How to Write a Standout Restaurant Manager Resume [With Free Template]

Despite knowing how to upsell food to hungry diners, so many restaurant managers and servers don’t know how to sell themselves.

No matter how comfortable or complacent you are in your current role, creating a standout resume is a skill that all restaurant managers need to perfect if they want to grow their career in the restaurant industry.

Of all restaurant positions, food and beverage managers and GMs have the most to lose from an unprofessional resume. With just a few resources and tips, we’ll help you create a truly impressive restaurant manager resume that’s sure to stand out.

This free resume template features sample copy and design, which will help you get a head start on the most difficult part of creating a resume. Take a look at it, and then use the advice below to customize your resume so it stands out in the stack.

Download a free restaurant manager resume template here.

Know the Restaurant You’re Applying To

Every resume should be tailor-made for the restaurant you’re applying for. Once you know your target audience – whether it’s a fast casual pizza place or a fine dining Italian bistro – all other decisions will fall into place.

Ask yourself questions like:

• Is the job purely about managing a team, or will it require both cooking chops and customer service chops?
• Will you be required to run all pre-shift meetings and make sure every server or cashier is on their game?
• Who is the employer – a franchisee, a career-switcher hoping to make a name for themselves, or a chef/owner who simply loves food?

Once you’ve outlined what’s most important to the restaurant and the job you’re applying for, you can carefully target your resume. You’ll know what skills or traits to highlight, what stories to mention, and which parts of your background will be most interesting.

Define What Sets You Apart 

Great restaurant resumes stand out because they’re different. To stand out, you need a one or two sentence value proposition that tell the owner exactly what skills, characteristics, and experiences you have that set you apart from the rest of the resumes in the stack.

Is it your ability to be the eyes on the ears in the front of the house and the back of the house? Is it your unique approach to creating a restaurant culture where every employee feels acknowledged and appreciated? Or perhaps it’s your unique approach to employee gamification to retain staff?  

To a large extent, your value proposition depends on the type of restaurant you’re targeting. Quick service restaurants, full service restaurants, and pizzerias often look for completely different skill sets. Think about what makes you uniquely valuable, and how that aligns with the jobs you’re applying to.

Determine Your Restaurant Resume Strategy

It’s crucial to determine your messaging strategy before you write a single word of your resume. Here are some of the things to think about:

• What is the best structure for your resume in order to highlight your unique skills?
• Which keywords will the restaurant owner be looking for?
• How can you give real world examples of your successes? (Think about marketing campaigns you’ve run for past restaurants, employee management strategies you’ve tried, or any time you’ve influenced big decisions such as which restaurant POS system to implement.)
• What is the best layout and design to reinforce your message?

All these decisions should be made before you start writing, and they should all be made with your target restaurant in mind.

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