The short answer
A good hospitality CV shows a manager you can work as part of a team when it’s busy, look after customers, follow instructions and notice details. Experience from outside hospitality counts if you describe the parts that match. Be clear about when you can work, and only list a food hygiene certificate if you really have one.
Meet Ffion
Ffion Davies is fictional, but plenty of students are in exactly her position. She’s 19, in her first year studying Geography at university in Cardiff, and wants 12 to 16 hours a week at a busy independent café near campus.
She has had one paid job: two summers as a play assistant at a children’s holiday club in her home town. She’s also helped run the refreshments stall at her village’s summer fair, and she’s kit secretary for her university netball club. She has never made a coffee for a paying customer.
What the job may involve
The National Careers Service profile for waiting staff lists greeting customers, taking orders, answering questions about the menu, serving food and drinks, taking payment, clearing tables and dealing with complaints. It describes the work as often hot, humid and noisy, and says you can apply without experience because training happens on the job. Cafés vary: some want you on the coffee machine within a week, some keep new staff on front of house first. The advert usually tells you which.
The skills that matter, and why
- Working with others. A café at lunchtime only works if everyone knows who’s doing what. Managers want people who communicate during a rush, not after it.
- Helping customers. Getting an order right, being patient with someone who’s unsure, and passing on a problem before it grows.
- Attention to detail. Allergies, table numbers, a milk swap, a clean counter. Small things matter a lot in food service.
- Managing busy moments. Staying calm and doing the next sensible thing when the queue is out of the door.
- Following instructions. Every kitchen has its own way of doing things, often for food safety reasons. Doing it their way, even when you’d do it differently, matters.
Ffion’s holiday club job covers most of these, because looking after 30 children at lunchtime is a busy, rule-heavy, detail-heavy job. The trick is describing it that way.
The full CV
Ffion Davies
Café and restaurant team member · Cardiff
07700 900562 | ffion.davies@example.com | Cardiff
Profile 1
First-year Geography student at Cardiff University looking for part-time café work. I’ve spent two summers as a paid play assistant at a busy children’s holiday club, where I learned to follow safety routines, keep track of lots of small details and stay calm when everything happens at once. I’m used to early starts and I like being part of a team that’s always moving.
Availability 2
Up to 16 hours a week in term time: Monday and Thursday all day, Saturday and Sunday. More hours over Christmas, Easter and summer breaks.
Experience
Play Assistant, Little Oaks Holiday Club, AbergavennySummers 2024 and 2025 3
- Helped supervise groups of up to 30 children aged 5 to 11, following the club’s safety and sign-out routines every day.
- Set up and cleared lunch for the group, checking each child’s allergy list against what they’d brought. 4
- Worked as part of a team of five, swapping tasks during the day so the busiest activities always had enough adults.
- Talked to parents at pick-up, passing on messages and any problems to the club manager. 5
Volunteer, Llanfoist Summer Fair refreshments stallJuly 2024 and July 2025 6
- Helped organise refreshments at the fair, welcomed visitors and kept the serving area clean and organised.
- Served teas, coffees and cakes during the afternoon rush with two other volunteers.
Education
Cardiff University2025 to 2028
- BSc Geography (first year)
Usk Valley High School2018 to 2025
- A levels: Geography (B), English Literature (B), Biology (C)
Also 7
- Kit secretary, Cardiff University netball club: keep track of the club’s kit and hand it out before every match.
- Welsh speaker (conversational).
What each part is doing
Profile. It names her situation (student, part-time), the job she wants and the part of her experience that matches hospitality: routines, details and busy moments. No claim about coffee or food she can’t back up.
Back to the CVAvailability. For students, this is often the deciding line. Specific days are more useful than “flexible”. Only offer hours you can keep alongside your course.
Back to the CVPaid work in another sector. The title and dates are factual. The bullets are where she translates the job: each one describes something a café also needs.
Back to the CVAttention to detail with a real stake. Checking allergy lists is genuinely close to food service. She describes what she did; she doesn’t claim food safety training she hasn’t had.
Back to the CVCustomer contact. Parents at pick-up were, in effect, her customers. “Passing problems to the manager” shows she knows when to ask for help, which managers value in new starters.
Back to the CVVolunteering that’s directly relevant. A refreshments stall is the closest thing she has to café work, so it gets its own entry, even though it was only two afternoons. Short is fine if it’s honest.
Back to the CVExtras that earn their place. Looking after kit shows she’s organised and trusted. Welsh can be genuinely useful for customer-facing work in Wales. Hobbies with nothing to say were left off.
Back to the CV
What about a food hygiene certificate?
Ffion doesn’t have one, so it isn’t on her CV. That’s the right call.
Here’s what’s worth knowing. Food hygiene certificates (often “Level 2 Food Hygiene” or “Food Safety Level 2”) are short courses about handling food safely. Durham County Council’s guidance, which reflects the general UK position, says food handlers don’t necessarily have to hold a certificate to prepare or sell food, but businesses must make sure staff are properly supervised and instructed or trained. Many employers arrange this training themselves after you start.
It depends on the employer
Some adverts list a food hygiene certificate as “desirable” or “essential”. If it’s desirable, apply anyway and say you’re happy to complete training. If it’s essential, it’s reasonable to ask the employer whether they’d provide it. Never list a certificate you haven’t completed. It’s easy to check, and it matters for safety.
The personal statement
Before
Bubbly, hard-working student who loves people and is passionate about hospitality.
After
First-year Geography student looking for part-time café work. I’ve spent two summers as a paid play assistant at a busy children’s holiday club, where I learned to follow safety routines, keep track of lots of small details and stay calm when everything happens at once.
Why it works “Passionate about hospitality” is hard to believe from someone who hasn’t worked in it. The stronger version gives the manager a real reason to think she’ll cope with a Saturday rush.
Weaker and stronger experience lines
Before
Looked after children at a holiday club.
After
Helped supervise groups of up to 30 children aged 5 to 11, following the club’s safety and sign-out routines every day.
Why it works The first sounds like babysitting. The second shows scale, responsibility and following procedures, which is exactly what a kitchen or café will ask of her.
Before
Helped at the summer fair.
After
Helped organise refreshments at the fair, welcomed visitors and kept the serving area clean and organised.
Why it works “Helped” hides everything useful. Welcoming people and keeping a serving area clean are core café tasks, so say them.
Before
Excellent attention to detail.
After
Set up and cleared lunch for the group, checking each child’s allergy list against what they’d brought.
Why it works Anyone can claim attention to detail. One concrete, careful task proves it, and allergies are something hospitality managers take very seriously.
If you’ve got no formal experience at all
Ffion had a paid job. If you haven’t, hospitality managers will still look for the same things. Think about:
- Times you served or hosted: a school event, a family party, a club social, a charity coffee morning.
- Times you followed a routine carefully: a lab practical, a first aid course, a care rota at home, a kitchen at home where someone has an allergy.
- Times you worked fast with others: a sports team, a group performance, a busy event.
Write each as what you did and what came of it. If your list is thin, put availability and a short skills section near the top and keep the CV to one page.
Tailoring it to the advert
Café adverts often mix essentials with personality. Look for:
- Shift patterns. Early starts, weekends, closing shifts. Match your availability line to what they actually need, honestly.
- Specific tasks. If the advert mentions coffee, say whether you’ve made it before. If you haven’t, say you’re keen to learn. Don’t hint that you’re a barista.
- What they care about. An independent café that talks about “regulars” and “community” will value your welcoming-people examples. A high-volume chain may care more about speed and following procedures. Order your bullets to match.
Our lesson on reading a job description shows how to separate essential from desirable in any advert.
Try
Rewrite one busy moment
Pick one time things got hectic: an event, a shift, a family gathering, a match day. You’re going to describe it the way a café manager would want to read it.
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Getting ready for the interview
Hospitality interviews often include a short trial shift as well as questions like how you’d deal with an unhappy customer. Practise in the Practice Room (choose Hospitality), and read common interview questions with worked answers.
Ready to turn what you’ve learned into your own CV?
CVBUFFED lets you put availability, experience and education in the order that suits you, with a prompt and an example for each part. It never adds anything you didn’t write. £12.50 once, no subscription, and your CV stays in your browser.
Build my CVSources and further reading
- Waiter or waitress job profile National Careers Service
- Food safety training Durham County Council
- CV sections National Careers Service
Checked against these sources on 14 November 2026. Rules and rates change: if something here looks out of date, tell us at hello@cvbuffed.com. How we check our guidance.