Catering Sales Resume Examples

As a catering sales professional, your resume is just as vital as crafting the perfect menu for a major event. You know the importance of making a great first impression, yet capturing your experience and skills on paper can be challenging. Balancing client meetings and managing events often means little time is left for mastering resume writing.

While you're skilled at sealing deals, conveying that talent through a compelling career story requires a more focused approach. Your unique abilities, like creative event planning and client relationship building, deserve clear and effective presentation. However, it’s easy to overlook these crucial details that set you apart in this competitive field.

A well-chosen resume template can be your guide to organizing achievements, skills, and experiences into a polished format. This not only enhances visual appeal but also helps employers quickly grasp your value. Find a variety of resume templates to streamline the process.

By crafting a resume that resonates with hiring managers, you can spotlight your strategic thinking and resourcefulness. Now is the time to elevate your career prospects and make a lasting impression. With the right tools, your resume can become your most powerful sales pitch yet.

What to focus on when writing your catering sales resume

A catering sales resume should convey your skills in boosting event sales and enhancing customer satisfaction by effectively managing catering services—demonstrate your adaptability in diverse settings and ability to cater to different client needs. Highlighting how you've built strong client relationships and consistently met revenue goals showcases the added value you bring to potential employers, underscoring your expertise in the industry's unique demands.

To enhance your resume even further, consider adding optional sections such as "Professional Affiliations" or "Volunteering Experience," which can provide additional context to your professional journey. Below we'll cover each section more in-depth, discussing how to best structure and format your resume for maximum effect.

Which resume format to choose

Creating a catering sales resume means selecting a format that effectively highlights your experience and achievements in the industry. A chronological format is ideal if you have substantial experience, as it allows you to present your career progression clearly. This format lets you showcase the key roles you’ve held and how you've contributed to your past workplaces, making it easy for potential employers to see your growth and expertise.

Choosing the right font complements the professional tone of your resume. Opt for clean and modern fonts like Lato, Montserrat, and Raleway. These fonts are easy to read and convey a contemporary style, helping your resume stand out while maintaining a polished look. A well-chosen font can subtly enhance your professionalism without distracting from the content.

For file type, a PDF is the best choice for your resume. PDFs ensure that your formatting stays intact across different platforms, which is crucial when your resume is viewed by hiring managers on various devices. This consistency ensures that your resume appears as intended, maintaining its professional appearance no matter how it's accessed.

Setting one-inch margins on all sides of your resume keeps the layout clean and organized. Proper margins give your resume a balanced look, making it easy for readers to navigate your skills and achievements. This neat presentation is crucial in catering sales, where attention to detail and organization are highly valued attributes.

By focusing on these aspects, you ensure that your catering sales resume not only highlights your experience but also presents you as a well-rounded and detail-oriented professional in a competitive job market.

How to write a quantifiable resume experience section

The experience section on your catering sales resume plays a key role in demonstrating your industry success to potential employers. Start with your most recent position and organize your experiences in reverse chronological order. Typically, include the last 10-15 years of your career, focusing on jobs that relate directly to catering sales. Choose titles carefully to highlight roles with relevant responsibilities. Concentrate on showing how you made a difference using active language. When you tailor your resume to a job ad, incorporate keywords and powerful action words like "generated," "negotiated," "increased," and "secured" to clearly display your impact.

Consider this example of a well-crafted experience section:

This example showcases your ability to achieve quantifiable results, moving beyond just listing job duties. Each bullet point uses data to strengthen your case and highlight the tangible impact of your work. Words like "boosted," "negotiated," and "led" provide a dynamic view of your capabilities. This section is powerful because it directly addresses prospective employers' needs by aligning your skills and achievements with what they value in the job description. Tailoring your resume like this helps ensure your achievements are both relevant and compelling, providing clear evidence of your ability to drive success in catering sales.

Training and Development Focused resume experience section

A training-focused catering sales resume experience section should clearly highlight your ability to develop and enhance the skills of your team. Begin by detailing how you train new hires or elevate the capabilities of existing employees, emphasizing your knack for organizing effective training sessions, workshops, or personalized coaching. Connect your efforts to specific successes, such as boosts in team performance and meeting sales targets, underscoring the impact of your training. Mention any particular sales techniques or industry insights you shared that demonstrate your leadership and expertise.

Employ action verbs to vividly illustrate your achievements, making sure to quantify your successes whenever possible, like improved sales performance or higher client satisfaction rates. Using bullet points helps organize this information neatly, presenting a clear and concise story. This format allows potential employers to quickly see your contributions and understand how your skills can benefit their team.

Innovation-Focused resume experience section

An innovation-focused catering sales resume experience section should begin by showcasing your ability to bring creative solutions to your role. Highlight experiences where you introduced effective sales strategies that enhanced client satisfaction and boosted efficiency. By using specific examples with quantifiable outcomes, you can clearly demonstrate your innovative thinking. This approach shows how your efforts have directly contributed to the company's growth and success.

Moving on, describe unique projects or initiatives you've led that resulted in increased revenue or expanded market reach. Emphasize how your innovative ideas solved challenges and met client needs in original ways. Maintain a clear and straightforward tone, employing action verbs to highlight your proactive, results-driven nature. Ensure your resume is tailored to align with the specific job description, reflecting relevant experiences and skills that make you a perfect fit for the role.

Industry-Specific Focus resume experience section

A catering-focused resume experience section should effectively highlight your abilities to excel in this area. Begin by concentrating on the most relevant skills and achievements from your past roles, such as booking events, nurturing client relationships, managing budgets, and reaching sales targets. Organize these accomplishments in bullet points for clarity, and support them with numbers to provide a clear picture of your success, like how much you increased sales or the number of events you’ve handled.

To make the section resonate with the needs of the catering sales industry, emphasize the outcomes you’ve achieved and their impact, like improving customer satisfaction or expanding market reach. Ensure each bullet point is closely tied to a specific achievement or skill relevant to the job. By doing this, you create a seamless narrative that highlights your unique contributions and results-driven approach.

Problem-Solving Focused resume experience section

A problem-solving-focused catering sales resume experience section should highlight your ability to overcome challenges and drive successful outcomes. Consider those moments when you faced tough situations and applied your problem-solving skills to make a real difference. Pinpoint specific instances where your efforts resulted in notable improvements. When writing these experiences, use strong action words to clearly convey your contributions.

Move from the challenge to the solution by providing context, identifying the problem, and detailing how you tackled it. Demonstrate the impact of your actions by illustrating how they led to increased sales, improved client satisfaction, or more efficient operations. Use quantifiable results to strengthen your case, as numbers can effectively showcase your achievements. Ensure that each bullet point is concise yet informative, clearly outlining your role and the positive outcome of your problem-solving efforts.

Write your catering sales resume summary section

A catering-focused sales resume summary should clearly showcase your skills and achievements that make you a standout candidate. Writing this summary might seem tricky, but it's your chance to shine. You're aiming to show off your experience and the unique strengths you bring. To excel in a catering sales role, focus on your successes and talents that align with the job. Here's an example of a strong catering sales resume summary:

This summary effectively highlights relevant experience by emphasizing measurable successes, demonstrating why you're an ideal fit. As you describe yourself, be brief yet impactful, illustrating how your achievements can meet a company's needs. Unlike a resume summary, a resume objective is more suited for entry-level roles or career changes, concentrating on your aspirations. Meanwhile, a profile offers a broad view by combining personal strengths and career goals. A summary of qualifications presents key skills and achievements in bullet points. Each has its unique function, but a resume summary lets you craft a brief story about your exceptional fit. Choose the best approach based on your experience and the job you're targeting, and align your summary with the job description to capture hiring managers’ attention.

Listing your catering sales skills on your resume

A catering-focused sales resume should effectively showcase your skills and experiences. Consider presenting your skills in a separate section or integrating them into areas like experience and summary. Start with strengths and soft skills to highlight your personal qualities, while hard skills demonstrate the concrete abilities you've acquired. By including these skills as keywords, your resume is more likely to capture the attention of employers.

A standalone skills section offers a quick look at your qualifications. Here’s an example using JSON format:

This composition of skills clearly outlines your capabilities, directly tying them to the catering sales role.

Best hard skills to feature on your catering sales resume

Within the catering sales domain, hard skills should emphasize your proficiency in event management, client interactions, and sales growth. Here are 15 essential hard skills:

Best soft skills to feature on your catering sales resume

On the soft skills front, emphasize how you engage with clients and adapt to different situations. Here are 15 important soft skills:

How to include your education on your resume

The education section is an important part of your catering sales resume. It gives potential employers insight into your knowledge and background. Tailor this section to suit the specific job position you are applying for. Relevancy is key, so avoid including any education that does not directly relate to the role.

Regarding your GPA, include it only if it strengthens your application—generally a 3.5 and above. If you graduated with honors like cum laude, list it next to your degree to highlight your achievement. When listing a degree, ensure you include the degree name, institution, and graduation dates.

Here's an example of less effective education information:

Now, here’s a better example tailored for a catering sales position:

This second example is excellent because it directly relates to the catering sales field. The degree in Hospitality Management is appropriate for the job, and listing cum laude distinguishes you as a high achiever. The GPA of 3.7 is impressive and suggests strong academic performance, and the additional bullet point underlines specialization in areas beneficial to the position. This education section provides a well-rounded perspective of your qualifications for a role in catering sales.

How to include catering sales certificates on your resume

Including a certificates section in your catering sales resume is vital. It highlights your qualifications and shows the hiring manager your expertise and dedication to your profession. List the name of each certificate clearly. Include the date when you were awarded the certificate. Add the issuing organization to lend credibility. Certificates can also be included in the header for quick visibility. For example, you can mention "Certified Professional Catering Executive (CPCE)" next to your name.

Here is a good example of a certificates section for a catering sales resume:

The example demonstrates how each certificate is relevant to a catering sales role. It includes well-recognized certifications in the industry, showing that you are well-qualified. The issuer name boosts credibility and trust. Listing this clearly in your resume helps you stand out from others. Having dates displayed along with each certification also gives it a timeline, showing continuous professional improvement. Make sure your certificates are up to date to reflect your current expertise. This approach will make your resume more compelling to potential employers.

Extra sections to include in your catering sales resume

Crafting a resume that stands out can be a game-changer for landing your dream job in catering sales. Including a language section, hobbies and interests, volunteer work, and books section can make your resume more appealing and personalized.

• Language section — Highlight additional languages you speak to show your ability to communicate with diverse clients. For example, stating fluency in Spanish can set you apart if catering to a Spanish-speaking market.
• Hobbies and interests section — Showcase hobbies that align with catering skills, like cooking or event planning, to demonstrate your passion and hands-on experience. Such interests make you more relatable and a well-rounded candidate.
• Volunteer work section — Describe volunteer efforts related to event organizing or catering to show your community involvement and initiative. This can give an impression of your commitment and transferable skills.
• Books section — List books you've read on hospitality or sales to display continuous personal development and industry knowledge. Mentioning titles like "Setting the Table" by Danny Meyer can illustrate your dedication to learning.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, building a strong catering sales resume is your opportunity to demonstrate how your unique skills align with prospective employers' needs in this competitive field. By organizing your resume with clear sections including contact information, professional summary, work experience, skills, and education, you create a comprehensive picture of your capabilities. Remember, tailoring your resume for each job application by using relevant keywords and specific examples can notably increase your chances of standing out to hiring managers. Highlighting quantifiable achievements, such as increased sales percentages, shows your ability to drive business success effectively. Implementing a clean, professional format with modern fonts and consistent margins will enhance readability and presentation. Additionally, including optional sections like professional affiliations or volunteer experiences adds depth to your resume, painting a fuller picture of your professional journey. By showcasing certificates and special training, you further validate your expertise and commitment to your role. Whether you focus on leadership, innovation, or problem-solving, each resume section should align with the core demands of catering sales. Ultimately, by crafting a well-rounded, detailed resume, you position yourself as a top contender in the catering sales industry, ready to seize new opportunities.