Lifeguard Resume Examples
With a nationwide shortage of lifeguards, now is a great time to find a job doing what you love: swimming and saving lives. With more positions available, you may even have an opportunity to work at your favorite pool or beach. LiveCareer’s lifeguard resume examples can help you dive into your next lifeguard role. Simply select the best format and template based on each potential employer, and then use our Resume Builder to fill your resume with carefully written text to describe your qualifications in a personalized, customized document.
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What Is a Lifeguard?
Lifeguards in the U.S. keep people safe near water, performing over 7,000 rescues annually at public beaches alone. Besides being a strong swimmer, a professional lifeguard goes through special training to learn how to monitor people in a swimming area, how to recognize the signs of drowning and how to rescue swimmers in need of help. Depending on the type of certification, some lifeguards also must learn to operate personal watercraft and ATVs and must pass physical speed and endurance tests.
What Makes This a Great
Lifeguard Resume Example?
To get a good lifeguarding job, be sure your resume makes a splash with hiring managers. This example resume can guide you when crafting your own in the following ways:
- Job-specific wording: This example shows how powerful the right keywords and metrics can be on a resume. The resume uses the skills section to add critical keywords, like FirstAid and CPR, to make her qualifications easily scannable. Metrics, such as the numbers of children attending camp and people using the pool, add to the impact. Study our examples as a model or use our Resume Builder, which will suggest pre-written content for your lifeguard resume.
- Appropriate format: The combination format used in this lifeguard resume is a hybrid between a chronological format. It accentuates both work history and emphasizes the job seekers skills. For entry-level or highly experienced candidates, choosing a different resume format might be more appropriate.
- Template selection: The color and design of the example are sure to stand out from a pile of black-and-white traditional resumes. Creative templates like this one are well-suited to a role that takes place in a recreational environment. For lifeguarding roles in more conservative environments, our library of resume templates offers more traditional designs.
3 Lifeguard Professional Summaries Examples
You don’t have to struggle to write your professional summary from scratch. Our professional resume writers have already done the work for you by providing numerous examples you can use for inspiration. Or, use one of these examples as inspiration:
- Red Cross-certified beach lifeguard in search of summer employment. Skilled in monitoring and anticipating changing surf conditions. Adept at personal watercraft rescues, with extensive experience navigating rip currents. Proven record of remaining calm in emergency situations.
- YMCA-certified pool lifeguard with associate degree in early childhood development. Five years of experience planning activities and providing childcare as YMCA camp counselor. Enjoy teaching toddlers and preschoolers to swim while gently enforcing pool rules.
- Highly personable extrovert skilled in customer service. Certified by the Red Cross for shallow water lifeguarding. Able to work outdoors cheerfully in a variety of environmental conditions. Ready and willing to keep summertime water rides safe and fun for everyone.
3 Lifeguard Work Experience Section Examples
Though all lifeguards must be good swimmers, not all lifeguard jobs have the same requirements. Be sure your resume reflects your certifications and experiences by studying our lifeguard resume examples. Or, use one of these examples to write your own:
- Periodically assisted gate guard and pool attendants with customer service.
- Used back board to extract unconscious swimmer and performed CPR to restore breathing.
- Rescued up to 10 swimmers per summer using personal watercraft due to strong currents and shark sightings in swimming areas.
Top Skills for Your Lifeguard Resume
Beyond your swimming ability, having the right mix of hard and soft skills is critical for lifeguards. Incorporate the skills from our resume example on your resume, or choose from this list to build out your skills section:
Hard Skills
- Swimming and safety instruction
- Infant CPR
- Distressed swimmers rescue techniques
- Universal Lifeguard Certification
Soft Skills
- Customer service
- Sound judgement
- Situational awareness
- Clear oral communication
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Lifeguard FAQs
- What is a lifeguard’s primary responsibility?
- What powers do lifeguards have?
- Why is a lifeguard important?
What is a lifeguard’s primary responsibility?
A lifeguard’s primary responsibility is to monitor swimmers and prevent them from drowning. Failing to do so is actually against the law, and a lifeguard who fails to act in accordance with this responsibility is personally liable for a person’s injuries. Besides conducting surveillance, lifeguards also perform their duty through enforcing rules, responding to emergencies and preventing dangerous situations from arising.
What powers do lifeguards have?
Lifeguards have the authority to enforce swimming area rules, including closing the pool due to lighting. Whether they can make decisions such as closing a public beach during an emergency or suspending patrons from a facility depends upon employer regulations. For example, in some areas lifeguards work for the municipal fire department and may have more powers of enforcement than those employed by a private swim club.
Why is a lifeguard important?
Ten people drown every day, and drowning is the fifth leading cause of accidental death due to injury in the US. However, these deaths generally occur where there is no lifeguard, because studies have shown that lifeguards reduce the risk of drowning to only one in 18 million. Being a lifeguard is one of the most important jobs a person can have because it saves lives.
