Vineyard Worker Resume Example & Writing Guide

This sample is for a vineyard worker with about ten seasons who now leads a crew and helps at crush. The name and estates are invented. Keep the structure and change the block sizes, varieties, rates and equipment to yours.

Hiring is done by a vineyard manager or a labor contractor, often days before a task window opens. They want to know which parts of the year you can cover.

• Can you prune to standard? Pruning is the skilled task in the vineyard and it decides next season's crop. Give your style (spur, cane, or both), your daily count and any quality audit result.
• How much of the year can you work? A worker who can prune in winter, do canopy work in summer and pick at harvest is worth more than a harvest-only picker. Say what months you are available.
• Do you run equipment? Narrow-track tractor, sprayer, mower, ATV, forklift. Tractor operators are consistently short in wine regions and it changes your pay.
• Are you licensed to spray? Handling and applying pesticides needs a state credential in most states, and holding one makes you far more useful. In California that is a Qualified Applicator Certificate or Licence from the Department of Pesticide Regulation.
• Have you worked crush? Vineyard workers who can move to the crush pad for three weeks solve a real staffing problem for small wineries.

“Pruning count and pruning style, then whether you can drive a tractor and whether you hold a spray card. If you can do winter and summer work, not just harvest, put that at the top, because those are the people I try hardest to keep.”

Two or three lines. Acreage and varieties, pruning rate, equipment, availability. Use an objective only for a first season.

Vineyard work runs on a calendar, and a resume organized that way proves you know the year. Use the tasks you have actually done and put your own counts in.

Eight to twelve lines. Skilled vineyard tasks first, equipment second, the practical facts last.

• Pruning: name the systems you know (spur on cordon, cane on Guyot or similar) and the trellis type (VSP, sprawl, head trained).
• Hand tools: pruning shears, loppers, pneumatic and electric shears, hand saw, and how you maintain and sanitize them between vines.
• Canopy work: suckering, shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf pulling, hedging, cluster thinning.
• Trellis and infrastructure: stakes, wire, end posts, H-braces, bird netting, deer fence.
• Irrigation: drip line install, emitter replacement, filter cleaning, pressure checks.
• Harvest: hand picking, field sorting, bin handling, forklift loading, machine harvest support.
• Sampling: brix refractometer readings, berry sampling protocols, block record keeping.
• Equipment: narrow-track tractor, ATV, sprayer, mower, cultivator, forklift.
• Spray work: pesticide safety, restricted entry intervals, spray records, and any state applicator credential you hold.
• Vine health awareness: recognizing trunk disease, mildew pressure, sunburn and water stress.
• Crush pad work if you have it, listed by task rather than as "winery experience."
• Practical facts: full-season availability, transportation, early starts, cold and heat tolerance, lifting 50 lb bins.

Nothing is legally required to work vines, except where pesticides are involved. A few credentials genuinely change what you are worth to a vineyard.

• A state pesticide applicator credential, if you mix, load or apply. Requirements differ by state, so name yours exactly. In California the relevant credentials are the Qualified Applicator Certificate and the Qualified Applicator Licence, issued by the Department of Pesticide Regulation. Check your own state's requirements rather than assuming.
• EPA Worker Protection Standard training. Employers must provide this to agricultural workers every year, so give the year it was last refreshed.
• Heat illness prevention training, which is a specific requirement in some states, including California. Write "employer-provided" with the year.
• Forklift operator evaluation under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178, tied to the truck type. Harvest loading makes this useful.
• Viticulture coursework from a community college or a university extension program. Even three completed courses is a real signal of intent for a crew lead path.
• Sustainability program experience is worth naming if the estate is certified, since audits create paperwork the crew has to support. Say which program the property was in.
• A driver's license and clean record, especially if you move crew vehicles or equipment on public roads.
• First aid and CPR, useful on remote hillside blocks and valued in a crew lead.

Vineyards take on first-season workers every year, especially at harvest and for summer canopy work. Pruning is the skilled entry point and most estates will train you on their own standard if you show up and learn fast.

1. 1Put "Vineyard Worker" or the posting's title under your name, not your old job title.
2. 2Write a two-line objective covering the physical reality: cold winter mornings, summer heat, 10-hour days, repeated bending, and how many months you can work.
3. 3Convert any outdoor or hand-tool job into bullets with numbers: landscaping, orchard work, construction, forestry, farm work, gardening.
4. 4Mention any pruning experience at all, even in orchards or ornamentals. The idea that a cut now decides next year's growth transfers directly.
5. 5Say what equipment you can already run: tractor, mower, chainsaw, ATV, forklift, or a driver's license and clean record.
6. 6Note that you are ready to complete Worker Protection Standard and heat illness training on hire, and interested in the spray credential later.
7. 7Apply in late January for pruning and in July for harvest crews, and expect to talk to a labor contractor as often as to the estate.
8. 8One page, plain layout, no photo, printed copy in hand if you apply in person.

• One page. This resume is read in a vineyard office or a truck cab.
• Order: header with target title, summary or objective, skills, experience, training and licenses, education. Skills go high because the task list is the screening question.
• Seasonal work is the norm and needs no apology. Label roles with their months, for example "Aug 2015 – Nov 2016 (seasonal)," so repeat seasons read as one continuous history.
• If you have worked through a vineyard management company or a labor contractor, name both the contractor and the properties, because managers recognize both.
• Name varieties and acreage. It tells a manager the scale and style of operation you are used to.
• US conventions: no photo, no date of birth, no marital status. One line stating you are authorized to work is enough.
• A Spanish version is worth having, since much of this workforce and many crew leads work in Spanish. Keep the English one single column and plain.
• PDF or a clean printed page, named Firstname-Lastname-Vineyard-Resume.pdf.
• UK, Australian and New Zealand readers: the roles are often advertised as vineyard hand or viticulture worker and you send a CV. The task list is the same; the spray credentials are national and different.

Words worth mirroring from the posting when they are true: pruning, spur, cane, cordon, VSP trellis, tying, suckering, shoot thinning, leaf pulling, hedging, cluster thinning, canopy management, trellis repair, drip irrigation, frost protection, brix, hand harvest, bins, crush pad, tractor operation, spray records, applicator certificate, seasonal, crew lead.