As a lead bartender, you’ve been around the block. You’re well equipped in pouring beers and mixing drinks, and you can easily handle the extra responsibilities of making sure the bar runs smoothly, the inventory is managed, and other bartenders receive the support they need.
Putting all of that onto your AI cover letter and resume as you look for a new head bartender role, however, may not come as easily.
Lucky for you, we’ve helped thousands of lead bartenders find their next job opportunity, and we’ve taken all the insights we’ve gleaned to create this guide to help you land a bartending gig in 2025, starting with these 3 lead bartender resume samples.
Copy this text for your lead bartender resume!
Leonardo Guarducci
Theatre Concessions Lead Bartender
[email protected]
(123) 456-7890
Carpinteria, CA
CAREER OBJECTIVE
Diligent and ambitious bartending professional with over 2 years of hospitality and customer service experience. A gregarious, revenuegenerating team member seeking to advance to the lead bartender position within the Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts family of organizations.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Theatre Concessions Bartender
Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts
2021 – current
Santa Barbara, CA
– Provided bar/table service and guest services in a high-volume (over 520 customers per day), fast-paced restaurant
– Utilized knowledge of over 110 mixed beverages, specialty liquors, and craft beers to deliver drinks in a timely fashion
– Opened and closed restaurant, performed inventory management for over 400 items and supplies, and facilitated preparations for over 53 events
– Trained 38 employees as new wait staff and bartenders
Internship
Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort
August 2020 – December 2020
Santa Barbara, CA
– Processed reservations, check-ins, check-outs, and other
requests for 54+ guests per day
– Oversaw front lobby stock (50+ items) and ensured the cleanliness of all linens, silverware, and more
– Coordinated communications for hotel departments and staff of over 37 people, including providing hotel and local area knowledge to enable first-class guest services
Internship
Oku Restaurant
January 2020 – July 2020
Santa Barbara, CA
– Checked in/out over 59 guests each day
– Maintained knowledge of 60+ hotel features and amenities
– Performed 24+ data entry and word processing tasks daily
– Created and updated schedules for 13 office staff members
HOBBIES & INTERESTS
– Cooking Japanese Cuisine with Sake Pairings
– Vintage Photography Restoration
– Movie Score Analysis
SKILLS
– Knowledge of Popular Drinks
– Teamwork
– Tech-savvy
– Cleanliness and Hygiene
– Time Management
– Situational Awareness
EDUCATION
Associate of Arts
Santa Barbara City College
2017 – 2019
Santa Barbara, CA
CERTIFICATIONS
– Certified Professional – Food
– Safety (CP-FS) – NEHA
Related resume examples
What to Focus On: Your Skills & Work Experience
Becoming the head bartender doesn’t happen overnight; it takes time to develop a certain skillset. It’s important that that’s reflected on your lead bartender resume, so recruiters can quickly see what you bring to the table.
That means your future employer wants to see if you have the right skills and mindset (demonstrated in both your skills and work experience section) to be the right fit for the job.
First, focus on a mix of hard and soft skills you’ve gained throughout your experience as a bartender and other careers. Try to focus on skills specific to lead bartending, although important, more generic soft skills like leadership can be included.
The most important thing is to make sure that your head bartender resume skills match those the job description is looking for!
9 Top Lead Bartender skills
- Mixology
- Leadership
- POS systems
- TIPS Certification
- Popular drinks
- Teamwork
- Food safety/hygiene
- Math skills
- Verbal communication
Sample Lead Bartender work experience bullet points
So you’ve got the skills section done. Awesome! Now, you need to focus on bringing those skills to life and showing your impact.
On this section of your lead bartender resume, you want to demonstrate how your previous responsibilities (even if not as a bartender) qualify you for this role. In other words: what kind of positive results did your actions bring about through your career?
When possible, use quantifiable metrics to measure your impact as a head bartender. From customer satisfaction to increased revenue, there are a range of metrics you can use to help give recruiters a deeper insight into your abilities.
Here are some examples:
- Provided bar/table service in a high-volume restaurant for over 250 customers a day
- Trained 39 new employees as new wait staff and bartenders
- Promoted teamwork among 25 staff members over 2 years, improving quarterly employee engagement survey results by 15%
- Completed cash, credit, and mobile payment transactions, ensuring 100% accuracy in cash box with POS records at all times
Top 5 Tips for Your Lead Bartender resume
- Highlight relevant certifications
- Try to stand out from the other head bartenders by showcasing any certifications that could give you a competitive advantage, like TIPS or OSHA safety. If you have multiple certifications, consider adding a separate section under your skills section.
- Keep it easy to read
- While you might be tempted to create a flashy lead bartender resume with lots of images and fancy fonts, it’s best to use a simple template so recruiters can skim your resume and applicant tracking systems can accurately parse your data (otherwise, you could end up in the reject pile!)
- Showcase your leadership
- As this is a lead bartender role, you need to show how you’ve taken ownership and demonstrated personal initiative throughout your career. It doesn’t need to be in a bartending role, but recruiters should easily see that you won’t shy away from a challenge and know how to (help) lead a team.
- Keep it varied
- A good bartender doesn’t just make drinks: they handle money, can work a POS, keep morale high, and ensure food/drink safety, to name a few. Are all these points reflected throughout your work experience to showcase the breadth of what you have to offer? If not, time to revise!
- Save some of it for the cover letter
- Don’t try to stuff everything onto your head bartender resume; it should be easy to read! If you can’t fit it all, you can add other bartending achievements into your cover letter, although the most important ones (like creating new drinks or working in a prestigious bar) should be on the resume.
Hands down, it’s your skills and work experience. You want to clearly showcase what knowledge you possess, and what impact you’ve made. That said, don’t forget your contact info! (It happens to the best of us…)
Absolutely, there’s bound to be overlap! While you may not focus on how many items you bagged in a retail role, try to focus on skills, experiences, and achievements that show your potential in bartending, like customer satisfaction, collaboration, or determination.
Sure thing! Remember, less is more. Don’t try to pad your resume with unnecessary text. It’s better to keep it lean and focused, and save the rest for the interview.
Stephen is the co-founder and CEO of BeamJobs. He started his career in data fulfilling the dream of little kids everywhere: working for an insurance company. He then moved on to work in edtech for a company called Chegg before venturing out to start BeamJobs. Things have come a long way after countless “learnings” (fancy word for mistakes), and BeamJobs has now helped 2.5M+ people create their perfect resume. Stephen and BeamJobs have been featured on awesome sites like Business Insider, Chicago Tribune, Dallas News, Baltimore Sun, the Daily Press, Zendesk, HubSpot, and loads more.
