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Cafe associate resume examples from 2025

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Updated March 26, 2025
6 min read
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How to write a cafe associate resume

Craft a resume summary statement

A well-written resume summary is basically an elevator pitch. You are summing up your skills and experience in a few sentences to wow recruiters, hiring managers, and decision makers into giving you an interview. Here are some tips to putting your best foot first with your resume summary:

Step 1: Mention your current job title or the role you're pursuing.

Step 2: Include your years of experience in cafe associate-related roles. Consider adding relevant company and industry experience as relevant to the job listing.

Step 3: Highlight your greatest accomplishments. Here is your chance to make sure your biggest wins aren't buried in your resume.

Step 4: Again, keep it short. Your goal is to summarize your experience and highlight your accomplishments, not write a paragraph.

These four steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some cafe associate interviews.

Please upload your resume so Zippia’s job hunt AI can draft a summary statement for you.

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List the right project manager skills

Your Skills section is an easy way to let recruiters know you have the skills to do the job. Just as importantly, it can help your resume not get filtered out by hiring software. Here is how to make the most of your skills section and make sure you have the right keywords:

  1. Start with the job listing. Frequently, the keywords looked for by recruiters will be listed. Be careful to include all skills in the job listing you have experience with.
  2. Consider all the software and tools you use on a daily basis. When in doubt, list them!
  3. Make sure you use accurate and up to date terms for all the skills listed.
These five steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some cafe associate interviews.

Here are example skills to include in your “Area of Expertise” on a cafe associate resume:

  • Safety Standards
  • Food Service
  • Groceries
  • SAM
  • Dishwashers
  • Cleanliness
  • Food Handling
  • POS
  • Culinary
  • Food Orders
  • Product Knowledge
  • Safety Guidelines
  • Food Products
  • Customer Service
  • Brew
  • Display Cases
  • Excellent Guest
  • Fresh Food
  • Ice Cream
  • Customer Transactions
  • Quality Customer Service
  • Food Preparation
  • Food Safety Procedures
  • Cash Registers
  • Smoothies
  • Fryers
  • Customer Complaints
  • Hot Food
  • Coffee Drinks
  • Clean Environment

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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How to structure your work experience

Your employment history is arguably one of the most important parts of your resume. It shows you have experience and foundation in your field to successfully master the cafe associate position. Here is how to most effectively structure your work experience:

  1. List your most recent experience first, followed by earlier roles in reverse chronological order. Employers care about your most recent experience the most.
  2. Start with your job title, company name, city, and state on the left. Align dates in month and year format on the right-hand side.
  3. Include only recent, relevant jobs.

How to write cafe associate experience bullet points

Remember, your resume is not a list of responsibilities or a job description. This is your chance to show why you're good at your job and what you accomplished.

Use the XYZ formula for your work experience bullet points. Here's how it works:

  • Use strong action verbs like Led, Built, or Optimized.
  • Follow up with numbers when possible to support your results. How much did performance improve? How much revenue did you drive?
  • Wrap it up by explaining the actions you took to achieve the result and how you made an impact.

This creates bullet points that read Achieved X, measured by Y, by doing Z.

Here are effective examples from cafe associate resumes:

Work history example #1

Dishwasher/Server

Cracker Barrel

  • Washed dishes, prepared salads and desserts, and prepped and prepared side items for main entrees.
  • Cleaned tables for incoming customers, washed dishes, and maintained the kitchen free of clutter.
  • Exemplified proficiency in mathematics to operate POS terminal to ensure quality customer service while serving customers.
  • Red Lobster I was also trained as a Dishwasher and a Baked so I can help any way I can.
  • Prepared all meals and washed dishes in accordance with standards of quality, cleanliness, and presentation.

Work history example #2

Cafe Associate

White Castle Management Co.

  • Prepared food items such as hamburgers as per the established standards, Defused volatile customer situations calmly and courteously.
  • Worked as a crew member for one of the highest standard Chipotle restaurants in Indiana.
  • Aided in the closing process of cleaning up work station, taking out the trash, and washing the dishes.
  • Cleaned and stocked restaurant during closing for the next morning shift.
  • Managed drive-thru, to assist in speedy production of quality fast food products and meeting adequate standards of Burger king cooperation.

Work history example #3

Grill Cook/Prep (Part-Time)

Aramark

  • Cooked and prepared food according to recipe directions, set-up and breakdown banquet area and deli prep.
  • Worked as a First Cook, graduated to a Sous Chef.
  • Maintained effective and healthy communication between supervisors and myself.
  • Engaged in extensive verbal interaction and communication with co-workers.
  • Executed excellent verbal and written communication.

Work history example #4

Cafe Associate

Pizza Hut

  • Prepared and cut pizzas for delivery and dine-in guests, washed dishes and served customers.
  • Started out in the position as cook and worked my way up to waitress.
  • Helped relocate the restaurant from Hooksett NH to Manchester NH
  • Worked as a crew member for one of the highest standard Chipotle restaurants in Indiana.
  • Welcomed customers that entered McDonalds.

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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Add an education section to your resume

Employers are looking for a few things when looking at the Education section of your resume:
  • The highest degree you have achieved.
  • TWhere you attended school, and the dates (Although if you graduated some time ago, leave the date off to avoid ageism)
  • TField of study
  • TAny honors, relevant coursework, achievements, or pertinent activities

Here are some examples of good education entries from cafe associate resumes:

Some College Courses in psychology

University of California - Davis, Davis, CA

2015 - 2015

High School Diploma

2017 - 2017

Highlight your cafe associate certifications on your resume

Certifications are a great way to showcase special expertise or niche skills. Some jobs even require certifications to be hired.

Include the full name of the certification, along with the name of the issuing organization and date of obtainment.

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