Waitress CV Examples & Templates
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Waitress CV example (text version)
Name: Amy Jones
123 Fake Street, City, State,
Zip Code
E: email@email.com
P: 000-000-0000
Professional Summary
Dedicated waitress with six years of exemplary service in the food service industry. Committed to providing helpful, fast, and accurate service to patrons. Demonstrate active listening and communication skills to ensure patrons are satisfied and happy. Experience in various settings, including family restaurants, bars, cafeterias, banquets, and room service. Comfortable serving patrons of various age ranges and backgrounds. Determined team player striving to deliver the highest quality service alongside food service staff.
Skills
- Strong customer service skills, including assessing customer needs, adhering to quality standards, evaluating customer satisfaction, and making the proper adjustments or corrections.
- Excellent active listening skills and ability to give my complete attention to patrons during busy times.
- Demonstrated service orientation; always looking for opportunities to serve patrons and assist other employees.
- Effective at multiple point of sale software systems.
- Patient and compassionate when serving patrons, making them feel at home at the establishment in which they are eating.
- Solid background in organizing other wait staff and hosts, coordinating my responsibilities to ensure a smooth flow of service.
Work Experience
Food Server
May 2015 – present
- Take orders from and serve food and beverages to patrons.
- Perform consistent check-ins with patrons to ensure satisfaction and address complaints swiftly.
- Answer questions about the menu and make recommendations when appropriate or requested.
- Prepare appetizers, salads, and cold dishes.
- Assist a team of hosts and hostesses by greeting, seating, and thanking customers.
- Communicate with kitchen staff directly and via computers.
Server Assistant
August 2014 – May 2015
- Cleaned tables, removed dirty dishes, and replaced table linens.
- Replenished clean linens, glassware, silverware, and dishes.
- Supplied service staff with food.
- Served patrons with water, coffee, and condiments.
- Cleaned and polished furniture, shelves, walls, and equipment.
- Stocked refrigerators with bottled beer and wines.
Crew Member – Fast Food
July 2013 – August 2014
- Requested and recorded customer orders and totaled orders with cash registers.
- Notified kitchen staff of special orders and shortages.
- Supervised a team of six employees.
- Monitored and ordered food items and kitchen supplies.
Cafe Attendant
May 2011 – June 2013
- Brewed coffee and tea.
- Wrapped sandwiches, pastries, and hot entrees for serving.
- Balanced payments and receipts in cash registers.
- Prepared food items including salads, sandwiches, and desserts.
Education
California Food Handler Card Certification Online
High School Diploma
Oakland High School
City, State
Hobbies and Interests
I go to the gym five days a week and spend my downtime doing yoga and biking. I volunteer for multiple community charities in my local community. I also enjoy cooking and researching traditional French cooking techniques.
Important CV sections
Contact details
The contact information or header in your document is vital for hiring managers and recruiters to reach out to you for potential employment opportunities. To avoid missing out on job interviews and callbacks, it is important to present your information without errors and keep it up to date.
In this section you should include:
- Full name
- City, state and ZIP code
- Phone number
- Email address
- Professional website
- LinkedIn profile or any other professional networking profile
Personal statement
The personal statement, also known as the professional summary or summary statement of a CV for a waitress should highlight your top skills and work accomplishments. Read the job description well to determine the core qualifications and match them with the ones you possess. A good summary statement is three to five sentences long and able to invite the recruiter to read the rest of your CV.
Skills
Your food service skills section also known as core qualifications on your CV plays a relevant role in your document. Although placing your CV skills section directly under your summary is optional, we recommend positioning it at the top of your CV template. Doing so helps potential employers find your core qualifications quickly when they scan your CV for relevance, and it is often the section that recruiters and hiring managers value most.
Follow the CV waitress example on this page and list your skills using bullet points. The best CVs include a mixture of hard skills and soft skills that show your wide range of abilities, from excellent communication skills to being able to memorize menus and tell patrons the specials.
Work history
A top waitress’ CV should include up to 10 years of relevant work experience. If you’ve worked in the food service industry for a while and your experiences match the new job, be sure to include them.
If you’re writing a waitress CV with no experience, we recommend using a functional resume format instead. This format focuses on your skills and ability to interact well with others.
For every job, include a bulleted list with three to five measurable accomplishments. You can strengthen your waitress CV with examples such as:
- Reduced customer wait time by 25% through efficient table turnover and prioritizing order delivery.
- Achieved a 10% increase in sales by effectively promoting and encouraging customers to try new menu items.
- Increased average customer satisfaction rating by 15% within six months by providing exceptional service.
Read our How to Write the Perfect Work Experience article for more on capturing your work history.
Education
Whether you have a high school diploma, a bachelor’s degree or are working through graduate school, your waitress CV should have your education credentials listed in bullet points. If you graduated more than 10 years ago, there’s no need to include the graduation date. If you have yet to graduate, you can include the expected graduation date if you have yet to graduate.
Here are some tips to craft an effective education section on your CV:
- Arrange this part in reverse-chronological order, beginning with your latest educational experience,
- Include the institution’s name.
- Add the degree conferred, specializations, minors or concentrations.
- Highlight clubs or special educational events.
- Include apprenticeships, training programs or vocational courses to support your resume.
- Mention any honors or awards.
Optional CV sections
Depending on your education, professional history and career goals the focus of your CV format may vary. Some of the optional sections that can strengthen your CV are:
- Certification
- Research
- Publications
- Training
- Awards and honors
- Languages
- Grants, fellowships and scholarships
- Volunteer work
- Conferences and speaking engagements
- Relevant hobbies and interests
See why MyPerfectResume is a 5-star resume builder
Action verbs for CV
Our CV for a waitress example is packed with action verbs that make each statement stronger. To make an impact, spruce up your CV with some of the words below:
- Verbalized
- Wrote
- Introduced
- Organized
- Assisted
- Facilitated
- Scheduled
- Prepared
Add the best action verbs to your CV using our CV Maker.
Best skills for CV
Emphasize your top waitress skills on your CV. Ensure they’re relevant to the job description and what the employer is looking for in their candidates. If you possess a skill that isn’t mentioned in the job requirements but you believe will be an asset, be sure to include it too.
- Menu memorization
- Great communication skills
- Problem-solving
- High-volume dining
- Wine service
- Point of sale knowledge
- Food preparation and safety
- Multitasking
- Order delivery practices
- Ordering procedures
- Bill computation
- Table setting knowledge
- Bar terminology expertise
- Interpersonal skills
- Customer service
- Teamwork
Don’t forget to feature yourtransferable skills to highlight your versatility, adaptability and ability to succeed in the role.
Certifications for CV
Generally, no certifications or formal education is required to work as a waitress. Some high-end restaurants may prefer candidates with a high school diploma and experience in the field. However, some states, like Alaska and California, may require servers to have a food-handler card or food-handler license.
Be sure to check your state’s requirements and add any applicable certifications to your waitress CV.
Pair your CV with a matching cover letter
FAQ
How do you format a waitress CV?
Follow the structure of the waitress CV sample on this page and make sure your headers are straightforward, easy to read, and divide each section clearly. So, for example, instead of writing “My Career,” keep it professional and write “Work History” or “ Work Experience.”
Your headers should be 14 or 15 inches wide, and the rest of the information should stay at 11 or 12 inches. It’s also important to use the appropriate font types, like Times New Roman and Arial.
For more details on how to structure your CV, visit our How to Make a CV guide.
How long should a waitress CV be?
As shown in this waitress CV example, it’s best to keep your curriculum vitae straightforward and to the point. It may be tempting to list all of your experiences in detail, but a concise rundown of your past duties is all an employer needs to determine if you’re the right fit for the team. Viewing your waitress CV as a marketing document instead of an exhaustive list of experiences can let your audience know you understand the purpose of an effective application.
How many bullet points do you include with each job in a waitress CV?
Include three to five bullet points for each job in your CV for a waitress. Keep them concise, avoid using pronouns like “I” or “my,” and start each sentence with an action verb. The waitress CV sample featured above is a great source of inspiration you can use and it gives you a good idea of what to write in yours.
How can you highlight team experience on a waitress CV?
Being able to work as a team is extremely important in any food service industry job. Besides including teamwork or collaboration as part of your waitress skills on a CV, a great way to highlight team experience is by writing the instances where you helped someone out or collaborated with your team on your work history section. For example: “Assisted hosts and hostesses by greeting customers” or “Aided kitchen staff by stocking refrigerators with produce, beer and wines.”
What can you do to make your waitress CV stand out?
While it has an average projected job growth of 7%, the server industry sees a significant amount of applications from people of many backgrounds and experiences. One way you can stand out from the rest is by making your waitress CV aesthetically pleasing. There is a happy medium between going overboard with imagery and including that extra oomph that separates your CV from the others.
What is the difference between a CV and a resume?
The main difference between a CV and a well-written resume lies in their length, purpose and focus. A resume is a concise document, typically one or two pages long, tailored to a specific job opening. It highlights a person’s most recent work experience, skills and achievements.
On the other hand, a CV is a comprehensive document that provides a detailed overview of a person’s academic or professional history. It can be several pages long and includes additional information about a person’s education, research experience, publications and professional affiliations.
While a resume is more commonly used in the United States and Canada, a CV is more commonly used in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world.
What are some essential tips for crafting a standout waitress CV?
When writing a CV, consider:
- Tailoring your CV to the job you are applying for.
- Adding additional sections when necessary to strengthen your CV.
- Using a clear and professional font and formatting.
- Listing your work experience in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent.
- Including specific achievements and accomplishments for each job you have held.
- Using action verbs and quantitative data to describe your accomplishments and responsibilities.
- Highlighting your education and any relevant training or certifications.
- Including any relevant additional section such as publications, certifications, volunteer work or extracurricular activities.
- Proofreading your CV carefully to avoid spelling and grammar errors.
A well-written CV can showcase your strengths and make you stand out from other applicants! It can also help to highlight any relevant experience or qualifications that may not be immediately obvious from other application materials.
Ultimately, a strong CV can increase a person’s chances of landing a job interview and ultimately securing a job offer.
Best practices
- Include additional sections. Whether one or eight pages long, your CV can be as long as needed. If you have a lot of certifications, awards, grants or publications, be sure to include separate sections to list them out in reverse-chronological order.
- Check your industry’s CV standards. In the U.S., CVs are used primarily for jobs in academia, health care and law, and each has a different way of presenting the information. Research the standards of your industry before you start writing so you can make a great impression.
- Make your CV easy to read. CVs often contain a lot of information, and they tend to be lengthy. Keep yours organized by placing the most crucial information for the job at the top and working your way down. Include 1-inch margins on all sides and use bullet points to list achievements. Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman, in a 12-point size.
- Include irrelevant information. Hiring managers want to know if you’re the right candidate. Let them know you are by tailoring your CV to the job. Add keywords from the job description if they apply to you to alert applicant tracking systems (ATS) and hiring managers that you’re a great fit.
- Use fancy fonts, graphics or extravagant colors. Keep it simple! Using uncommon font types or including infographics on your CV might make it difficult for an ATS to scan it.
- Write “references available upon request.” While adding this phrase to your CV might not cost you the job, it’s outdated and takes up valuable CV space. Recruiters and hiring managers expect job applicants to have references and will ask you for them later in the hiring process.
Interview tips
Research the company.
Check their website and social media profiles to learn more about their culture, mission and vision. Doing this kind of homework will probably give you an idea of what to expect during the interview and help you better prepare for it. Websites like Glassdoor and Google Reviews are also a great place to gauge what current and former employees think about the company.
Practice before the interview.
Interviews can be nerve-wracking. Ease your anxiety by practicing your answers to potential interview questions in front of a mirror or with someone you trust. The hiring manager might ask you to describe a time when you anticipated potential problems and how you solved them, or if you can work as part of a team. Whatever the case, get together with a friend and do a practice round.
Ask questions at the end of the interview.
The hiring manager is likely to ask you at the end of the interview if you have any questions for them. Prepare ahead of time and go to the interview with a list of questions about the company, culture and job responsibilities, such as:
- What is the company culture like?
- What has been your experience working here?
- What is the hardest part of the learning curve for this role?
Create a separate list of professional references.
Usually hiring managers ask for a list of references when they’re ready to extend an offer. Have a separate document with your professional references ready for that moment. It should include their full name, job title, contact information and your professional connection. For a better idea of what this looks like, visit our How to List References on a Resume article.
Resume examples for the next step in your food service career
- Food Service Specialist Resume
- Birthday Party Host Resume
- Catering Server Resume
- Busser Resume
- Bartender Resume
- Fast Food Server Resume
- Hostess Resume
- Crew Member
- Fast Food Team Member Resume
- Restaurant Server Resume
- Cafeteria Worker Resume
- VIP Hostess Resume
- Food And Beverage Server Resume
- Cocktail Server Resume
- Bar Supervisor Resume
- Coffee Shop Worker Resume
- Food And Beverage Manager Resume
- Barback Resume
- Barista Resume