Quarry Operative (Quarry Worker) CV Examples & Writing Guide

One page, aimed at a plant manager or quarry manager. The name is invented and the employers are described, not named. The tonnage, uptime and equipment hours are the kind of numbers on your own shift reports and the plant's production sheet.

Quarries in Great Britain work under their own rules, the Quarries Regulations 1999, on top of general health and safety law, and operators must make sure everyone on site is trained and competent before they work. Nothing else on your CV moves faster than a current training record.

• Expect a site induction, task training on each machine and regular refresher training. Many operators also ask for a quarry health and safety card such as SHEA (Quarries), which shows you have done the basic health, safety and environment course.
• Write the training you hold with dates: the year of your first quarry induction, your most recent refresher, and task training on specific equipment.
• If you hold a card, give the scheme and the expiry date. It is administrative, but it saves an employer a step.
• List task training by machine, and any CPCS or NPORS plant cards. Being trained on a dump truck and a loading shovel is different from being trained on a crusher circuit.
• Add any First Aid at Work, confined space, working at height or hot works training you carry.
• If your training has lapsed, say when it lapsed rather than leaving it out. Producers can put you through refresher training; they cannot fix a surprise.

• Training status. Current, lapsed or none. This decides your start date.
• Equipment by size and model class. A 966 loading shovel and a 992 are not the same job, and neither is a 40-tonne articulated dump truck and a 90-tonne rigid.
• Whether you can work the plant, not just drive past it. Screen changes, crusher adjustments, belt splices and clearing a bridged jaw are the skills that keep a plant running.
• Production and uptime numbers. Tonnes per shift, uptime percentage, downtime hours, loads over the weighbridge. Aggregates is a tonnage business and everyone talks in these units.
• Safety record and inspection habits. Inspections are a fact of life at a quarry, and an operative who logs conditions properly is worth real money.
• Shift and season flexibility. Many quarries run long hours in the busy construction months and cut back in winter, so say what you can work.

“First thing I look for is whether your training is current, because that tells me if you start Monday or in three weeks. Then equipment and tonnage. Somebody who writes that they took plant uptime from 88 to 94 percent understands what this business sells, and that is rare on a CV.”

• Plant: jaw, cone and impact crushers, screens and decks, wash plants, conveyors, feeders, stackers, control cabin operation, closed side setting adjustment, clearing bridging and blockages.
• Mobile plant: loading shovels by class, articulated and rigid dump trucks by capacity, excavators, dozers, graders, water bowsers, skid steers, telehandlers.
• Maintenance: belt splicing, idler and pulley changes, screen mesh changes, liner changes, greasing routes, basic welding and burning, hydraulic hose changes.
• Quality and production: grading sampling, sieve analysis, moisture checks, stockpile management, loading out and weighbridge basics.
• Safety and compliance: pre-start inspections, quarry training and SHEA card status, isolation and lock-off, machine guarding, working at height, confined space, silica and dust controls, hearing protection, edge protection bunds and haul road standards.
• Licences and cards: driving licence category and Driver CPC, CPCS or NPORS plant cards, forklift, lifting or slinger/signaller tickets, and any shotfiring qualification you hold.

Quarries take on labourers and general operatives with no quarry background regularly, then train them onto equipment. The page has to show that you will turn up, work outside all day and take training seriously.

1. 1Ask for the role by name: general operative, quarry operative, plant labourer. Say you understand it starts with clean-up, hosing down and shovelling under conveyors.
2. 2Say you are willing to complete a quarry health and safety (SHEA) course before your start date, and check which local training providers run it.
3. 3List any equipment hours at all, from a skid steer on a building site to a tractor on a family farm to a forklift in a warehouse.
4. 4Put attendance on the page with a number, and mention experience with long shifts, heat, cold and dust.
5. 5Include a Category C driving licence if you hold one, with Driver CPC. It gives a producer a second way to use you immediately.
6. 6Keep it to one page and be ready for a drug and alcohol test and a pre-employment medical, which are standard in this industry.

• One page, single column, PDF. No photo and no date of birth on a UK CV.
• Put training status and equipment in the top third. Everything else is secondary in this industry.
• Larger producers run applicant tracking software, so mirror the advert's words: aggregates, crusher, screen, plant operator, dump truck, loading shovel, pre-start checks, SHEA, Quarries Regulations.
• Name your shift and season availability. The busy construction months mean long hours, and quarry hiring follows them.
• In the US the same job is advertised as quarry worker or plant laborer and needs MSHA training. If your experience comes from there, describe it as US mine safety training and expect a UK site induction anyway.
• Keep a printed copy in the van. Plenty of quarries still hire from a conversation at the weighbridge.