Ramshaw began his career at Notts County from 1978 until 1983. He gained his English FA Full Licence (UEFA A Licence equivalent) in 1981.
In 1984 Ramshaw joined Shepshed Charterhouse as player-coach in the Southern League. Placed in the bottom three when he joined them, Shepshed finished in fifth place, narrowly missing out on promotion to the Football Conference.
The following year Ramshaw returned to the professional game with Nottingham Forest, looking after their Associate Schoolboy programme for two years.
In 1989 Ramshaw became the manager of Sutton Town, then competing in the Northern Counties East League. The club was runners-up in the Northern Counties East league and League Cup semi-finalists in the three years Ramshaw was with the Snipes.
In addition, Ramshaw led Hucknall Town's Youth Academy (the first full-time non-league academy in the Midlands[citation needed]) to the Northern Alliance U19 League Championship and first round proper of FA Youth Cup.
November 2001 saw Ramshaw join Eastwood Town as the assistant manager.
The following season, Ramshaw joined Kidsgrove Athletic, leading them to success in the Staffordshire Senior Cup final by beating Conference side Stafford Rangers at the Brittania Stadium. They also reached the semi-finals of the Northern Premier League Chairman's Cup.
Ramshaw joined Phil Starbuck at Arnold Town during the 2003–04 season. This was followed by Arnold Town's most successful league campaign for ten seasons and their best-ever run in the FA Vase (fifth round)[citation needed].
Ramshaw joined Lincoln United in October 2007. However, after only ten games in charge, he left to rejoin Eastwood Town as Paul Cox's assistant. During the next two seasons, the pair guided Eastwood Town to the Unibond Northern Premier League championship and promotion to the Football Conference (North); the third round proper of the FA Cup; the Peter Swales Trophy and the Nottinghamshire Senior Cup.
In May 2011, Ramshaw was appointed first team manager of Shepshed Dynamo.[3]
He returned to Eastwood Town as manager in November 2011,[4] but left once again in October 2012, resigning due to ongoing financial difficulties at the club. Despite the club's problems, Ramshaw still managed to guide Eastwood Town to a Nottinghamshire Senior Cup Final victory, the fifth time he had won this trophy in his career.[5]
Ramshaw renewed his association with Paul Cox in November 2012 when he joined the coaching staff at Mansfield Town – where he was most recently Academy Manager at the League 2 side. His stewardship of the club's Academy saw 8 players progress to the professional ranks. In addition, the Youth Team won the HKL Development League, were twice runners-up in the Football Conference Youth Alliance and were the only League 2 side to reach the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup (2014/15 season). Ramshaw left the Stags in December 2014 following Cox's resignation.
On 29 June 2015 Ramshaw was once again reunited with Paul Cox, becoming assistant manager at National League side Torquay United.[6]
In July 2018 he joined Hinckley AFC as assistant manager to James Jepson. Upon the resignation of Jepson in December 2018, Ramshaw was appointed the club's Manager. After the 2018/19 season, John Ramshaw left the club and later agreed to take over Hinckley's under 18's side.