Royal
Beauty · Hairstyling
Plum column on cream with elegant gold ornaments.
Accent colour
Restaurants, hotels, retail
Service industry CV templates
For waiting staff, receptionists, customer service and sales staff. Communication skills and shift availability come first.
Communication skills up frontSoft skills and languages sit right below your contact details.Clear shifts and locationsEmployers see at once which shifts and locations suit you.Room for service achievementsNote customer numbers, sales figures or praise from customers.
Slate
Customer service · New graduates
Slate-grey header, rounded blocks and a soft wave at the bottom.
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Peach & jade
Restaurants · Hotels
Bright peach and jade with friendly rounded blocks.
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Hospitality
Tourism · Hospitality
Airy centred type with a soft wave at the bottom.
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Culinary
Culinary · F&B
Warm brick red with brush strokes at the top.
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Customer care
Customer service
Light sky blue with faint speech bubbles.
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Events
Event management
Energetic orange with lively confetti.
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Travel
Tour guides
Sea teal with distant hills at the bottom.
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Aviation
Flight attendants
Horizon blue with a gradient like a flight path.
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Fitness
Fitness trainers
Energetic red with strong condensed type.
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Veterinary
Veterinary · Pet care
Fresh grass green with charming leafy branches.
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Reception
Reception · Front desk
Gentle lavender with concentric circles.
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Telesales
Telesales · Phone consulting
Friendly lotus pink with soft waves like a voice.
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Non-profit
Non-profit · Community development
Warm orange with mountains along the bottom.
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Writing a waiter, receptionist or customer service CV a manager can read in one minute
Restaurant managers, front office managers and call centre supervisors often read CVs between shifts, in about a minute. They need to see straight away which shifts you can work, which area you are based in, which languages you speak and whether you have worked in a similar type of business. A service industry CV template therefore puts shifts and communication skills ahead of experience. This article shows how to write it and how to choose among the 14 templates.
What restaurant and hotel managers look at first
Each role has one thing that gets checked first, and it belongs in the top third of the page. Write the line under your name like this: "Waiter, 2 years in a Japanese restaurant and a coffee chain, available for evening and weekend shifts, Thu Duc area"; the reader does not have to scroll down to find it.
| Role | Looked at first | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting staff, barista | Looked at firstShifts you can work, type of venue worked in | What decides itCustomers served per shift, drink-making skills |
| Hotel receptionist | Looked at firstConversational English, hotel software | What decides itCheck-ins and check-outs per shift, upselling revenue |
| Customer service, call centre | Looked at firstVoice, typing speed, rotating shifts | What decides itCalls per day, handling time, satisfaction score |
Put shifts and area directly under your contact details
Scheduling shifts is the hardest part of a service manager's job, so an application that says "available for the 6:00 to 14:00 morning shift and the evening shift, Saturdays and Sundays included, from 15 October" gets a call before one that only says "flexible". The same goes for location: venues tend to hire people who live nearby because evening shifts finish late. Fit all of this into two lines, right under your phone number and Zalo.
Service experience written with numbers
The formula action, number, result is easy to apply in service jobs: tables, customers served, calls, rooms, upselling revenue, satisfaction scores and reviews that mention you by name on rating platforms.
Example experience section for a receptionist
Receptionist, X Hotel (120 rooms, 4-star), Da Nang, 03/2023 to present
Handle an average of 40 check-ins and check-outs per shift in Opera; around 60% of guests are international, served in English and basic Korean. Upselling of room upgrades and services reaches 8 million VND a month. Night shift satisfaction score of 4.7 out of 5 in 2025.
Give your real level for languages and skills
Describe languages by what you can do with them, not as "good": "English: taking reservations, recommending dishes, handling simple complaints"; "Japanese N4: greeting guests, taking orders". For skills, name the software you have used: iPOS or KiotViet in restaurants and cafes, Opera at reception, a CRM in a call centre. Industry certificates include the food safety knowledge certificate, bartending or barista training and front office training. Pair each soft skill with a situation, for example how you handled a guest who had waited more than 20 minutes for their food.
Common mistakes in restaurant and hotel CVs
- No shifts or area given.
- Several short jobs with no reason given.
- Claiming to be "enthusiastic and hard-working" without a single example.
- Languages described as "good", with no indication of what you can do.
- A careless photo, or no photo at all.
The second mistake is common among students: summer and seasonal jobs are fine; they just need a one-line reason.
English or Vietnamese, and choosing from the 14 templates
4- and 5-star hotels, resorts and restaurants serving international guests accept English or bilingual CVs; local eateries, coffee chains and shops use Vietnamese. One page is enough. Many employers take applications through Zalo, so keep a link to your CV ready to send in a message.
This group has 14 templates: some with a large photo and a shifts block for waiting staff and receptionists, and compact one-column ones for large chains that recruit through an online portal. Orange and brown suit restaurants; blue and grey suit hotels. Each template offers 10 layouts, 36 backgrounds and 69 fonts; fill it in once and download a PDF.
Frequently asked questions
Give the shifts you can work, your area and your class timetable, then any activities that involved dealing with people: selling at fairs, helping out at a family restaurant. Managers hiring newcomers mostly look at availability and the photo.
List the places where you worked for three months or more, or that are the same type of business as the one you are applying to; group short jobs into one line such as "seasonal work during public holidays and Tet" with the dates.
Not when you apply, but restaurants and kitchens usually require one before you start. If you already have it, list it under certificates so the employer does not have to wait.