Head Waiter Resume Examples & Writing Guide

An invented candidate with a believable path: server, then captain in a 140-seat restaurant, now head waiter running a section and a pre-shift lineup. Notice that every job names covers, check average and the number of staff directed.

A general manager hiring a head waiter is filling a gap in the floor, not looking for a nice person. Four things settle it.

• The room you came from. Seat count, service style (casual, upscale casual, fine dining, hotel, banquet), covers per service and check average. A 90-cover casual room and a 240-cover fine dining room are different jobs.
• Whether you actually directed people. Number of servers, bussers, food runners and barbacks you assigned and corrected. "Head waiter" with no headcount reads as a courtesy title.
• Wine and upsell numbers. Attachment rate, average check, dessert and cordial sales. This is the part of the job that pays for itself.
• Certifications that let you work day one: ServSafe food handler or manager, and your state's alcohol server certification. Missing alcohol certification can delay a start date by a week.

“Nine out of ten head server resumes say 'provided excellent customer service.' The one I call says 200 covers, a $90 check average, five servers on the section and what happened to comps after they took it over. Give me the room and the numbers and I will interview you the same day.”

Three or four lines. Style of room, years, section size, one sales number, certifications. Only use an objective if you are stepping up from server for the first time.

The rewrite is always the same move: add the room size, the headcount you directed and the money. Here are the duties head waiters really do.

Three groups: what you know about service, what systems you run, and how you handle a room under pressure. Twelve lines is plenty.

• Service knowledge: steps of service, French and Russian service if you have done them, table-side preparation, coursing and pacing, wine and cocktail pairing, cheese and after-dinner service.
• Floor leadership: section and station assignments, floor plan building, pre-shift lineup, side work sign-off, break rotation, running a shift when the manager is off the floor.
• Systems: Toast, Aloha, Oracle Simphony (Micros), TouchBistro, Square for Restaurants; OpenTable, Resy or SevenRooms for reservations and guest notes.
• Money: check accuracy, comps and voids policy, cash-out and tip pooling or tip sharing rules, bank counts, upselling specials and by-the-glass.
• Compliance: allergen handling, alcohol service refusal and ID checks, temperature and sanitation checks, opening and closing safety walk.
• Languages: a second language is a real advantage on a floor and in the kitchen. Say the level plainly (conversational, fluent) rather than 'proficient'.

Two of these are practical requirements in most states and the rest are what separate a captain from a server. List the awarding body and the expiry.

Alcohol server rules are set state by state, and some states also run their own program (for example a state-approved responsible beverage service course). Check your state's alcohol beverage control requirements rather than assuming TIPS is accepted everywhere. Food handler requirements also vary by state and sometimes by county.

Most head waiter jobs go to servers who were already doing the work without the title. Your job is to make that visible.

1. 1Count the shifts you ran as closing lead, opening lead or shift lead, and put the count on the page.
2. 2Name how many servers you trained and what happened to them: passed the menu test, stayed past six months, moved to their own section.
3. 3Add the section you carried at your busiest: tables, covers, check average. A large station handled well is the closest proof to captain work.
4. 4Show one thing you improved for the whole floor, not just your tables: a side work sheet, a wine tasting habit, a better ticket flow with the expo.
5. 5Get your certifications current before you apply. ServSafe Manager and your state's alcohol certification cost little and remove a hiring objection.
6. 6Mirror the restaurant's own title. Rooms call this job head waiter, head server, captain, chef de rang or maitre d' depending on the style; use the posting's word.

• One page, reverse chronological. Headings: Summary, Experience, Skills, Certifications, Education. No photo and no date of birth on a US resume.
• Put covers, seats and check average inside the employer line: 'Marsh House Kitchen (140 seats, fine dining, $1.4M annual)'. It saves the reader a guess.
• Restaurant groups screen through systems like Harri, Workstream and Toast Hiring. Mirror the posting words: 'steps of service', 'covers', 'check average', 'POS', 'wine service', 'ServSafe', 'alcohol certification'.
• List availability if you can work the shifts nobody wants: Friday and Saturday dinner, holidays, doubles. It is a real hiring factor.
• Send a PDF named Reyes-Antoine-Head-Waiter.pdf. Restaurant managers lose files called resume.pdf.
• In the UK and Ireland this job is often advertised as head waiter or chef de rang and the document is called a CV. If you are applying in the US, keep the US resume conventions on this page.

One last check: make the dates add up. If your summary claims eight years of service experience, the jobs listed have to cover eight years without gaps you cannot explain.