As a restaurant worker, you provide the foundation of success for a restaurant to survive, thrive, and nurture communities. Whether an entry-level restaurant worker or a field veteran, you’re reliable, levelheaded, and an expert at communicating.
You shouldn’t have to become an expert resume writer, too.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be. We’ve reviewed countless resumes from restaurant workers worldwide and have thoroughly picked them apart to decipher what did and did not help applicants land job interviews.
We took this information and crafted seven restaurant resume samples to help you get your next restaurant job in 2024. At the end of each resume, you’ll find helpful tips and tricks to ensure you stand out from the crowd.
Why this resume works
- Quantifiable metrics, or numerical summaries of your work experience, do more for you than words. Did you know that 70 percent of hiring managers won’t even look at your restaurant resume if it doesn’t contain specific numbers?
- It can be difficult to think of valuable statistics. As a restaurant worker, list metrics for achieving or exceeding sales targets, where you boosted efficiency, customer reviews you received, employer reviews, the number of menu items you had command over, how much you increased revenue, health inspection ratings, reductions in staff turnover, the number of guests you cared for or the number of guests seated per night.
- If you opt for a resume summary, it should be a concise two to three-sentence snapshot of any specializations you’ve acquired in your many years (10+ for a summary) in the field.
- Avoid vague statements, and customize it for each job to which you apply. For example, your summary might detail your 10+ years of experience, front-of-house experience, communication, customer service, and levelheadedness while also mentioning the target business by name.
Why this resume works
- Nurturing customer relations is the best way to build a sustainable business. That’s why you notice how this restaurant worker resume emphasizes the role of building strong customer relationships.
- Also, it adds a measurable achievement of increasing the levels of repeat customers. Therefore, you need to show your long-term value to a potential employer before you can be hired.
Why this resume works
- It’s okay if you lack years of experience working in the restaurant industry, but it can feel intimidating to apply for a job without much work history.
- Focus on demonstrating your job skills, rather than titles, as an entry-level worker. You can even include school projects, internships, or volunteer positions.
- This is a good time to add a resume objective.
- Your resume objective not only fills up space but offers a valuable snapshot of your best self when you take the time to customize it.
- It’s also best suited for entry-level applicants or those who are changing careers. Don’t forget to customize your objective by mentioning the target business by name.
- Whether or not you’re an entry-level restaurant worker, you need to write your resume skills carefully. Unfortunately, many applicants fail to realize the importance of this section and have a difficult and disheartening job search.
- If you omit a skills section, your entry-level restaurant resume may pass through automated scanners and into the trash before a hiring manager ever sees it.
- Fortunately, skills sections are really easy to include.
- We recommend listing six to ten skills specific to restaurant work. You can even specialize your skills section for each job you apply to by carefully reading job descriptions and picking up on their valuable skills.
- Important restaurant worker skills include customer service, communication, time management, organization, sales, and flexibility.
Why this resume works
- It’s not common to see a restaurant customer service resume that goes off the grain to highlight skills and experiences in other areas. But this one expertly merges customer service competencies with cash handling skills to make a solid case to recruiters.
- In particular, including the cashier experience elevates the value you’re bringing to a business that thrives on customer satisfaction.
Why this resume works
- Your restaurant server resume should keep things short and to the point. If you have a lot of information to include, make sure you quantify your experience in numbers and break it up into concise bullet points. Bullet points should all be under 200 characters.
- Did you know that 250-plus applicants may apply to a single job posting?
- Undoubtedly, being a hiring manager and reviewing so many resumes is stressful. That’s why they typically only spend six seconds reviewing each one. If you want to grab their attention, you’ll need to quantify most of your bullet points.
- Numbers naturally draw the eye, making employers spend more time on your resume.
Why this resume works
- When you have years of experience, it’s important to demonstrate growth and increased responsibility over time.
- Formatting your resume in reverse-chronological style demonstrates this best with its natural progression of work history from most recent to oldest.
- Start your restaurant manager resume with strong action words.
- It’s important to avoid words that take away from your ability to work independently or actively. For example, starting a bullet point with the word “helped” is much less impactful than the word “spearheaded.”
- Your resume should include great action words like calculated, collaborated, negotiated, achieved, coordinated, crafted, supervised, built, cultivated, or outperformed.
- If you’re having trouble structuring the perfect sentences, that’s okay. It’s not easy! That’s why we built our resume checker.
Why this resume works
- Aim to have two to four work experience sections and three to six bullet points for each work experience on your fast food restaurant resume. With so little space, include metrics and active voice while avoiding unnecessary filler words.
- When building your resume, write your work experience in a reverse-chronological style. State your most recent experience at the top of your resume and work backward.
- This will help demonstrate growth throughout your career.
- Additionally, only 20 percent of hiring managers say they read every single work experience. Keeping your most relevant experience toward the top will ensure employers see the most important information.
- Finally, recruiters’ automated systems (ATS) are formatted to look through resumes written in the standard (reverse-chronological) order.
Related resume guides
How to Describe Restaurant Experience on a Resume
No matter your experience level, whether you’re looking for your first job or have been in the restaurant industry for years, our industry-specific resume tips will ensure you serve up the best application to hiring managers.
- Use any experience that can demonstrate the right skills
Whether you’re looking for a restaurant management position, hoping to get your first job in the industry as a server, or somewhere in between, you won’t always have past job experience that seems directly applicable. The good news is that just about any project or seemingly irrelevant job can still demonstrate the skills and abilities you’ll need at the restaurant.
Listing retail experience can show positive customer service and sales skills. Working as a bank teller can speak to your expertise in handling money accurately. Talking about childcare can attest to creative thinking and problem-solving.
- Focus on successes, not restaurant responsibilities
Discuss your success in the restaurant (or wherever you worked). The majority of job seekers are just going to regurgitate (isn’t that an awful word?) restaurant duties they performed day in and day out on the job. But what if you went beyond that? What if you took the time to show how you actually impacted the restaurant?
For example, did your strength as a collaborator help the restaurant manager reduce scheduling miscommunication? Did you earn higher tips than your coworkers because you consistently memorized dinner specials and took the time to personally recommend wine pairings to guests? Did you identify gaps in servers’ skills and revamp customer service training?
Remember, though, that you want to keep your bullet points to a sentence each, so if you have more to say, those details are best saved for your restaurant cover letter.
- Write with action in mind
Lead your restaurant resume with active verbs, and be careful to write with an active voice through each bullet point. Active verbs like “collaborated,” “delivered,” “calculated,” “suggested,” “presented,” “exceeded,” and “operated” will help you tell your career story. And writing in an active voice means you get right to the point. You’ll know right off the bat which job description bullet point uses active voice and which one is passive:
◉ Pooled and distributed tips after shifts, encouraging management to use TipMetric for tracking, saving 7+ hours a week
◉ Tips were pooled and distributed after shifts and management was encouraged by me to use TipMetric for tracking, saving 7+ hours a week - Let numbers prove your points
Add dollars, percentages, and other units of measurement for serving up the best restaurant resume bullet points and writing a great cover letter. Did you:
◉ Impact the bottom line by upselling wines or cross-selling side dishes or desserts?
◉ Manage and encourage servers so that you decreased employee turnover rate?
◉ Consistently serve more tables or guests than your coworkers?
