Tips for Writing a Bartender Resume (With Bartender Skills)

By Indeed Editorial Team

Published 16 May 2022

The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers, researchers and subject matter experts equipped with Indeed's data and insights to deliver useful tips to help guide your career journey.

A bartender is an individual who conducts responsibilities in varying hospitality venues, from private events to public restaurants. They prepare drinks, clean areas to comply with sanitary compliance and process patron orders and payments. By reviewing a sample resume, you can identify some of the important credentials to include on your resume. In this article, we define a bartender resume, discuss skills to include on your resume, list tips for writing a resume, share a resume template and provide a detailed resume example.

What's a bartender resume?

A bartender resume is an employment document that serves to highlight your employability as a bartender candidate. You can include your credentials, such as experience, skills and qualifications, on your resume. You may also detail relevant licences and certifications, such as a Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) licence. A resume for a bartender may differ from other professions, as a bartender doesn't always require experience and formal qualifications. Your resume for a bartender position may instead focus on your skills, licences and employment flexibility.

Skills to include on a bartender resume

Below, you can explore several skills that may be worth listing on your resume:

Beverage knowledge: One of the more important technical skills to include on your resume might be knowledge of beverages and alcohol. Depending on the venue and your employer, you may have a range of cocktails and drinks to prepare that can involve specific preparation techniques and beverage ratios.
Customer service: As a bartender, you typically receive orders from customers and process their payments. Having excellent customer service skills can ensure you communicate and treat the customers with respect, which can improve their experience at the venue.
Awareness: You typically have a duty to refuse alcoholic beverages to customers who appear overly intoxicated or aggressive. Having awareness can be an important skill for identifying customers who might be disturbing the venue environment.
Attention to detail: Sanitary compliances are typically a requirement in most food and beverage venues. Your attention to detail can ensure you clean venue areas to a standard that meets the sanitary compliances.
Time management: As a bartender, it can be important to monitor patron alcoholic intake, as too many drinks in a short period may cause over intoxication. Your time management skills can help you serve drinks at an acceptable rate and ensure customers have a comfortable experience at the venue.
Multi-tasking: You might receive a large number of drink orders that can require varying preparation methods. If you possess excellent multi-tasking skills, you can prepare drinks effectively and remember customer orders.

7 tips for writing a resume for a bartender job

Below, you can consider seven helpful tips when writing a resume for a bartender job:

1. Include contact details

Including your contact details at the top of your resume can be a great idea to ensure the hiring manager can contact you easily if your application is successful, and they want to notify you of the proceeding recruitment steps. The information you include can be your full name, phone number, email address, city and state. Your home address is usually unnecessary unless you're sending your resume by physical mail. This is typically rare, as most businesses digitalise their recruitment processes.

2. Consider your primary attributes

A professional summary is a paragraph usually located underneath your contact details. It's the first section of content your hiring manager might view. If you identify your primary attributes, you can list them in your summary. This can be an excellent method for ensuring the hiring manager considers you a valuable candidate. As a bartender, your primary attributes usually refer to your skills, work experience and RSA. Your primary attributes might also be your work ethic and enthusiasm. Bartending environments can often be fast-paced, which can require a certain work ethic and mental state to conduct responsibilities comfortably.

3. Determine your motives for applying for the role

Some hiring managers may want to determine why you're applying for a bartending position. Most hiring managers may understand that candidates typically apply for jobs to earn an income, so it's better to reference another motive. A good motive for applying for a bartending position is usually to improve your skills and knowledge in the industry. This shows your dedication to self-improvement and willingness to learn new processes in a professional setting.

4. Highlight your RSA

Your RSA licence might be the most important credential to list on your resume, as it's typically an employment requirement for careers that involve serving alcoholic beverages. As of May 2022, the Australian Department of Health states that anyone serving alcohol in the hospitality industry requires an RSA licence. RSA licence requirements might vary between states, but they generally involve a short course to familiarise you with liquor compliances and duties of care.

5. Include certifications and qualifications

A qualification or certification is usually unnecessary for becoming a bartender, because you usually develop your technical skills through training provided by the employer. Qualifications and certifications can, though, highlight your commitment and dedication to the industry. They may also display your ability to learn new processes and become competent in bartending procedures, such as mixing cocktails. You might consider completing a first-aid certificate. This certificate is rarely a requirement, but it can highlight your responsibility and versatility as an employee.

6. Reference your skills

Your skills can be an excellent addition to your resume because they can highlight your competency in team environments and effectiveness in providing customer service. When including your skills, you can identify those that relate to the role of a bartender. These skills usually refer to interpersonal qualities, such as communication, teamwork and awareness. You may also list technical skills, such as customer service and cocktail mixing. You may prioritise your soft skills on your resume because soft skills typically require extensive training and self-awareness to develop.

7. Highlight your work experience

If you have work experience in a hospitality environment, it can be a great idea to reference it on your resume. Your work experience can highlight your practical skills and knowledge in serving customers, processing payments, meeting sanitary compliances and preparing orders. Hiring managers might favour you as a candidate if you have extensive work experience because you might require considerably less training than other candidates. Any work experience relating to hospitality can usually be beneficial to include on your resume, such as experience gained from a server or kitchen-hand position.

Resume template for a bartender

Below, you can explore a resume template for a bartender position:

[Full name]
[Email address] | [Phone number] | [City, State]

Professional Summary
[You can write your professional summary in this section using paragraph formatting. This summary can be three to five sentences long. It's usually unnecessary to detail all your credentials here, as it may result in a repetitive resume. You can detail your most notable achievements and credentials in this summary.]

Certifications and Licences
[You can list your certifications and licences here, in bullet-point formatting.]

Skills
[Underneath this heading, you can list your skills. These can be a combination of technical and soft skills. As a bartender, your interpersonal qualities are usually more important as many venues might provide on-the-job training.]

Work Experience
[Organisation's name]
[Organisation's location]
[Employment duration]

[job responsibility]
[job responsibility]
[job responsibility]
[job responsibility]
[job responsibility]

[Job title]
[Organisation's name]
[Organisation's location]
[Employment duration]

[job responsibility]
[job responsibility]
[job responsibility]

Qualifications
[The name of your qualification]
[Institute name and date of graduation]

Resume example for a bartender

Here, you can find an example resume for a candidate with varying credentials applying for a bartender position:

Jeremy Mentinhil
Mentinhil@email.com.au | 048 459 1881 | Perth, WA

Professional Summary
Recent graduate from Wardway Education Institute with a Certificate of Hospitality, hoping to gain employment with Bar & Grill as a bartender. Have several years of experience as a server for multiple restaurants and bars where I developed advanced customer service skills. Completed a Responsible Service of Alcohol licence and occasionally served drinks during prior employment. Excited to develop bartending skills such as cocktail mixing and drink preparation. Can contribute an excellent work ethic and enthusiasm to the team at Bar & Grill.

Certificates and Licences

Responsible Service of Alcohol
First Aid Certificate
Cocktails 101
Barista Training Course

Skills
Beverage knowledge, communication, attention to detail, customer service, teamwork, enthusiasm, social awareness, time management, multi-tasking

Work Experience
Server
Blue's Restaurant
Hempsfield, WA
January 2019-January 2022

served alcoholic beverages to patrons
processed customer payments
provided excellent customer service
resolved customer issues and complaints
cleaned and sanitised serving areas

Server
Beverages & Co.
Wardway, WA
January 2018-January 2019

provided excellent service to customers
maintained venue cleanliness
processed customer payments and refunds

Qualifications
Certificate of Hospitality
Wardway Education Institute, 2022

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