Waiter and Waitress CV Examples & Writing Guide
A waiter or waitress CV gets you a trial shift when it shows the pace you can handle (covers per shift, section size, sales per night), the type of restaurant you worked in (fine dining, casual chain, banqueting), the EPOS you know (Lightspeed, Zonal, Oracle Micros), your Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate and allergen training, and your availability. Below is a full sample, then personal statements, bullets, skills and a no-experience version.
Waiter / waitress CV example
In the UK the everyday job title is "waiter" or "waitress"; adverts also say "waiting staff", "front of house team member" or "food and beverage assistant". Use whichever word the advert uses. This sample is for a waiter with about seven years across a family-run diner, a hotel restaurant with banqueting, and an upmarket steakhouse. The name and restaurants are made up. Swap in your own covers, sales and systems.
Jordan Whitfield
Waiter (Fine Dining and High-Volume)
Manchester · 07700 900174 · jordan.whitfield@email.com · Level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety · Allergen awareness trained
Summary
Waiter with 7 years in restaurants, the last 3 in an upmarket steakhouse doing £300–350K a year in personal sales. Handles a 6-table section of 40–60 covers a night, averages a £65 bill per table and a 32% wine-by-the-bottle rate. Trained on Lightspeed, Zonal and Oracle Micros. Comfortable with wine service, tableside presentations and 300-guest banquets. Open availability including weekends, bank holidays and double shifts.
Experience
Waiter · Upmarket steakhouse, 180 covers, Manchester city centre
Jun 2023 – Present
- Serve a 6-table section of 40–60 covers a night, 5 shifts a week, with personal sales of £1,300–1,800 per dinner shift.
- Average bill of £65 per table against a restaurant average of £58, driven by a 32% wine-by-the-bottle rate and desserts on 4 of 10 tables.
- Named on 40+ guest reviews by first name in 2025, with zero manager-handled complaints attributed to my section.
- Trained 5 new waiters on the 60-item menu, the 120-bin wine list, the 14 allergens matrix and Lightspeed modifiers during the 2024 and 2025 Christmas seasons.
- Cover the meet-and-greet desk and the pass when colleagues call in sick, without dropping section sales.
Waiter and Banqueting Waiter · Four-star hotel restaurant and events space, 250 bedrooms
May 2021 – May 2023
- Worked breakfast and dinner shifts of 80–120 covers in the restaurant and 20+ banquets a year of 100–300 guests (plated and buffet service).
- Ran room-service and bar orders through Oracle Micros with 99% order accuracy on the kitchen's re-fire log.
- Handled £1,000–1,500 in nightly cash and card takings with no till discrepancy in 24 months.
- Earned a 4.7 average on post-stay dining survey scores, the highest among 14 restaurant waiting staff in 2022.
Waiter · Family-run diner, 90 covers, open 7am–11pm
Aug 2019 – Apr 2021
- Turned a 7-table section 3–4 times per weekend brunch shift, about 90–110 covers, while running food for two other sections.
- Kept a perfect attendance record on weekend and late shifts, including the takeaway-only service during the 2020–21 lockdowns.
- Learned the Lightspeed till in the first week and became the go-to for fixing split bills and voids.
Education
A-levels: Business, English Language, Media Studies; GCSEs: 8 at grades 9–4, including English and Maths
Sixth form college, Manchester, 2019
Certifications
- Level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety for Catering, 2024 (refreshed every 3 years)
- Food allergy and intolerance training (Food Standards Agency online course), 2024
- WSET Level 2 Award in Wines, 2023
- Court of Master Sommeliers Introductory Course, 2025
Skills
What a restaurant manager checks first on a waiter CV
Restaurant managers often hire the same week they advertise, and many decide from the CV whether to offer a quick chat or a trial shift. Four things settle it.
- Availability. Evenings, weekends, bank holidays, double shifts. Put it in the personal statement. A waiter with open availability and average experience beats a great waiter who can only work Tuesday lunch.
- Pace and style. Covers per shift, section size, table turns, whether you have done fine dining, high-volume casual or banqueting. Managers match you to their room; a 300-cover brunch and a 12-course tasting menu are different jobs.
- Sales and service numbers. Personal sales per shift, average bill or spend per head, wine or dessert rate, guest review mentions, mystery-diner scores. One or two of these make you credible.
- Legal and practical basics. Level 2 Food Hygiene, allergen knowledge, the right to work in the UK, being 18 or over for most bar and alcohol service (with Challenge 25 checks on guests), and the EPOS you know.
“Tell me your section size and your Friday night sales and I know how fast you move. "Provided excellent guest service" tells me nothing; every waiter CV says that. And if your availability is not on the page, you are the third person I call, not the first.”
Waiter and waitress personal statement examples
Three lines under your name: years and restaurant type, pace (covers, section, sales), one or two skills the advert asks for, and your availability. Use a career objective only if you have never worked in a restaurant.
Fine dining waiter with 5 years in two chef-led restaurants, handling 4–5 tables of tasting menus and a 200-bin wine list with £1,500+ in nightly sales. Court of Master Sommeliers Introductory certificate and WSET Level 2. Strong on allergen handling and pacing multi-course service. Available all dinner shifts including weekends.
Waiter with 3 years in a high-volume casual dining chain, turning an 8-table section 4–5 times on Friday and Saturday nights (120+ covers) with a 96% guest satisfaction score on the chain's survey. Fast on Zonal EPOS, reliable on double shifts, cross-trained on the host desk and takeaway orders. Open availability.
Banqueting waiter with 4 years at a 400-bedroom conference hotel, working plated dinners and buffets for 150–800 guests, synchronised service and bar set-up. Flexible and weekend availability, Level 2 Food Hygiene, comfortable with 10-hour event days. Also cover the hotel restaurant on quiet banqueting weeks.
Waiter with 6 years in resort and cruise dining rooms serving 30–40 guests per sitting across two fixed sittings a night, plus buffet and speciality restaurant rotations. Fluent English and Spanish, conversational German. STCW basic safety training current. Seeking a 6-month dining room contract.
Friendly, fast-moving retail sales assistant seeking a first waiting job. Two years serving 150+ customers a shift and cashing up the till with no discrepancy, plus barista shifts at a busy campus café. Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate obtained in 2026, 18 years old, available every evening and weekend.
How to write waiter experience on a CV: weak vs. strong bullets
Most waiter CVs describe the job everyone knows: took orders, served food, handled payments. Managers want how many, how fast, how much you sold and what you used. Seven common bullets rewritten:
| Weak (duty only) | Strong (pace, sales, system) |
|---|---|
| Took orders and served food to guests. | Served a 6-table section of 40–60 covers a night, 5 nights a week, with personal sales of £1,300–1,800 per shift. |
| Provided excellent customer service. | Named in 40+ guest reviews in 2025 and held a 4.8 score on the restaurant's post-visit survey against a group average of 4.5. |
| Upsold menu items. | Raised my average bill per table from £54 to £65 in a year by suggesting wine pairings and desserts; 32% of tables ordered a bottle. |
| Handled payments. | Took £1,000–1,500 a night in cash and card payments through Oracle Micros with no till discrepancy in 24 months. |
| Worked as part of a team. | Ran food and cleared for two neighbouring sections during rushes, cutting waiting time at the pass by about 2 minutes on Friday nights. |
| Handled customer complaints. | Resolved wrong-order and waiting-time complaints at the table without a manager on more than 9 of 10 occasions, using comps within my £15 limit. |
| Trained new waiting staff. | Trained 5 new starters on EPOS modifiers, steps of service, the allergen matrix and the wine list during two Christmas seasons; all 5 passed their probation review. |
Do not know your numbers? Check your last few end-of-shift reports for sales per shift and average bill, and count covers on a normal Friday. Round numbers are fine; a manager can spot a fake £2,500 Tuesday.
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Waiter and waitress CV skills
Keep the list to 10–14 items and put the advert's words first (a fine dining advert cares about wine service; a chain advert cares about speed and the EPOS). Mix the three groups below.
Service skills:
- Steps of service for your setting (fine dining, casual, counter-plus-table, banqueting)
- Wine, beer and cocktail knowledge; pairing suggestions
- Menu knowledge, the 14 allergens and dietary requirements
- Upselling starters, drinks and desserts
- Handling large parties and split bills
- Tableside service (carving, flambé, presentations) where relevant
- Running food, clearing, side duties and closing down
Systems and certifications:
- EPOS systems: Lightspeed, Zonal, Oracle Micros (Simphony), Square for Restaurants, Tevalis, Toast
- Reservation and table management: OpenTable, ResDiary, SevenRooms
- Handheld ordering and pay-at-table devices
- Level 2 Food Hygiene and allergen training (see the section below)
- Cash handling, cashing up, tips and tronc reconciliation (since October 2024 the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 requires employers to pass on tips to staff in full and fairly)
Personal skills managers actually check (prove them in a bullet):
- Staying calm and fast on a full section (covers per shift)
- Reliability on evenings, weekends and double shifts (attendance record)
- Reading tables and pacing courses (guest scores, review mentions)
- Working with the kitchen and bar under pressure (waiting times at the pass, re-fire rate)
- A second language for guest and kitchen use, especially in tourist areas
Food hygiene, allergen training and other certificates
Waiting jobs rarely require a degree. Most employers ask for food hygiene training, and fine dining and hotel rooms value wine and allergen certificates.
- Level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety (Level 2 Food Safety in Catering): the standard certificate for anyone handling or serving food. The law requires food handlers to be trained or supervised in food hygiene rather than naming one certificate, but most restaurants expect Level 2. Online courses cost roughly £10–25 and take a few hours; many employers ask you to refresh it every 3 years. List the course title and year.
- Alcohol service: in the UK there is no server permit. Venues selling alcohol need a premises licence and a designated premises supervisor (DPS) with a personal licence, and every sale must be authorised by a personal licence holder (usually the DPS or a manager). A personal licence (via the APLH qualification) is only worth listing if you are aiming for supervisor or manager roles. Know your venue's Challenge 25 policy and refusals log.
- Minimum age to serve alcohol: 18 in most settings. Under-18s can serve alcohol only in limited cases, such as with table meals, and rules differ in Scotland. Managers know the rules for their venue; you only need to be eligible.
- Wine and beverage certificates (optional, valued in fine dining): Court of Master Sommeliers Introductory Course, Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 1 or 2, Cicerone Certified Beer Server. List the exact level you hold.
- Allergen training: restaurants must be able to tell guests which of the 14 major allergens are in each dish. The Food Standards Agency's free online allergen training or a Level 2 allergen awareness course shows you take it seriously and is appreciated everywhere.
- Cruise and resort work: STCW basic safety training is required for cruise ship crew. Do not list it unless you hold it.
Waiter CV with no experience
Waiting tables is one of the most common first jobs in the UK, and most managers expect to train. What they want to see is that you have dealt with the public at speed, that you can legally work the shift, and that you will turn up. Build the page like this.
- 1Title yourself "Waiter" or "Waitress" (or the advert's word) under your name, and put your food hygiene certificate and availability in the contact line.
- 2Write a 3-line career objective with facts: customer-facing work you have done (retail, fast food, barista, hosting, catering, school events), one number from it, your age if the advert requires 18 for bar or alcohol service, and your availability.
- 3Turn any job into service bullets: a cashier "served 150 customers a shift with no till discrepancy"; a fast-food crew member "kept drive-thru times to 90 seconds on Saturday lunch rushes"; a volunteer "served 200 plates at a community fundraising dinner."
- 4Get your Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate before you apply. It costs about £10–25 online and takes a few hours. The free Food Standards Agency allergen course is worth doing too; both remove a reason to pass on you.
- 5List skills you already have: cash handling, EPOS or till experience, a second language, carrying trays and standing for 8 hours.
- 6Keep it to one page and take printed copies when you apply in person, which still works in restaurants.
Fast-food crew member with 18 months on front counter and drive-thru at a busy motorway services (150+ cars an hour at peak), now seeking a waiting job. Fast on the till, calm with impatient customers, perfect attendance for a year. Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate obtained 2026. Available evenings and weekends.
University student seeking a part-time waiting job for evenings and weekends. Two years as a volunteer at campus catering events, carrying trays and serving 100–200 guests per event; comfortable on my feet for long shifts. Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate obtained 2026, 19 years old, Spanish speaker.
Host and food runner with 14 months at a 200-cover casual restaurant, seating 400+ guests on Friday nights in OpenTable and resetting tables in under 3 minutes. Already know the menu, the Zonal EPOS and the steps of service from running food during rushes. Level 2 Food Hygiene and allergen training current. Seeking a waiting role at the same pace.
Format and length for a waiter or waitress CV
- One page, always. A waiter with 15 years still fits; older restaurants get one line each.
- Order: header with title, certificates and availability; personal statement; experience; skills; certificates; education. Experience goes above skills because restaurant type and pace matter more than a keyword list.
- Reverse chronological with months. Managers expect some moving around in hospitality, but they do want to see at least one place where you stayed a year or more.
- Describe each restaurant briefly: covers, style, volume ("180-cover upmarket steakhouse"). It gives the manager the context for your numbers.
- No photo, no date of birth, no marital status, no full address (UK convention). Town or city is enough. Add "right to work in the UK" if you think the employer might wonder.
- PDF if you apply online; printed copies if you walk in. Many restaurants hire through apps and short forms, so keep your numbers ready to paste.
- US applications: the document is called a resume, the job is usually "server", and many states require a food handler card and an alcohol server permit; a UK Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate does not replace them.
The cvplex waiter template used above keeps a single column with certificates and availability visible near the top, which is what a manager flipping through a stack of applications needs to see.
Keywords for waiting job applications
Independent restaurants read CVs by hand. Chains, hotel groups and cruise lines use applicant tracking systems that match the advert's exact words. Use the advert's title (waiter, waitress, waiting staff, food and beverage assistant, banqueting waiter) and mirror its terms, then check your file with a free ATS checker.
- Titles: waiter, waitress, waiting staff, front of house team member, food and beverage assistant, banqueting waiter, fine dining waiter, food runner
- Pace words: high-volume, fast-paced, covers, section, table turns, guest satisfaction
- Service words: steps of service, wine service, upselling, menu knowledge, allergen awareness, guest recovery
- Systems: Lightspeed, Zonal, Oracle Micros, Square, OpenTable, ResDiary, handheld EPOS
- Compliance: Level 2 Food Hygiene, food safety, 14 allergens, Challenge 25, licensing, right to work
- Availability words: evenings, weekends, bank holidays, double shifts, flexible availability, seasonal
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a waiter or waitress CV?
Put your title, Level 2 Food Hygiene, allergen training and availability in the header, then a 3-line personal statement with years, restaurant type, covers or sales per shift and your EPOS. Give each restaurant a one-line description (covers, style) and 3–5 bullets with numbers. Keep it to one page.
What skills should a waiter put on a CV?
The advert's words first, then: steps of service for your setting, wine and menu knowledge, upselling, the 14 allergens, large parties and split bills, your EPOS (Lightspeed, Zonal, Micros), reservation systems, cash handling and any second language. Prove speed and reliability inside your bullets with covers and attendance.
How do I describe waiter experience on a CV?
Give pace, sales and systems instead of duties. "Served a 6-table section of 50 covers a night with £1,500 in sales on Lightspeed" beats "took orders and served food." Add one bullet each for sales or average bill, guest feedback, teamwork during rushes and training or extra duties.
How do I write a waiter CV with no experience?
Lead with a factual career objective: customer-facing work you have done with one number, your food hygiene certificate, your age if the advert requires 18, and your availability. Rewrite retail, fast-food or volunteer work as service bullets, list cash and till skills, and get the Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate before you apply.
Should a waiter CV have a career objective or a personal statement?
A personal statement if you have worked in any restaurant, café or pub. A career objective only for a true first job, and even then keep it to facts: availability, food hygiene certificate, customer-facing numbers.
Do I say waiter, waitress or waiting staff on my CV?
Use the word the advert uses. In the UK most adverts say "waiter/waitress" or "waiting staff"; some chains say "front of house team member" and hotels "food and beverage assistant". "Server" is the US word and reads oddly on a UK CV. Pick one term and never mix them on one page.
What is a banqueting waiter CV?
The same one-page format with event numbers instead of section numbers: guests per event, plated versus buffet, events per month, synchronised service, bar set-up and flexible availability. Hotels and caterers also want Level 2 Food Hygiene, allergen knowledge and comfort with 10-hour event days.
How long should a waiter CV be?
One page. Managers skim a stack of applications in minutes and want your availability, certificates and pace in the top third. Anything older than 10 years can be a single line.
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How this page was made: a first draft was written with AI assistance from cvplex's example library, then edited and fact-checked by the cvplex Careers Team. Examples are fictional composites; numbers are illustrative. Report an error via the editorial policy page.