5 skills and tips to improve your restaurant manager resume

Last updated: February 11, 2025
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Eleana Bowman
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5 skills and tips to improve your restaurant manager resume
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You’ve been working in the restaurant industry for years and believe it’s time to advance into restaurant management. To do that, you’ll need a top-notch resume that’ll help you land the job!

In this article, we’ll take a look at what a restaurant manager is, walk you through an example of a restaurant manager resume, and share five essential tips for making your resume stand out from the crowd.

What is a restaurant manager?

Restaurant managers oversee the daily operations of a restaurant. This includes scheduling staff hours and assigning duties, ensuring customers are satisfied with their experience, budgeting, and maintaining stock.

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No two days are the same for a restaurant general manager, as new customers and employees keep things ever-changing. If you’re someone who thrives in fast paced, customer service positions, this is the career for you.

Other duties include:

  • Hiring and training new employees

  • Ordering food and beverages, equipment, and supplies

  • Monitoring food quality

  • Making sure employees follow food safety procedures

  • Addressing customer complaints

  • Budget management

  • Overseeing the dining room

With that said, every restaurant manager will juggle a variety of tasks depending on where they work.

Why you should customize your restaurant manager resume

When writing your resume, it’s important to customize it to the job you’re applying for.

For a restaurant manager job, a good resume will include a mix of hard and soft skills. Your customer service skills are equally as important as your ability to manage a budget.

If you’re applying for a manager position, you'll likely have a stellar work history. Showcasing relevant skills and backing that up with accomplishments is sure to get you an interview.

If you don’t have as much food service experience, try to tailor your experience to the job. You can do this by highlighting tasks you’ve done at your former job that are transferable.

For example, if you were a cashier at a convenience store, highlight those customer service and money-handling skills.

You should also customize your education section. If you’ve gone beyond getting a high school diploma, let recruiters know. Hospitality management courses are especially valuable.

Restaurant manager resume example

This is an excellent restaurant manager resume template that showcases the applicant’s experience and skillset.

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The resume starts by showcasing the candidate's years of experience managing a five-star restaurant. This captures the hiring manager's attention right away, prompting them to continue reading.

The experience section shows, with data, how the candidate succeeded at their job. For example, they consistently exceeded sales goals by a minimum of 10% by training staff on upselling.

Lastly, there’s a skills section showing both soft and hard skills relevant to the job.

5 restaurant manager resume tips

Here are five tips to get your resume ready to go.

1. Include a summary statement

Every resume should begin with a summary statement.

A summary statement is your chance to make a good impression. You want to share what makes you an excellent candidate, whether that be your past work experience, certifications, or even your skillset.

You want to pique the recruiter’s interest enough so that they will want to read the rest of your resume.

2. Showcase both hard and soft skills

For anyone in customer service, your soft skills are equally as important as your hard skills.

That means highlight your communication skills, problem-solving, and leadership abilities as much as you show off your ability to manage budgets.

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Your resume needs to have a blend of both.

Your soft skills show off your interpersonal skills that rely on emotional intelligence. Your hard skills should show that you’re able to do things like run restaurant machinery and equipment.

3. Speak about your leadership capabilities

A manager oversees restaurant operations. That involves managing a long list of people, including kitchen staff. Ultimately, the success of the restaurant depends on your ability to lead.

Show off your ability to hire and train employees. This is where you want to bring up things like employee retention rates, successful recruitment initiatives, and training programs you’ve developed.

4. Consider the bottom line

Prioritizing customer satisfaction isn’t the only thing a manager does. There’s the bottom line to consider.

Recruiters want to know that you can manage profit margins and that you’re aware of things that affect profitability, like inventory, food waste, and labor costs.

If you increased the profit margins of a menu item by changing suppliers, that’s something you should have on your professional resume.

5. Think about keywords

Did you know that 75% of resumes are never read by a recruiter?

Many organizations use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to sift through the hundreds of resumes they receive. These systems look at keywords to eliminate unqualified candidates.

When writing your resume, be conscious of keywords. Use language that’s listed in the job description when writing your resume.

Restaurant manager jobs hiring today

A carefully written resume is sure to accelerate your job search. Consider applying for one of the hundreds of restaurant manager jobs hiring across the country.

Find restaurant manager jobs on Jobcase today!

Land your dream restaurant manager job

A perfect resume and cover letter are sure to get you interviews.

Get the recruiter interested with a convincing summary statement and drive it home with your experience and skills.

You can find more tips for restaurant managers looking for a job by visiting our Getting Hired Resource Center.

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