How to Write a Wait Staff Resume (With Template and Example)

Updated 25 January 2023

A well-written resume can help you make a positive first impression on an employer seeking wait staff. A well-written wait staff resume shows how your skills and experience can help you succeed as a member of the wait staff team. Your resume can help you secure a job at any restaurant or café. In this article, we explain how to write a resume for a wait staff job, offer writing tips and provide a template and example you can follow.

How to write a wait staff resume

Here are the common steps for writing a wait staff resume:

1. Provide your contact details

The employer can easily reach you for an interview when you list your contact details at the top of your resume. Note your full name and preferred contact method. You may list a mobile number, a landline number, an email address or any combination of these. It's a good idea to include your city and state or territory so employers can see how close you are to the business. Some employers prefer local wait staff who can easily cover the shifts of absent or ill colleagues.

2. Write a strong professional summary or resume objective

Professional summaries and resume objectives are two or three sentences at the top of your resume designed to capture the employer's interest and encourage them to keep reading. A professional summary is best suited to experienced wait staff, as it sums up professional achievements. If you're applying for your first job or changing careers, you may prefer a resume objective that sums up how the job aligns with your career goals. Whichever you choose, try to show the employer you're an asset to a business.

3. Note work experience, if applicable

If you have had other paid or volunteer jobs, you can list them in reverse chronological order. Note the company and employment period under each job title. A bullet point list under each job's details highlights your key achievements and duties. The most relevant jobs are in the hospitality industry, especially other wait staff roles. If this is your first hospitality job, try to emphasise how your past roles prepared you for the wait staff job. For example, if you had a retail job, you might note that you delivered friendly customer service and processed payments using an EFTPOS machine.

4. Explain your education

While educational qualifications are optional for most wait staff jobs, an education section can show employers your educational achievements. Knowing your current study commitments also helps employers understand your availability. You can list your educational achievements and qualifications you're working towards in reverse chronological order. List the year of completion for any qualifications earned in the last five years. You may give the expected date of completion for any current study commitments.

5. List key skills

You can draw attention to your best skills with a key skills section. Choose five to 10 important skills for this section and separate each one with a comma. Including skills that the employer listed in the job advertisement shows you're a good match for the role. You can also include any other skills that can help you be a good member of the wait staff team.

Related: Hard Skills vs Soft Skills

5. Include optional sections

You might add an awards or achievements section to your resume if you have outstanding community achievements. You could also include a list of relevant hobbies. Your hobbies list could emphasise interests relevant to the job, such as a passion for cooking. You could also list hobbies that use relevant skills, such as playing netball which shows you can work as a team member. Adding optional sections is a great way to tell an employer more about yourself when you have limited work experience or educational qualifications.

6. Conclude with a references section

Ending your resume with a references section tells the employer what to do after reading your resume. You might include a statement that references are available on request. You could also list your referees so the employer can contact them directly to learn more about you.

Template of a resume for a wait staff role

Here is a template you can customise for a wait staff role:
[Full name]
[City, state/territory] | [Phone] | [Email]

Professional summary/Resume objective
[Two or three lines introducing yourself and your career or short-term goals.]

Work experience
[Job title]
[Business], [City], [Month YYYY]–Current

[achievement/Duty 1]
[achievement/Duty 2]
[achievement/Duty 3]
[achievement/Duty 4]
[achievement/Duty 5]

[Job title]

[Business], [City], [Month YYYY]–[Month YYYY]

[achievement/Duty 1]
[achievement/Duty 2]
[achievement/Duty 3]

Education

[Course/qualification]
[Institution name],[(for courses completed in last five years) completed YYYY]

[Course/qualification]
[Institution name] (for courses completed more than five years ago)

Key skills

[Skill 1| [Skill 2] |[Skill 3] [Skill 4] |[Skill 5]

Example of a resume for a wait staff job

Here is an example of a resume completed using the above template:

Matilda Cousins
Canberra, ACT | 0402 460 420 | mcousins@email.com

Professional summary
Hardworking waitress with 5 years' experience working in cafés and restaurants. Friendly employee who enjoys delivering superior customer service and being part of a tight-knit waitstaff team.

Work experience
Waitress
Fork and Knife Steakhouse, Canberra, 2020–current

Delivering friendly customer service when collecting orders, explaining orders and checking on customers
Encouraged business to use tablets for collecting orders which increased accuracy to 100%
Clearing, cleaning and setting tables to a high standard
Settling customer bills and processing EFTPOS and cash payments
Trained three new members of the wait staff team

Waitress
The Right Start Café, Canberra, 2017–2020

Greeted customers and took their orders
Prepared basic orders, including portioning and plating cakes and making tea and coffee
Kept café clean and tidy

Education
Responsible Service of Alcohol licence, Canberra Training Centre, 2021
Certificate III in Hospitality, Training Centre, 2020
Year 10 Certificate, Canberra Sports High School, 2018

Key skills
Customer service, cash handling, EFTPOS and POS terminals, responsible service of alcohol, food safety, workplace health and safety, self-management, teamwork, mentoring

Tips for writing a resume for a wait staff role

Here are some tips for writing an engaging resume for a wait staff job:

Customise your resume for each wait staff job

Different businesses employing wait staff have different requirements. For example, club bistros may prefer hiring employees with their RSA licence while cafés may look for wait staff who know how to make coffee. Customising your resume for each role you apply for lets you make adjustments that show the employer you have the skills and experience they're looking for. Take note of the skills and experience requested in the job advertisement. Using the same terms to describe your skills and experience helps the employer see you're a good fit for the role.

Include a mix of hard skills and soft skills

Including a mix of hard skills and soft skills shows you're a well-rounded person. Employers assess how much training you might need based on the skills you list on your resume. When they can see you already have a broad range of skills, they know they can save time and money training you. This may give you an advantage over a less experienced and skilled applicant.

Add statistics to your resume

Many people working as wait staff have similar experiences in their roles. Adding statistics to your resume can make your experiences seem more unique and noteworthy. For example, instead of noting that you gave wine recommendations, you could add that your actions led to daily wine sales of $200, which was 20% higher than other employees. These statistical additions explain the value of your actions for the business.

Use a clean resume format

A clean resume format helps your skills and achievements stand out. Following the template above is a good way to ensure your layout is clean. You can also add a margin of at least two centimetres all around your page to create the right amount of white space. Selecting a simple font, such as Arial or Calibri, helps the employer skim your resume. Unless the job advertisement asks for your resume in a different format, save your resume as a PDF to preserve your formatting.

How to Write a Wait Staff Resume (With Template and Example)