As a graduate of the Culinary Institute of Michigan, you should create a career-specific resume which highlights your relevant work experience through a required internship and other types of culinary experience. (Use the CIM Programs Resume Template and the instructions below to create your resume.)
Instructions for creating a culinary resume:
A. Heading
List your contact information at the top center like this:
SHAWN GARCIA*
Street Address, City, MI 00000
(000) 000-0000 sgarciaemail@gmail.com
LinkedIn
*If you have filed the paperwork with the American Culinary Federation and are a Certified Culinarian use this: SHAWN GARCIA, CC
If you have filed the paperwork with the American Culinary Federation and are a Certified Pastry Culinarian use this: SHAWN GARCIA, CPC
B. Professional Skills
Begin your resume with a summary of your professional skills. To write the bulleted statements in this section, be sure to begin each statement with an action verb or strong adjective and use keywords, requirements and preferences mentioned in the job posting. (For more information see Begin Your Resume with Professional Qualifications and 185 Action Verbs That Will Make Your Resume Awesome.) Below is an example:
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
• Employ in-depth knowledge of sanitation principles in food preparation using ServSafe skills
• Skilled in costing recipes and monitoring inventory control and practices, which saved the business more than 10% on food costs per month
• Service 100+ customers per day with patience and excellent listening skills that have earned commendations from the front of the house manager
Key terms to consider using in this section: costing recipes, inventory control and practices, hospitality, customer service, guest accommodations, POS
C. Relevant Coursework (opt.)
This section is optional. It should only mention specific coursework required for or desirable for the target job. List specific competencies from the course. For example, not “Skills I,” but “Cake design and decorating.”
D. Professional Experience
A CIM graduate’s internship and other work experience in the industry are important examples of professional experience. Be sure the list is in reverse chronological order. Recommended format:
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Name of Business/Organization City, MI 00/0000–00/0000
Overnight Bakery Apprentice
• Maintained organized, sanitary work area and insured proper operation of all equipment
• Received a 98% public health department inspection rating for procedures and work area
E. Education
Place your education information directly after the PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE section. You may include any colleges at which you have completed courses or from which you have obtained a degree. See the example below which shows how to list your degree:
EDUCATION
Culinary Institute of Michigan City, MI Expected graduation 05/0000
A Division of Baker College
Associate of Applied Science
Baking and Pastry/Food and Beverage Management/Culinary Arts (Choose the specific degree.)
F. Licenses/Certifications
List licenses or certifications granted by a governing body. Look at requirements listed in job posting and choose optimum placement on the resume for this information. It can be placed after the professional skills section if desired. Below are examples of possible certifications:
LICENSES/CERTIFICATIONS
ServSafe Food Manager Certification Expires 00/0000
ServSafe Allergens certification Expires 00/0000
Training for Intervention ProcedureS (TIPS) certification Expires 00/0000
Name of certification*, American Culinary Federation Expires 00/0000
Cicerone Beer Server certification** Expires 00/0000
*Baking and Pastry and Culinary Arts degrees only ** Food and Beverage Management degree only
G. Work Experience
List non-culinary work experience with two to three bullets which highlight hard and soft skills. Also, be sure to list related culinary experience outside of your internship which would be desirable to the employer (e.g., Server, Host, Bartender, Cook) and highlight transferable skills.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Name of Organization City, MI 00/0000–00/0000
Job Title
• Do not simply list job duties; state an accomplishment or a skill you have shown in this job, beginning with an action verb
H. Optional Section
You can create an optional section to show additional accomplishments and relevant volunteer activity. Depending on the length of your resume and your goals, this section can simply be a list of your titles and the organizations or can include duties/achievements as in the PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE section.
COMPETITIONS/VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
National ProStart Invitational-2nd place winner-Culinary 00/0000
Kid’s Food Basket volunteer coordinator 0000–0000
Revised 10 December 2024