Baristas brighten their customers’ days by preparing their favorite drinks just the way they like them. To land this pleasantly caffeinated position, you need a barista resume that will perk up the hiring manager’s attention.
How should you do that? Pour a shot of energy into your barista resume by displaying your customer service skills, ability to work under pressure, and pleasant personality.
Resume.io is a great source of inspiration and ideas, with more than 500 occupation-specific resume examples, a resume builder, and plenty of writing guides full of tips.
This guide, along with a barista resume example, will show you how to create a resume that meets the needs of today’s coffee shops. We’ll cover:
Acing the ATS
Most independent coffee shops still hire the old-fashioned way: dropping your resume off in person or emailing it directly to a manager.
For medium and large-scale coffee chains, however, use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to collect large numbers of resumes. Some of these systems include sophisticated algorithms that scan for keywords and select the highest-ranking resumes.
As an example, a barista job posting may list the following requirements:
You can give yourself the best chance of success by writing a resume summary like this:
“Experienced barista with over 2 years of expertise crafting specialty drinks in a busy coffee shop. Proven experience providing excellent customer service to a high volume of patrons.
Just like crafting a premium coffee drink, the first step in writing your barista resume is understanding the parts to include. Your resume should contain the following sections:
Chances are, you’ve been successful as a barista because of your winning personality and the impression you make on your customers. Think of your resume as a way to provide that first impression to the hiring manager.
That means you must persuasively showcase how you will fulfill the company’s needs. Think of it as your unique value proposition. Your resume is the first place you’ll show this off before making it to an interview. Stick with these ingredients:
The reverse chronological resume format is recommended for most job seekers and is generally considered the best resume format. It’s the easiest to review, as it displays your work history from most recent to earliest, broken into concise bullet point highlights.
Other resume formats may be suitable for those who are new to the workforce or changing careers. They might want to emphasize specialized or transferable skills, rather than where they worked, opting for a functional format or the more versatile hybrid (combination) format.
When exploring the resume templates in our resume builder, select a format that best suits your needs. There are plenty of versions of each format available as resume examples.
In terms of design, a barista resume should use a clean, clear, modern layout that is simple and easy for a busy coffee shop’s hiring manager to read.
When a customer enters the store, it’s important to give a positive first impression. Think of your resume header the same way.
The most important goal of this section is to display your name and contact information so it’s easy for the reader to understand who you are and how to reach you. Focus on the following:
Don’t include:
Tara Monroe
Barista
Columbus, OH
614-234-4588
Tar_mnroe_712@gmail.com
Tara Monroe
78 Peach Street
Columbus, OH 43209
614-234-4588
As a barista, you’ll likely be the first face customers see when they walk into the coffeehouse, and your ability to offer friendly service will be an essential part of their experience. The summary serves as that initial greeting for your resume. It gives the hiring manager a taste of your personality, top skills, and previous experiences.
A few facts paired with action verbs about your previous barista positions can also drive this section home. How many customers did you serve daily? Did you develop any new drinks? How many menu items did you memorize and prepare? Did the business see any growth on your watch?
If you’re applying for a managerial or more senior position, you can also highlight previous leadership experiences or advanced training.
Need inspiration for your summary? Check out our related food and service industry resumes:
You can find adaptable barista resume examples summary below:
Motivated food service professional seeking Barista position. Over 2 years of experience in customer service and food sales. Eager to leverage fast casual restaurant experience in a coffee shop environment. Excellent customer service skills, treating all customers with kindness and hospitality.
Motivated and focused Barista with over 10 years of coffee house experience, committed to providing high-quality, personalized customer service. Adept at handling back- and front-end operations and creating exceptional coffee drinks. Strictly adhere to company standards, while treating all customers with kindness and hospitality.
Motivated and focused Barista with over 15 years of coffee house experience, committed to providing high-quality, personalized customer service. Adept at managing back- and front-end operations, leading teams of 10+ baristas, and creating exceptional coffee drinks. Able to ensure strict team adherence company standards while treating all customers with kindness and hospitality.
Your employment history gives employers a sense of how well you might fit in their coffee shop. List your experiences in reverse chronological order, with the most recent experience first. Only go back the last 10-15 years and try to include only relevant experience.
Below each past employer heading, provide a short description of key job highlights in a short bullet-point list. Don’t just list vague job duties or responsibilities. It’s easy to write bullet points like this:
While these are all clearly part of a barista role, to make your resume more compelling, facts and figures are the best way to quantify the impact you had. Consider things like how many customers you typically served, how many employees you helped train, or specific revenue numbers you impacted.
Take a look:
Take a look at the barista employment history resume sample below:
Barista at Luck Bros' Coffee House, Columbus
March 2010 - Present
Barista And Cashier at Starbucks, Columbus
September 2006 - July 2010
Many hiring managers understand that this may be your first barista position, or even your first official work experience. If this is the case, it’s important to show how your transferable skills have prepared you for the work of a barista.
You can highlight teachability, reliability, and patience, all of which can be learned from other experiences like being a server in a restaurant, for example. Or you may have worked with challenging customers in a retail environment or offered patience and attention as a tutor.
Showcase your customer service skills and your ability to communicate effectively. Remember that volunteer work counts, too.
As a barista, both hard and soft skills are at the heart of what you do. You’ll need to be experienced enough at making coffee to keep customers coming back, but if you don’t have the personality traits to match, you're just as likely to send customers out the door.
Hard skills include anything that involves a machine, tool, or hands-on practical knowledge. That includes all the knowledge required to make drinks and food and to keep the cafe clean and attractive.
On the other hand, soft skills are your personality traits and qualities. These include your attention to detail, knack for organization, and your friendly customer service skills.
Our resume builder offers several pre-written key skills to choose from, as well as the option to add your own.
Here’s what the skills box looks like in our barista resume template.
The skills section is not the only place to show off your skills, however. You should include them throughout your resume, ideally by showing them in action with examples.
For instance, in your work experience section and professional summary, highlight your
Look to the job description as a guide for key skills to include.
Many of a barista’s duties can be learned on the job, so formal education is not typically required. However, that doesn’t mean leaving the education section empty. Even if you don’t have a degree in a related field, it doesn’t hurt to show that you’ve studied or are in the process of completing your education.
This is also a great place to list training or certifications you’ve achieved. For example,
Bachelor of Marketing, Ohio State University, Columbus
August 2006 - December 2010
Just like no customer wants to drink coffee in a dirty cafe with broken chairs, no hiring manager wants to read and evaluate a disorganized resume that lacks critical information or looks like a visual catastrophe.
Your layout plays a key role in getting you hired. You’ll want to choose a resume layout that shows off why you’re a great fit for the cafe you’re applying to. That will probably mean a modern style that still conveys professionalism. For a barista resume, we recommend a design with clean lines, a modern font, and limited color.
With our field-tested resume templates, you can craft a resume that looks just right without spending hours with finicky programs and word processors.
Profile
Motivated and focused Barista with over 15 years of coffee house experience, committed to providing high-quality, personalized customer service. Adept in managing back and front-end operations, and creating exceptional coffee drinks. Strictly adhere to company standards, while treating all customers with kindness and hospitality.
Employment history
Barista at Luck Bros' Coffee House, Columbus
March 2010 - Present
Barista And Cashier at Starbucks, Columbus
September 2006 - July 2010
Skills
Education
Bachelor of Marketing, Ohio State University, Columbus
August 2006 - December 2010
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the need for food and beverage serving workers, which includes baristas, will increase 2% from 2022 to 2032, about as quickly as the average profession. This means plenty of positions will be available to you when new coffee shops open up and employees change jobs leaving vacant positions.
Large coffee shops are likely to need the most help, while an independent coffee shop may only hire for one or two positions at a time. In that case, it’s likely that they’ll be looking for someone with previous barista experience who has a passion for the craft of coffee.
Most baristas are paid an hourly wage. According to the BLS, the median hourly rate for food and beverage workers is $14.29.
Some baristas may earn tips on top of their hourly rate, although this is less common for baristas than for restaurant workers or bartenders.
Positions in food and beverage serving, including baristas, are projected to grow by 2% over the next decade. Coffee chains are looking for teachable employees, while independent cafes often hire baristas with a passion for coffee and previous coffee experience. Your barista resume should reflect your prior experience, skills, and education. If this is your first barista position, try drawing parallels between other types of work and the qualities of a top-notch barista.
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