Landscaper job description for a resume

The short answer

A landscaper writing a resume should describe what they actually did — work like use hand tools — rather than copying a generic bullet list. The U.S. Department of Labor classifies the role as Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers (SOC 37-3011.00). All 14 of its published duties are listed below. Operation and Control is the capability O*NET rates highest for the work.

What follows is the published duty list, not a set of bullets to copy. The difference matters: a line describing work you did not do is one interview question away from falling apart.

What a landscaper does

Landscape or maintain grounds of property using hand or power tools or equipment. Workers typically perform a variety of tasks, which may include any combination of the following: sod laying, mowing, trimming, planting, watering, fertilizing, digging, raking, sprinkler installation, and installation of mortarless segmental concrete masonry wall units.

O*NET occupation: Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers (SOC 37-3011.00).

Landscaper duties you can put on a resume

These are all 14 duties O*NET classifies as core to this occupation. Which ranking is a fact from the source; which of them you personally did is not something any dataset knows. Use the list as a memory aid, never as a list to paste.

1. Use hand tools, such as shovels, rakes, pruning saws, saws, hedge or brush trimmers, or axes.
2. Prune or trim trees, shrubs, or hedges, using shears, pruners, or chain saws.
3. Trim or pick flowers and clean flower beds.
4. Operate vehicles or powered equipment, such as mowers, tractors, twin-axle vehicles, snow blowers, chainsaws, electric clippers, sod cutters, or pruning saws.
5. Gather and remove litter.
6. Follow planned landscaping designs to determine where to lay sod, sow grass, or plant flowers or foliage.
7. Plant seeds, bulbs, foliage, flowering plants, grass, ground covers, trees, or shrubs, and apply mulch for protection, using gardening tools.
8. Attach wires from planted trees to support stakes.
9. Decorate gardens with stones or plants.
10. Rake, mulch, and compost leaves.
11. Care for established lawns by mulching, aerating, weeding, grubbing, removing thatch, or trimming or edging around flower beds, walks, or walls.
12. Mix and spray or spread fertilizers, herbicides, or insecticides onto grass, shrubs, or trees, using hand or automatic sprayers or spreaders.
13. Water lawns, trees, or plants, using portable sprinkler systems, hoses, or watering cans.
14. Mow or edge lawns, using power mowers or edgers.

Skills a landscaper can list

O*NET rates these at importance 3.0 or above for this occupation. Fewer skills met that threshold here than for most occupations, so this page leans on the duties above rather than padding the list.

Operation and Control

importance 3.12

What not to claim

• A duty from the list above that you did not personally perform. It describes Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers as an occupation, not your particular job — and interviewers for landscaper roles ask about the specifics.
• Work from an adjacent role you have not held. Landscaper and the roles beside it overlap, and the overlap is where overstatement creeps in.
• A percentage, a headcount or a volume you did not measure. "Improved satisfaction by 35%" is the single most copied line on resume-example sites, and almost nobody who pastes it can source it.
• Operation and Control at a level you have not worked at. O*NET rates it highest for this occupation, which makes it the most likely thing to be probed.
• A tool, system or certification you have not used or hold. This is the fastest claim to disprove.

Source and method

O*NET data are provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, used under the CC BY 4.0 licence.The duties and skills above are reproduced as published. The resume guidance, the prompts and any generated lines are RoleSprint's, and O*NET did not write them.

Related occupations

Same occupational family in the SOC classification, so the duties often overlap with work you have done.

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