Bartender CV example – Microsoft Word CV template

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7 common mistakes to avoid on your Bartender CV

With so many applications to choose from the hiring manager is often spoilt for choice. If they come across a CV that has a mistake it will usually result in an instant rejection. Why choose a candidate that can’t even provide an error free CV?

We want you to succeed and make a great first impression. Read on to find out what the 7 most common CV mistakes are and how you can avoid them.

Spelling and grammar

“If you can’t take the time and care to ensure your CV is error free, why would I believe you’d take any more care working for me?”

The most obvious and also most annoying mistake is down to poor spelling and grammar. The employer will be guaranteed to receive at least one or more applications with this kind of error and it just isn’t acceptable any more.

There are so many fail safes to stop this mistake from happening – spell checker, Grammarly, another pair of eyes, and your own pair of diligent eyes. Under no circumstances should your CV contain a spelling or grammatical mistake if you want to get an interview. It is likely to result in instant rejection, even if spelling isn’t important to the job. The worst part is that you could continue to keep sending your CV to prospective employers and never know why you failed at the first hurdle.

See: The top 10 spelling mistakes jobseekers make on their CV

No indication of performance

There are two things an employer wants to see from a CV. The first is the matching of the skills and experience they’ve requested in the job advert. The second is how well you’ve performed in your previous roles. This is just as important as the first one, which means you need to inject some results and achievements into your CV.

TIP: Did you have great ideas that were used in a past role to bring in more customers and/or drive sales? We’ve included a special ideas section just for these!

Let’s face it, anyone can list lots of skills and tasks from their previous roles – but that doesn’t mean to say they are actually good at their job. It’s up to the job seeker to prove it to the employer through their CV. Now this can be quite tricky, but that doesn’t mean to say you shouldn’t give it a shot.

Provide lots of examples of your performance by any means necessary. One of the best ways to do this is to include your results within statements. This brings us onto our next tip!

Back up your cliché statements

It’s no use telling the employer how great you are. Instead, you should show them! You have to write a bartender CV that is credible and believable. Making bold claims like, ‘I work well on my own and within a team’ is not going to cut it. The employer wants to see a proven track record and that you are able to put your skills into action and get the job done.

Our advice would be to avoid these kind of cliché statements altogether and focus solely on providing your results and achievements. This type of approach will dramatically increase your chances of getting an interview.

Examples of achievements for a bartender CV:

• Introducing new drinks which sold well
• Reorganising the bar area to increase efficiency
• Reducing operating costs
• Increasing customer base
• Handling tricky situations e.g. angry customers
• Serving a large number of customers in a short period whilst retaining service quality
• Creating successful promotions
• Improving a process

In all of the above cases, be specific. Don’t say, “I introduced a new drink which sold well.” What drink was it? How much did it sell? Over what period? Was it particularly profitable? How does this compare with other drink sales or the bar’s typical turnover? For example:

“I created a new cocktail named Saturday Nights, which had a 70% profit margin. I designed a promotion for this and launched it on a Saturday night. Sales for that drink were £2,000 on launch night, which was £2,000 more than we typically took for the night.”

Too many embellishments

If you embellish a lot on your CV or even tell a lie, you are likely to get caught out at some stage. You may make it through to the interview, but when questioned about your past you would struggle to back up your claims. The employer is well aware that the CV writer is biased, and will ask very probing and difficult questions to see if the truth holds up.

Our advice would be to stay positive and confident in your own skill set and don’t embellish or lie about your history. As soon as you’re caught out the journey will end – even if you’ve been hired. The company is well within their rights to fire you if they find out you lied about something on your CV. If you feel you are lacking in any skills or qualifications, then go out and attain them.

Poor presentation

Not only does your bartender CV need to impress with your skills and experience, it also needs to look good. Presentation is as important as what you have to offer, and as a minimum your CV needs to be clean, professional, and easy to navigate.

Of course, we’d always recommend using a CV template instead of creating your own. Constructing a CV from scratch is very difficult and time consuming. Your time could be better spent on the content of your application, and not worrying and stressing over how to make it look good.

There are lots of free downloadable CV templates to choose from online, but not every CV template website focuses on giving the user the best experience. Use your keen eye to spot which site has quality CV templates, and choose what that suits your needs. There’s no need to pay – click here to view our full collection of free CV templates.

Being generic

When writing a bartender CV it is easy to assume that you should list everything you have achieved. All your qualifications and skills need to be jotted down so the employer can see how amazing you are. But unfortunately this is a bad idea and will likely result in rejection.

Does an employer looking to recruit a bartender really want to read about your entire career history? Are they interested in your ability to work in McDonald’s drive through or to answer phones for the local cab firm? No, of course not. They want you to explain to them through your CV why you are the right person for the job. This means you need to write a bartender CV that is specifically tailored to their company and the role on offer. If you have limited relevant experience, pick out the skills from past roles that are transferable (such as great communication and teamwork), and make sure you offer more detail for the roles that are relevant.

Writing a focused CV does mean you need to start over for each and every job you apply for. Every company is different, and although the roles may be similar, you still need to customise your CV to what the target employer is looking for specifically.

A lack of career progression

Unless you are applying for an entry level position fresh out of education, the employer will be interested in what experience you hold. They may favour someone with more experience than a highly qualified individual with none, so don’t underestimate your career goals and progression.

Your work history section should contain no gaps and ideally avoid examples of job hopping. If you don’t stick around very long and keep moving from one job to the next, the employer will assume you will just do the same with them. Unless otherwise stated, they are looking for someone who will be with them for years and make a commitment. When it comes to employment gaps this is something you can consider now to try and prevent for the future. But if you do have a few gaps right now, then you should look to plug them.

If you were away from work because of personal health reasons, or took a gap year to travel the world – then talk about it on your CV. You can go into as much detail as you want, as long as you plug the gap. If you don’t, the employer will just make up their own assumptions – and likely, none of them will be good!

New to bar tending? Get a foot in the door with a qualification such as a City and Guilds award in Professional Bartending.

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