Restaurant manager CV example (2026)

Writing the CV for the restaurant manager role

Start your CV with the type of venue, the number of staff and the turnover you were responsible for. Then put your hospitality diplomas. That way the reader sees the scale of your responsibility in the first lines. The Sociale Hygiëne (Social Hygiene) certificate, required in the Netherlands for serving alcohol, is one of them.

In this role you plan staff, keep costs under control and look after guests. The type of venue, the turnover and the number of staff are points you can name concretely, if you may share those figures. Put them with your roles.

What you do in this role

A hospitality manager makes the staff rota, checks turnover and stock, and adjusts purchasing. The manager also trains new colleagues, handles complaints and works on the floor during busy services. Sometimes drawing up the menu with the chef is part of the role too.

Keep the CV to one or two pages.

How your CV matches the advert

Read the advert and note the type of venue, the opening hours, the staff and the diploma requirements. Put in your CV the venue closest to that description, and name your responsibility per role. That way the owner sees quickly whether your experience fits their own venue.

A hospitality manager works with planning, costs and the guest at the same time. Describe in your CV one evening or week in which you steered a busy period: what you planned, which staff you deployed and what you changed afterwards. That shows how you work, and is easier to discuss than the word managerial.

Check the names of venues, the opening hours and the diplomas. Read your CV aloud and cut sentences you cannot explain. A short, concrete CV with the type of venue and one clear responsibility is stronger than a long CV with general terms.

Guests judge a venue on atmosphere and speed of service. Describe in your CV how you monitored those two, for example through a fixed check during the service or through guest feedback. That description shows you look at the venue from outside as well as inside.

A team works better when the rota is set in advance and responsibilities per shift are clear. Describe in your CV how you made the rota and how you arranged the handover between shifts. That makes visible how you organise the venue.

A venue has a rhythm of preparation, service and closing, and the hospitality manager oversees that rhythm. Describe in your CV how you organised opening and closing, for example with a fixed checklist and a handover to the next team. That shows you run the venue structurally, not only during the busy moments.

Which layout suits the restaurant manager CV

Choose one column, clear headings and a standard font. Tables and text boxes can cause errors when software reads a CV.

Use a spacious, calm single-column layout. Put your management experience and your hospitality diplomas at the top. Keep job descriptions concrete, with staff numbers and turnover where you know them. Use a fixed order per role: venue, position, period, responsibilities.

The example on this page uses a more eye-catching layout. Applying through an applicant tracking system? Then choose a template with one column and the ATS label.

Save your CV as a PDF with a recognisable file name, such as firstname-surname-cv.pdf.

What to put on the restaurant manager CV

Every CV contains at least your contact details, your work experience with dates, your education and certificates, and your skills and languages.

Name the type of venue, the number of staff, the opening hours and the turnover you were accountable for. Mention your staff planning, your cost control and your work with a point-of-sale system such as Lightspeed. Include your diplomas, such as Sociale Hygiëne and your alcohol certificate, and your language level. Name your experience with purchasing and stock management, if you have it.

Put your name at the top, with your town, email address and phone number. Your citizen service number (BSN), date of birth or marital status do not need to be on your CV.

Profile text: example (good and weak)

Below are two profile texts for the restaurant manager, both written for a fictional person. You can copy the structure.

Restaurant manager with seven years of experience in city-centre restaurants and terraces. I lead teams of twenty staff, keep costs under control and make sure guests come back. I plan shifts, handle purchasing and stock, and train new colleagues. I am looking for an independent role in a restaurant group with room to refine the concept.

Hospitality manager with eight years of experience in restaurants and cafés, responsible for a venue with thirty staff for the last four years. I plan the shifts, safeguard staff costs and update the turnover figures every week. I work on the floor myself during busy evenings and train new colleagues. I am looking for a venue where hospitality and cost control go together.

The first example names the venue, the number of staff and the responsibility. The second names the years, the tasks and what the candidate is looking for. The weak version says you love the industry, but not what you did. Figures and tasks say more than a personality trait.

Weak version: “I am an enthusiastic hospitality manager who loves the industry, gets on well with people and always puts the guest first.”

A profile text is short: four or five sentences. Write in the first person and say what you do, what you are good at and what you are looking for.

Making your work experience stand out

The example bullet points below belong to a fictional example CV. The figures are illustrative: use only your own figures, and only if they are accurate.

Start each bullet with an action word and state the result, not only the task.

• Ultimately responsible for a restaurant with forty seats and a terrace of fifty, with a team of thirty staff.
• Drew up the weekly staff rota, with cover per shift and a fixed budget for wage costs.
• Weekly turnover and stock check in the point-of-sale system, with purchasing adjusted where there were deviations.
• New colleagues trained according to a fixed two-week schedule.
• Guest complaints handled using a fixed procedure, with the complaints turning into returning guests.
• Seasonal menu compiled together with the head chef, including the cost price per dish.

For each job, give the job title, employer, place and period, and put your current job at the top.

No work experience?

Have no management experience yet? A role as a shift leader, a permanent position in which you led a team, or a placement in a large venue counts. Describe what you did: running a shift, checking the till or planning a team. A hospitality course with a placement in a management role shows that you know the trade.

Action words for your CV

Action words make your work concrete. A few that work well on a CV:

• Organised
• Supervised
• Improved
• Monitored
• Planned
• Recorded
• Consulted
• Delivered
• Coordinated
• Ensured

Use each word only once per job, and only if it matches your work.

Education on your CV

Put your mbo (senior secondary vocational education) course in hospitality or hotel management at the top, with the level, the school and the year. A business studies course or a management course goes in the same section. Name a placement in a restaurant or hotel with the venue name, if you are allowed to share it.

List older education more briefly, so that recent work gets more space.

Skills on the restaurant manager CV

Hard skills

• Staff scheduling
• Cost control
• Hospitality
• Till systems (Lightspeed)

Soft skills

• Leading a team during a busy shift
• Staying hospitable when handling complaints
• Planning and prioritising under time pressure
• Making clear agreements with staff
• Working cost-consciously without affecting the guest

Show leadership with a situation: an evening when you guided the team through a peak, or a complaint you turned around. That makes the quality credible, and the reader can ask about it in an interview.

Choose five to eight hard skills that you currently use.

Give an example from your work for Staff scheduling, Cost control, Hospitality and Till systems (Lightspeed).

Certificates, languages and hobbies

For hospitality, the Sociale Hygiëne (Social Hygiene) diploma and an alcohol certificate are the relevant certificates. State the course name, the institution and the year. A hygiene or food safety course goes in too, and a management training if you have one. Name a certificate for a specific point-of-sale system with the year. Leave out expired certificates.

Put a certificate on your CV if it fits the role.

• Social Hygiene certificate (Horeca Opleidingen, 2017)

Languages in this example: Dutch (moedertaal), English (vloeiend), German (basis).

Example restaurant manager CV

This is how the example looks in a real template. It is a starting point: take over the structure, not the text.

The fictional candidate is called Sophie van Dijk and lives in Groningen. The example carries the headline: Restaurant manager · dining room and terrace.

Common mistakes on the restaurant manager CV

• Not stating the number of covers, the turnover or the number of staff. Without those figures the responsibility cannot be checked.
• Only writing “hospitality” without an example.
• Not mentioning the Sociale Hygiëne diploma if you served alcohol.
• Not giving periods for your roles. Then it is not visible how long you worked at each venue.
• Not naming the type of venue. A snack bar, a café and a fine-dining restaurant call for different profiles.

Check the names of the venues and the opening hours. A wrong name or a wrong year is spotted quickly.

Key points

• Put the number of seats, the number of staff and the turnover in your role description, if you may share those numbers.
• Show how you made the rota, for example with staff costs as a percentage of turnover.
• Put your Sociale Hygiëne diploma and your alcohol certificate at the top, with the year.
• Name one guest or staff situation you handled well, such as a complaint you turned into a returning guest.

Read your CV aloud before you send it.