Upholsterer Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Upholsterer resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Upholsterers create custom furniture by upholstering furniture pieces with fabric or leather, often adding padding and backing. If you’re interested in working with your hands, have an eye for detail, and enjoy working with customers to create beautiful pieces of furniture—this could be the perfect job for you!
Before you can land your dream upholsterer job, you need a resume that showcases your skills and experience. Here are some tips and an example resume to help you do just that.
How to Write an Resume
Here’s how to write an resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
Rather than simply listing your responsibilities, you can use the bullet points to provide more detail about what you did and the results of your work. For example, rather than saying you “upholstered furniture,” you could say you “upholstered 20 sofas in one week, resulting in zero customer complaints and an increase in customer satisfaction ratings by 15%.”
This level of detail will help hiring managers understand not only what you did but also how well you did it. And that can make all the difference when it comes time for them to decide who to interview.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you submit your resume online, it’s likely that it will be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. These programs look for specific terms related to the job opening, like “upholstery” or “cushions,” in order to determine whether your skills and experience are a match. If your resume doesn’t include enough relevant keywords, the ATS might filter out your application.
To increase your chances of getting an interview, make sure to include relevant keywords throughout all the sections of your resume. You can add them into the work experience, skills, summary, and education sections. Here are some commonly used upholsterer keywords to get you started:
- Upholstery
- Furniture Repair
- Carpentry
- Woodworking
- Fine Woodworking
- Fabrication
- Furniture
- Contract Furniture
- Sewing
- Finish Carpentry
- AutoCAD
- Construction
- Restoring Antique Furniture
- Recycling
- Construction Management
- Hardwood
- Office Administration
- Window Treatments
- Project Planning
- Sales
- Teamwork
- Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
- Machining
- SketchUp
- Quality Control
- Social Media
- Communication
- Customer Service
- Microsoft Access
- Organization Skills
Showcase Your Technical Skills
As an upholsterer, you need to be proficient in the use of a variety of tools and machines in order to do your job effectively. This might include experience with sewing machines, cutting machines, and upholstery tools. Additionally, upholsterers need to be able to use technology to communicate with clients and take measurements.
Some of the programs and systems that upholsterers are typically expected to be proficient in include: fabric cutting software, upholstery design software, and project management software.
Remember The Basics
As you’re writing your resume, you’ll want to keep a few basic guidelines in mind.
Create Scannable Sections
There are a few things you can do to make your resume easier to read, such as left-aligning your text, using a standard font type and size, and using bullets instead of paragraphs to list your experiences. You should also use all-caps and bold sparingly, and keep your bullets under two lines. Additionally, you can include some white space on the page to make the document easier to scan.
Be Concise
A resume should be as concise as possible and one or two pages long. New graduates or those early in their careers should aim for one page, while those with more experience can go up to two pages. Remove any irrelevant information, such as hobbies or personal details, to save space.
Proofread
Proofreading your resume is important to ensuring that it looks its best. There are a few key things to watch for: spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, and grammatical mistakes. You should also be aware of easily confused words, such as their/there/they’re and to/too/two. Spell checking your resume is a good start, but you should also have someone else proofread it for you to catch any mistakes that you may have missed.
Consider a Summary
A resume summary statement can be a fantastic way to make your experience and intentions more clear to potential employers. By highlighting your best skills and experiences, you can show how you would be a valuable addition to their team. Additionally, a well-crafted summary can help to show how your goals align with the role you’re applying for. If you’re looking to add a summary statement to your resume, be sure to keep it short and simple, highlighting your best traits and skills.