Bartender CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a bartender with seven years behind the bar, starting as a glass collector and barback in a neighbourhood pub, then a high-volume sports bar, now lead bartender in a hotel lobby bar. The name and bars are made up. Keep the layout and swap in your own volume, training and till system.

Bar managers and general managers hire bartenders themselves, often from a pile of CVs handed in at the bar. They are trying to answer four questions before they ask you to do a trial shift.

• Do you know the licensing rules? There is no bartender licence in the UK, but every sale is made under the premises licence and must be authorised by a personal licence holder. Managers look for Challenge 25, refusals and responsible-service training, and for supervisors a personal licence. Put it in the personal statement or in a certificates block above your experience.
• Have you handled our volume? A cocktail bar wants to see technique and a menu; a sports bar wants 300-guest nights and cellar experience; a hotel wants both plus room charges and event bars. Name the bar type, the seats and the takings.
• Will our money and licence be safe with you? Beverage cost, comps and voids, till shortages, ID checks, incidents. A bartender who steals or serves someone who is drunk can put the premises licence at risk.
• Will you take the shifts nobody wants? Friday and Saturday closes, bank holidays, brunch, match days. Say what you have worked and what you will work.

“Give me your certification, the busiest night you have worked with a number on it, and your pour cost or your comp percentage. If those are on the page you get a trial shift. What you did in a cocktail competition is nice, but it comes after.”

Write one bullet per part of the job, each with a number. Below are bullets by area. Swap in your own numbers; the size matters less than having them at all.

List 10 to 14 skills. Lead with service skills and technique, then systems, then the people skills, written as things you do rather than adjectives.

Behind the bar:

• Classic cocktails from memory (say how many: 40, 60, 100) and the house list at your last bar
• Jigger and measure accuracy (spirits served in 25 ml or 35 ml measures), batching, speed rail setup, working a two- or three-person bar
• Cellar work: keg changes, cask ale conditioning, line cleaning, gas pressure, troubleshooting fobbing
• Wine and beer knowledge: by-the-glass service, tasting notes, food pairing if you worked a restaurant bar
• Garnish prep, syrups, infusions, fresh juice programme

Money, systems and compliance:

• EPOS you have used: Zonal, Lightspeed, Toast, Micros Simphony, Square, Tevalis; tabs, split bills, room charges
• Cash handling, float counts, tips and tronc (since October 2024 the law requires tips to be passed on to workers fairly and in full), comps and voids
• Stocktakes and beverage cost or GP: stock software, spreadsheets, working with an external stocktaker
• Licensing knowledge: Challenge 25, refusals log, not serving people who are drunk, ID scanners and spotting fake ID; a personal licence (APLH) if you supervise
• Ordering from brewery and drinks wholesalers and receiving deliveries

Guest and team skills:

• Refusing service to a drunk guest and de-escalating without a scene
• Working a dispense bar for 10+ waiting staff while covering bar seats
• Regulars: names, drinks, tabs; building a following that shows up on your shifts
• Training barbacks and new bartenders; leading a shift; writing the rota if you have

A personal statement looks back; a career objective looks forward. Use an objective only if you have never bartended (barback, waiter, or new to the industry). Three or four lines, with your licensing training and one volume number in the first two.

Very few bars hire a bartender with no bar experience straight from a CV. The real routes in are barback or glass collector, waiter in a place with a dispense bar, or a quiet weeknight shift at a small bar. Your CV should make one of those easy to say yes to.

1. 1Do responsible alcohol service and Challenge 25 training before you apply, and Level 2 Food Hygiene if the bar serves food. Short online courses cost little and take a few hours, and they show a manager you know the licensing basics. Bar work is normally for over-18s.
2. 2Put the title you are applying for under your name: "Barback" or "Bartender (trainee)". Do not write "Mixologist" or "Aspiring bartender".
3. 3Write a two-line career objective that says your training, your availability (closes, weekends) and what you already know (how many cocktails, which till).
4. 4Turn every past job into bar-relevant bullets: cash handled, customers per shift, tills used, heavy lifting, cleaning routines, late nights. Waiting tables, retail, coffee, fast food and warehouse work all count.
5. 5List the cocktails you can make from memory and how you learned them. Managers do not care that it was at home if you can make them on the trial shift.
6. 6Bartending school is optional and does not replace a trial shift. If you took a course, list it under Education in one line and do not call it a licence.

There is no bartender licence in the UK. Under the Licensing Act 2003 (England and Wales), a venue holds a premises licence and names a designated premises supervisor (DPS), who must hold a personal licence, and every alcohol sale must be authorised by a personal licence holder. Bar staff do not need a licence of their own, but managers look for responsible-service and Challenge 25 training, and supervisors and assistant managers often hold a personal licence: you pass the one-day Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders (APLH) and apply to the council where you live, with a basic criminal record check. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems.

• List a personal licence first if you hold one, with the issuing council and year. Otherwise list your responsible-service and Challenge 25 training with the year; out-of-date training is a weak point.
• Add Level 2 Food Hygiene if you serve food or prepare garnishes and bar snacks; many bars expect it of everyone behind the bar.
• Wine and spirits education (for example WSET Level 1 or 2, or Cicerone Certified Beer Server) is worth a line at wine bars, hotels and beer-focused places. Cask Marque-accredited pub experience is worth naming too. Only list a level you actually passed.
• Bartending school certificates go under Education, not Certificates. They are not licences and managers know it.
• Education: GCSEs, A levels or a BTEC are the usual line. A degree does not need explaining; many career bartenders have one.

• One page. Managers read it at the bar between tickets.
• Order: header with title and availability, personal statement, certificates, skills, experience, education. Certificates sit high because licensing knowledge is a screening question.
• Use a clean layout like the cvplex bartender template or the plain ats-classic. Hotel, pub company and chain applications go through applicant tracking software; independent bars print it. Either way: no photo, no date of birth, PDF.
• Dates by month and year. Bar jobs are short and seasonal; that is normal. Label seasonal or pop-up work as such rather than leaving a gap.
• Name the bar type and size next to each employer: "120-seat sports bar, 24 draught lines" or "20-seat cocktail bar". Managers picture the bar and know what your numbers mean.
• Write your availability in the header or personal statement: "Available nights, weekends, bank holidays and events."

Words to mirror from the advert when they apply to you: bartender, bar staff, high volume, craft cocktails, classic cocktails, EPOS (Zonal, Toast, Micros), cash handling, GP, stock control, cellar, cask ale, draught beer, wine list, Challenge 25, personal licence, responsible alcohol service, ID checking, opening, closing, functions, events, guest experience, upselling, training.