Food Service Resume Example

“Food service” is an umbrella term that encompasses everything from server and waiter/waitress jobs to that of a line or prep cook. With such a vast field to cut your teeth on and a low barrier to entry, it’s a great place to start picking up skills that you will use for the rest of your life.

Even better, you won’t need to worry about being out of a job. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projected job growth for food service workers is 10%.

If you want to successfully land a job in this steadily growing field, you’ll need to know how to tailor your resume to match the role you’re looking for. Thankfully, this food service resume sample and the writing tips below are specially created so that you may adapt them for any food service role.

Here are some tips you should keep in mind when writing a stand-out food service resume:

1. Introduce yourself with a career objective

The career objective is your elevator pitch and belongs at the top of your resume. While a career objective is supposed to be short and sweet, it should be full of valuable information that should grab the attention of your future employer.

You should include:

• Relevant skills
• Notable career experiences
• What you will add to the team
• What position you’re applying for

After reading your career objective, your employer should be able to consider if you would be a good fit for their establishment, as well as whether cultivating your interests and skills will be a valuable asset.

2. Write a solid professional experience section

Use action verbs

An easy way to strengthen your food service resume is to make your professional experience pop with action verbs. Not only does it keep your resume from being a dull read, it also helps you come off as being more of an authority and go-getter. For instance, notice how our applicant uses strong verbs, such as “perfected”, ‘“maintained”, and “mastered”, instead of weaker ones, such as “had”, “became”, or “was”.

Quantify your achievements

While writing your professional experience, use numbers whenever possible so that your future employer has clearer idea of your capabilities.

For example, notice how this applicant states that he’s

“increas[ed] workplace efficiency by 20%” and trained underperforming waiters so that they were able to “meet the company average of 83%”.

These stats help the employer judge your ability to perform. Even if your stats are nothing special, an employer is more willing to hire you over someone whose resume is so vague that the employer can’t determine what kind of employee the applicant will be.

3. Prioritize your hard skills

While soft skills are undoubtedly important, hard skills are much more valuable. This is because hard skills are specific to an industry, while soft skills are often transferable, and thus don’t tell your future employer how knowledgeable you are in your area of expertise.

Important food service hard skills include:

• Restaurant technology/equipment: Are you familiar with POS terminals, refrigeration equipment, commercial grills, ice machines, etc.?
• Culinary knowledge: Can you prepare salads, appetizers, coffees, alcoholic beverages, etc.? Do you know what makes the best wine and entrée pairings?
• Basic and mental math: If POS terminals are down, will you be able to make the calculations manually, so you can continue making transactions?

By prioritizing these hard skills, your future employer will know (and greatly appreciate) that he or she won’t have to go through the trouble of training you on how to handle these hard skills when you get hired.

If you have further questions about how to write your food service resume, comment below or peruse our how to write a resume guide for the answers you need.