10 tips and examples for writing a cashier resume

Whether you’re looking for your first job out of high school or simply seeking a change in your career, becoming a cashier can be a rewarding and engaging role if you thrive in an environment that involves people.

With no educational requirements or previous experience expected, and a median hourly wage that is 66% higher than the national minimum wage, cashiering is a promising career opportunity.

One of the best things you can do to up your chances of getting an interview for such a position is to craft the perfect cashier resume. That is exactly what this article will teach you to do.

What does a cashier resume look like?

Before we run through the seven steps to creating a great resume, let’s think about our goal for a second.

We want to land an interview for a cashier position.

How can you perfect a cashier resume with this goal in mind?

A great cashier resume:

• Has a short objective or summary section

• Is no more than one page in length

• Describes your work experience that is relevant to the job

• Shows that you have the necessary skills for the position

• Is well-designed and laid out without being overly wordy

• Includes up to date contact information recruiters can use to get in touch with you

Check out this cashier resume sample that nails all of the above points.

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Looks good, right?

So how do you make a resume like this for yourself?

How to craft the perfect cashier resume

You might have heard that it’s best practice to tailor your resume to each job you’re applying for.

Sounds time-consuming, right?

It doesn't mean you need to start from scratch every single time.

Use this process to create your cashier resume template, which you can edit for each vacant position you apply for.

1. Determine your structure

The first thing to know when it comes to resume writing is that there is more than one resume structure.

There are three main kinds of resume formats:

1. Reverse chronological: The “standard” resume style. Your work experience is the focal point of the resume and should be listed starting with your most recent job, working backward.

2. Functional: This kind of resume focuses more on your skills than your experience. It's generally best for entry-level employees who haven’t held a job before, as it’s fallen out of favor with many hiring managers.

3. Hybrid: Basically somewhere in between the two previous formats, a hybrid resume promotes your skills more than a standard resume but doesn’t ignore your work experience altogether. This is a good choice for career changers.

For this guide, we’re going to focus mostly on the reverse chronological resume format, which looks like this:

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That’s because it's the format that works best for applicant tracking systems (ATS), which are automated tools that scan your resume before a recruiter even sees it. It decides whether your application moves through to the next stage or not.

Considering that 70% of resumes don’t make it through ATS systems, this is a pretty important thing to know.

2. Review the job requirements

The best resumes are highly tailored to the job they’re targeting.

How do you do that? You spend a decent chunk of time studying the cashier job description that comes with the job.

What is a cashier job description?

Often included in the job advertisement, a cashier job description tells you what is expected of successful applicants.

It tells you what kind of duties will be required of you and allows you to:

1. Confirm whether you’re a good fit for the role (maybe the job is for a head cashier and you don’t have applicable experience, or it might be a part-time job and you need a full-time one)

2. Tailor your resume to cashier duties that are relevant to the position

The great thing here is that job ads tend to be pretty transparent about what they’re looking for.

Study the advertisement and note if it mentions duties like:

• Cash handling

• Handling of customer inquiries or customer complaints

• Bagging

• Processing of credit card transitions

• Teamwork

While this is a lot of work, it can be the difference between being an applicant and being interviewed.

Only 2-3% of applicants actually get an interview, so it's worth investing the time to make sure your application is as strong as it can possibly be.

3. Analyze how your skills and experience fit

You’ve listed the skills and experience that the hiring manager is looking for and understand the required duties.

Now, it’s time to determine how your skills and experience fit these requirements. Note that we aren’t actually writing the resume yet. Rather, we’re getting all the information prepped so we can keep our cashier’s resume clean, concise, and to the point.

It’s kind of like planning out your essay before you start writing the thing.

Here’s how to do it:

For each bullet point you’ve noted, try to identify a skill you have that matches it or some specific relevant experience.

For example, even though you mightn’t have experience as a cashier, the customer service skills you learned during your stint as a call center operator can be applied.

Or here’s another scenario:

Many roles like this require a certain degree of math skill since you’ll handle cash and balance the cash drawer daily. So, if that’s something you excelled at in school, you have a match.

4. Write your summary

Now it’s time to start writing.

We’re going to start with a summary statement, also known as a resume objective or career objective section.

A professional resume objective provides recruiters with a quick understanding of your intentions when applying for this job, your relevant experience, and what you bring to the table.

The perfect resume summary is short and sweet. It speaks more to what you have to offer than what you want out of the arrangement.

Here’s an example:

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Like every other section of your cashier resume, the summary should be customized to the job you’re applying for.

For example, if excellent customer service appears to be the number one priority of the hiring manager, then you should appeal to that need in your objective section.

5. Add an experience section

Next, we’re going to demonstrate how your experience fits the job.

This and the following section (skills section) are the two sections that really sell your ability.

If you have relevant experience as a cashier, the general rule is to focus more on your experience section than the skills.

Let’s call that the “cashier experience resume.”

If, however, you haven’t worked as a cashier before, then you’ll want to keep the experience section brief and give more space to demonstrate your applicable skills.

We’ll call that the “cashier skills resume.”

Here’s how to show cash register experience on your resume:

1. List your jobs starting with your most recent

2. Display your years of experience as a cashier

3. List out of a few of your accomplishments in the role and focus more on this than your actual duties

Your experience section should look like this:

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Don’t have experience as a cashier?

That’s okay. It doesn't mean that you should cut the work experience section out of your resume altogether.

Instead, try to find ways to tie your achievements and experience to a role as a cashier.

For example, have you handled point of sale (POS) duties before? Or maybe you’ve handled cash as a bank teller?

These are both relevant to working as a cashier, even though the experience came from a different role.

List three to five achievements, duties, or points of experience under each role, and keep things as concise as possible (remember we are trying to keep our cashier resume under a page in length).

6. List your skills

Once you’ve finished adding your relevant experience, it’s time to sort out your skills section.

This can be challenging for many job seekers.

Here are a few examples of great soft skills to include:

• Communication skills

• Computer skills

• Detail-oriented

• Team player

• Time management

Now let’s talk about some hard skills to list on your cashier resume:

• Cash handling

• Microsoft Office

• Product knowledge

• Loss prevention

• Food safety

Your skills section is best displayed as a concise list, such as in the below retail cashier resume.

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Remember that you should only list skills you actually have. If you’re not strong in a given area, that’s okay. We can’t be good at everything, but don’t lie on your resume.

7. Stand out from the crowd

At this point, we’ve covered all of the standard bases.

But we want to stand out from the crowd.

You can add a few things to your cashier resume to up your chances of securing an interview.

For example, if you’ve won an employee of the month award at a previous job, this will probably be looked upon favorably by recruiters.

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A few other things you can add to your cashier’s resume to stand out include:

• A photo of yourself

• Your interests and hobbies

• Your ability to speak another language

• Education section (which can simply show the year you graduated with your high school diploma)

• Links to social media profiles such as your LinkedIn

3 cashier resume examples to get you started

1. Cashier resume for experienced cashiers

This is a great example of a resume for someone who has a fair bit of experience working as a cashier.

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Note how the skills section is short and the resume focuses more on the applicant’s achievements and duties in previous cashier roles.

2. Cashier resume for entry-level applicants

Applying for a job as a cashier but don’t have any previous experience?

Format your resume like this, and focus on your acquired skills.

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3. Head cashier resume

If you’ve been working as a cashier for a while and you’re looking to take a step up into a position as a head cashier, then check out the following resume template.

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Time to get your cashier resume ready

Now that you’ve got all the inside secrets to crafting the perfect cashier resume, it’s time to use it in your job search.

Let’s recap the seven steps needed to create your cashier resume:

1. Determine the structure of your resume

2. Review the job requirements

3. Analyze how your skills and experience fit

4. Write your summary

5. Add an experience section

6. List out your skills

7. Include extras such as relevant awards or qualifications

Ready to get your resume out there and apply for some jobs? Check out the vacant positions on the Jobcase job board.