• Doesn’t showcase your culinary specialty
• Fails to capture the fast‑paced bakery environment
• Lacks keywords that ATS scans for pastry expertise

• Replace the objective with a 2‑sentence chef summary
• Highlight years of pastry experience, signature creations, and kitchen leadership
• Insert key terms like "artisan pastries," "plating," and "food safety"

Objective: Seeking a challenging position where I can utilize my skills.

Summary: Creative Pastry Chef with 6+ years crafting award‑winning desserts for upscale hotels and boutique bakeries. Expert in French viennoiserie, seasonal menu development, and maintaining 100% health‑code compliance.

• Recruiters skim for results, not responsibilities
• ATS rewards quantifiable data
• Makes you blend in with other candidates

• Turn each duty into an achievement with numbers or awards
• Show impact on sales, guest satisfaction, or cost savings
• Use action verbs and specific pastry metrics

- Prepared pastries and breads daily. - Managed inventory.

- Designed a seasonal croissant line that boosted bakery sales by 22% in Q3. - Reduced ingredient waste by 15% through precise batch planning, saving $4,800 annually.

• Many kitchens require ServSafe or HACCP certification
• ATS often filters for compliance keywords
• Lack of certifications can signal risk to employers

• Create a dedicated "Certifications" section near the top
• List all relevant food‑safety and pastry‑specific credentials
• Add the certification dates and issuing authority

Skills: Baking, Decorating, Teamwork

Certifications: ServSafe Food Handler (2023, National Restaurant Association), HACCP Certified (2022, American Culinary Federation)

• Inconsistent fonts and spacing cause readability issues
• ATS may misread sections when headings are non‑standard
• Recruiters may discard a cluttered resume

• Use a clean, single‑column layout with 10‑12pt sans‑serif font
• Standardize headings (e.g., Experience, Education, Certifications)
• Save as PDF with embedded fonts

EXPERIENCE Pastry Chef – Café Luna * Made cakes * Decorated pastries EDUCATION Culinary School

Experience Pastry Chef – Café Luna (Jan 2021 – Present) - Led a team of 5 bakers, creating 150+ desserts daily. Education Associate of Culinary Arts, Pastry Focus – Le Cordon Bleu (2018)

• Recruiters need to see recent experience quickly
• ATS may drop entries with ambiguous dates

• Use month‑year format (MMM YYYY) for all roles
• Place city, state after each company name
• Align dates to the right margin for easy scanning

Chef de Partie – Bakery 2019 – 2021

Chef de Partie – Sweet Spot Bakery, Austin, TX                              Jun 2019 – Mar 2021