Fast Food Manager Resume: 10+ Samples & Expert Tips

Fast Food Manager Resume (Text Version)

Contact Info:

Oliver Green
[email protected]
1 (703) 555-5500
Arlington, VA 20330

Summary Statement:

Fast Food Manager: Innovative and assertive leader with an eye for detail and passion for setting expectations that provide a consistent and superior guest experience. Proven ability to train and manage employees in a manner that is positive, friendly, results-driven.

Key Accomplishments/Areas of Expertise

• Conflict Resolution
• POS System
• Policy Compliance
• Budget Management
• Maintaining Brand Standards
• Food Safety Training
• Facilitated Team Collaboration
• Strong Leader
• Driven Professional
• Communication Skills
• Customer Service Oriented

Professional Experience:

Sonic Drive-In | Shift Manager
Manassas, VA | Mar 2015 – Present

• Train and support employees, reducing turnover rate by 20%
• Interview, hire, and train over 50+ staff members
• Enforce corporate standards according to company handbook
• Lead store to consistently rank top 2% among all stores nationwide

Dunkin’ Donuts | Shift Leader
Arlington, VA | July 2012 – Feb 2015

• Coached crew members on procedures to decrease food waste by 15%
• Delivered exceptional guest experience resulting in positive reviews
• Consistently chosen among shift leaders to train new staff members
• Promoted to shift lead after 90-day review, fastest promotion at this store

McDonald’s | Crew Team Member
Arlington, VA | Nov 2009 – Jun 2012

• Connected with customers to ensure they have a positive experience
• Prepared food accurately and maintained proper food preparation processes
• Partnered with other crew and managers to meet daily goals
• Maintained a safe, sanitary working environment and restaurant

Education

HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA
Wakefield High School | Arlington, VA
Class of 2010

FOOD HANDLERS CARD

Like anyone who works in the food industry, you know that presentation is key.

Restaurant owners don’t have much time on their hands to review resumes and they get new applications daily.

If your fast food manager resume is going to stand out among the crowd, then the format of your resume should always appear professional and orderly.

Hiring managers only spend 6 seconds, on average, reviewing resumes – so having a neat and easy-to-read format is vital to get noticed.

The first step is selecting a font that is legible and not too flashy.

Make sure that once you start writing things out, each section of your fast food manager resume is separated with adequate spacing so that essential details are easier to notice.

Utilize spacing and bullet points to allow specific accomplishments and qualifications to stand out among the rest.

List sections like your education and work history in reverse chronological order. This will allow your more up-to-date and impressive accomplishments to come first.

Consider using columns and even outlined boxes to separate various sections, as long as things come together in an orderly and coherent way.

While it might feel a bit awkward or even unnecessary, formal introductions are still important – even on paper.

The summary of your resume consists of a few sentences (no more than three) explaining who you are and why you would be excellent as a manager for this company.

In that amount of time, there isn’t a lot of room to get to the point, so just dive in.

You’ll find that in every section of your fast food manager resume (which starts here), it is important to explain things quickly yet descriptively.

Make sure that nothing you include is just “filler” and that it is serving the purpose of making you shine as a candidate.

When writing this section, ask yourself what the main goals of someone who holds this position are.

Write your summary as if you are answering the question of how you meet those goals.

The “Yes!” example tackles the notion that a fast-food manager’s primary goals are to lead a team of people and provide quality customer service.

This example uses diverse and powerful language to describe the candidate as someone capable of handling those tasks.

The “No!” example attempts to explain how they meet the needs of the position without using interesting words or discussing how they plan to accomplish their tasks.

This example also reuses the same adjective more than once in describing themself, leaving the reader bored and unimpressed.

PRO TIP: If you are still struggling with what to say about yourself in this section, try to write the rest of your resume and come back to it. Sometimes it helps to get your creative juices flowing by reflecting on your previous experiences.

As you dive further into your fast food manager resume, you’ll need to list out a few of your skills and qualifications in a more straightforward manner.

Before jumping into this section, make sure that you are aware of the two main categories of skills: hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills are known as technical skills.

These are the kinds of skills that most don’t pick up naturally and they need to be taught and practiced to master.

Learning different register systems or the ins-and-outs of food safety would fall into this category.

Soft skills are more often associated with personality traits.

People often refer to soft skills as “people skills” because they recognize that these kinds of skills just come more naturally – things like great leadership and communication fall under this category.

A well-formulated fast food manager resume should include a list with a healthy portion of both types of skills.

Key Accomplishments/Areas of Expertise

• Conflict Resolution
• POS System
• Policy Compliance
• Budget Management
• Maintaining Brand Standards
• Food Safety Training
• Facilitated Team Collaboration
• Strong Leader
• Driven Professional
• Communication Skills
• Customer Service Oriented

PRO TIP: Job postings often include skills that they are looking for in the candidate they seek. Take note of the skills they include and make sure that you add them to your resume.

(See below for a helpful table of some suggested hard and soft skills to include in your resume.)

While this section of your fast food manager resume might feel a bit more formulaic, there is still a fair amount of customization that needs to take place.

The first step is deciding what jobs to include on this list.

Generally speaking, you should always start with your current job and work backward, listing them in reverse chronological order.

This structure is useful when your more current jobs are more impressive than the last, and it allows for hiring managers to see what you have been up to most recently.

Once you have decided what jobs to include on your fast food manager resume, it is time to describe each one.

Your job descriptions should be summed up in about three to five bullet points.

As you work your way through describing each job, don’t merely explain your daily tasks, but ask yourself what the most impressive aspects of the position were.

Ask yourself if you made any notable accomplishments while you held that position or if you conducted any tasks that are relevant to the job you are applying for.

It is easy to tell someone what you did in a previous position.

Your goal is to set yourself apart from the crowd.

Use your previous experience to show that you are the candidate they have been looking for.

The “Yes!” example explains how the candidate’s job tasks were carried out effectively and included positive results due to their abilities to manage a fast-food location.

The “No!” example lists job tasks without details to reinforce how this candidate handled this position effectively and successfully.

PRO TIP: If you can lend specific details that will quantify and qualify what you are saying, do so. For example, if you reduced food waste, give a percentage or explain the time frame in which you achieved this feat.

(If you lack work experience, see below for a helpful section.)

More About Bots

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), or bots, tend to worry most candidates when it comes to drafting resumes.

If you are unfamiliar with the term, bots are programs designed to review resumes for busy hiring managers who just don’t have the time.

These systems scan resumes in search of the keywords that it is programmed to associate with “good candidate potential.”

If a bot flags a resume, a hiring manager will then review it.

When bots don’t select resumes, they do not move forward in the process of getting reviewed by an actual human being.

Resume experts at times have recommended that applicants write their resumes using paragraphs for their job descriptions instead of bullet points.

The theory assumes that it is easy to include more keywords in a paragraph than it is in a bullet point.

However, here at Big Interview, we believe that sticking with bullet points is a better way to go.

If you are intentional about your word choice and include a variety of keywords to describe yourself and your accomplishments, you should have no issues impressing a bot no matter what format you choose.

Humans still tend to have an easier time reading and interpreting bullet points as opposed to paragraphs.

Either way, it is important to see the visual difference between these two formatting options.

Standard Bullet Point Format:

Dunkin’ Donuts | Arlington, VA | Shift Leader | July 2012 – Feb 2015

• Coached crew members on procedures to decrease food waste by 15%
• Delivered exceptional guest experience resulting in positive reviews
• Consistently chosen among shift leaders to train new staff members
• Promoted to shift lead after 90-day review, fastest promotion at this store

Paragraph Format:

Dunkin’ Donuts | Arlington, VA | Shift Leader | July 2012 – Feb 2015

Coached crew members throughout their shift to execute operational brand standards leading to a decrease in food waste of over 15% during those shifts. Delivered an exceptional and friendly guest experience, creating consistently positive reviews from customers to management and online. Consistently chosen among shift leaders to train new staff members and set goals, provide job assignments, and motivate others. Promoted to shift lead at the time of a 90-day review, the fastest promotion seen at this store.

Or, a third option uses both paragraphs and bullet points.

Dunkin’ Donuts | Arlington, VA | Shift Leader | July 2012 – Feb 2015

Coached crew members throughout their shift to execute operational brand standards leading to a decrease in food waste of over 15% during those shifts. Delivered an exceptional and friendly guest experience, creating consistently positive reviews from customers to management and online. Consistently chosen among shift leaders to train new staff members and set goals, provide job assignments, and motivate others. Promoted to shift lead at the time of a 90-day review, the fastest promotion seen at this store.

• Voted Employee of the Month 15+ times
• Trained over 20 new employees

Your educational background is often still a relevant detail to include on resumes, no matter how much work experience you have gained.

Similar to your work history section, if you have multiple degrees, include them in order of more recent and impressive to least.

If you have a college degree, it isn’t necessary to include a high school diploma.

Make sure to include the name of the school you attended, the title of your degree, and the year of completion.

Example:

High School Diploma
Wakefield High School | Arlington, VA
Class of 2010

If you have attended additional training and gained certifications or licenses outside of your degree, you can include them in this section as well.

Example:

Food Handlers Card – ServSafe

Possible Sections to Include

Depending on your background, if you have additional qualifications and accomplishments to add that didn’t fit in previous sections, feel free to create a section to list them.

Some additional sections to consider including are:

• Awards and honors
• Publications
• Noteworthy Projects
• Social Media Influence
• Speaking Engagements
• Hobbies/Interests
• Volunteer Work

What if You Have No Experience?

If you just graduated college with a degree related to business management or food services and you don’t have any experience in fast food, this section is for you.

In most cases, you will likely want to gain some credible experience.

However, to tailor your fast food manager resume to your needs, there are a few things you can do.

Start by moving your education section below your summary so that it is in a more prominent location.

Add any exceptional details like high GPAs or any honors or awards you received while in school.

Add in additional sections that show off any internships or volunteer work that relates to management or food services as well.

Do your best to add in details about the experience you have outside of paid work and you might be impressed with how far it gets you.

Look over your work

Make sure that you are always reviewing your fast food manager resumes before you hand them in. Read your resume out loud to yourself or get a trusted friend to read through it with you and have them give you their insights.

Short and sweet

Don’t write a resume that goes on for more than one page. As we have said, hiring managers are busy people and they don’t have enough time to read every resume they get. Make sure that yours doesn’t get passed up because you failed to narrow things down.

Made to order

Always read through the job posting you are responding to or brush up on the company you are applying to. Make sure that your skills and keywords match what they are looking for.

Avoid two words

Stay away from using the words “I” and “me” in your fast food manager resume. It might feel strange to talk about yourself so much without the use of these words; however, it sounds even more strange to read a resume that contains these words.

Don’t repeat yourself

Make sure that you are only using keywords once. Start each bullet point with a new power word to describe how you conducted yourself.

Don’t add fluff

Don’t try to fill out your fast food manager resume by becoming overly wordy or including unrelated work history and accomplishments. Keep things to the point and make sure the information you include is always connected to the job you want.

(See below for a helpful table of some suggested power words.)

Fast Food Manager Resume Power Words

• Administered
• Founded
• Adept
• Formulated
• Built
• Implemented
• Created
• Improved
• Consolidated
• Initiated
• Coordinated
• Launched
• Developed
• Pioneered
• Designed
• Organized

Fast Food Manager Resume Skills List