A fictional person: the names, employers and numbers are invented.
Lucas Silva
Barista · Specialty espresso and latte art
Brighton, UKlucas.silva@example.comAvailability: Early shifts and weekends
Summary
Barista with four years behind busy bars, the last two at a specialty roastery café. Pulls 250+ drinks a shift without losing consistency, dials in single-origin espresso every morning and turns coffee chat into sales: grew retail bean bags by 35% in a year. Calm in a queue, tidy on close and happy to train new starters.
Experience
Barista · Tidewater Coffee Roasters, Brighton
2024 – Present
Serve 250–300 drinks a shift on a two-group machine, keeping shots within a 2 g dose and 28–32 second window.
Raised average spend per customer from £5.10 to £6.20 by pairing drinks with pastries and suggesting retail beans.
Grew retail bean sales by 35% and signed up 40 customers to the monthly bean subscription.
Trained four new baristas in milk texturing and latte art; all passed the in-house drinks check within three weeks.
Host a Saturday cupping table that averages 20 guests and feeds the subscription list.
Barista · Railside Coffee Co., Brighton station
2022 – 2024
Served up to 120 customers an hour in the commuter rush, keeping order-to-hand-off under three minutes.
Averaged 96% across 18 monthly mystery-shopper visits for speed, cleanliness and greeting.
Balanced the till to the penny on 95% of closing shifts and handled weekly milk and cup orders.
Education
A levels: Art and Design, Business, English Language · Varndean College, Brighton
2020 – 2022
Skills
Coffee
espresso extraction, grinder dial-in, milk texturing, latte art (tulip, rosetta, swan), V60 and batch brew
Friendly college leaver with two summers of front-of-house work at a seaside kiosk serving up to 400 customers a day. Holds Level 2 Food Hygiene, handles cash accurately and wants to learn espresso properly on early and weekend shifts.
Shift supervisor
Barista with five years in high-street cafés, including two running morning shifts for a team of five. Cut average queue time from six to four minutes by reorganising the bar, and keeps milk and pastry waste under 3% of stock.
Specialty focus
Specialty barista with SCA Intermediate certification and two years dialling in single-origin espresso daily. Explains brew methods without jargon, runs public cuppings and grew retail bean sales by a third at an independent roaster.
Keywords to include
Use the ones that are true for you, inside real sentences.
Espresso preparation
Latte art
Milk texturing
Customer service
Upselling
Cash handling
Food hygiene
POS systems
Stock control
Teamwork
What recruiters look for
Tips for this role, with the kind of numbers that count.
Put your speed in numbers
Café managers hire for the rush. Write how many drinks you make a shift or customers you serve an hour, and how long a ticket takes: "up to 120 customers an hour, under three minutes from order to hand-off" answers their first question.
Show that you sell
Average spend, pastry add-ons and retail beans are the numbers owners watch. One line such as "raised average spend from £5.10 to £6.20" tells them you pay for your own shifts, which most barista CVs never say.
List the certificates they check
Level 2 Food Hygiene is the one most cafés expect; allergen awareness training and SCA modules come next. Give each the issuer and year so a manager can see at a glance that you can start without extra training.
Name the kit you know
Say which machines, grinders, brew methods and tills you have worked on, such as a two-group espresso machine, V60 and Square POS. It shows a manager how quickly you will be useful on their bar during a trial shift.
Prove you keep standards
Consistency matters as much as speed. Mystery-shopper scores, waste kept under a set percentage, clean audit results or a till that balances on 95% of closes all show you are trusted when the manager is not there.
Say when you can work
Rotas are the hardest part of running a café. A short availability line, such as early shifts and weekends, plus proof of reliability like "covered 30 extra shifts last year", can move you to the top of the pile.
Make this CV yours
Answer one question at a time; the assistant fills each section and never invents numbers.
Can I get a barista job with no coffee experience?
Yes. Many cafés train new starters on the machine, so lead with what transfers: serving customers quickly, handling cash, working under pressure in retail or hospitality. Add a food hygiene certificate if you can, say you are free for early or weekend shifts, and offer a trial shift.
Should I mention latte art on my CV?
Mention it once, with the patterns you can pour reliably, such as tulip or rosetta. Speed and consistency usually matter more to a busy café, so latte art works best as part of your coffee skills, not as the headline. A competition placing is worth its own line.
Should I hand my CV in at the café or apply online?
Do both when you can. Apply through the advert, then drop a printed one-page CV in during a quiet hour, mid-morning or mid-afternoon, and ask for the manager by name. Avoid the morning rush; nobody reads a CV while the queue is out the door.
