A job-winning entry-level barista CV should demonstrate that you can keep up in a busy environment, make customers feel welcome, and consistently serve an excellent cup.
This guide shares real CV examples that prove enthusiasm, top skills, and the right approach can outweigh years of experience.
Inside, you’ll discover:
- ↪ 3 entry-level barista resume examples that led to job offers in 2026
- ↪ How to select and showcase the skills that matter most to employers
- Simple adjustments that turn more applications into interviews
- ↪ Practical steps to secure the barista job you’ve been aiming for
Why this CV works
- Education or courses aren’t going to add any extra value to your entry-level barista CV. So, mix in some essential real-life skills that can enhance the way you interact with customers.
- For instance, having a second language like Spanish won’t harm your chances. Include a few managerial skills such as critical thinking or time management to let employers know that you’re the go-to person for all coffee and front-of-house needs.
Related CV examples
What Matters Most: Your Entry-Level Barista Skills & Work Experience
Food safety and brewing efficiency require a lot of skill. That said, what do you include here if you haven’t worked as a barista before?
Start by looking at the job description and consider how you can tailor skills from previous experiences to the role’s requirements. For example, if you’ve provided customer service in other retail sectors, that would be excellent to include.
Alternatively, you can take skills such as adhering to a timetable in school extracurricular activities or achieving good marks on class presentations and apply them here.
Here are some of the top entry-level barista skills for your CV.
9 top entry-level barista skills
- Cash Management
- Customer Services
- Coffee Knowledge
- Teamwork
- Basic Maths
- Food & Drink Preparation
- Stock
- Sanitisation
- EPOS Systems
Sample entry-level barista work experience bullet points
Entry-level barista applicants may also find it challenging to list relevant work experience when they haven’t worked much.
While this section is commonly for work experience, you can actually fill up the bulk of your CV with lots of experiences like education, hobbies & interests, and voluntary work. For instance, volunteering at a food bank still demonstrates excellent food handling and customer service skills.
Additionally, try to include as many numbers as possible to emphasise the impact of your achievements, such as customer satisfaction scores or efficiency.
Here are a few examples:
- Worked with a team in the food club following precise recipes to prepare baked goods and finished 2nd in a regional competition.
- Volunteered at a care home, assisting with transporting residents to common rooms and answering any queries to achieve 98% positive satisfaction scores.
- Managed cash and EPOS systems to accurately complete transactions as a supermarket cashier with no cash drawer shortages for 2 years.
- Entered product inventory information in Microsoft Excel, diligently paying attention to serial numbers and descriptions to ensure 99% accuracy.
Top 5 tips for your entry-level barista CV
- Consider an objective
- Candidates with limited experience can benefit from highlighting their most relevant skills straight away. For example, you could write a couple of sentences about being a caring professional with two years of customer service experience who is ready to apply those skills as a barista.
- Keep it organised
- Baristas need to manage order information efficiently and stay organised. You can start things off right by submitting an organised CV that has clear headings, bullet points with data, and easily readable fonts.
- Try to use one-sentence examples
- Your examples of how you achieved excellent customer satisfaction scores or carried out tasks efficiently don’t need to be very long. Simply stating that you provided friendly service with 97% positive satisfaction rates is very effective.
- A hobbies/interests section can be beneficial
- Non-traditional work experiences like volunteer work or tasks you completed as part of a school club can be great on entry-level CVs. For example, participating in a school sport can demonstrate how you thrive in a team environment, which will be crucial as a barista.
- Proofread thoroughly
- Hiring managers will be impressed by an accurate and grammatically correct CV. It’ll help demonstrate your ability to follow instructions accurately and clearly process information from the outset.
How to Write an Entry-Level Barista CV
A great entry-level barista CV should demonstrate that you can work quickly, remain friendly under pressure, and ensure every drink is consistent.
Summary
Discover how you can become a barista with no experience by using a strong career objective, projects, and brewing qualifications.
This section provides you with the essentials to make your application stand out from the first glance.
What you will learn:
- Key sections every barista CV should have
- How to emphasise skills that match the role
- Ways to demonstrate customer service experience
- Tips for keeping your layout tidy and easy to read
Include a brew-tiful career objective
Want to demonstrate that you’re a budding latte art star? Create a compelling career objective that showcases your work ethic and eagerness to learn. You don’t need to write an essay on your positive attributes.
A straightforward 2–4 objective, tailored to the specific café, will do the trick. Here’s a good example to give you a quick head start:
Conscientious final-year student, keen to combine my passion for coffee and talent for customer service at your café. Eager for an opportunity to utilise my bilingual and strong communication skills to enhance the average customer experience and maintain your shop’s reputation as the city’s most welcoming café.
See what we did there? Provide a brief overview of your skills, explain how you intend to utilise them, and customise it for the café.
Your projects can save the day
Still at university and don’t have any real work experience? We’ve all been there. If you haven’t had any jobs yet, make the most of your university projects. Use them to demonstrate initiative and your interpersonal skills, even if they aren’t related to coffee.
For example:
- Pop-Up Food Stall Volunteer: Discuss your experience running a food stall, including the number of drinks you sold and the number of customers you served, etc.
- University Fair Member: Include any university events you participated in. Even if your contribution was minor, mention anything related to communication.
- Additional Voluntary Work: Have you ever assisted your local community or a charity? Include it. Emphasise occasions where you have directly helped people.
If you don’t have any project experience either, then start your own personal projects. This can be anything from the examples we provided above to taking part in a coffee-making competition.
Keep your education concise and to the point (like a good cup of coffee)
Include your current education details and your degree classification (if you’ve graduated with a 2:1 or above), but don’t consider it a deal breaker. No café will question your abilities because of a lower classification in an unrelated field.
However, if possible, include any coffee brewing qualifications such as:
- Coffee Value Assessment (CVA)
- Roastery Skills Diploma (Speciality Coffee Association)
Formatting tips for your barista CV
Let’s take a look at how you can format your CV:
- Contact header: This is the first part of your CV, and one you cannot get wrong. Get one letter or number wrong, and it won’t matter how passionate you are about brewing coffee; no employer will be able to reach you. Using a spellchecker can help ensure your CV is free of such errors.
- Reverse-chronological format: The best way to present your work experience/projects is to list them in reverse-chronological order. This gives your most recent achievements the spotlight.
- File type: Unless the job description states otherwise, always submit a clean PDF file of your CV.
Key points
Remember to:
- Start with a concise, confident summary
- Demonstrate your ability to excel in a dynamic environment
- Celebrate customer service successes
- List any coffee or food service skills you already possess
- Keep your layout tidy and easy to skim
- Use action words that demonstrate energy and initiative
Entry-Level Barista CV FAQs
Aim for a one-page resume, with relevant information to your customer service and food prep abilities. If you’re struggling to fill up an entire page, use hobbies u0026 interests, school experiences, or an objective to add more details.
Reverse chronological formatting will be best when your experience is limited. It’ll put your most recent and relevant abilities to aspects like cash management and timely service at the top to catch a hiring manager’s attention.
You should still create a cover letter to showcase your interest in the position and how your skills fit in. Your cover letter can be a great way to show how you connect with the company, such as your passion for coffee, tea, or bakery-related products or how you’ll create a great customer experience.
No. Any CV (including a barista CV) requires an appropriate template. Having no template is like drinking a coffee that hasn’t been brewed and has random amounts of milk and sugar mixed in. Using any one of the CV templates will help you present your profile in an organised fashion.
