A good hospitality CV is short and specific. Keep it to one or two pages, put your most recent job first, and show what you did with numbers: covers, tables, sections. Managers skim, so make the important facts easy to find.
What should a hospitality CV include?
- 1Contact details: name, phone number, email and the area you live in.
- 2A short summary of two or three sentences.
- 3Work experience: most recent first, with the month and year you started and finished.
- 4Skills and certificates: POS systems, languages, food safety, barista or wine courses.
- 5References: two former managers, with phone numbers.
Leave out your ID number. An employer who needs it for checks will ask.
How do you write a hospitality CV summary?
Say what you do, where, and for how long:
Waiter with three years in busy Cape Town restaurants, including two years on a 150-cover floor. Confident with wine service, POS systems and large groups.
Skip "passionate team player". A manager can't check it.
How do you describe hospitality work experience?
Write what you did, not just your job title. Use numbers where you can.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Served guests | Ran a 6-table section on 120-cover nights |
| Worked the bar | Made cocktails on a busy Friday bar, three deep |
| Helped in the kitchen | Ran the cold section for 80 covers at lunch |
For each job, give the venue, your role, and start and end dates with the month. "Mar 2023 to Jan 2025" is clearer than "2023 to 2025".
Who should you use as a reference?
Managers or head chefs who supervised you. Ask them first, and give their current phone number.
Common hospitality CV mistakes
- More than two pages.
- Dates without months, or gaps you don't explain.
- Spelling mistakes. Attention to detail is part of the job.
- The same CV for every job. Put the most relevant experience first.
When you apply to HirePro, you upload your CV and we use it to build your profile. Once approved, you also get a branded HirePro CV.
