With lots of competition to become a barista, it’s never been more important to make sure your resume stands out from the crowd. As more and more coffee shops open, café owners are looking for expert staff, and with hundreds of people often applying for just a few jobs, how do you make sure your resume is seen?

To help you, below is a comprehensive guide to writing the perfect barista resume. 

Don’t forget that once you’ve completed your resume you can upload it at Meet Your Barista for prospective employers to find. Alternatively, you can generate a resume on Meet Your Barista and submit it for potential employers to see.

Keep reading for everything you need to know – as well as a barista resume example that you can download and tailor to your needs.

If you’ve never been a barista before our essential tips to becoming a barista will help you.

Your barista resume – skills that you will need to highlight

For a comprehensive list of the skills you’ll need to become a successful barista, see our Barista Job Description article [link]. Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about what skills you need to progress your barista career, and what the job entails.

To be a successful senior barista or café manager, you will need a good combination of both hard and soft skills. In this section, we’ll look at the skills you will need. Later, we’ll look at how you structure your resume to showcase these skills.

Good customer service

Even if you’re a shop manager, it is still a customer-facing role. So, one of the key skills you’ll need to have is the ability to provide excellent customer service. You’ll also have to ensure your team maintain the same high standards.

You’ll need to be approachable and friendly, enthusiastic and polite, and have a positive attitude to your work. You’ll need to have good interpersonal skills and be able to deal with complaints and issues professionally.

Ability to carry out multiple tasks at once

The work of a senior barista is hugely varied. Whether you’re conducting a staff review, cleaning, or ordering stock, there’s always lots to do!

With so much going on, it’s good if you’re a capable multi-tasker. You might be supervising a busy lunchtime, while ensuring your counter is stocked and training a new starter.

It’s important that you can do several things at once, and handle the pressure and stress of a busy workplace.

Working as a team

A coffee shop is often a fast-paced environment. Supervising your team is therefore crucial, and so people management and communication skills are important.

If you and your team work well together then your customers will appreciate your efforts. Staying calm and ensuring you’re always communicating with one another will help your day go smoothly.

Ability to handle responsibility

To progress you career you’ll need to demonstrate that you can handle additional responsibility. 

You can show this by being a dependable and reliable team member. Always arrive on time looking professional. Watch and learn additional skills and show your bosses that you can follow instructions. And, volunteer for additional tasks to show that you’re enthusiastic and that you’re willing to take on more important jobs.

Technical skills

As a senior barista you should be experienced in making a wide range of drinks. Technical skills are important as you serve customers, and you’ll also have to train your staff in these techniques.

If you’re looking to develop your career you’ll need some technical skills. These may not just be in making drinks, but also in speciality coffees, health and safety, and latte art.

What to include in your barista resume

OK. So you’re going for a barista job and you need to know what you include in your resume. There’s an example resume for you to download and adapt below, but if you’re creating your barista resume here are the elements you should include.

A summary

Employers may see tens or even thousands of resumes in a year. So, how do you make an impression and ensure that your resume really catches their eye?

One way is to start with a short summary of your skills and experience. If you have prior barista experience then using a summary immediately gives an employer some solid reasons to hire you.

Here’s an example:

“Enthusiastic and reliable barista with 3 years’ experience in a busy coffee shop environment. Achieved 97.6% customer satisfaction rating, and four ‘Employee of the Month’ awards. Seeking to advance career in a growing team at the Coffee Café.”

This immediately shows that you have experience and that you have been successful in your current role. It also gives a good reason why you’re interested in the new job.

If you have no previous barista experience, you can still write an excellent and relevant summary:

“Friendly customer service professional with 2 years’ experience working in busy fast-food restaurant. Working as part of a successful team, I achieved promotion to Shift Manager and I now want to specialise in coffee by formally training as a barista.”

Here, you’re highlighting some of the key skills that a barista needs. You have also outlined your ambition and that you are capable of taking on extra responsibility.

Your skills and achievements

After your summary, you should outline all your relevant skills and achievements. 

Your skills and achievements can be in bullet point form, and give you an opportunity to showcase all the reasons that you should be a good barista.

Examples may be:

• 5 years’ barista experience in several busy and popular coffee shops
• A degree in restaurant management
• Professional qualifications
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Punctual and professional
• Achieved 98.7% customer service rating
• Won company’s Employee of the Month
• Ambitious and looking to progress into management.

Your work experience

You should then outline your work experience.

• 2015 – present

Senior Barista, Joe’s Café

Responsibilities: opening and closing café, preparing a wide range of hot and cold drinks for customers, cash handling, stock taking and replenishment, training new baristas, checking and cleaning equipment, preparing staff schedules, checking coffee quality.

• 2013 – 2015

Barista, The Bean Company

Responsibilities: serving customers, preparing hot and cold drinks, preparing snacks and food, cleaning equipment and café, customer service, end-of-day reconciliation and stock take.

If you have specific results or achievements in your current role, then make sure you include those also. Perhaps you implemented a plan that reduced waste by 21%? If you did, say so!

Finally, always make sure that any gaps in your employment history and work experience are explained.

Education

When you’ve outlined your work experience, make sure you include a summary of your education. Start with your most recent school, college or university and work backwards.

• University of Houston

Houston, TX

Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management

2004 – 2008; 3.7 GPA

• James Madison High School

Dallas, TX

2000 – 2004, 3.9 GPA

If you have completed any professional courses then it’s important that you include those. Perhaps you’ve been on a barista course? A customer service course? Are you first aid or CPR trained? Or maybe you’ve learned how to use basic computer software and can offer those skills?

Mention any classes you have taken that offer relevant skills to an employer. These may include:

• food service
• business management
• people skills
• health and safety, or first aid
• computer or IT skills.

Whatever professional courses are relevant, make sure you include them.

Personal information

You should also include some personal information in your resume. This includes:

• Full name
• Address, phone number and email address so an employer can contact you
• Any hobbies you have or activities you do in your spare time.

Important: 5 things you should make sure you avoid on your barista resume

1. Spelling and grammatical mistakes

Always check over your resume to make sure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Bad spelling and poor grammar make you look unprofessional, and give a poor first impression.

Ask a friend or family member to check over your resume in case there are mistakes you haven’t spotted.

2. Unexplained gaps in education/employment

If you took a year out during your studies, or you were out of work for a period, explain this on your resume.

Employers don’t like to see gaps in your history, so make sure you explain them.

3. Qualifications you don’t hold

While it is important that you sell yourself to an employer, don’t make up or exaggerate about your qualifications.

It’s easy for an employer to check that you’re telling the truth, and they may well ask for certificates or other proof.

4. Too much information

Your resume should be no longer than two pages of A4. So, don’t include any information that’s not relevant to the application. 

If you had a part-time job as a teenager which has no café or coffee shop link, do you really need to include it?

5. Social media links that are not relevant

Links to your Instagram account or Pinterest page are unlikely to be relevant to your job or interesting to an employer.

By all means list relevant URLs such as your professional LinkedIn page, but don’t share your personal social media accounts.

Writing a great cover letter

So, you’ve completed your resume and you’ve outlined all your unique skills and attributed that will make you stand out from other candidates. 

Now, it’s likely you’ll need to write a cover letter to accompany your resume when you send it to an employer.

This gives you the opportunity to be much more specific about the job you’re interested in and the employer you’re applying to. While your resume markets your skills and experience more generally, your cover letter can:

• showcase your motivation for wanting to join that employer
• explain more specifically how your skills fit the job you’re applying for
• help you align yourself with the employer’s ethics and values.

Your cover letter can therefore be very highly targeted to the particular role you’re interested in. If you need help, you’ll find an excellent guide here.

Download this example barista resume below, and adapt it to your needs

If you need a resume to showcase your barista skills, we’ve provided an example below. This sample resume is available for you to download in Microsoft Word format, and all you need to do is amend it with your personal details, skills and experience – completely free of charge.