Sheet Metal Worker CV Examples & Writing Guide

This is a CV for a qualified sheet metal worker with fourteen years, split between workshop fabrication and ventilation ductwork installation. The name and companies are made up. Every job entry names the machines and the material, because that is what a workshop foreman reads for.

This trade splits into several jobs that share one title. The person reading your CV already knows which one they are filling, and they are checking whether you match it.

• Which side of the trade. Workshop fabrication, site installation, architectural sheet metal (roofing, flashings, cladding panels), service and duct cleaning, or industrial and food equipment. Say it plainly.
• Machines you have actually run, with sizes: a 3 m guillotine, a 4 m press brake, a CNC plasma table, a Pittsburgh lock former, a turret punch. "Operated workshop machinery" tells a foreman nothing.
• Materials and thicknesses. 0.5 mm galvanised ductwork and 3 mm stainless food equipment need different hands. Give the range you have worked in millimetres, and add the gauge if the advert uses it.
• Whether you weld, and on what. MIG/MAG, TIG, spot welding, brazing, on steel, stainless or aluminium. A coded welder on stainless is worth noticeably more in this trade.
• Layout ability. Anyone can bend a part off a printed pattern. Developing a transition by triangulation from an M&E drawing is what separates a qualified sheet metal worker from a fabricator's mate.
• Apprenticeship status and cards. Whether you completed an apprenticeship, which year you finished, your NVQ level and which CSCS card you carry.

“I get CVs that say fabricated and installed sheet metal products. That could be a duct shop or a roofing crew. Tell me the machines, the gauges, whether you weld stainless and whether you can lay out a transition, and I know within ten seconds if you fit my opening.”

Add a short block near the top called Equipment and Materials. It is unusual on a CV and it works, because it lets a foreman match you to the vacancy without reading the whole page.

Three or four lines. Side of the trade, years, machines, materials, welding and apprenticeship status. Use a career objective only if you are applying for an apprenticeship or coming in from another trade.

The weakest sheet metal bullets read like a dictionary entry: cut, formed and installed sheet metal products. Put the machine, the material, the volume and the result into every line.

Group them into machines, materials, layout, joining and site work. A grouped list lets a foreman match you to a specific vacancy in a couple of seconds.

• Machines: guillotine, press brake, box and pan folder, slip and pinch rolls, turret punch, CNC plasma or laser table, Pittsburgh lock former, roll former, notcher, beader, hydraulic press, English wheel if you have done custom body or architectural work.
• Joining: MIG/MAG, TIG, spot welding, soft soldering for architectural copper and gutters, brazing, riveting, self-drilling fasteners, sealants and mastic, drive cleats and S-slips.
• Layout and drawing: parallel line, radial line and triangulation pattern development, bend and hem allowances, workshop and M&E drawing reading, site measuring, isometric sketching, AutoCAD and Autodesk Fabrication.
• Materials: galvanised steel from 0.5 to 3 mm, stainless 304 and 316, aluminium, copper, zinc, cold-rolled steel, PVDF-coated panel stock, insulation and duct liner.
• Site skills: hangers and trapeze supports, fire and smoke dampers, VAV boxes, grilles and diffusers, ductwork leakage and pressure testing, air balance basics, working from MEWPs, coordination with pipefitters and electricians in tight ceiling voids.
• Safety and equipment: CSCS card and site safety training, working at height, RPE face-fit and silica awareness, hearing and eye protection, forklift and MEWPs (IPAF), slinging and material handling, isolation and lock-off.
• Soft skills worth stating specifically: turning up for a 6 am workshop start, keeping a snagging list clean, and telling the foreman that a fitting will not fit before you install it.

Most people enter this trade through an apprenticeship with a ductwork contractor or fabrication firm, with day release to college. Those applications look at maths, mechanical aptitude, attendance and whether you can pass a medical and a drugs and alcohol test more than at a polished CV.

1. 1Pass the CITB health, safety and environment test before you apply. It is cheap, takes under an hour and removes the easiest reason to pass you over.
2. 2Lead with anything that shows hand skills, measurement and machines: school Design and Technology or engineering, welding courses, vehicle bodywork, farm work, small engine repair, a jobbing shop, Armed Forces maintenance work.
3. 3Say your maths level plainly. Apprenticeship aptitude tests cover fractions, decimals, area and basic geometry, so a line such as "GCSE Maths grade 6, comfortable with fractions, decimals and measuring to the millimetre" helps.
4. 4Add a full UK driving licence, reliable transport and the ability to lift 25 to 35 kg repeatedly. All three get asked about.
5. 5If you have workshop time already, name the machines and the thicknesses even if the volume was small. Two years on a press brake in 0.8 mm steel is real experience.
6. 6One page. No photo, no date of birth. Apply for advertised apprenticeships and to ductwork and fabrication contractors directly at the same time; both take on trainees and labourers.

Two pages at most. One is enough for most hands; use two if you have run crews on large building services projects and need a project list. One column, standard headings, no photo, no graphics. Save as PDF unless the contractor's portal asks for Word.

• Order: contact details, personal statement, equipment and materials block, experience, skills, certificates and cards, apprenticeship and education.
• Mirror the advert: sheet metal worker, fabricator, ductwork, DW/144, press brake, guillotine, plasma, Pittsburgh, galvanised, stainless, TIG, MIG, spot weld, layout, triangulation, drawings, hangers, dampers, VAV, NVQ Level 3, apprentice, CSCS.
• Add a short project list if you do commercial work: building type, tonnage of ductwork, crew size, year. Contracts managers read it as a track record.
• Cover gaps between contracts with a line such as "end of contract, re-engaged by the same contractor" rather than leaving a gap.
• UK conventions: no photo, no date of birth, no marital status. Name your NVQ level, the year you finished your apprenticeship and the colour of your CSCS card.
• File name: ray-sandoval-sheet-metal-worker-cv.pdf.

The older term for this trade is tinsmith, and US contractors still ask for a resume rather than a CV. In the UK the job is usually advertised as sheet metal worker, sheet metal fabricator or ductwork fabricator or installer, so use the advert's own title in your headline and add tinsmith only if the advert uses it.