1. Waitress CV Examples, Tips & Templates (2024)

Waitress CV Examples, Tips & Templates (2024)

LiveCareer UK Editorial Team
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To get your waitress CV to the front of the line, you must make an impression, clearly lay out what you bring to the table, and avoid the common mistakes that most waitress CV examples will contain.

With this guide, that will be easy. We will show you exactly which courses to include, and how to lay the plate, including tips on writing your waitress skills sections and job descriptio n. Sometimes, less is more, and it’s all in the presentation.

In this article, you'll find a well served waitress/waiter CV example to copy from and a step-by-step guide on writing a waitressing CV that conquers the hearts. You'll also find top waitress skills that your employer will love.

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Based on over 6 million CVs created in our builder, we found out that*:


  • Waitresses usually create 2.3 pages-long CVs.
  • The average number of skills added to a waitress’ CV is 8.
  • The most popular skills for waitresses are organizational strengths, seating customers, operational planning, professional phone manner, and cutlery and glass polishing.
  • The average work experience for waitresses is 75 months.

*The data comes from a period of the last 12 months (August 2023-August 2024).

Waitress CV example

Wanda King

4 Princes Street

Rockland St Mary

NR14 2PG

0702244731

wanda@king.com

Diligent, systematic waitress with 3+ years of restaurant experience in a busy location in London. Independently handled 200+ guests and 50 takeaway orders a night, maintaining 100% accuracy. Improved efficiency by 15% at La Finestra by implementing new sections for the waiters. Maintained a 99.4% satisfaction score. Seeking to apply proven skills and warm demeanour to serve the guests of Lucio’s.

Work Experience

Waitress

La Finestra, London

February 2017—Present

  • Independently handling 200+ guests and 50 takeaway orders each shift, maintaining 100% accuracy.
  • Maintained 100% menu knowledge that allowed for creating a better experience for guests and to make extra turnover.
  • Implemented a new section plan that improved efficiency by 15% and reduced mistakes. 
  • Maintained a 99.4% guest satisfaction score.
  • Trained 3 new waitresses and periodically checked their menu knowledge.
  • Experienced working with different POS systems, apps, and online ordering services.
  • Maintained 0 cash or accounting errors.

Skills

  • Menu Knowledge: Quickly gain comprehensive knowledge of the menu and wine pairings to improve guest experience.
  • Upselling: Utilise menu knowledge to suggest additions or upgrades and stimulate turnover.
  • Employee Training: Have experience of training colleagues in a friendly and supportive manner that builds a team.
  • Interpersonal Skills: Warm demeanour that will contribute to the restaurant’s atmosphere and guest experience, and build lasting relationships.
  • Organisation: Proven track record of reorganising work in a more efficient fashion.

Languages

  • German (Intermediate)
  • Spanish (Intermediate)
  • French (Basic)

Education

6 GCSEs including Mathematics and English, September 2017

Hockley Academy, Hockley, UK

That’s what to serve on your waitress CV. Here’s a guide on how to write your own CV and what to include in a CV document:

1. Write a waitress/waiter CV personal statement

What would look better on a restaurant menu? The following:

“Carbonara—spaghetti, guanciale, parmesan, pecorino cheese, eggs, olive oil, salt.”

Or:

“Carbonara—a 16-week-cured peppery guanciale with authentic pecorino and parmesan cheeses in the classic spaghetti dish”

The latter gets the imagination running. Your CV personal statement should be similar. Less is more, focus on what’s important, and don’t list the olive oil and sea salt of your work experience. Skip the bland. Everyone knows what the responsibilities of the waitress are.

Introduce yourself focusing on what makes you stand out, your performance, and what extra you bring to the table. Try and include some metrics where possible to put your experience into perspective and allow the employer to imagine the impact you can have. Like in this CV summary:

Waitress CV personal statement example

Personal Statement

Diligent, systematic waitress with 3+ years of restaurant experience in a busy location in London. Independently handled 200+ guests and 50 takeaway orders a night, maintaining 100% accuracy. Improved efficiency by 15% at La Finestra by implementing new sections for the waiters. Maintained a 99.4% satisfaction score. Seeking to apply proven skills and warm demeanour to serve the guests of Lucio’s.

A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.

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2. Write a job description for your waitressing CV

So the personal statement was the tasting menu. Here, in the work experience section of your CV is the place to list more ingredients, even some more bland ones. Read the job posting carefully and determine what are their most important requirements.

If it’s a fine dining establishment, they will be more focused on somebody that can handle the sophisticated environment and menu knowledge, if it’s a tourist spot burger bar, they might just be interested in someone to fling the maximum amount of orders out.

Either way, list 3 to 7 bullet points, descending in order of importance. Put them into perspective with numbers where possible. Record your relevant waitress work experience under the following heading:

[Job Title]

[Employer Name, Location]

[Dates of Employment]

For your older positions, limit yourself to less bullet points, 3 being just right.

Having little to no work experience? See CV examples for UK students with no experience. Applying for a part-time position? See CV examples for part-time roles.

Waitress CV work experience example

Work Experience

Waitress

La Finestra, London

February 2017—Present

  • Independently handling 200+ guests and 50 takeaway orders each shift, maintaining 100% accuracy.
  • Maintained 100% menu knowledge that allowed for creating a better experience for guests and to make extra turnover.
  • Implementing a new section plan that improved efficiency by 15% and reduced mistakes. 
  • Maintained a 99.4% guest satisfaction score.
  • Trained 3 new waitresses and periodically checked their menu knowledge.
  • Experienced working with different POS systems, apps, and online ordering services.
  • Maintained 0 cash or accounting errors.

3. List relevant skills in your restaurant waiter CV

For most waiter and waitress CVs, the education section can move down the page, as it doesn’t hold much importance over real waitress skills. It may be an advantage in certain situations, for example in fine dining establishments, being at university could be seen as an advantage.

Even in this case, however, you could simply mention it briefly in your personal statement that you’re studying, and still prioritise your waitress skills section. Once again, find out from the job posting what’s most important to them, and prioritise that. 

Don’t focus on banal things like punctuality. Focus on some hard and soft skills you bring to the table that most people don’t. Like so:

Waitress/waiter CV skills section

Skills

  • Menu Knowledge: Quickly gain comprehensive knowledge of the menu and wine pairings to improve guest experience.
  • Upselling: Utilise menu knowledge to suggest additions or upgrades and stimulate turnover.
  • Employee Training: Have experience of training colleagues in a friendly and supportive manner that builds a team.
  • Interpersonal Skills: Warm demeanour that will contribute to the restaurant’s atmosphere and guest experience, and build lasting relationships.
  • Organisation: Proven track record of reorganising work in a more efficient fashion.

4. Include an education section in your waitress/waiter CV

As mentioned before, your education section is low in importance on your waitress CV, and can be relegated below your skills section. If you know any extra languages, you could also consider prioritising that.

Keep your CV education section short and sweet:

Waitress CV education section

Education

BSc Organic Chemistry, Expected Graduation: June 2022

King’s College, London

3 A-Levels: Mathematics (A), Physics (A), Chemistry (B), June 2019

Hockley Academy, Hockley, UK

9 GCSEs including Mathematics and English, June 2017

Hockley Academy, Hockley, UK

5. Serve additional sections on your waitressing CV

Most waitress CVs can benefit from rounding out with some additional sections, like extracurricular activities, languages or volunteering. Something that shows extra initiative, skills, and multi-tasking, but not boring irrelevant hobbies.

Volunteering is great, as it shows a lot of initiative and strong morals. 82% of managers would rather hire someone with volunteering experience. Awards or certifications also look great, if they’re relevant, or really impressive achievements.

Restaurant waiter CV additional sections example

Volunteering

  • Volunteer Cook — Hockley Homeless Shelter (2013-2018) 

Languages

  • German (Intermediate)
  • Spanish (Intermediate)
  • French (Basic)

6. Write a matching waitress cover letter

Once you have finished your waiter CV, it needs a cover letter to be accompanied by. It’s another place where you can stand out from the rest and highlight your strong sides. So, how should you go about writing a cover letter?

In the first paragraph of your cover letter, hook them in with your most unique selling point, present the wealth of your experience and achievements in the body of the letter, or highlight transferable skills you have if you are sending a waitress CV with no experience. 

In the last paragraph, you should present exactly what you’re going to bring to the table for them. End your cover letter with a request for an interview. 

7. Waitress CV writing tips to keep handy

To make sure your waitress CV gets you a reservation—for interview, make sure everything is neat and organised by applying some simple CV format rules

If you don’t hear back after a week, give them a follow-up call. Sometimes, they haven’t got round to your perfect CV yet, and that will get it picked up. 

And that's it! Now you know what a CV should look like. Good luck!

You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.

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Did we answer all your questions on how to write a waitress CV? Got any job hunting tips and tricks you’d like to share? Did you find our waitress CV example useful? Use the comments section below. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

How we review the content at LiveCareer

Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.

About the author

LiveCareer UK Editorial Team
LiveCareer UK Editorial Team

Since 2013, the LiveCareer UK team has shared the best advice to help you advance your career. Experts from our UK editorial team have written more than one hundred guides on how to write the perfect CV or cover letter.

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