Waiter Resume & Writing Guide

How to produce a kick-ass (waitress) waiter resume? We suggest starting by checking out our top-notch Waiter resume samples!

You want to make sure your resume gets noticed from the rest of the applications by being both informative and entertaining to read, without overwhelming the recruiter or hiring manager with too much information.

How you create a resume into an interview-winning document, we will explain to you in detail below with our: How to Make a Resume Guideline for Waitresses and Waiters

Waitress & Waiter Resume Examples

Waitress Resume Writing Guide

Resume Sections

1. Contact Details:

• Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Email Address
• Driver's license

2. Career Summary:
This is the crucial introduction that sets the tone for your resume. Include no more than 1-3 sentences giving a broad overview of your background, years of industry experience, and why you would be a good fit for the role. You should be specific and state which role you are applying to and what value you can add to the business. > See out examples below!

3. Qualifications Summary:
Provide accurate details about the certifications and qualifications you have completed with the institution, qualification name, and dates. Don’t forget to include the qualifications you are currently completing. Also, add any in-house training or courses you have done.

4. Relevant Waitering/Serving Experience:
Clearly state your employment history from your in-service training (if applicable) up to your current position. Use short bulleted sentences to list the most important daily activities under each role you have had.

5. Other Waiting/Serving Experience:
This will include events or work history outside the formal food and beverage industry field, but which may be important for the employer to know about, like part-time waiting gigs at your high school functions or once-off events you were part of waitering at a neighbor's wedding or serving drinks at a special family event. This section is paramount if you are looking for your first job without formal experience as a Waiter or waitress.

6. Skills Summary/Key Skills:
Incorporates keywords from the job posting and your specific skill set. This adds much-needed credibility to your resume.

7. Education/Licenses/Certifications/Relevant Coursework/Training:
Start with your formal food and beverage certifications (if you have any) and post-school diplomas or accreditations if you are a member of a Culinary Training Institute. List any professional development that supplements your competencies as a Waiter like food preparation or food and wine pairing courses.

What to Highlight in a Waiter Resume

In conjunction with your work experience in restaurants, hospitality or corporate events, there are specific details employers and recruiters look for to ensure that you are the right culture fit.

Be sure to highlight the types of food and beverage environments you have worked in as a waiter. These may include the following establishments:

• Hotels
• Restaurants
• Guesthouses
• Hospitals
• Private clubs
• Contract caterers
• Other establishments that serve food
• Hotel/Restaurant Caterers
• Private Caterers

Other examples of waiting gigs may include special events like weddings, anniversaries, and birthday celebrations or corporate events such as product launches, banquets, charity fundraisers, or annual Christmas parties. The types of industry areas you have worked in need to be included both in the summary at the top section of your resume and within each position description.

Furthermore, employers want to see specific details regarding the nature of your working environment. Did you waiter at a laid-back coffee shop, in a busy diner or an upmarket country club. If you are working in a permanent job at a hotel or restaurant, you may want to mention the average hours you work during a month and indicate if you work during weekends as well.

*Cool Tip for a stellar resume

You can create a positive first impression by dividing your job description according to the main responsibility areas of a Waiter.

Menu Presentation: Presents menus to customers and suggests or recommends certain items. Taking orders for food and drinks

Serving: Notifying the kitchen of orders and fetching them, serving food and beverages to patrons, and removing empty dishes from the table throughout their meal.

Upselling: Make sure that customers are satisfied and that they have everything they need but also recommend additional courses like desserts or after-dinner drinks

Checks: Issues charge slips and take payment

Cleaning: Removes dirty dishes and sets and cleans tables

Inventory: Keeps the service area well stocked with the necessary items

Supervisory: If you are a Senior Waitress responsible for managing other waiting staff, include your duties here such as timekeeping, in-service training, scheduling shifts, and making salary payments

Make sure to include:

• The locations you are available to work in and whether you are willing to travel to events with your own transport
• The ratings and marks you have attained during your culinary schooling if applicable
• Special skills like wine pairing, specialty cocktails, booking systems or billing applications
• A list of all the industry areas you have worked in for example restaurants, country clubs, hotels, wedding venues, pubs, events companies, catering coordinators and so forth

Waitress Career Summary & Examples

Restaurant, Food and Beverage, and catering managers usually receive many applications for permanent as well as part-time roles. Your resume needs to stand out amongst the applications. Keep your career summary concise and to the point. Add the most important information first to capture their attention while they’re quickly skimming your resume.

Start your career summary with your years of experience in the industry and the main tasks you have performed. When deciding what duties to add, use the job description as your guide. For instance, if the job you are applying emphasizes expertise in fine-dining plating or the ability to carry heavy trays for buffet presentation, use those phrases in your resume if you have that type of skill. The more your resume mirrors the job description of keywords, the better fit you will seem.

Secondly, add a blurp that highlights any outstanding qualities that may add value to the company. A hiring manager would like to know whether you have “excellent customer service skills, creative problem-solving abilities and if you can ‘’think on your feet in times of crises. It’s important to note that these qualities should be proven in the professional experience section to amplify your message.

Finally, end with your educational degrees/diplomas and certifications/licenses you may have that are pertinent to the job like your Bachelor of Hotel and Hospitality Management Degree or a Certificate in Culinary Arts. Usually, a waiter job does not require anything more than a high school diploma, but if you are applying to a 5-Star Hotel or posh catering institution post-school qualifications are usually required and necessary if you want to move up the ranks into managerial roles.

Two examples of different career summaries:

Career Summary Example 1

‘Energetic head waitress with 6+ years of expertise in a fast-paced Greek restaurant. Achieved county-best culinary satisfaction rating according to regional food critic (98.16%). Knowledge of various beverage options, including wines, cocktail, and beer and imported spirits.'

Career Summary Example 2

‘Dedicated waitress with four years of part-time service in the food service industry. Committed to providing exemplary service to patrons. Demonstrate active listening and communication skills. Familiar with various restaurant settings, including bars, diners, canteens, family restaurants, cafeterias, banquets, and room service. Comfortable serving patrons of all ages and cultural backgrounds.'

Career Summary Example 3

“Customer-focused Hospitality Waitress with 8+ years’ experience serving patrons at New York’s Senses and Tastes. Served to up to 40+ guests per night and guaranteed all meals were served timeously. Conducted the restaurant’s payment transactions with 100% accuracy.“

Summary Example 4

“Efficient college student with 1+ years’ experience as a weekend barista. Comfortable with fast-paced environments and accurate with bills (99% correct cash transactions). Received the “Barista of the Month” award in 2018. Excited to support the wait staff team at Hans and Lloyd. Hard-working Hospitality Waiter-to-be. Interested in the opening for the serving position at Hans and Lloyd. Previous experience includes bartending.“

Pro Tip: Leave your Hospitality Waiter resume summary/ objective only at the end after you’ve written the other sections. It’s easier to gather the best material.

Waitress Job Descriptions, Responsibility and Duty Examples

A hiring manager would expect to see certain foundational skill sets in your resume application.

An entry-level stage Waitress (less than 1 year experience) may:

• Responsible for collecting menu requests from patrons
• Serve meals to patrons and collect dishes and cutlery
• Clean tables and remove dirty plates and cutlery items
• Replenish clean linens, glassware, silverware, and dishes
• Supply service staff with food
• Serve patrons with water, coffee, and condiments
• Clean and polish furniture, shelves, walls, and equipment.
• Stocked refrigerators with alcoholic beverages
• Guaranteed quality service of up to 65 guests per night without order mistakes.
• Providing weekly menu items training to other Hospitality Waiters and bartenders.
• Facilitated problematic situations, managing to resolve all issues.
• Organized the kitchen-service order flow and observed client satisfaction regularly.

A Waiter at the mid-career stage (2-4 years’ experience) may

• Sets up, decorate, and prepare serving and dining areas according to specific directions and layout plans established by the catering manager
• Take orders from customers and timeously serve food and beverages to them
• Do consistent check-ins with patrons to ensure satisfaction and address complaints swiftly
• Answer questions about the menu items and make recommendations when asked.
• Assist in the preparation of appetizers, salads, and cold dishes
• Assist front-of-house by greeting, seating, and thanking customers
• Communicate with kitchen staff directly and via computerized systems to place and follow up on orders
• Created a system for task management, assisting in quickening workflow by 23%.
• Decreased diners’ waiting time by 19% due to a new table placement method.

A Waitress at experienced stage (4-6 years’ experience) may:

• Supervise a team of junior waiters and servers
• Attend to problematic issues and complaints from patrons
• Responsible for timekeeping and shift scheduling
• Assist junior waiters in servicing larger patron groups
• Inspect dishes before they get served
• Handle finishing touches and elaborate plating of food items

Highlight Your Accomplishments

You may be tempted to copy and paste the list of job tasks you performed as detailed in your job description. The drawback to doing this, though, is that you won’t stand out from the other applicants with similar experience.
When listing accomplishments, you need to highlight those aspects that set you apart from the rest of the candidates. What you are most proud of, or what you achieved in your previous roles. Then communicate these through action-packed statements that will grab the reader’s attention.

Examples

Flat, Simple Duty (WHAT NOT TO DO):

• Taking orders and serving meals to customers. 

Accomplishment Statement (DO THIS RATHER):

• Managing an average of 20 tables per shift, and HANDLING orders and serving of up to 7 tables at once. 

Quantifying Your Resume

When writing your resume think about providing numeric statements like “How many?” or “How often?” For example:

• How many hours do you work during a week?
• What is the average bill amount or turnover you achieve per table?
• How many tables do you take orders from per night?

• ‘Was part of a team of 6 waiters working in the busy diner with 40 tables, serving an average of 20 patron groups per shift.'
• ‘Worked as a part-time waitress at a catering company and handled four wedding receptions, one banquet, and three product launches during the last six weeks.'
• Devised a task management system that assisted in speeding up workflow by 27%.
• Decreased diners’ waiting time by 18% due to a new table placement idea.
• Kept up 93.2% rating for customer satisfaction 20 months in a row.

Waiter Education Section & Examples

You don’t necessarily need a crazy degree to get a gig as a waitress. That doesn’t change the fact that you must document the education you do have efficiently. Otherwise, no one will give your resume a second glance. Include your school name, accreditations, and finishing date if you have plenty of work experience. 

You can truly make a real impact with this section. Formal training obviously must be listed, but please don’t forget any diplomas, in-house training, and/or courses you’ve done or are doing. All you need to indicate is the What, Where, and When for your qualifications, certifications, or industry licenses achieved. Your qualification's name, the institution name, and the date you finished is more than enough. 

2020 Bachelor of Culinary Science, Majoring in Food and Nutrition. University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK. 

• Applicable Coursework: Food and Culture, Nutritional Biochemistry, Microbiology, Medical Nutrition Therapy, Food Service Management, Nutrition Care Process, Environmental Science, Nutritional Journalism, Nutrition and Exercise Physiology. 

2015 Mountain Springs High School, High School Diploma Mountain Springs, LA

2016 – 2017 Certificate in Wine and Food Pairing, Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio, TX
 

What to Write in a Catering Resume Skills Section

Although the food and beverage industry requires specific technical skills, employers also consider soft skills. These are the personality traits you have that relate to your fitness as a potential employee who will add value, has adequate knowledge, sufficient experience, and will be easy to manage. Incorporate these into your summary and your accomplishment statements.
 

Technical Skills Examples

• Educational Attainment: A university degree is not required to become a Waiter, but if you want to have a better probability of moving up into a Restaurant Manager role later, it is advantageous to have some form of tertiary education. This is especially applicable if your qualification is in a field related to the industry you are pursuing, for example, a Bachelors's in Hotel Management or Culinary Arts.

• Technical Aptitude: Waitress need to be task-orientated and meticulous to handle more than one table of patrons simultaneously and get the correct meals out to the right table. They need to be physically fit to handle long periods on their feet and also to carry heavy trays to tables

• Other Technical Skills: Booking systems, Telephone etiquette, Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, Quality Control.

Waitress Soft Skill Examples

Attentive	Team Player	Reliable
Hard-working	Communication	Independent
Stress Tolerance	Stamina	Personal Hygiene
Multitasking	Enthusiastic	Diplomatic
Accountable	Deadline Driven	Energetic
Collaborative	Cooperative	Customer Service

Technical skills

Task-orientated	Meticulous
Multitasking	Physically fit
Time management	Booking systems
Telephone etiquette	Sales
Marketing	Quality control
Customer service	Food knowledge

Qualifications associated with Waitresses

Action Verbs for your Waiter Resume

Diploma and Certificate in Culinary Arts	ServSafe Food Safety & Food Handler Certification
Food Protection Certificate: NYC Health Academy	Alcohol Seller and Hospitality Waiter Certification
Certified Food Protection: Association of Nutrition and Foodservice	Professionals (ANFP)
Certified Dietary Manager, Certified Food Protection Professional (CDM, CFPP)	Association of Nutrition & Foodservice Professionals (ANFP)
Society for Hospitality and Foodservice Management (SHFM)	National Restaurant Association (the other NRA)
American Culinary Federation, Inc. (ACF)	American Hotel and Lodging Association Educational Institute (AHLA-EI)

Industries using Waiters:

• Restaurants & Pubs
• Holiday Resorts and Wedding Venues
• Event Companies
• Catering Consultants
• Conventions
• Hotels
• Diners
• Guest Houses
• Coffee Shops

Professional information of Waitresses

Sectors: Food & Beverage, Hospitality, Events
Career Type: Functional, Task Orientated, People Orientated
Person type: Worker, Assisting, Helper, Server, Sales
Education levels: From High School Diploma to Bachelor Degree
Salary indication: From $22k to $31k annually / $4 – $21 per hour
Labor market: Subject to 9% growth from 2016 – 2026
Organizations: Restaurants, Pubs, Hotels, Catering Venues, Holiday Resorts, Canteens, Diners, Country Clubs

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