The full example
Everything below is fictional. The venues are described rather than named, and the achievements are the kind of thing a real waiter does — written the way they should appear on a CV, not inflated.
Waiter CV — example
Header
[Full Name] [Town, UK] · [phone] · [email]
Professional summary
Waiter with three years in busy casual and mid-range dining, used to running a section single-handed through peak service. Comfortable with allergen procedures, card and cash handling, and looking after regulars as well as first-time guests. Looking for a role in a restaurant where service standards are taken seriously.
Core skills
Section service · Allergen awareness · Order accuracy · Upselling specials EPOS (Lightspeed, Square) · Cash and card handling · Table turning Team handover · Guest complaint handling
Experience
Waiter — 120-cover independent restaurant, Manchester Mar 2023 – present · Ran a six-table section through Friday and Saturday service, coordinating orders between the floor and the pass. · Took allergen requirements at the table and checked them with the kitchen before the order went in. · Trained two new starters on the EPOS system and the floor plan. · Handled billing and card payments for the section, including split bills. Waiter/Waitress — 60-cover gastropub, Stockport Jun 2022 – Feb 2023 · Worked both the bar and the floor across lunch and evening service. · Set up and cleared the dining room, including laying up for functions. · Covered takeaway order handovers during the busiest periods. Front of House Assistant — café, Stockport Sep 2021 – May 2022 · Served counter customers, prepared hot drinks and kept the seating area turned around during the lunch rush.
Education and certifications
Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene for Catering — 2023 Level 2 Award in Allergen Awareness — 2023 GCSEs including English and Maths — 2021
Additional
Languages: English (native), Polish (conversational) Availability: evenings and weekends
Templates that suit this example
- Essential — One column, standard headings — the safest choice for a first application.
- Floor — Built for front-of-house roles where skills and certifications need to be visible early.
- Classic — A little more formal, for fine dining and hotel restaurants.
Want this structure with your own experience in it?
Build your waiter CVWhy each section is written that way
Professional summary
- Why it matters.
- It is the one part of your CV a busy manager will certainly read, and on a floor CV it has to answer one question immediately: can this person hold a section on a Saturday night?
- A strong version.
- Names the role, the kind of venue, the scale you are used to, and what you are looking for. Three or four sentences, no more.
- Common mistake.
- Opening with "hardworking team player with a passion for customer service". It is true of everyone who applies, so it tells the reader nothing.
Core skills
- Why it matters.
- This is where a recruiter searching their applicant pool for "allergen" or "EPOS" will or will not find you, and where a manager scans for the practical things they will not have to teach you.
- A strong version.
- Six to ten specific, checkable things — named EPOS systems, allergen handling, cash handling, the parts of service you own.
- Common mistake.
- Rating bars and star ratings. They say nothing measurable, and they disappear entirely when a CV is read as plain text.
Experience
- Why it matters.
- Job titles are almost meaningless in hospitality — "waiter" covers a 40-cover bistro and a 300-cover hotel restaurant. The detail underneath the title is what tells a manager which one you have done.
- A strong version.
- Cover count, section size and the parts of service you were responsible for. Describe what you did, not what the job description said.
- Common mistake.
- Listing duties: "served food and drinks, took orders, cleared tables". Every waiter did that. Say what you ran and what you handled.
Certifications
- Why it matters.
- Food safety and allergen training are often a condition of the job rather than a bonus, and some venues cannot put you on the floor without them.
- A strong version.
- Level, awarding body where you know it, and the year. If something is in progress, say so with the expected date.
- Common mistake.
- Leaving them off because they feel minor, or burying them at the bottom of page two.
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 serving job
Your summary. Lead on reliability, pace and willingness to learn, and say plainly that this would be your first hospitality role. Managers hire first-jobbers constantly; what they are checking is whether you will turn up.
What to emphasise. School, college, volunteering, retail, sports teams, a family business — anywhere you dealt with people, worked to a standard, or kept going when it was busy.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Worked weekend shifts alongside full-time study, covering the counter through the lunch rush.
- ·Volunteered at a 200-guest community event, serving food and clearing tables across a five-hour shift.
- ·Handled customer questions and complaints on a busy retail shop floor.
Certifications. Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene is inexpensive, takes an afternoon online, and is the single strongest thing you can add to a first hospitality CV.
Some experience — going for supervisor
Your summary. Name the step you are taking. "Waiter with four years on the floor, looking for a first supervisory role" tells the reader what to assess you against.
What to emphasise. Times you held responsibility without the title: covering a supervisor, training starters, cashing up, handling complaints, running a shift.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Covered the supervisor’s shifts during annual leave, including cashing up and the end-of-night report.
- ·Trained four new starters on service standards, the floor plan and the EPOS system.
- ·Handled guest complaints at the table and escalated only what needed a manager.
Certifications. Personal Licence (APLH) if the venue serves alcohol, and First Aid at Work — both signal you are ready to be left in charge.
Moving into hospitality from another industry
Your summary. Name the transferable spine — pace, customer contact, standards under pressure — and state the move plainly. Do not apologise for it.
What to emphasise. Volume and pace from your previous work, any food safety training you have taken, and genuine availability. Put recent hospitality training above older unrelated roles.
Bullets you could adapt
- ·Handled up to 80 customer interactions a shift in a high-footfall retail environment, including complaints and refunds.
- ·Worked to a 15-minute service target in a fast-paced delivery role across evenings and weekends.
- ·Completed Level 2 Food Safety and Allergen Awareness training ahead of moving into hospitality.
Certifications. Food safety and allergen awareness first. They close the gap between "no experience" and "trained and ready".
Next steps
Other CV examples
Build your own waiter CV
Answer a few questions about your experience and get a structured CV you can edit, export and tailor. Free to start, no card needed.
Start building