Many tend to underestimate the important role janitorial services play in our lives. So we’d like to give a huge shoutout to all the amazing people who ensure sanitation, cleanness, and safety of all the public and private facilities — especially all through the past two turbulent years.
If you are working as a professional janitor, you should feel good about the great work you do. And this sentiment should also come across when creating your resume. Never diminish or doubt your skills and abilities!
In this post, we’ll show you how to create a compelling janitor resume using our working sample and extra writing tips.
Resume Sample for a Janitor (Word version)
Janitor Resume Example (text version)
Jamie Mayers
Phone: (888)555-1111
Email: jamiemayers@email.com
Professional summary
Diligent, hardworking, amicable janitorial specialist, trained in Covid-19 sanitation protocols, CEFP and OSHA certified. Experienced with waxing equipment, plumbing work, and cleaning supply and inventory management.
Work Experience
Janitor
Sunnydale High School, Denver, CO
August 2018-present
Full-time school janitor, providing effective cleaning, floor care, trash removal, restroom cleaning, and groundskeeping services at a school of 500 students.
- Regular facilities cleaning and special floor care for the school library
- Timely trash removal and cooperation with local waste management companies
- Initiated a school trash sorting facility and educated students on recycling
- Co-developed a new cleaning checklist to comply with new school safety protocols
- Reference letter from Principal MacGill available upon request
Plumber
Independent Contractor, Denver, CO
May 2017-present
Outside of full-time work, I operate as an independent plumbing contractor, offering services to the local community.
- Install, replace, and repair water heating pipes
- Complete all-round bathroom/WC repairs
- Repair minor HVAC leaks
Cleaning Specialist
Sander’s Staffing Agency
November 2015-May 2017
Worked as a temporary cleaning specialist, assigned to augment in-house cleaning teams on-demand during busy seasons.
- Performed a variety of office cleaning duties — carpet cleaning, vacuuming, special woods care, trash removal, outside landscaping maintenance.
- Efficiently handled post-renovation facility cleaning — removed paint traces, disposed of construction waste, helped with furniture moving and arrangement.
- Worked as part of the hotel cleaning team — professionally polished all surfaces, performed floor treatments, did minor plumbing repairs and sanitary engineering jobs.
- Followed directions from team supervisors and received positive references from every temp employer I have worked for.
Shift Cleaner
Chicka Burgers
December 2014-November 2015
Worked as shift cleaner at a fast-food location in Colorado Springs. Ensured fast and effective cleaning of the restaurant facilities, including dining areas, washrooms, and kitchen areas after the end of the staff shifts.
Education & Certifications
Denver Trade School
2016-2017
Plumbing certification
Completed a plumbing training program and obtained a professional plumbing license from the Colorado Division of Professions and Occupations.
- OSHA Safety and Health Specialist Certificate, issued in Nov 2017
- Certified Educational Facilities Professional (CEFP), issued in June 2018
How to Make a Great Janitor Resume: 4 Working Tips
You may not be a great writer, but you probably know about the importance of good structure. The above sample janitor resume follows chronological resume format. You should use it too if you have several years of cleaning experience.
You can grab a premade free resume template to serve as a general frame for layout. Then customize all main resume sections — header, work experience, education — using our tips!
Never Send a Generic Resume
Janitors are hired by different companies — from public organizations like schools and universities to staffing agencies and individual businesses. Given the variety of options, you should always customize your resume to each position.
In other words — think about the employer’s facility type and likely cleaning needs. Then format your job descriptions to show that you can effectively address these with the skills you have.
For example, if you are applying as a janitor to a hotel, highlight that you are good at vacuuming and removing fingerprints and all sorts of stains from different surfaces.
Bring Up Your Soft Skills
More times than not, you’d be hired to work as part of a bigger cleaning team. Show that you can get along well with others by bringing up some of your soft skills. If you are aiming for a supervising janitorial position, give some extra room for showing your organizational skills.
As a janitor, some good soft skills to highlight on a resume are:
- Teamwork/team player
- Time management
- Strong work ethics
- Reliable/dependable
- Punctual
- Responsive
- Friendly/approachable
- Attentive to details
Need more ideas? We have a big list of adjectives to describe yourself.
Use Strong Verbs to Describe Your Janitorial Duties
A strong verb denotes concrete action. They are more descriptive in nature and help you better convey the nature of your work.
A quick way to tell a strong verb from a weak verb is by forming past tense. Strong verbs are irregular verbs and change their structure (e.g. go -> went). Weak verbs form a past tense with d/t ending (e.g. walk -> walked).
For example, compare these two job entries:
Janitor | Janitor |
Mowed the lawn and cut bushes Removed trash | Did groundskeeping and gardening work Took care of waste management |
The right one reads more persuasively because the resume bullet points are composed with strong verbs and extra descriptive nouns/adjectives. Try to mimic this too when writing your resume.
Final Tip: Don’t Dwell Too Much on Your Education
If you have a substantial work history, don’t dwell too much on your education. You don’t have to list your high school or GED diploma issue date. If you went to a trade school or completed some professional training, bring those things instead. If not, just leave the education section of your resume entirely and allocate more space towards your work experience as this is what most employers are interested in seeing on your resume.