The full example
Everything below is fictional. The venues are described rather than named, and the achievements are the kind of thing a real bartender does — written the way they should appear on a CV, not inflated.
Bartender CV — example
Header
[Full Name] [Town, UK] · [phone] · [email]
Professional summary
Bartender with four years across cocktail and high-volume bars, most recently working a twelve-serve spec list through late-night service. Personal Licence holder, comfortable running stock counts and wastage sheets, and used to keeping cellar and line cleaning on schedule. Looking for a senior bartender role in a bar that takes its spec seriously.
Core skills
Cocktail spec adherence · Free-pour and jigger accuracy · Batching and prep Stock counts and wastage sheets · Cellar management · Line cleaning Late-night service · Challenge 25 and refusals · Spirits and beer knowledge EPOS (Zonal, Lightspeed) · Cash-up and float reconciliation
Experience
Bartender — 150-capacity cocktail bar, Bristol Apr 2024 – present · Worked a seasonal menu of twelve cocktails to written spec, including the batching and pre-prep done before each service. · Ran the weekly spirits stock count and kept the wastage sheet, flagging variances on the line to the bar manager. · Held the bar through last orders and close on Friday and Saturday nights, including refusals and Challenge 25 checks. · Trained two new bartenders on the spec list, the till and the close-down. Bartender — bar of a 90-bedroom hotel, Bath Sep 2022 – Mar 2024 · Covered residents’ bar, lounge service and function bars, switching between table service and a standing bar depending on the event. · Took deliveries into the cellar, rotated stock and kept the keg and line cleaning record up to date. · Built the drinks side of three wedding functions with the events team, including pre-batched welcome drinks. Bar Staff — high-street pub, Bath Jun 2021 – Aug 2022 · Poured cask and keg to the house standard and changed kegs mid-service. · Handled cash and card, cashed up the till and reconciled the float.
Education and certifications
Personal Licence (APLH Level 2) — 2023 WSET Level 1 Award in Spirits — 2024 Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene for Catering — 2022 Cellar management and line cleaning training (in house) — 2023 GCSEs including English and Maths — 2020
Additional
Languages: English (native), Spanish (conversational) Availability: evenings, late nights and weekends
Templates that suit this example
- Floor — Puts your Personal Licence and food safety certificates in an emphasis row near the top, where a bar manager looks first.
- Modern Rail — A side rail for spirits knowledge and certificates, keeping the service story in the main column. Suits cocktail and casual bars.
- Essential — One column, standard headings — the plainest option when you are applying to a large group.
Want this structure with your own experience in it?
Build your bartender CVWhy each section is written that way
Professional summary
- Why it matters.
- A bar manager reading this wants to know two things before anything else: can you work to a spec, and can you be left on a late bar. Say both in the first three lines.
- A strong version.
- Names the kind of bar, the scale, whether you hold a Personal Licence, and the part of service you own. Three or four sentences.
- Common mistake.
- Leading with a passion for mixology. Every applicant says it, and it does not tell a manager whether your drinks come out the same twice.
Core skills
- Why it matters.
- Bar work has a vocabulary, and a manager scans for the parts of it they will not have to teach you — spec, stock, cellar, licensing.
- A strong version.
- Specific, checkable things: spec adherence, batching, stock counts and wastage, line cleaning, refusals, the EPOS you have actually used.
- Common mistake.
- A list of cocktail names. Knowing what is in a Negroni is assumed; what a manager cannot assume is that you count stock accurately.
Experience
- Why it matters.
- "Bartender" covers a quiet hotel lounge and a bar doing 600 covers on a Saturday. The detail under the title is what tells a manager which one you have worked.
- A strong version.
- Capacity or venue type, the size of the spec list, what you were trusted with on a late shift, and the stock or cellar work you owned.
- Common mistake.
- Listing duties — "served drinks, cleaned the bar, worked the till". Say what you ran: the spec, the stock count, the close.
Personal Licence and certifications
- Why it matters.
- A Personal Licence changes what a venue can ask you to do, and for some rotas a licence holder has to be on shift. It is worth its own line, not a footnote.
- A strong version.
- Personal Licence with the year, then food safety, then any product training. If your APLH is booked but not sat, say so with the date.
- Common mistake.
- Burying the licence at the bottom of page two, or leaving off cellar and line cleaning training, which is exactly what a pub with a real bar trade is looking for.
If your experience looks different
Most people are not the candidate in the example. Three common situations, and what to change for each.
No experience — your first bar job
Your summary. Say plainly that this would be your first bar role, and lead on the things a bar actually needs from a new starter: late availability, staying calm when it is three deep, and handling money accurately.
What to emphasise. Any job with a till, a queue or a closing shift — retail, café, events, a sports club bar. Late and weekend availability is genuinely worth stating, because it is what most bars are short of.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Worked Friday and Saturday closing shifts in a busy café, cashing up and reconciling the till at the end of each one.
- ·Served at a 300-guest sports club event, running a temporary bar alongside two colleagues.
- ·Handled card and cash payments on a high-footfall shop floor, including refunds and disputes.
Certifications. Level 2 Food Safety is cheap and quick. If you can afford the APLH, a Personal Licence on a first bar CV is unusual enough to be worth the outlay.
Some experience — going for senior bartender or bar supervisor
Your summary. Name the step. "Bartender with four years behind the stick, looking for a first bar supervisor role" tells the reader exactly what to measure you against.
What to emphasise. Responsibility you carried without the title: ordering, stock counts, keyholding, running the close, writing or testing a spec, training new starters.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Placed the weekly spirits and beer order against the stock count and the previous week’s sales.
- ·Ran the close and cash-up as keyholder on late shifts, including the end-of-night report.
- ·Wrote specs for four seasonal cocktails and trained the bar team on them.
Certifications. Personal Licence (APLH) if you do not already hold one, plus cellar management training and First Aid at Work — all three say you can be left in charge.
Moving behind the bar from another industry
Your summary. Name the transferable spine — pace, accuracy with money, working late — and state the move directly. Bars hire career changers constantly.
What to emphasise. Volume and pace, cash accuracy, and real availability for nights and weekends. Put any recent licensing or food safety training above older unrelated roles.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Handled a float and reconciled takings at the end of every shift, accountable for any variance.
- ·Worked to a timed service target through sustained peak periods across evenings and weekends.
- ·Completed the APLH and Level 2 Food Safety ahead of moving into bar work.
Certifications. Personal Licence first — it is the qualification that most changes what a bar can put you on — then Level 2 Food Safety.
Next steps
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