Dicey Myer sipped her coffee while working on her resume in the very Starbucks where she hoped to work. Having found an assortment of resume examples and handy tips, she observed her surroundings. She’d always enjoyed a good latte, but what made Starbucks unique?
After comparing her consumer-side appreciation with the values stated on the coffee shop walls and company website, Dicey realized she might be a better fit for their barista position than she’d thought! She tweaked her past barista and customer service experience to reflect her alignment on her new Starbucks barista resume, and was thrilled to get a phone call not long after applying.
If you’re vying for a barista role at Starbucks like Dicey, you might just benefit from this guide and our resume tips.
Why this resume works
- Working for the world’s largest coffee franchise comes with a lot of responsibilities since you carry the brand’s reputation every shift. Here’s when a rich work experience is going to save you from rejection.
- Whether it be as a support staff, representative, or even barista, list down all your previous customer-centric roles. Now, blend in quantified bullet points to brew up a Starbucks barista resume that no employer can resist.
Related resume examples
How to Write a Starbucks Barista Resume
Summary
Showcase key barista skills, certifications, and quantified achievements to impress Starbucks hiring managers with a tailored, one-page resume.
Landing a job at Starbucks isn’t all about your coffee skills. It comes down to how well you serve customers, thrive under pressure, and blend in with the rest of the team. To make it to the finish line and get the job, your resume should highlight your energy, efficiency, and enthusiasm for the job. Whether starting as a barista or going for a management position, you must write a resume that captures Starbucks’ core values.
In this section, you’ll learn how to craft a compelling Starbucks resume—from the correct formatting and keywords to resume examples that inspire and guarantee more interviews.
Showcase your skills
Starbucks baristas always need to think quickly on their feet to keep long lines of customers moving. Therefore, your top skills will be essential to optimize on your resume to show you have what it takes.
Certain Starbucks locations offer unique food and beverage services to their customers, so there isn’t one cut-and-dry set of skills a location may be looking for from applicants. One Starbucks may operate a traditional drive-through, whereas another offers a mixology bar. Review the job description to optimize for the products and services at the Starbucks you’re applying to.
Here are some of the most popular Starbucks barista skills to get you started.
9 most popular Starbucks barista skills
- Food Handling
- Recipes
- Customer Service
- Brewing Techniques
- POS Systems
- Cash Handling
- Sanitization
- Teamwork
- Culinary Art
Use numbers to showcase impact and value
At Starbucks, the food and beverage quality always matters to provide a great customer experience. To ensure standards are maintained, Starbucks hiring managers will pay close attention to the work achievements you list on your resume.
Food and beverage prep comes with its share of metrics like order accuracy and customers served per hour. Leaning into those numbers whenever possible will help you stand out.
Remember, Starbucks is a fast-paced business. Keeping your examples short and straightforward will help hiring managers identify your top skills in brewing techniques and teamwork while quickly reviewing resumes.
Here are a few samples:
- Informed customers about the benefits of the rewards program, generating an average of 5 new signups per shift.
- Carefully counted change on cash orders to go 11 months with no cash drawer overages or shortages.
- Used accurate data entry skills to process customer orders with 98% accuracy over 2 years.
- Explained the quality of specialty items to customers to generate 68% more sales on seasonal products.
Having a barista certificate improves your credibility
We know there’s no real way to get a Bachelor of Coffee Science, but you can prove you’re qualified as a barista using other means—mainly a certification. Reputable organizations like SCA Education offer various certifications in coffee.
Remember what we said about not getting a degree in coffee science? Well, that’s only partly true. Rejoice, for if you didn’t know, baristas can even get diplomas in preparing coffee.
Typically, you can achieve diplomas in:
- Roastery Diploma
- Coffee Trade Diploma
- Sustainable Coffee Diploma
- Café Diploma
Top 5 tips for your starbucks barista resume
- Limit it to one page
- Starbucks hiring managers will want to see a concise overview of your top skills in customer service and food handling. Keeping to a one-page resume provides enough information while still allowing for a quick review within a fast-paced food service environment.
- Reverse chronological order is optimal
- You want to ensure your resume starts strong. Putting your most recent experiences first will help since those will likely be the most relevant and up-to-date with current food service and cleanliness standards.
- Always proofread
- Order accuracy will be one of your top priorities when you’re on staff. Start things off right with an accurate resume that’s free of grammatical errors.
- Use action words to stand out
- Action words like “brewed” or “informed” will make your examples stand out. For instance, you could say you “brewed over 45 beverages per day with 98% order accuracy for four years.”
- Both interpersonal and technical skill matter
- Baristas must accurately prepare specialty beverages and interact in a friendly and helpful way with customers. Your examples should emphasize how you achieved both, such as how you greeted 40 customers per day and followed recipes to prepare accurate orders, achieving 97% positive satisfaction scores.
Starbucks Barista Resume FAQs
To write a Starbucks barista resume, start by choosing the right format and template. Next, leverage quantified work experience bullet points to stand out from other candidates and if applicable include any certifications/diplomas that prove your mastery in brewing coffee. If not, simply mention your high school diploma or any degree.
If you don’t have much work experience, a resume objective can be a helpful way to display your most relevant skills. For example, you could write a few sentences about how you’re eager to get started in the food service industry and will perform accurately using your 2 years of data entry experience.
For the most part, you only need to include equipment and tools used in cafes, like coffee grinders, microwave ovens, espresso machines, etc. Include some soft skills in the mix to show you can take the ambiance of any cafe from zero to a hundred with just your words.
Aim to include as many transferable skills as possible. Abilities in customer service, cash handling, data entry, and more can all translate to managing tons of orders and customers daily as a Starbucks barista.
Most Starbucks locations list the cover letter as optional. However, including one will help you stand out. You can create a cover letter that connects your passion for Starbucks (if you love drinking their coffee) with how you’ll provide a great customer service experience as a barista.
To highlight your work experience in a Starbucks barista resume, use the reverse chronological order. You can list your latest achievements on the top and show employers why you’re a worthy hire from the start. Highlight specific impacts using bold and italics.
Getting a barista job depends on your resume and how you create it. From your template to enriched sections, tailor the entire document to the job description and cafe you’re applying to.
