Cabinet Maker Resume Examples & Writing Guide
A cabinetmaker resume gets a callback when a shop foreman can tell in ten seconds what you build (frameless casework, face frame, or one-off furniture), which machines you run without supervision, whether you can read shop drawings and a cut list, and whether you install as well as build.
Cabinet maker resume example (custom shop, 10 years, bench and CNC)
This sample is a bench cabinetmaker in a custom shop who also runs the CNC and goes out on installs. The name, shops and school are made up. If you work in a production plant on one station, keep the layout and swap the bench bullets for cycle times, machine setups and scrap rates.
Adam Ferreira
Cabinet Maker
Grand Rapids, MI · (616) 555-0119 | adam.ferreira@email.com | portfolio: adamferreira.work
Summary
Cabinetmaker with 10 years in custom residential and light commercial millwork. Builds frameless and face-frame casework from shop drawings, runs a 3-axis nested-base CNC, and installs kitchens and built-ins on site. Typical year: 20 to 24 kitchens plus commercial reception and library packages, with sheet goods yield held above 88%.
Experience
Cabinet Maker and CNC Operator · Custom millwork shop, 14 employees (residential kitchens and commercial casework)
May 2021 - Present
- Build 20 to 24 kitchens a year in frameless 3/4 inch prefinished maple ply, from cut list to hung doors, plus commercial reception desks and library shelving in plastic laminate.
- Run the 3-axis nested-base CNC (Cabinet Vision to G-code): nesting, tool changes, bit maintenance and first-article checks; held sheet yield above 88% by fixing nest layouts and grain-direction rules.
- Cut edgebanding and line boring waste by standardizing a 32mm system across the shop, which removed roughly 6 hours a week of hand drilling.
- Install 2 to 3 kitchens a month on site: scribe to out-of-plumb walls, level and shim base runs, hang doors with Blum soft-close hardware and set drawer fronts to a 1/8 inch reveal.
- Cut the punch-list rate from about 4 items per kitchen to 1.2 by adding a pre-delivery checklist covering hardware, reveals, finish and hardware alignment.
Bench Cabinet Maker · Architectural woodwork shop, 40 employees (AWI standards work)
Aug 2018 - Apr 2021
- Built face-frame and frameless casework to AWI Custom grade for medical and university projects, including 90 exam room cabinets on a single hospital fit-out.
- Ran panel saw, edgebander, line borer, wide-belt sander and case clamp, and set up the beam saw for runs of 40-plus sheets.
- Assembled and squared 35 to 45 boxes a week with a remake rate under 1%, checking diagonals on every case before banding.
- Cut solid-wood doors and drawer boxes with dovetailed corners on a jig, and repaired damaged veneer panels rather than scrapping them, saving about $4,000 of material a year.
Shop Helper, then Apprentice Cabinet Maker · Two-person furniture and cabinet shop
Jun 2016 - Jul 2018
- Started on sanding, glue-ups and cleanup, moved to machine work in month 9 and to solo case building in year 2.
- Learned hand joinery on 12 furniture commissions: mortise-and-tenon frames, dovetailed drawers and hand-planed solid tops.
Education
Certificate in Cabinetmaking and Millwork (1,200 hours)
Lakeshore Technical Institute, 2016
High School Diploma
Kent Central High School, 2014
Certifications
- Woodwork Career Alliance Sawblade Certificate and Passport credentials, 2019
- OSHA 10-Hour General Industry, 2022
- Forklift operator certification, 2023
- First aid and CPR, valid to 2027
Skills
What a shop foreman looks for first
Shops hire for the gap they have right now: a bench hand, a CNC operator, a finisher or an installer. Four things tell the foreman which one you are.
- What you build. Frameless and face-frame casework, architectural millwork, closets, store fixtures or one-off furniture are different trades in practice. Name yours in the first line.
- Which machines you run unsupervised. There is a real difference between using a table saw and setting up a beam saw, an edgebander or a line borer. Say setup, not used.
- Can you read drawings and work off a cut list? Shops lose money on remakes. A bullet about reading shop drawings, checking diagonals or a first-article check says you are not one of those costs.
- Do you install? Installers are harder to find than builders, because the job needs someone presentable in a customer's house who can scribe to a wall that is out of plumb. If you install, say it in the summary.
“Everybody writes that they are detail-oriented. Show me a remake rate, or a punch list that got shorter, or the sheet yield you hold. Three numbers like that and I know what your bench looks like before you ever walk into my shop.”
Cabinet maker resume summary examples
Three lines. What you build, which machines and software, the annual or weekly volume, one quality number. Skip passionate about woodworking; the volume and the tolerance say it better.
Cabinetmaker with 10 years in custom residential and light commercial millwork. Builds frameless and face-frame casework from shop drawings, runs a 3-axis nested-base CNC and installs on site. About 22 kitchens a year with sheet yield above 88% and a remake rate under 1%.
Cabinet assembler with 5 years in a production shop running 400-plus boxes a week. Sets up the edgebander and case clamp, assembles and squares 60 to 70 cases a shift, and holds scrap under 2%. Cross-trained on the line borer and the drawer box cell.
Furniture maker with 6 years building commissioned pieces in solid hardwood: hand-cut dovetails, mortise-and-tenon frames, bent lamination and hand-rubbed oil finishes. Delivered 40-plus commissioned pieces, and drafts every job in SketchUp before the first cut.
Cabinet installer and maker with 9 years, running 3-person install crews on kitchens, closets and commercial casework. Averages 2 kitchen installs a week, scribes and levels to finished tolerance, and handles countertop templating and appliance fit.
Cabinetmaking graduate with a 1,200-hour technical certificate and 18 months in a 14-person shop. Runs table saw, panel saw, planer and edgebander, builds and squares frameless boxes to the cut list, and holds an OSHA 10 card. Looking for a bench position with CNC training.
Cabinet maker job description bullets that show real skill
Add the material, the tolerance, the machine setup or the count. That is the whole difference between a generic duty and a bullet a foreman believes.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Built custom cabinets. | Built 20 to 24 kitchens a year in frameless 3/4 inch prefinished maple ply, from cut list through hung doors and set drawer fronts. |
| Operated woodworking machinery. | Set up and ran panel saw, beam saw, edgebander, line borer and wide-belt sander, including tooling changes and first-article checks on runs of 40-plus sheets. |
| Used a CNC machine. | Ran a 3-axis nested-base CNC from Cabinet Vision output: nesting, tool paths, bit maintenance, and yield above 88% after correcting nest layouts and grain rules. |
| Read blueprints. | Work from architectural shop drawings and specifications to AWI Custom grade, producing my own cut lists and hardware schedules for each job. |
| Assembled cabinets. | Assemble and square 35 to 45 cases a week, checking diagonals on every box before banding, with a remake rate under 1%. |
| Installed cabinets on site. | Install 2 to 3 kitchens a month: scribe to out-of-plumb walls, level and shim base runs and set door and drawer reveals to 1/8 inch. |
| Did finishing work. | Spray conversion varnish and pigmented lacquer with an HVLP system in a downdraft booth, including sanding sequence, sealer coats and cure times. |
| Worked with hardware. | Install Blum and Grass soft-close hinges and undermount slides, bore to a 32mm system and adjust to consistent reveals across a 14-door run. |
| Kept the shop clean and safe. | Maintained machine guarding, dust collection and blade changes on 6 machines and worked 3 years with no recordable injuries in the shop. |
| Fixed mistakes. | Repaired damaged veneer panels and hardware misalignments instead of scrapping, saving about $4,000 of material a year. |
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Cabinet maker skills for a resume
Separate hand skills, machines, software and site work. A production plant and a one-off furniture shop want almost opposite halves of this list, so order it for the job you are applying to.
- Construction types: frameless (32mm European), face frame, inset doors, dovetailed drawer boxes, closets and store fixtures, architectural millwork to AWI grades
- Joinery: dado, rabbet, dowel, pocket screw, biscuit and loose tenon, mortise-and-tenon, hand-cut dovetails, bent lamination
- Machines: table saw, panel saw, beam saw, sliding table saw, jointer, planer, shaper, router table, line borer, edgebander, wide-belt sander, case clamp, dovetail machine
- CNC: 3-axis router, nested-base manufacturing, tool paths and tooling, vacuum hold-down, nesting for yield
- Software: Cabinet Vision, Microvellum, Mozaik, KCD, AutoCAD, SketchUp, and shop drawing and cut list production
- Materials: hardwood plywood, MDF, melamine, prefinished ply, solid hardwoods, veneer, plastic laminate, solid surface, thermofoil
- Finishing: sanding sequence, staining, sealer and topcoat, conversion varnish, catalyzed lacquer, HVLP spraying, touch-up and repair
- Site work: measuring and field verification, scribing, leveling and shimming, anchoring to studs, countertop templating, appliance and filler fit
- Safety and shop: machine guarding, dust collection, OSHA 10, forklift, lifting sheets, keeping to a shop schedule
Training, credentials and photos of your work
No state license exists for cabinetmaking. What matters is verifiable training, safety cards and evidence of what your work looks like.
- Woodwork Career Alliance credentials: the Sawblade Certificate and the Passport with observed tool credentials. This is the closest thing the trade has to a portable skills record.
- Technical college or trade school certificates in cabinetmaking, millwork or carpentry. Give the hours or the length, because a 1,200-hour program and a weekend course are not the same thing.
- Apprenticeship time, whether formal or in-shop. Say what you moved on to and when: sanding to machine work in month 9, solo case building in year 2.
- Safety and site cards: OSHA 10 or OSHA 30, forklift, scissor lift or aerial lift if you install in commercial buildings, first aid and CPR. Some general contractors will not let you on a job site without a current card.
- AWI Quality Standards familiarity, if your shop works to them. Write it as a skill, not as a personal certification, because the AWI program certifies companies rather than individuals.
- A driver's license and a clean record if the job includes installs and driving the shop truck.
Photos are the strongest thing you have and almost nobody sends them. Put a single portfolio link in the header (a simple page or an album is fine) and mention the piece types. Six clear photos of finished work, one of a joinery detail and one of a completed install beat a page of adjectives. In the UK the same work is often advertised as bench joinery and the document is called a CV; for US applications use the US conventions, which means no photo of yourself on the resume even though photos of your work belong in the portfolio.
Cabinet maker resume with little or no shop experience
Shops hire helpers constantly: sanding, glue-ups, sorting parts, cleanup and loading. That is the way in, and the resume should aim at it honestly.
- 1Objective, three lines: the position you want (shop helper, assembler, apprentice), what you already know how to do safely, and that you want to learn the trade.
- 2List every machine you have actually used, even from school or a home shop, and say what you built with it.
- 3Home and school projects count if you describe them like work: material, joinery, dimensions and finish. A built-in bookcase in birch ply with a dado-and-glue carcass and a wiped-on poly finish is a real bullet.
- 4Add related physical work: framing, flooring, furniture assembly, warehouse, anything with sheet goods, hand tools, measuring or lifting.
- 5Put OSHA 10 on the page. It is inexpensive, it takes a day online and shops read it as a sign you are serious.
- 6Three or four photos of your own work, linked. At this level, that is the whole interview.
- 7Say plainly that you can read a tape measure to a sixteenth and do shop math. Foremen ask this in the first five minutes, and many candidates fail it.
Built a 7-foot wall unit in birch plywood with dadoed shelves, an applied face frame and adjustable shelf pins bored on a jig, finished with three coats of wiped-on polyurethane.
Framing carpenter helper for 2 years: read prints, cut to a list, kept material waste low on 8 residential builds and worked full days handling 4x8 sheets and 16-foot stock.
Cabinetmaking certificate graduate seeking a shop helper or assembler role with a path to bench work. Safe and accurate on table saw, miter saw, planer and router, reads a tape to a sixteenth, holds an OSHA 10 card and can lift sheet goods all day.
Format, length and the posting words to mirror
- One page. Two only if you have run a shop or led installs for many years.
- No photo of yourself, no date of birth on a US resume. Photos of your work go behind a portfolio link.
- Single column with plain headings. Larger millwork companies and furniture manufacturers screen through an ATS, and design flourishes come out broken.
- Put a machine and software line near the top so a foreman does not have to hunt for it.
- Say whether you have your own hand tools. Many shops expect a basic kit and it is a real question at interview.
- Mention travel and install work if you do it: overnight jobs, out-of-state commercial fit-outs, weekend installs.
| Posting says | Put on your resume |
|---|---|
| Experience with frameless and face-frame construction | Frameless 32mm and face-frame casework, inset and overlay doors, dovetailed drawer boxes |
| Able to read shop drawings | Works from architectural shop drawings and specifications, produces own cut lists and hardware schedules |
| CNC experience preferred | 3-axis nested-base CNC from Cabinet Vision output, nesting, tooling and yield above 88% |
| Field installation required | 2 to 3 kitchen installs a month, scribing, leveling, shimming and 1/8 inch reveals |
| Must maintain quality standards | Remake rate under 1%, punch list reduced from about 4 items per kitchen to 1.2 |
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a cabinet maker resume?
Open with a 3-line summary naming what you build, which machines and software you run, your yearly or weekly volume and one quality number. Give each job 3 to 5 bullets with materials, tolerances and counts. Add a skills block split into construction types, machines, CNC and software, list your safety cards, and link photos of your work. One page.
What skills should a cabinet maker put on a resume?
Construction types (frameless 32mm, face frame, inset), joinery (dado, dowel, mortise-and-tenon, dovetail), machines you set up (panel saw, edgebander, line borer, wide-belt sander), CNC and the software behind it (Cabinet Vision, Microvellum, Mozaik), materials, finishing, and install skills such as scribing and leveling. Add OSHA 10 and a forklift card if you have them.
What is a cabinet maker's job description for a resume?
Reading shop drawings and producing cut lists, cutting and machining sheet goods and solid stock, assembling and squaring cases, boring and fitting hardware, edgebanding, sanding and finishing, and often installing the finished work on site with scribing and leveling. Write it as your own volumes and tolerances instead of copying the list.
Do I need a certification to work as a cabinet maker?
No license is required in the US. Woodwork Career Alliance credentials (the Sawblade Certificate and Passport) are the recognized portable record of tool skills, and a technical college certificate helps at entry level. OSHA 10 and a forklift card matter for shop and site work, and some general contractors require a current safety card before you can install.
How do I write a cabinet maker resume with no experience?
Aim at the helper or assembler job that shops fill constantly. Write an objective naming that role, list every machine you have safely used, describe school or home projects with the material, joinery and finish, add OSHA 10, and link photos. State that you read a tape to a sixteenth and can do shop math, because it gets asked early.
Should I include a portfolio with a cabinetmaker resume?
Yes. It is the strongest evidence in the trade and most applicants skip it. Put one link in the header to a simple page or album with six or eight clear photos, including a joinery close-up and a finished install. Note the material and construction type under each photo so a foreman can judge the work.
Is a furniture maker resume different from a cabinet maker resume?
The vocabulary shifts. Furniture work emphasizes solid hardwood, hand joinery, design and finish quality, so lead with commissions, techniques and photos. Cabinet and millwork shops emphasize sheet goods, casework volume, CNC, hardware and installs, so lead with counts, machines and tolerances. Keep two versions if you apply to both.
How long should a cabinet maker resume be?
One page for nearly everyone. Two only if you have supervised a shop, led install crews or run estimating as well as building. Keep your last two jobs detailed and cut older ones to a title, employer and dates.
Ready to write yours?
The builder suggests a summary from your own experience, then checks it against the job posting.
How this page was made: a first draft was written with AI assistance from cvplex's example library, then edited and fact-checked by the cvplex Careers Team. Examples are fictional composites; numbers are illustrative. Report an error via the editorial policy page.