Write a carpenter resume that shows your project experience, equipment, and qualifications. Includes examples for formwork and mass timber work.
Describe the carpentry work you have done: building types, materials, equipment, and your role on each project. For commercial, formwork, or mass timber jobs, use examples from that work and list the qualifications you hold. This guide is for Canadian carpenters and apprentices.
Name the scope, system, contractor or project, and result. Replace each example with your own work.
Formwork carpenter on 47-storey ICI core, downtown Toronto, with EllisDon; Peri Skydeck and Maximo column systems, three-day slab cycle maintained over 14-month structural build.
Installed cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels and glulam columns at Limberlost Place, George Brown College Toronto; supported StructureCraft connection schedule, coordinated with crane lifts on tight downtown site.
Metal stud framing lead on tenant fit-out, 35,000 sq ft office floor, Bay Street Toronto; coordinated with mechanical and electrical for in-wall services, completed on schedule.
Layout and snapping for ICI tower podium, downtown Calgary; transferred grid lines and elevations from base build to formwork crew using rotary laser and total station.
Installed Doka MF240 climbing formwork on 28-storey condo tower, BC Lower Mainland; led three-carpenter crew, two pours per week, zero rework callbacks.
Mass timber installer on Origine condominium tower, Quebec City; CLT panel placement and connection install, working with Nordic Structures connection details.
Finishing carpenter on Vancouver General Hospital expansion; door hardware install, custom millwork mounting, coordinated with mechanical and security trades.
For each line, name the scope, system, contractor or project, and result when you can.
Lead with your project settings, systems, equipment, qualifications, and crew responsibilities:
Trade certification
Red Seal General Carpenter (Ontario 403A) or provincial journeyperson.
Project type
ICI tower? Mass timber? Formwork? Residential high-rise? Tenant fit-out? Heavy civil?
Contractors and unions
PCL, EllisDon, Pomerleau, Ledcor, Bird, Aecon. Carpenters Local 27 (Toronto), Local 1907 (BC), etc.
Scope of skill
formwork (Peri, Doka, Aluma), framing (metal stud, wood), finishing, layout, hardware install, mass timber connections.
Tickets
Working at Heights (ON), Fall Protection, CSTS-2020, WHMIS, First Aid, scaffold awareness, forklift.
Name the project setting, systems, equipment, and responsibilities that match the carpentry work you want.
The Red Seal trade is General Carpenter. Provincial designations vary:
Source-backed regulatory facts
The Red Seal endorsement comes after passing the Interprovincial Standards Examination and makes you portable. For ICI work, most major contractors expect journeyperson certification or substantial equivalent experience, even where it's technically voluntary.
"Journeyperson" is the standard provincial term; "journeyman" still appears in postings. Use whichever the employer uses.
Beyond your trade certification, list the tickets that apply to the work you want:
Working at Heights (Ontario MOL-approved)
mandatory in Ontario for any Section 26.1-regulated work on a construction site. The CPO-approved one-day course is non-negotiable.
Fall Protection
provincial equivalent outside Ontario.
CSTS-2020
national construction site safety training. Most ICI contractors require it.
WHMIS 2015, Standard First Aid, CPR-C
Common site training. List it with the completion or renewal date when useful.
Forklift / Telehandler / Boom & Scissor
useful for material handling, scaffold setup, and finishing work at height.
Confined Space Entry
for some heavy civil and below-grade work.
Hot Work / Fire Watch
common on operating buildings during tenant fit-out work.
Asbestos awareness
for retrofit and demolition work, particularly in Ontario.
Scaffold awareness or scaffold erector
for formwork carpenters who set up their own work platforms.
H2S Alive
for any oil and gas site, including Alberta camp work.
OSSA BSO
for Alberta oil sands camp builds.
Specialty exposures worth listing if you have them: mass timber connection install training (StructureCraft, Element5, Nordic Structures), Peri or Doka formwork system training, CLT panel install, glulam installation, ICF (insulated concrete forms) experience, fly form / table form decking, and specific finish hardware (Pemko, Hager, Allegion).
Examples of ICI work include towers in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver; transit projects such as Eglinton Crosstown LRT, Ontario Line, Montreal REM, Surrey-Langley SkyTrain, and Calgary Green Line; and hospital expansions. The work includes formwork systems (Peri, Doka, Aluma, Fly Form), metal stud framing, and finishing carpentry. Name the contractor and building when you have that experience.
Canada has become one of the leading markets for mass timber construction. Brock Commons Tallwood House at UBC, Origine in Quebec City, Limberlost Place at George Brown College Toronto, T3 Bayside Toronto, Arbora in Montreal — and a growing pipeline of mass timber commercial and institutional projects. Mass timber install carpenters work with CLT (cross-laminated timber) panels, glulam beams and columns, NLT/DLT panels, and the specialty connections that come with them. Knowing the systems (Nordic Structures, StructureCraft, Element5, Western Archrib, Kalesnikoff) is worth listing.
Office building work can include tenant fit-out, custom millwork, door hardware, demountable wall systems (DIRTT, Teknion), and architectural finishes across the GTA, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary. Name the building and scope.
Bridge formwork, transit station structural carpentry, water and wastewater treatment plant work. Heavy civil contractors (Aecon, EBC, Pomerleau, Walsh, Kiewit) run continuous formwork crews. The work rewards experienced formwork carpenters who can read complex drawings.
Toronto's continuous condo pipeline, BC's Lower Mainland boom, and Calgary's residential growth keep framing and formwork crews busy on multi-unit residential. Production rates matter; if you've worked high-rise with a major residential developer (Tridel, Concert, Wesgroup, Mattamy), it carries weight.
Modular dorm builds, kitchen and washroom blocks, and ancillary structures for the Fort McMurray and Athabasca region. Camp carpentry rewards travel-ready trades who can run 14/7 or 20/8 rotations.
Werko monitors new carpentry jobs against your trade, experience, and work preferences. Review a match and give Werko permission to apply. Werko fills out the forms, sends the application, and keeps a record.
Resume import is optional. If you use it, you review the details before they become part of your profile. Join the waitlist for access updates.
Join the waitlist for Werko access updates.
Join the waitlistIt depends on the province. The source-backed rows above distinguish confirmed classifications from jurisdictions where the authority source should be checked before making an eligibility claim. In practice, ICI commercial contractors, mass timber installers, and union crews expect journeyperson certification or substantial equivalent experience. The Red Seal endorsement makes you portable across provinces.
403A — General Carpenter is the Ontario apprenticeship code for broad carpentry scope: framing, formwork, finishing, hardware install, layout, and related carpentry work in residential, commercial, and industrial settings. The source-backed rows above carry the current classification; most union shops and major ICI contractors still expect the credential or substantial equivalent experience.
Mass timber refers to engineered wood building systems used as the primary structural material for mid-rise and high-rise construction: cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, glulam beams and columns, nail-laminated timber (NLT), and dowel-laminated timber (DLT). Canada has become a leading market for mass timber buildings, with projects like Brock Commons Tallwood House (UBC), Origine (Quebec City), and Limberlost Place (Toronto). Carpenters who've installed mass timber systems have skills that are still relatively rare — list it if you have it.
For any Section 26.1-regulated construction site, yes. The Ministry of Labour Working at Heights training is a one-day CPO-approved course required for workers exposed to fall hazards on construction projects. It expires after three years and needs to be refreshed. ICI contractors will not let you on site without it.
Formwork carpenters build the temporary moulds (typically with engineered systems like Peri, Doka, Aluma) into which concrete is poured for structural elements — slabs, columns, walls, shear cores. The work is heavy, repetitive, and on a strict cycle. Finishing carpenters install the visible elements after the structure is built — doors, hardware, millwork, trim, custom architectural elements. The work is detail-oriented and slower. Most journeyperson general carpenters have done both at some point in their career.
Yes if you're a member. Local number and current status matter. Many ICI contractors are union-only, and Carpenters Union affiliation (Local 27 GTA, Local 1907 BC, Local 1325 Edmonton, etc.) is a credibility signal. List the local prominently on the resume.