection and reroutes.
• Drains: rods, jetting, CCTV drain surveys and tracing, access points, drain repairs and patch lining.
• Pipework systems: copper (soldered, compression and press), plastic push-fit, MDPE, multilayer, PVC and ABS soil and waste, cast iron, steel and CSST for gas.
• Construction: reading drawings and isometrics, first fix and second fix, soil and vent sizing, sanitaryware, boiler and cylinder installation, booster sets, coordination with other trades.
• Regulations and paperwork: the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations, Building Regulations (including Part G for hot water and Part H for drainage), the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations, notifications and benchmark commissioning.
• Safety: CSCS or JIB-PMES card, asbestos awareness, confined space, PASMA and ladder safety, safe isolation of water and gas, silica dust controls when cutting cast iron and concrete.
• Software and paperwork: Commusoft, simPRO, Joblogic or similar for quotes and invoicing; Procore or Bluebeam on commercial jobs; written options, photos and commissioning records.
• Working habits employers hire for: clean driving licence, on-call rota, respectful in customers' homes, a stocked van, and honesty about what you found.

Apprenticeship providers and firms taking on plumber's mates know you have not plumbed a bathroom. They hire for reliability, physical readiness, basic maths and real interest in the trade. Prove those four things with specifics, and show GCSE English and maths at grade 4 or above if you have them, because most apprenticeships ask for them or have you work towards them.

1. 1Header: name, phone, email, town, then one line of practical facts: driving licence (or provisional) and reliable transport, CSCS card if you have it, own basic hand tools, available for 7 a.m. starts.
2. 2Career objective: two lines naming the apprenticeship or role and what you bring (college course, labouring or landscaping work, Armed Forces service).
3. 3Training: college plumbing course with hours or level, GCSEs with English and maths grades, and any apprenticeship you have already applied for.
4. 4Work history: any job that proves you turn up, work outdoors, lift 25 kg and follow instructions. Construction labouring, landscaping, warehouse, removals, the Armed Forces. Give numbers: hours a week, team size, months without a missed shift.
5. 5Skills: tools you have used, pipe cutting, soldering or push-fit from a course, ladders, tape measure and basic drawings. One page; many firms still hire by word of mouth or in person, so keep printed copies.

• One to two pages. Most plumbers fit on one; two pages is normal in the UK for supervisors, contracts managers and estimators with a long project list.
• Order: header with qualification and Gas Safe line, personal statement, qualifications and registrations, work history, skills, education. Qualified engineers keep the qualifications section above work history; it is what employers sort on.
• Plain layout, single column, standard font, no photo, no date of birth. Large M&E contractors and home-services companies use applicant tracking systems; small firms print your CV. Both prefer plain text and a text-based PDF.
• Keywords to mirror from the advert: "plumbing and heating engineer", "Gas Safe", "domestic", "commercial", "new build", "first fix", "second fix", "boilers", "unvented", "G3", "WRAS", "drainage", "NVQ Level 3", "CSCS", "Commusoft".
• UK adverts use "plumber" and "plumbing and heating engineer" for overlapping jobs. A heating engineer is roughly a plumber who also installs and services gas boilers, so the role almost always needs Gas Safe registration. Use the advert's title in your header.

Run the finished page through the cvplex ATS checker with the advert pasted in. It flags a missing qualification or Gas Safe line, a certificate the advert names that you left out, and bullets with no count or result.