Restaurant Management Resume

What to Put in Your Restaurant Management Resume?

If you’re interested in a restaurant or hospitality management career, you’ll need to come up with a resume for all your job search needs.

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to enter the field with years of hands-on experience, or if you have a restaurant management degree and are going on your first job search—employers are looking for certain key characteristics that will set you apart as a leader in your field.

Your Career Objective and Goals

Take some time to clarify what it is you hope to get out of your restaurant management career. For some, this might be to put a culinary degree to use at the mid-management level; for others, it might have more to do with using years of customer service experience in a restaurant setting.

Whenever you are considering a career at the management level, employers are looking for candidates who look ahead to the future five, ten, or even fifteen years—and all within the same organization.

Your Education

If you have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in restaurant management or hospitality management, put this close to the top of your resume. That’s because when you attend an accredited and recognized program, you will most likely gain an edge over others interested in the position.

Other degrees can also help improve your chances. For example, a culinary degree can prove your commitment and experience in the kitchen, and a general business degree can demonstrate your ability to work well with the accounting and administration aspects of restaurant management.

Your Experience

Although an education is important, there is no substitute for hands-on work experience in the field. This doesn’t mean you have to have spent years training as a sous chef in a kitchen or worked your way up through the ranks.

In many cases, the internship you completed for school or any experience related to business management, customer service, and hospitality will count. Highlight your specific successes and job responsibilities as they relate to the restaurant industry.

Your Skills

Restaurant management positions draw on many different types of skills—not all of which are directly related to working in the industry. Things like accounting, office administration, customer service, human resources, conflict management, inventory control, and marketing can all be counted as skills that will help you excel in the field, even if these skills were acquired in a different industry.

One of the reasons restaurant and hospitality management makes such a great lifelong career is that there are so many different aspects of the industry that you can focus on. Whether you’re more interested in the cooking side of things, customer service, or business management, your unique skills and experience can translate to an incredible future.

 

Read, Read and Read Some More

One of the best suggestions I have for anyone thinking of going to culinary school or just getting into the restaurant industry is to read everything you can get your hands on. Learn from professional chefs who have worked in the industry and those who have taught in culinary schools.

There are many great books available to get you started in your culinary education and I suggest you read as much as possible before making that big decision to make sure this is the right move for you. Below is just a sample of books you might be interested in checking out.

For a much more comprehensive list of books for aspiring culinary, baking and restaurant management students, I suggest checking out my post on books for future culinary students and chefs.