Window Cleaner CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a lead window cleaner who does shopfront rounds, mid-rise pole work and some residential jobs. The name and the companies are made up. If you are newer, keep the same layout and shrink the numbers; there is an entry-level version further down.

Most window cleaning firms are small. The person reading your CV is usually the owner or the round supervisor, and they skim for four answers before anything else.

• Can you drive? A clean licence and comfort towing a small trailer or driving a van with a water tank decides half the hires. Put the licence in the contact line, not buried at the bottom.
• How high have you worked, and on what? Ladder, pole, MEWP and rope are four different skill sets with four different insurance costs. Say which you have done and to what height.
• Are you a safety risk? Injuries, dropped tools and broken glass cost the owner insurance money. An accident-free stretch stated in months or years is the strongest line on the page.
• Do you turn up? Window cleaning is early, outdoor and weather-dependent. Attendance, punctuality and finishing a round before the shops open are worth stating plainly.

People search for a window cleaner job description because they want ready wording. Here are duty lines by setting. Add your own number to each one before you use it.

Three lines at the top. Years, what you clean, how you reach it, and your safety record. Copy one and change the numbers.

Split them so a supervisor can scan. Equipment first, because that is what decides whether you can be sent out alone.

• Access and equipment: extension ladder, multi-purpose ladder, water-fed pole, RO/DI pure water system, mobile tower (PASMA), scissor lift, boom lift, cradle (BMU), rope access.
• Hand technique: squeegee (channel sizes and angles), scrim and microfibre, applicator, scraper on non-toughened glass (never on toughened glass, where manufacturing debris scratches the pane), detailing frames, sills and conservatory roofs.
• Problem glass: hard water and limescale stains, paint overspray, adhesive and render splashes, oxidised uPVC and aluminium frames, fascia and soffit cleaning.
• Safety: harness and lanyard checks, anchor point inspection, ladder footing and tying off, exclusion zones below the work, banksman signals, weather and wind calls, reading a risk assessment and method statement (RAMS).
• Job running: round planning, job sheets and photos, time per stop, key and alarm code handling, opening and locking up shops.
• Customer side: quoting small jobs, on-site payment, explaining spotting and drying, handling complaints and re-clean requests.

There is no national window cleaner licence in England and Wales, although in Scotland many councils license window cleaners locally. What employers actually ask about is work at height training, access equipment cards and your driving record. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 expect you to avoid working at height where you can (for example a water-fed pole from the ground) before using ladders or platforms. If you plan to work for yourself, check with your council and register with HMRC as self-employed.

• Driving licence and clean record: the single most useful line. Add towing experience if you have it.
• Work at height or general health and safety training such as IOSH Working Safely: not required for every job, but it signals you know the basics of the Work at Height Regulations. Commercial contractors often ask for it, and builders' cleans on construction sites usually need a CSCS card.
• MEWP and tower training: IPAF PAL cards for scissor (3a) and boom (3b) lifts, and PASMA for mobile access towers. Name the categories you hold.
• Rope access: IRATA Level 1, 2 or 3 (or SPRAT, its US equivalent). This is the real gate for high-rise work. State the level and the revalidation date, since IRATA certificates need revalidating every 3 years.
• Ladder safety training: the Ladder Association runs ladder user courses, and many employers train in-house. Say who trained you and when.
• First aid: Emergency First Aid at Work is a one-day course, useful on a two-person team and a nice extra line.
• Optional trade body: the Federation of Window Cleaners offers membership, guidance and insurance schemes for the trade. Commercial clients will also want to see your risk assessment and method statement (RAMS) for their building.

Nobody expects a first-time cleaner to know cerium oxide from a scrim. Owners hire for attitude, comfort at height, transport and early starts. Build the page around those.

1. 1Open with a 2-line career objective that says you want round work, that you are available from 6 am, and that you have transport and a clean licence.
2. 2Put a short 'Relevant experience' block above your job history: any outdoor, ladder, roofing, painting, grounds, warehouse or car wash work counts. Say how high you have worked and how many hours a day you were outside.
3. 3List physical facts plainly: comfortable on ladders to 7 m, can lift 25 kg repeatedly with correct manual handling, no problem with heights, work in cold and rain.
4. 4Add anything customer-facing: retail, hospitality, delivery. Shopfront cleaners talk to shop managers every morning.
5. 5Say what you have already done to prepare: watched training videos, bought a squeegee and scrim, practised on family homes, booked a ladder user course.
6. 6Close with availability and willingness to start as second person on the van. That sentence gets more first jobs than any skills list.

One page. Always. A window cleaner CV that runs to two pages reads as padding, and the owner is often reading it on a phone in a van.

• Plain layout, one column, black text, no photo. UK CVs do not carry a photo or date of birth.
• Put the licence, transport and availability in the contact line at the top so nobody has to search for them.
• Order: contact, 3-line personal statement, experience, skills, training and cards, education last (one line of GCSEs or college is enough).
• Send a PDF unless the advert says otherwise. Name it firstname-lastname-window-cleaner.pdf.
• Larger cleaning and facilities firms do run applicant tracking software. Mirror their exact words: 'window cleaning operative', 'water-fed pole', 'reach and wash', 'IPAF', 'work at height', 'round', 'high-level', 'rope access'. If the advert says 'window cleaning technician', use that phrase once too.
• Skip the career objective if you have real experience. Use the personal statement instead.

“The two lines I look for are how high you have worked and how long you have gone without an incident. Everything else I can teach in a week. If someone tells me they ran a 20-stop route alone and finished before opening, I call them that day.”