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Waitress
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Build my resume It takes a village to raise a child and run a restaurant. Diners, cocktail lounges, and five-star restaurants—none could function without a strong service staff.
Waitresses and hostesses are the first contact points for incoming customers, so naturally, waitresses must be punctual, informative, and detail-oriented to excel in their roles. If you feel you have all those characteristics, you may have what it takes to be a fantastic waitress!
You just need to translate those skills and personality traits onto your waitress cover letter and resume. Believe us. We get it—making a resume from scratch can be daunting, but the following 15 waitress resume samples and resume writing tips can help you get moving down the path toward your dream waitress position in 2025.
Why this resume works
- The bullet points in your work experience section should reflect the content included in the skills section of your resume and vice versa.
- If you mention being “customer-oriented,” that skill should be displayed in some of your bullet points.
- For example, saying that you “maintained a courteous attitude, ensuring shoppers enjoyed a positive experience” breathes life into what you already listed as a strength.
- Moreover, your waitress resume will shine if you illustrate outcomes and results, with each point featuring an achievement.
- Hiring managers love seeing your impact in previous roles, especially when you use metrics to quantify it in both your resume and when creating a cover letter.
Why this resume works
- Recruiters are keen to assess your value as a restaurant staff before making decisions. You don’t want your waiter resume to have a weak lead in such aspects. That’s why highlighting achievements such as successful upselling and prompt customer services should come at the top.
- From there, you can showcase your ability to work with others to improve customer satisfaction and overall performance.
See more waiter resumes >
Why this resume works
- A well-written cocktail waitress resume can paint a picture of the responsibilities you’ve had in previous customer service roles.
- Unfortunately, it’s too easy to forget to list essential and basic information on your resume, but don’t fret! You can quickly fix your resume.
- If you lack much directly-related work experience to the position you’re seeking, it’s okay!
- Even seemingly disconnected jobs you’ve had can be linked to waitress roles.
- For example, from a glance, a receptionist position at a law firm and a cocktail waitress role might seem like very distant cousins at best. Still, upon closer inspection, you’ll discover that both require excellent customer service and organizational skills.
See more cocktail waitress resumes >
Why this resume works
- Serve the recruiter a bad restaurant waitress resume, and they’ll drop you like a hot potato. Our two cents? If you have a steady work history, spice things up by capitalizing on the reverse chronological order of your work history.
- With the reverse chronological order, your last (or current) job should come at the top of the list, with the previous roles following suit. Does this really make your resume more enticing? Yes—it showcases your most recent wins first and matches the recruiter’s expectations for consistent career growth.
Why this resume works
- Many employers use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to screen bartender and waitress applicants. To ensure your bartender waitress resume cuts the ATS mustard, you’ll want to build a resume with your desired role in mind.
- Have the title on your resume match the role to which you’re applying. This helps the reader associate you with the job.
- Consider including a two-to-three-sentence resume summary if you boast at least 10+ years of industry expertise.
- Tailor your resume by mentioning the target employer by name and giving a concise but vivid snapshot of your years in the field and any specializations you’ve honed.
See more bartender waitress resumes >
Why this resume works
- It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when writing your waitress resume with no experience. More times than not, you can connect seemingly unrelated jobs through soft skills. Any work experience (regardless of industry) shows responsibility and work ethic.
- For example, cashier, sales associate, and waitress positions are customer-facing and require you to be approachable and empathetic—two valuable soft skills you can apply to any job, not to mention—life!
- Another useful tool—the resume career objective lets you summarize your skills and experience while expressing which kind of waitress role you’re seeking.
- Your objective should describe your professional background in a nutshell, giving employers an idea of your skillset.
- Like the resume summary, the objective’s value comes from customization, so mention the name of the restaurant you’re applying to and why you’d like to join their team.
Why this resume works
- Take our word for it; the last thing a potential employer wants is someone they have to show the ropes to. That’s how we know a Hooters waitress resume drawing attention to your experience in the same position is the ace you need up your sleeve.
- Aah, so you utilized TouchBistro to manage online orders and increased 5-star reviews by 32% as a waitress at Hooters? That’s an excellent achievement in your resume because it says you’re good for business.
Why this resume works
- If you want your waitress cashier resume to get you an interview, it must be the most compelling thing you’ve ever written. The little-known trick to acing it is emphasizing your greatest accomplishments by bolding or italicizing them.
- Even at first glance, phrases like “$2,684 in daily transactions”, “36% bump in non-cash transactions”, and “42 guests per shift” in Elizabeth’s sales pitch catch your eye, right? By enabling recruiters to see your impact in previous roles, they also sell you as the ideal fit.
Why this resume works
- Your head waitress resume should include a resume skills section if you’re going to appease Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and hiring managers.
- What is ATS? It’s the software employers use to sort candidates based on the number of keywords (skills) they have in common with the desired skills in the job description. By including a relevant skills section, the ATS won’t spit out your resume.
- What if you’re newer to your field and lack extensive work history? Weave in highly-relevant projects which can stand in as experience.
- The key to telling your work story via projects is to treat them like real work experience. List your projects in a bullet point format, laden with metrics to showcase your impact.
See more head waitress resumes >
Why this resume works
- A waitress trainer resume showcasing your excellence in getting the most out of your tools of the trade (read job-relevant technical tools) can knock the hiring manager’s socks off and make them choose you over the other 120+ equally impressive applicants.
- Most applicants will highlight software like Moodle and Toast POS in their skills sections and leave it at that. Break the mold by putting the tools’ application in the spotlight in your work experience section—nothing shows you fit the bill better than that.
Why this resume works
- Mere seconds—that’s what it takes for the recruiter to decide whether they should chuck your upscale waitress resume or ring you up. If you’re hoping for the latter, submit an attractive piece to tip the scales in your favor.
- All set? Make the most of a one-column layout, clear and legible fonts (think Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman, etc.), big, bolded headings, and snappy bullet lists. Enough white space is good, too; it creates a professional look that soothes the eye.
Why this resume works
- We get it, you work in the nightlife industry; but that’s not a good enough reason to be unprofessional in your nightclub waitress resume unless you want to get under the recruiter’s skin and ruin your interview chances.
- Images, large blocks of text, grammatical mistakes, and unnecessary personal details are the raw materials of an unprofessional sales pitch, so put out all the stops to ensure they don’t appear on it.
Why this resume works
- Make a snappy first impression using one of our free resume templates or Google docs templates to display your hard-earned accomplishments.
- Stick with a professional template, but don’t be afraid to add a hint of color for style and interest. A dash of color lets the employer know you’re a professional with personality.
- Your resume’s format is another element you can leverage, and we recommend a reverse-chronological order for your hostess waitress resume.
- This structure lists your most recent work history at the top, followed by older experience, and gives the employer an easy-to-read synopsis of your best first.
See more hostess waitress resumes >
Why this resume works
- Social media is where customers are, and businesses, especially in the hospitality industry, are looking for ways to tap from that pool to land new clients. Showcasing your competency in social media outreach and converting traffic into customers is an advantage on your waitress server resume.
- The most important thing is setting yourself apart from the rest by providing realistic achievements accompanied by their measurable impact.
Why this resume works
- Just because you’re limited in work experience doesn’t mean your bottle service waitress resume should be left blank.
- Instead, determine whether a hobby or interest might be relevant enough to include.
- Imagine that a hiring manager brings up your hobby during an interview; whoa! Game changer? If you listed ice hockey on your resume, be prepared to demonstrate how that interest relates to your career aspirations as a bottle service waitress! Relevance is the key to successfully using hobbies and interests on your resume.
- When using an AI resume builder, integrate numbers throughout your work experience and projects.
- We recommend sprinkling in numbers and stats to prompt employers to read your resume more thoroughly and provide hard evidence highlighting your successes.
See more bottle service waitress resumes >
Related resume guides
How to Write a Waitress Resume
Summary
Showcase your customer service skills, relevant experience, and food industry strengths with a compelling, well-structured waitress resume tailored to land interviews—whether you’re a first-timer or seasoned pro.
We get it—being in the customer service industry is no joke. Remembering orders, plating, and still smiling through extra shifts can be exhausting.
So, why does writing a waitress resume seem harder than a weekend dinner rush? Whether you’re applying to a fine-dine establishment or fast food corner, your resume should prove that you’re quick on your feet, adaptable, and handle pressure without breaking a sweat (or plates).
Now, the good thing about a waitress job is that you don’t always need strong work experience. But if you have worked in similar roles, there’s no reason to hide it either. Use this guide to learn how you can highlight your serving strengths and become a waitress that no recruiter can say no to.
Start strong with accurate contact details
Before hiring managers see you can quickly reach customers during peak hours, they need to know how they can reach you. So make sure you include your:
- Name
- Phone number
- Location
- LinkedIn (optional)
Here’s a good example of how you can present this information:
Make an impression if it’s your first time with an objective and projects
For all we know, this could be the very job in your life, and that’s completely fine. Having experience in the field isn’t always a dealbreaker, and often, employers may simply hire you if you’re an extrovert who can get along with customers.
So, if you lack experience, tell employers why you’re even applying for this position with a strong career objective. Mention any strengths/skills that make you stand out since this is the first thing they will read.
Keep your objective within 3–4 lines and begin with an action word. Align your objective to look like the one we’ve listed below to improve your chances of getting hired:
Example
Dedicated and aspiring waitress looking for a fast-paced, upbeat position with Top Dish restaurant. With project experience volunteering for local communities, ready to apply strong communication skills to serve customers and uphold your establishment’s reputation for high-quality service.
You may not be able to complete your objective without including projects. Like the example above, if you’ve volunteered or interned in a customer or user-centric workspace, list it in your projects section.
These can even include:
- Any one-off serving experiences
- Food stalls that you’ve helped in
- University projects where you directly improve customer experience
Unveil the main course of your resume: work experience
While not always necessary, having work experience will give you a strong edge over other applicants. Ideally, you want to include your three best roles where you directly make business impacts.
However, remember that your bullet points should be contextually accurate to your past positions. No waitress generates 78% revenue growth in her first month, so be realistic.
Entry-level bullet point examples:
- Collaborated with 11 other servers to minimize wait times for customers by 4 minutes.
- Maintained an extensive knowledge of 3 menus, from the origin of ingredients through cooking methodology to educate customers and offer personalized recommendations.
- Managed an average of 12 tables per shift, ensuring timely order taking and service.
Experienced waitress bullet point examples:
- Upsold premium dessert options with the help of Oaky, contributing to a 19% rise in average check value across served tables.
- Led fellow waitstaff during peak hours, leading to a 9-minute decrease in order-to-table delivery time.
- Maintained a positive, customer-first attitude and exceeded weekly sales targets by 8.1%.
Demonstrate skills that make you stand out
Being a great waitress isn’t just about carrying a dozen plates in both hands but handling customers gracefully— that takes skill. Even if you lack experience, listing the right soft skills can convince employers to give you a chance.
If possible, include technology skills such as POS, Blink, or restaurant software you’re skilled at or know how to use. Let’s break down how to handle this section.
Top Skills to Include:
- Conflict resolution
- Multitasking
- OpenTable
- Slack
- Restaurant365
- Empathetic
- Approachable
- Customer-oriented
As a tip, remember to mention any software tools by name in your work experience bullet points. These become a testimony of you using them to drive results. Also, if the job description lists explicitly a skill, make sure it shows up in your resume.
Add education and certifications: the dessert that boosts your credibility
For the most part, having your high school diploma is going to be enough, but if you are pursuing/have a degree, feel free to add it in. Ensure you include your school/university’s name and year of graduating.
Take a look at the format below to get a better idea:
Example
Enter youHigh School Diploma
Minnesota State High School
2012 – 2016
Brooklyn Center, MN
Regarding certifications, include anything related to customer service or food safety to give yourself that extra edge over other candidates. Below, we’ve listed some certificates that you can consider adding to your resume:
- ServSafe Food Handler (ServSafe)
- Waiter Certificate (The Waiter’s Academy)
- START Certified Restaurant Server (AHLEI)
Key takeaways
- If you don’t have experience in serving food, use relevant projects and volunteer work to your advantage and stack up on certificates.
- While writing your work experience bullet points, quantify as many impacts as possible while being realistic.
- List a mix of software and soft skills to show employers you can assist with back and front-of-the-house operations.
- Proofread your resume and look out for any typos or mistakes in your profile section before sending it to an employer.
Waitress/Waiter Resume FAQs
Your job description points on your waitress or waiter resume should focus on aspects that matter most to the establishment you’re applying for. Likely those will be things like customer service, the ability to multi-task (dropping off food and beverages to multiple tables while carrying on conversation with diners), communicating specials, accurately placing orders, etc.
Try to focus primarily on hard skills in your skills list, such as POS systems like Toast or Square, cash handling and basic math, and any other technical skills like inventory or table management software. Soft skills should be seen in the context of your job description bullet points as you describe work where you were communicating, problem-solving, thinking critically, etc.
There are many resume template options for a waitress resume. They all follow a reverse chronological format and leave enough breathing room even after you add all your sections.
Think about your waitress/waiter resume less in terms of duties and more in terms of achievements. Yes, your duties included taking orders and bringing out food and drinks, but transform your bullet points into accomplishments. Discuss how you upsold more daily specials, handled cash with accuracy, took on more tables, and so on to go beyond just regurgitating job duties.
Take a look at the waitress job description for your cue on what job title to use in your resume. Some jobs may dub this role as u0022Server,u0022 u0022Cocktail Waitress,u0022 u0022Beverage Attendant,u0022 or something else. Your best bet is to refer to the job description rather than try to come up with something creative here.
Waitress resume career objective example: Motivated sophomore with project experience in university-hosted catering events and serving food. With a ServSafe Food Handler certificate and eager to join your restaurant and foster a memorable eating experience for every visitor.
