Food Service Resume Examples

Like any resume, you’ll need to include the resume basics like your contact information, education and a professional summary or objective statement.

However, for most jobs in food service, the important part of your resume will be your work experience and skills.

The most helpful thing to do when you talk about your work experience is to include quantifiable numbers and statistics that will give employers a better sense of what you’re capable of as an employee.

For instance, if you’re a server, instead of just saying something that paints a general picture like, “Served guests food and drinks in a timely fashion,” add some numbers. You could say something like this, “Accommodated an average of 42 guests per night” or “Rang a nightly sales average of $1,400.”

Those numbers give a very concrete sense of how you could help an employer’s business which makes them more likely to take you seriously as a candidate. Without sounding forced, it’s in your best interest to include as many of these numbers as possible.

Most food service jobs don’t require college education. More important than that is having the prerequisite industry courses many employers legally require you to have completed in order to handle food such as a ServSafe certificate or a TIPS certification for alcohol service.

If you don’t have these certifications already, check the local requirements for your city/state to see what is needed. You may be able to get hired without one, but your employer will probably demand that you have one by a certain date, so you may want to complete the required course(s) before you apply.

If you have any required certifications, it’s a good idea to list them so that an employer knows you’re ready to go on day one.

For your education section, if you’re going to list any schools you attended the following is essential to include: The name of the school that you attended, its city and state location, the years you attended, and, if applicable, the degree(s) you obtained. Typically, if you’ve graduated from college, you don’t need to list your high school education.

In the case of recent college graduates who studied discipline under the hospitality umbrella, but don’t have actual work experience yet, it’s acceptable to include a high GPA, mention any notable instructors you worked with or list any specific coursework that you took that may be related to your craft.

If you can, you should try to keep all the work experience you include in a resume focused on food service jobs you’ve held.

Especially be sure to include any notable places that you’ve worked or any places that were similar to where you’re applying. That kind of experience will resonate with potential employers.

However, if you don’t have experience in food service yet, it’s still a good idea to include other jobs that you’ve had, and emphasize the responsibilities and skills that you performed that are in common with what’s expected in a food service role.

If you can perform those similar duties in another industry, it makes sense that you’ll be able to perform them in a food service role. The main takeaway: Make sure the experience that you include on your resume is related to the role to which you’re applying.

A professional summary lives at the top of your resume just underneath your contact information. As such, it’s the first real chance to market yourself as a desirable food service employee.

It’s brief: It should be a two-to-three sentence summary that features your most notable food service achievements or strongest skills. In it, you may want to mention any notable or award-winning establishments you have worked for, or just list the top skills that you bring to the table.

To keep it attention-grabbing you should use active language. Make sure what you say is full of active verbs and gets straight to the point.

Here’s an example of a summary statement for a bartender position that doesn’t use enough active and engaging language, “I’m a bartender with more that six years of experience. Hospitality is my strong suit and in my role I bring a professional level of service.”

See how that example comes off a little slow and sleepy? It doesn’t provide a lot of information or enthusiasm in those two sentences.

Here’s a good example of a more active professional summary: “Seasoned bartender with 6+ years experience brings a wealth of craft cocktail knowledge and a guest-forward approach to high-volume service. The key to my success has been a combination of anticipating guest needs, my ability to multitask and my ability to build rapport and cultivate regulars.”

You can see how much more the language is energetic and jam-packed with verbs, skills and keywords that provide a much more specific and tangible idea of how this candidate performs their bartending role.

For more specifics on how to craft an engaging professional summary, JobHero has an in-depth guide that will give you all the tools you need to make sure that your resume is outstanding.

Yes, a cover letter should be included with food service resumes.

If anything, a cover letter is going to give you more space to tell a story about yourself, your skills or your work experience in the food service industry.

Any window of opportunity you get to impress a hiring manager is worth taking.

If you’d like to check out some great food service cover letter examples to get started, JobHero has a well-curated selection that will help you create your own great letter.