Waitress CV Example, Writing Tips & Questions

Kellie Hanna, CPRW By Kellie Hanna, CPRW, Career Advice Expert
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If you want to land job interviews and get through your job search more quickly and with more success, you need an impressive CV for your applications. Writing an attention-grabbing CV is an achievable task when you have the right guidance and tips. Attached below you’ll find a waitress CV example that shows you the most important components and formatting of this document. Look over these tips to get started on writing and fine-tuning your tailored waitress CV.

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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.

Top 4 characteristics of a best-in-class waitress CV

  1. Professional summary

    The professional summary 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 only one to three sentences long and able to invite the recruiter to read the rest of your CV.

  2. Skills

    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. For a list of the best skills, check out our Top Skills article.

  3. 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, however, focus on your skills and ability to interact well with others. Read our How to Write the Perfect Work Experience article for more on capturing your work history.

  4. 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.

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Action verbs for your waitress 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.

Skills for your waitress 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

Certifications to include in your waitress 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.

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Waitress CV FAQ

  1. 1. How do you format a waitress CV?

    You should format your CV for a waitress as you would for any other job. 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 a 14 or 15 font size and the rest of the information should stay at 11 or 12. It’s also important to use 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.

  2. 2. 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.

  3. 3. 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.

  4. 4. 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.”

  5. 5. 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.

Do’s and don’ts for your waitress CV

  • 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 work 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 real estate. Recruiters and hiring managers expect job applicants to have references and will ask you for them later in the hiring process.

Top 4 tips for interviews for a waitress job

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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?

  4. 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.

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Kellie Hanna, CPRW

Kellie Hanna, CPRW

Career Advice Expert

Kellie is the content strategist for My Perfect Resume. She has more than 20 years of experience in digital media and is passionate about helping job seekers navigate their careers. She has a B.A. in English and writing from Temple University.

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