My Account

You control your data

We and our partners use cookies to provide you with our services and, depending on your settings, gather analytics and marketing data. Find more information on our Cookie Policy. Tap "Settings” to set preferences. To accept all cookies, click “Accept”.

Settings Accept

Cookie settings

Click on the types of cookies below to learn more about them and customize your experience on our Site. You may freely give, refuse or withdraw your consent. Keep in mind that disabling cookies may affect your experience on the Site. For more information, please visit our Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy.

Choose type of cookies to accept

Analytics

These cookies allow us to analyze our performance to offer you a better experience of creating resumes and cover letters. Analytics related cookies used on our Site are not used by Us for the purpose of identifying who you are or to send you targeted advertising. For example, we may use cookies/tracking technologies for analytics related purposes to determine the number of visitors to our Site, identify how visitors move around the Site and, in particular, which pages they visit. This allows us to improve our Site and our services.

Performance and Personalization

These cookies give you access to a customized experience of our products. Personalization cookies are also used to deliver content, including ads, relevant to your interests on our Site and third-party sites based on how you interact with our advertisements or content as well as track the content you access (including video viewing). We may also collect password information from you when you log in, as well as computer and/or connection information. During some visits, we may use software tools to measure and collect session information, including page response times, download errors, time spent on certain pages and page interaction information.

Advertising

These cookies are placed by third-party companies to deliver targeted content based on relevant topics that are of interest to you. And allow you to better interact with social media platforms such as Facebook.

Necessary

These cookies are essential for the Site's performance and for you to be able to use its features. For example, essential cookies include: cookies dropped to provide the service, maintain your account, provide builder access, payment pages, create IDs for your documents and store your consents.

To see a detailed list of cookies, click here.

Save preferences

Bartender Resume Examples (+Bartender Skills for Resume)

Create Your Resume Now

Our customers have been hired by:

A bartender does more than hand drinks over. You mix drinks, keep the bar well-stocked, and offer a friendly smile, among other things. Likewise, a bartender resume is more than a list of your past jobs. Like a perfectly shaken cocktail, it blends all resume ingredients together before serving them up to the bar manager.

Continue reading, and you’ll find a professional bartender resume example you can adjust and make your own. On top of that, you’ll learn an easy formula for writing a resume for bartending jobs that will land you 10x more bar interviews than any you’ve written in the past.

In this guide:

  • A top-notch bartender resume sample to copy and use.
  • How to write bartender skills on a resume that beat competition.
  • Expert tips and examples to perfect your bartending resume.
  • How to write a bartender resume with no experience.

Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. It’s fast and easy to use. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and create your resume here.

Sample resume made with our builder—See more resume samples here.

We’re about to get to the guide, but first, here are several other resume examples similar to bartending jobs:

Let's see a bartender resume example first:

Bartender Resume Example to Get You Inspired

Lolita N. Theisen

Bartender & Mixologist

323-583-3514

lolitatheisen999@me.com

linkedin.com/in/lolitatheisen999

Summary

Professional bartender with 5+ years of experience at busy bars and pubs in the Huntington Park area. Knowledge of over 100 cocktail recipes and invented 3 new mixed beverage recipes which increased bar revenue by 5% combined. Looking to leverage friendly attitude and quick customer service to become the bar supervisor at The Neighborhood Dive. 

Experience

Bartender

Jimmy Walker’s Bar & Grill, Huntington Park, CA

September 2017–December 2019

Key Qualifications & Responsibilities

  • Served bar and restaurant patrons ordered drinks, including beer, wine, liquors, and mixed beverages.
  • Kept the bar area safe, clean, and well-stocked throughout each working shift.
  • Rang up customers on the Mixway POS system and the accompanying credit card reader.
  • Performed daily inventory audits and weekly product and supply orders.

Key Achievements

  • Increased bar revenue by 5% by inventing 3 new cocktail recipes.

Bartender 

The Irish Public House, Huntington Park, CA

June 2014–August 2017

Key Qualifications & Responsibilities

  • Took orders for drinks from local guests and delivered them accurately and promptly.
  • Operated as sole bartender on weekday shifts and with one other bartender on busy nights and weekends.
  • Acted as security bouncer and kept watch for overly intoxicated customers and violent or untoward behavior.
  • Performed wait staff duties for diners by taking food and snack orders and liaising with the kitchen.

Education

Majoring in Food Service Management

HP Community College Night Program, Huntington Park, CA

Estimated Graduation: 2023

Relevant Coursework: Food Service Management, Wine Pairing, Restaurant Logistics and Inventory, Bar Management & Operations, Restaurant Finance and Accounting.

High School Diploma

HP Public High School of the Arts, Huntington Park, CA

Graduation: 2012

Skills

  • Customer Service Skills
  • Knowledge of Variety of Drink Recipes
  • Wine & Food Pairing
  • Responsible Service of Alcohol Standards
  • Physical Endurance, Stamina & Strength

Membership(s)

  • The United States Bartenders Guild (USBG)
  • The National Bartenders Association (NBA)
  • The International Bartenders Association (IBA)

Now, here’s our recipe for a perfectly-mixed bartender resume:

1. Lay Out a Bartender Resume Template Properly

You wouldn’t just guess a drink recipe you’ve never made before, right? Exactly. Don’t guess how to put together a bartending resume, either. 

Here’s how to format a resume for bartender jobs:

Here is what to put on a bartending resume:

  • Header: appropriate contact details (e.g., address, job title, email).
  • Summary of qualifications and skills: short paragraph with why you’re the top-shelf choice for the bartending job.
  • Work experience: detailed history of past job duties in bullet-point format neatly lined up like a row of shot glasses.
  • Education: quick recap of academic history (e.g., high school, college, bartending school).
  • Skills: list of bartending-relevant skills and drink-slinging abilities.
  • Extra sections: certificates, licenses, languages, etc.

Read more on resume formatting: How to Select the Perfect Resume Format

Also, want a cool bar trick? We recommend you write your heading statement last. 

This way you’ll remove any writer’s block when it comes time to think up the important ingredients of your bartender resume introduction. Which means you’ll… 

2. Start With the Bartender Resume Work Experience Section

Between 2018 and 2028, there’s going to be an increase of 8% in bartending jobs. Though this might not sound like much, it equals an additional 52,200 new bartenders being hired in the United States alone. 

The bar is set high—you’ll have to win the bar owner over with a work experience section as powerful as a shot of moonshine.

Here’s the ideal strategy:

  • List your current or most recent job first, and then go back in reverse-chronological order from there.
  • Add your past job title, the name of the bar or company, its location, and the dates you were employed there.
  • Give 5 or 6 bullet points detailing your past job requirements in a way that’s tailored to the bartending job you’re applying for.
  • Throw in a numbered achievement like adding garnish to a drink to quantify your bar job accomplishments.
  • Open each bullet point with an action verb for maximum kick. 

Okay—let’s see how these guidelines look in practice. First up, here are two bartender resumes examples of work history sections:

Bartender Resume Examples (Experienced)

Right

Bartender

April 2016–December 2019
Jesse’s Lounge & Bar, Nashville, TN

Key Qualifications & Responsibilities

  • Served customers in a busy bar setting efficiently and accurately.
  • Created over 50 different cocktail recipes and more than 100 drinks each night. 
  • Stocked, wiped down, and swept the bar area during open hours and after closing. 
  • Suggested food and snack pairings to increase revenue and customer dining time.

Key Achievements

  • Increased bar patronage by 30% on weekdays by implementing drink specials and trivia nights.
Wrong

Bartender

April 2016–December 2019

Jesse’s Lounge & Bar, Nashville, TN

Key Qualifications & Responsibilities

  • Mixed drinks and served them.
  • Kicked out inebriated customers.
  • Kept the bar space clean and tidy.

Those are as different as Courvoisier and rubbing alcohol. A great bartending work history section is detailed, tailored to the specific bartender job description you’re applying to, and includes a numbered win.

Don’t have bartending experience? No worries! Here’s how to show off unrelated work on a bartender resume with no experience:

Bartender Resume Examples (No Experience)

Right

Restaurant Server

June 2017–November 2019

Sally’s Steakhouse, Raleigh, NC

Key Qualifications & Responsibilities

  • Served dining guests at a fast-paced steakhouse in downtown Raleigh.
  • Helped customers make food and beverage choices according to taste, dietary restrictions, and daily specials.
  • Liaised with the bar to request ordered cocktails, wines, and beers.

Key Achievements

  • Voted “Server of the Month” 7 times during a 2.5 year employment period.
Wrong

Restaurant Server

June 2017–November 2019

Sally’s Steakhouse, Raleigh, NC

Key Qualifications & Responsibilities

  • Served food and beverages to dining customers.
  • Took orders and delivered requests to kitchen.
  • Recited daily specials from memory.

One feels right like a night of drinking, the other feels as wrong as the morning after.

Remember—just because you’ve never been a bartender doesn’t mean you don’t have experience relevant to bartending jobs!

Making a resume with our builder is incredibly simple. Follow our step-by-step guide, use ready-made content tailored to your job and have a resume ready in minutes.

When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and our resume checker will tell you exactly how to make it better.

Read further on describing work history: How to Document Employment Experience on Resumes

3. Enter Your Education (It’s Not That Straightforward!)

You don’t need a degree to practice mixology. However, you do need to document your educational history correctly if you don’t want to be 86’d from the candidate pool.

When you have bartending experience, keep it as simple as a gin and tonic:

Bartender Resume With Experience Education Sample

Right

Bachelor of Arts in Food Service Management

Nashville Culinary Institute, Nashville, TN

Graduation: 2016

But when you have little or no bartender experience, dazzle them with extras, such as relevant coursework, academic achievements, etc.

First-Time Bartender Resume Education Sample (Entry-Level Candidate)

Right

Bachelor of Arts in Bar Management

Raleigh Institute of Culinary Arts, Raleigh, NC

Graduation: 2016

Relevant Coursework: Bar Operations, Bar Management, Drink Pairing, Bar Inventory and Supply Chain, Food Service Fundamentals

Minor: Restaurant Management

Also, if you have a completed degree from a college or culinary school, no need to include high school on your resume. Otherwise, add your high school diploma or GED as a chaser.

Read More: How to Add Education on a Resume

4. List Bartending Skills Relevant to the Bar Position You’re After

You can twirl a flaming bottle of vodka in the air and catch it behind your back while wiping a spill from the counter with your other hand. You’ve got great bartender skills. But which strengths ought to be placed on a resume?

Here’s how to go about it:

  • Identify skills-related resume keywords by carefully studying the bartender job description. 
  • Create a list of the general food service and bartender skills you have.
  • Make a bartenders resume skills section by including abilities which appeared in both of the previous two steps.
  • Keep it short and strong like a shot of 151—no more than 5-10 bartender skills on a resume for bar jobs. 
  • Include hard skills and soft skills alike to round out a resume for bartenders

Let’s look at a few everyday bartending resume skills:

25+ Bartender Skills for Resumes

Here’s how to put bartender skills on a resume:

Bartender Skills Resume Example (Experienced Candidate)

Right
  • Barware, Glassware, Bar Utensils & Equipment
  • Popular Beverage Recipes
  • Maintaining Tidy & Sanitary Bar Area

Entry-Level Bartending Skills Resume Example (No Experience Candidate)

Right
  • Point-of-Sale (POS) & Credit Card Terminals
  • Restaurant Health & Hygiene Protocols
  • Physical Stamina and Strength

Piece of cake.

We’ve analyzed over 11 million resumes created using our builder, and we’ve discovered that:

  • Bartenders usually list 13 skills on their resumes.
  • The most common skills for Bartenders include beverage preparation, payment processing, basic accounting, food running, and customer service.
  • Resumes for Bartenders are, on average, 2.3 pages long.

5. Show Don’t Tell: Add “Extra” Sections to Your Bartending Resume

For some drinks, adding that tiny, paper umbrella on top is the perfect way to finish it off before serving it up. On resumes for bartender jobs, extra sections help it to stand out from all the other candidates and make for a fine presentation.

Here are a few examples of bartending resume additional sections to think about:

Extra Section Bartending Resumes Samples

  1. Certificates on a Resume

Certifications may come in handy on a bartenders resume, especially in areas where a particular license is needed to serve alcohol. Examples include a Mandatory Alcohol Server Training (MAST) permit, state-granted alcohol serving license, or the “Responsible Serving of Alcohol” certification.

  1. Volunteer History on a Resume

While any volunteer work may score you points with whichever deity you pray to, a few also help you score bartending jobs. Relevancy is always key, so helping out at a soup kitchen (food service) will trump volunteering at an animal shelter.

  1. Language Knowledge

Are you fluent in a second language? This looks great on any bartender resume, especially if the bar is located in an area with a lot of native speakers in that language. And knowing how to say “Cheers!” in 10 languages is always a handy bartending skill.

  1. Hobbies on a Resume

Do you brew beer at home as a hobby? That could be a helpful tidbit to list on a bartending resume. However, leave off items such as your passion for web programming, interest in beekeeping, or any other non-relevant pastime. 

Read more:  "About Me" on a Resume: How to Describe Yourself?

6. Blend the Freshest Ingredients Together Into a Bartender Resume Objective or Summary

Like the head on a well-poured stout, a resume summary or objective floats on top and lets them know what’s underneath is quality stuff. But, which one to use?

Use the career summary when you have kegfuls of bartender job experience.

A bartender resume summary shows off your drink-making skills, behind-the-bar experience, and cocktail-mixing background as a professional bartender. It includes a choice achievement or two with numbers to give them proof that you're the best around. 

Here are two bartender resume sample summaries for your consideration:

Sample Bartender Resume Summary Statements

Right
Friendly bartender with more than 4 years of experience working in fast-paced pubs, clubs, and restaurants. Knowledge of over 50 cocktail recipes, including recipes for gin-, vodka-, rum-, cognac-, and whiskey-based beverages. Increased sales by $5000+ per week by overhauling drink specials strategy. Seeking to leverage personable attitude and organizational skills to become the bar supervisor at McMillan’s Merseyside.
Wrong
Having been a bartender for more than 5 years, I am definitely the guy you’re looking for. On top of my bartending skills, I am well-versed in graphic design, dog grooming, and military warfare. I’m seeking a bartending job where I can put my vast abilities to use.

Above, the wrong example is as bland and generic as Bud Light. 

However, the right example is perfectly tailored to be just the applicant this bar owner was looking for. And numbers to show off how well they do behind the bar.

But—use the career objective when you have as much experience in alcohol as an teetotalling minor.

The career objective statement expresses your bartending career goals. However, it also serves up a past accomplishment with numbers to quantify your success.

Here are two bartender resume objective examples to consider:

Bartender Resume Samples—Objective Statement

Right
Current part-time university student with 3 years of experience as a restaurant server. Skilled at waiting tables, memorizing daily specials, and keeping customers satisfied. Voted “Server of the Month” 7 times during a 2.5 year employment period at a busy restaurant. Seeking to leverage people skills and food service knowledge to become a bartender at The Corner Bar.
Wrong
I’m seeking a position as a part-time bartender, waiter, or restaurant host as I am currently enrolled part-time in college. I have excellent communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills.

The first one is a 2015 René-Jean Dard & Francois Ribo Crozes-Hermitage syrah while the second is plain ol’ box cooking wine.

A reminder—just like with the resume summary, a bartender resume objective should be tailored and provide numbered accomplishments.

Read more: How to Write a Compelling Resume Introduction & Resume Profile Examples 

7. Write and Attach a Bartender Cover Letter

Cover letters are important because they help explain missing details from your resume and allow your personality to shine through. Like a college student heading to a bar without ID, forget your cover letter at your own peril.

Here’s how to write a cover letter for bar jobs:

  • Format a cover letter first, just as you did when starting the resume.
  • Write a cover letter intro which tingles their taste buds and makes them want to get to know you.
  • Go into detail on your bartending skills, previous experience, and career history.
  • Give quantifiable accomplishments on a cover letter for bartenders, as well.
  • Close the cover letter with a general sign-off and request for them to read your resume.

Want to learn how to write the perfect cover letter to match your bartender resume? See our guide: Bartender Cover Letter [Samples, Format, & Writing Tips]

For some helpful general advice: Top Cover Letter Tips & Advice for Success

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Recap—Bartender Resume In a Nutshell

Let’s wrap up. Here’s how to write a resume for bartending jobs:

  • Format bartender resumes prior to writing them to ensure it’s all laid out right.
  • Start with a bartender resume description of your past work history in detail and making sure it’s customized to the bartender job ad.
  • Document your academic history correctly—go heavier when you have less bartending experience.
  • Make a list of your bartender resume skills which are most appropriate for the bar or club you’re applying to.
  • Include additional sections, such as certifications or second languages, to increase your chances of scoring the bar interview.
  • Go back to the top and add a powerful bartender resume objective or summary.
  • Remember to attach a bartending cover letter before you shoot off that email!

We’d be happy to hear from you: 

  • Do you have any questions on writing resumes for bartenders? 
  • Got any stories to share of bartending jobs or bar interviews?
  • Have any tips and advice for prospective mixologists?

Leave us a comment below, and thanks for reading!

About Zety’s Editorial Process

This article has been reviewed by our editorial team to make sure it follows Zety's editorial guidelines. We’re committed to sharing our expertise and giving you trustworthy career advice tailored to your needs. High-quality content is what brings over 40 million readers to our site every year. But we don't stop there. Our team conducts original research to understand the job market better, and we pride ourselves on being quoted by top universities and prime media outlets from around the world.

Sources

Rate my article: bartender resume
Article Helpfulness: 4.84 (58 votes)
Thank you for voting
Maciej Tomaszewicz, CPRW
Maciej is a Certified Professional Résumé Writer and career expert and with a versatile professional background, creating tools for job seekers in various industries. His creative writing background and HR-related experience allow him to create highly readable articles clarifying even the most complicated professional development aspects. Since 2022, he has authored guides on professional resumes and cover letters, written articles on work-related scenarios, and developed research-based career advice.
Linkedin

Similar articles

What Does a Cover Letter Look Like in 2025?

What Does a Cover Letter Look Like in 2025?

Not sure what does a cover letter look like? Confused by all the contrasting guidelines? Here’s an article that will show you exactly what should a cover letter look like.