Window Cleaner Resume Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a lead window cleaner who does storefront routes, 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 resume is usually the owner or the route supervisor, and they skim for four answers before anything else.

• Can you drive? A clean license and comfort towing a small trailer or driving a box van decides half the hires. Put the license in the contact line, not buried at the bottom.
• How high have you worked, and on what? Ladder, pole, lift 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? Recordable 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 show up? Window cleaning is early, outdoor and weather-dependent. Attendance, punctuality and finishing a route before store opening 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, articulated ladder, water-fed pole, RO/DI purified water system, scissor lift, boom lift, suspended platform, rope access.
• Hand technique: squeegee (channel sizes and angles), scrim and microfiber, applicator, razor scraper on non-tempered glass (never on tempered, where fabricating debris scratches the pane), detailing frames, sills and tracks.
• Problem glass: hard water and mineral stain removal, paint overspray, adhesive and stucco splash, oxidation on frames, screen washing and repair.
• Safety: harness and lanyard checks, anchor point inspection, ladder footing and tie-off, drop zone control, ground signaling, weather and wind calls.
• Job running: route planning, job sheets and photos, time per stop, key and alarm code handling, opening and closing storefronts.
• Customer side: quoting small jobs, on-site payment, explaining spotting and drying, handling complaints and re-do requests.

There is no single national window cleaner license in the US. What employers actually ask about is safety training, lift training and your driving record. Business licensing is a state and city matter and applies to the company, not usually to you as an employee, so check your state and city if you plan to work for yourself.

• Driver's license and clean record: the single most useful line. Add towing experience if you have it.
• OSHA 10-Hour or 30-Hour Construction: not required for every job, but it signals you know fall protection basics. Commercial contractors often ask for it.
• Aerial and scissor lift operator training: employers train to the ANSI A92 standard for mobile elevating work platforms. Name the machine types you were signed off on.
• Rope access: SPRAT (US) or IRATA (international) Level I, II or III. This is the real gate for high-rise work. State the level and the expiry, since these need revalidation.
• Fall protection and ladder safety training: usually run in-house by the employer. Say who trained you and when.
• First aid and CPR: cheap to get, useful on a two-person crew, and a nice extra line.
• Optional trade body: the International Window Cleaning Association runs safety and technical training, and its ANSI/IWCA I-14.1 window cleaning safety standard is the one commercial clients cite.

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 objective that says you want route work, that you are available from 6 a.m., and that you have transport and a clean license.
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 24 feet, can lift 50 pounds repeatedly, no problem with heights, work in cold and rain.
4. 4Add anything customer-facing: retail, food service, delivery. Storefront 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, applied for OSHA 10 online.
6. 6Close with availability and willingness to start as a second on the van. That sentence gets more first jobs than any skills list.

One page. Always. A window cleaner resume 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. US resumes do not carry a photo or date of birth.
• Put the license, transport and availability in the contact line at the top so nobody has to search for them.
• Order: contact, 3-line summary, experience, skills, training and cards, education last (a diploma line is enough).
• Send a PDF unless the ad says otherwise. Name it firstname-lastname-window-cleaner.pdf.
• Larger janitorial and facilities firms do run applicant tracking software. Mirror their exact words: 'window cleaning technician', 'water-fed pole', 'aerial lift', 'fall protection', 'route', 'high-rise'. If the ad says 'window washer', use that phrase once too.
• Skip the objective if you have real experience. Use the summary 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.”