
Best Resume Templates for 2021 (14+ Top Picks to Download)
The best resume templates aren't just about fancy looks. They have to be sleek and professional. Their layout needs to show off your value. Here's what'll help.
You can sling 500 filet mignons a night, plus drinks, and do it all while entertaining customers. Prove your skills with a professional waiter resume that satisfies employers.
Your waiter resume has to make employers' mouths water. No matter how well you can schmooze, carry food, and sling booze, restaurant managers won’t know it unless you prove it. But it’s just a wafer-thin sheet of paper. How can it do all that without leaving them feeling hollow?
It’s simple. Make your resume into a menu for your past performance that serves up Zomato-worthy achievements with all the trimmings.
Sound impossible?
You’re about to see a resume example for waiters you can adjust to fit any waiter job you want. You’ll also get a quick plan to write a resume for waiter jobs that’ll land 10x more interviews than any other.
Here’s a waiter resume example made with our builder:
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.
Waiter resume made with our builder—See more templates and create your resume here.
Before we start, here are some other waiter resume examples and guides:
Charles Ahern
Experienced Waiter
612-408-9049
charleszahern@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/charleszahern
Summary
Efficient waiter with 4+ years of restaurant experience in high-volume, upscale dining establishments in downtown Minneapolis. Maintained a 96% guest rating in the past 3 years. Seeking to use high-level guest service skills, excellent food order recall, and the ability to serve multiple tables at once to become a valued waiter at The Clever Caracal Restaurant.
Experience
Waiter
Jenn Bay’s on the Waterfront, Minneapolis, MN
August 2016–March 2020
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Key Achievements
Dishwasher & Busser
Stew’s Eatery, Minneapolis, MN
April 2015–July 2016
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Key Achievements
Education
BA in Business Administration
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Anticipated Completion: 2022
High School Diploma
Hawk Creek High School, Minneapolis, MN
Completion: 2017
Skills
Additional Activities
Here’s how to write a waiter resume step-by-step:
If a table wobbles, most restaurant guests won’t sit at it. Your waiter resume can’t wobble, either. If your resume margins, spelling, font, and line spacing lack atmosphere, you may as well close up shop before you start. If you want the best waiter jobs, pay attention to your resume format.
Here’s how to format a waiter resume template:
Include these parts of a resume:
Can there be only one format? See our guide: Best Resume Structure
Don’t get bogged down writing the top part of your waiter resume. Start with the main course—work experience. Then come back and create appetizers and garnish.
Waiter jobs will increase by 6% from 2018 to 2028 according to the U.S. BLS. That’s good news, but only a few will be in establishments like San Francisco’s Pearl 6101. To beat the mob applying to the few great restaurant jobs, your resume needs to fit the restaurant manager’s tastes.
What are the right ingredients?
Here’s the strategy to make a work history section for a waiter resume that gets jobs:
Here are two waiter resume samples that show the plan in motion:
Right |
---|
Experience
Waiter Jenn Bay’s on the Waterfront, Minneapolis, MN August 2016–March 2020 Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Key Achievements
|
Wrong |
---|
Waiter Jenn Bay’s on the Waterfront 2016–2020
|
You don’t need a degree from the Culinary Institute of America to know why the second waiter resume example doesn’t work. It’s bland, with no details. It shows your job duties, but not how well you executed them. That first sample though is a smorgasbord of achievements. When can you start?
Read more: How Far Back Should a Resume Go
Now—
What if you’re looking for your first waitering job? An entry-level resume with no experience (or not much experience) can use the same recipe. The difference? You have to show you learned things in past jobs that can make you a great waiter. Those are called transferable skills.
See these entry-level waiter resume examples:
Right |
---|
Dishwasher & Busser Stew’s Eatery, Minneanapolis, MN January 2019–March 2020 Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Key Achievements
|
Wrong |
---|
Dishwasher Stew’s Eatery 2019–2020
|
Check that out. This candidate was a dishwasher and busser in a past life. But in the first waiter resume sample, he thought hard about the job duties that make sense for a waiter. The bad resume example looks like someone with no table-waiting experience at all. Your resume accomplishments are everything.
Pro Tip: Waiter jobs deserve a one-page resume. If your resume is longer, trim the fat until it all fits on one page. A resume should be the tastiest bits, not infinite refills.
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
You don’t need a doctoral degree to get hired for waiting tables. But—you have to show your education the right way. If you don’t, restaurant managers won’t get the right message from your waitering resume. If you have lots of experience, keep it simple by listing your degree, school, and completion date.
See this waiter resume example:
Right |
---|
BA in Business Administration University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN Anticipated Completion: 2022 |
But—
If you your watering experience is lacking, expand your resume education section, like this:
Right |
---|
Education
BA in Business Administration University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN Anticipated Completion: 2023
High School Diploma Hawk Creek High School, Minneapolis, MN Completion: 2017 |
Voted girl’s choice of brother
If your college degree is in your rearview, leave high school off your waiter resume. Also—what if you have no (or little) waiter experience but a solid education section? Move your education higher, to above your work history. That way, your waiter resume puts the yummiest course first.
Pro Tip: Can you put an internship on a resume for waiter jobs? Absolutely. Internships show you’ve got dreams and goals. Applicants like that work harder when they’re hired.
You can memorize a 12-drink order (with special instructions) and handle a dinner rush with a smile. But—you can’t add every ability in your apron to your waiter resume. Which skills should you list on a resume for waiters to get hired? That depends on what the restaurant wants.
For an appetizer, see this list of skills for waiter resumes:
But—
Here’s how to choose the best waiter skills for a resume:
See this waiter resume example:
Say the waiter job ad mentions efficiency, POS operation, and customer service.
Then prove your skills like this:
Right |
---|
|
Are you experienced or not? The way you list waiter skills changes depending on your work history. See these examples:
Right |
---|
|
Right |
---|
|
Notice how some waiter resume skills can come from non-waiter jobs or life in general, such as friendliness or basic math.
Pro Tip: Don’t use boring resume words like “responsible for.” Start sentences with resume action verbs like achieved, operated, and served to whet their appetites.
Picture this—you serve sizzling ribeye. But there’s no seasoning, side dishes, or beverage. Where’s the flavor? Additional resume sections are the salt & pepper that give it zest. They also show the restaurant manager you’re more than just a robot slogging through a job.
Here are some examples of tempting extra sections to add to a resume for waiter jobs:
Food safety certifications and other licenses can prove key skills to restaurant managers. They’re especially useful if you’re new. Here are some of the best in the business:
Have you volunteered as a waiter or in any other role? Listing volunteer work in a waiter resume is a great way to show you have energy to spare. Put food-related volunteering under work experience, and other free work in a special section underneath your education.
If you have a membership in a food service association, list it in your resume for waiter jobs. An association membership shows you aren’t just slumming in the industry. Here are a few examples:
Do you speak a foreign language? Language skills on a waiter resume are image-boosters, especially if it matters to the restaurant. (Think: Spanish in a Mexican restaurant or Mandarin in a Chinese neighborhood.)
In a thin entry-level resume for waiters, pastimes and interests can raise your street cred. You can add cycling, running, ballroom dancing, or even gardening to a resume. Even stamp collecting can show organizational skills—particularly if you’ve collected 1,000 rare stamps or created a new storage system.
See these waiter resume samples:
Right |
---|
Additional Activities
|
Wrong |
---|
|
For more ideas to add extras to your waiter resume, see this guide: What to Include on a Resume: 20+ Top Examples
Now that you’ve filled in the main courses of your waiter resume—what next? You’ve got to add the streetside sign and colored lights that bring in customers. In other words, add a resume heading statement that makes managers want to read about you. You’ll write either a summary or an objective.
What will you put in it? You’ll look at the rest of your resume and make an appetizing sampler from all its tastiest concoctions. Make sure each piece you put into your introduction will matter to this restaurant manager. Add your best achievements relevant to the position.
If this is far from your first food-service rodeo...
Here’s how to write a resume summary:
See these waiter resume summary examples:
Right |
---|
Efficient waiter with 4+ years of restaurant experience in high-volume, upscale dining establishments in downtown Minneapolis. Maintained a 96% guest rating in the past 3 years. Seeking to use high-level guest service skills, excellent food order recall, and the ability to serve multiple tables at once to become a valued waiter at The Clever Caracal Restaurant. |
Wrong |
---|
Experienced waiter with excellent customer service skills. Extremely efficient, dependable, and reliable. Long history of keeping guests happy and showing up on time. Able to remember orders from memory and work night or day shifts. Seeking a position waiting tables at any restaurant in Minnesota. |
Ouch. Example #2 is like a fly in the soup. The restaurant manager will grimace and move on. It’s good that you’re eager, but it sounds desperate. Also, it makes a lot of claims without a shred of proof. Meanwhile, example #1 is like an entrée by a 5-star chef. Get ready to be hired.
But—
Is this your first time waiting tables?
In an entry-level waiter resume, write a career objective. Back in the days of “family dining,” you were supposed to talk about your goals. Today, you must entice the restaurant manager with achievements that prove you’ll make it as a waiter. Get them from non-waiter jobs or life in general.
See these career objective examples:
Right |
---|
Personable dishwasher and busser with a full year of experience bussing and serving tables in a fast-paced restaurant. Greeted, seated, and occasionally took orders as needed. Explained specials to guests at peak times. Swept, mopped, and was employee of the month two times. |
Wrong |
---|
As I’m putting myself through college, I’d like to get a job waiting tables to cut down on my student loans. I’m a personable young man with a strong work ethic who’s not scared of doing the unloved jobs like cleaning bathrooms. I’m a fast learner and I would make an excellent waiter. |
That second waiter resume sample will get sent back. It’s got the right attitude, but you’re relying on the restaurant manager to “take a chance” on you. Show you’re not a risk, like in example #1.
Need more tips for how to start your waiter resume? See this guide: Resume Introduction Examples
Should you send a cover letter with a waiter resume? Absolutely. Without a letter, it can look like you’re just firing resumes at every waiter job that comes along. In other words, you don’t care about this restaurant. Your restaurant cover letter is the right place to show the manager you care.
To write your waiter cover letter:
Read more: How To Write A Cover Letter in 8 Simple Steps and How to Make a Resume: A Step-by-Step Guide
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.
Here’s a recap of how to write a waiter resume:
That’s it! Now, we’d love to hear from you:
Let’s chat below in the comments, and thanks for reading!
The best resume templates aren't just about fancy looks. They have to be sleek and professional. Their layout needs to show off your value. Here's what'll help.
Those 400+ minimalist resume templates above? Meh. Who’d have the time to scroll through all of them? Well. We did. So you don’t have to. Here are the best of the best.
Step one: Learn about the different types of resumes in this guide. Step two: Confidently pick the best resume type for your career goals. Step three: Get that interview.