Janitorial Resume Examples

You should make sure you have the five main sections of a resume: contact information, professional summary, work history, skills and education.

Your strong focal points will be the work history and skills sections, since it’s where you’ll show hiring managers that you can be their ideal janitorial worker.

One tip for job applicants is to quantify their achievements. For example, don’t just write that you mop the school floors; rephrase it by demonstrating how many corridors or rooms you mopped per shift or per day.

Here are a few examples of quantifiable achievements a housekeeper could include in their work history:

• Cleaned and sanitized an average of 25 guest rooms per day
• Reduced inventory costs by 43% by systematically distributing supplies to cleaning staff at beginning of shifts
• Received 275+ five-star gradings (highest grade per hotel system) in performance review judged by hotel guests
• Trained 150+ housekeepers in the luxury service of towel art, flower arrangement, and safely handling of industrial chemical cleaners

Using numbers to describe your job duties not only shows you’re a sharp-minded individual, it also helps future employers be critical about which candidate is a more cost-effective choice.

Janitorial workers perform cleaning and maintenance duties in commercial buildings, private homes, schools, hotels, hospitals and more.

Some janitorial laborers work by cleaning specific areas or items, or are experts in one particular cleaning technique.

In general cleaning roles, such as janitor, custodian, maid or housekeeper, you can expect to perform the basic cleaning duties like sweeping and mopping floors; dusting walls and furniture; sanitizing frequently-used areas such as desks, countertops, sinks and toilets; and disposing of garbage, among others.

You’ll be asked to maintain the cleanliness of objects that might need polishing or waxing such as mirrors, silver, china or hardwood floors. It’s a demanding job, so you need to be fit and healthy and motivated to work.

Janitorial workers in laundry roles or hotel roles will be asked to execute different types of cleaning like machine-washing clothes and linen, dry cleaning, machine drying, air drying, and folding sheets and towels.

Laundry cleaners and hotel workers need to have excellent customer service skills since they’ll interact with clients or guests regularly. These roles require attention to detail and extra care with people’s belongings since they’re paying for a special or luxury service.

In the case of specialized and commercial roles and technician roles some workers have to handle and repair machinery like floor buffers, carpet cleaners, pressure washers, leaf blowers, sandblasters and potent cleaning agents.

These responsibilities will require on-the-job training and knowledge of safety guidelines to keep you and others safe.

You don’t need any qualifications to be a janitorial worker, but employers will find you a more attractive candidate if you have a high school diploma or GED. This shows you have basic arithmetic skills and can communicate well with all sorts of people at your job.

Having any previous experience in janitorial work is always a good thing, but most employers will offer on-the-job training and will teach you their own cleaning and safety standards.

However, by way of janitorial apprenticeships, you can gain expert knowledge on different areas of cleaning that will benefit you in any type of job.

Having standard knowledge in cleaning subjects might even set you apart as a potential staff manager because of your ability to train others in your education and skills.

You should check out your community college or vocational schools to see if they offer courses in custodial services or apprenticeship programs with local businesses and experienced professionals.

Some colleges offer a janitorial apprenticeship that covers topics ranging from cleaning chemicals, floor care equipment and safety methods.

There’s no doubt that the best experience you can include in your janitorial resume is cleaning and maintenance experience.

If you’ve worked as a private cleaning person for multiple households or you worked in a family cleaning business, that knowledge will serve you well if you’re applying for a job in a more formal setting such as a hotel or hospital.

If you haven’t had a proper cleaning job before, you can always rephrase past experiences that align with the job description. For example, if you’ve worked at a fast food restaurant, you can highlight any cleaning duties you performed and customer service skills.

Workers in maintenance and repair that have knowledge of equipment and tools will be valuable to employers looking for a well-rounded janitorial worker that can not only clean but fix the tools they use daily.

Most jobs want a motivated and dependable worker on whom they can count, and janitorial positions are no different.

Make sure your work history shows you’re a professional in every sense of the word, and you’ll already be halfway into convincing an employer or hiring manager you’re fit for the position.

Yes, always include a cover letter with a janitorial resume.

While a resume is a document that is browsed quickly by hiring managers, a cover letter is one where you can truly sell yourself in a more personal manner.

Let’s say you were the top-performing housekeeper at a big-chain hotel, and you want hiring managers to understand key aspects of your responsibilities and the feedback you got from supervisors or clients.

This is where you come in with a cover letter and narrate your best achievements in an engaging way.

Cover letters are also a great tool for professionals who want to demonstrate their career progression in hopes of getting a promotion.

If you’re a custodian that wants to test your leadership capabilities as a custodial manager, a cover letter is the perfect sidekick.

You can explain how you’ve gained the trust of your co-workers and have always been a dependable employee.

JobHero offers a set of janitorial cover letter examples which are handy documents that should never go missing in your job application.