Chick-fil-A resume examples by experience level

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Use this example

To be clear, a Chick-fil-A resume is not a form the company issues. Instead, it is a quick service restaurant team member resume, and the single fact that changes how you should write it is who reads it: in a franchised restaurant the person holding your application usually owns that one building.

Also, this guide is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Chick-fil-A, Inc. or any franchisee, and it contains no inside knowledge of any restaurant's hiring, pay or interview process. Instead, it draws only on information the company has published itself, and it cites each source where it uses it. Everything else in it applies to team member hiring across quick service generally.

The published position is plain. Chick-fil-A states that "the employment opportunities in each Chick-fil-A restaurant are unique and at the discretion of the franchisee Operator or Chick-fil-A, Inc. Interim Manager", and that openings are searched and applied for restaurant by restaurant through the company careers site (chick-fil-a.com restaurant careers, accessed September 2026). Similarly, the same page describes team members as working "front and back of house and in the drive-thru".

Read those two sentences as instructions for your resume, because that is what they are. In other words, there is no central screen to satisfy. There is one person, in one restaurant, on one road, deciding whether to spend a week of their own time training you.

Resume guide for a Chick-fil-A resume

To that end, this guide and the corresponding Chick-fil-A resume example will cover:

• First, how to write a quick service team member resume, section by section
• Then, why applying restaurant by restaurant changes what goes on the page
• Next, three adaptable summaries: first job, cross-trained team member and team leader
• Also, how to show you can work front of house, back of house and the drive-thru
• Finally, what the job market looks like and what you can expect to earn

How to write a Chick-fil-A resume

Overall, five sections: contact header, summary, experience, skills and stations, and education and certifications. One page. In practice, a team member application almost never needs a second page, and nobody will read a second page.

For that reason, the order centers on a reader with thirty seconds and one question: can I trust this person in my restaurant with my guests and my team.

Run the finished file through the ATS resume checker before you send it. Also, you submit applications through an online system even when the decision is local, and a plain single column file survives that trip intact.

Choosing the best resume format for a Chick-fil-A resume

In short: reverse chronological, single column, one page, no photograph and no graphics.

Likewise, with no paid work history, use the same format and fill it with what you have: school, a sports season you finished, a volunteer commitment with a start and an end date, a family business. By contrast, a functional format that hides dates reads badly in an industry where the most valuable thing you can show is that you stayed somewhere.

Include your contact information

In short, four lines, and the third is the one nobody writes. It tells the reader which restaurant this is for and how long your commute is, a reliability fact that looks like an address.

Make use of a summary

Specifically, four lines: what you do, where, the areas you can work, and one number with a period of time attached.

High school senior applying for a team member position, with seven months at an independent quick service restaurant working the front counter and the drive-thru window on evening and weekend shifts. Handled a cash drawer with no shortages across the period, was one of three team members trained to open the dining room, and covered eleven shifts at short notice for other staff. Hold a ServSafe Food Handler certificate and can work every weekend the school year allows.

Quick service team member with three years at one restaurant in Greenville, trained on all three areas: front counter, kitchen and drive-thru. Train new team members through their first five shifts, with eleven of the thirteen I have trained still employed at six months, and hold the weekend opening checklist including temperature logs and the dining room reset. Hold a ServSafe Food Handler certificate and have never missed a scheduled opening shift.

Team leader with six years in quick service in Greenville, five of them at the same restaurant, running shifts of up to fourteen team members across front counter, kitchen and drive-thru. Hold the deposit, the shift handover and the end of shift count, cut recorded cash variance to under $2 a week across a year, and built the training rotation that took new hire turnover in the first ninety days from roughly half to under a fifth. Hold a ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification.

Right vs wrong: the same summary, twice

In contrast, a former manager can confirm the right column in one phone call, and where the owner is the reader, that call often happens. However, nobody can check the left column, which is why every applicant writes it.

Outline your experience

Employer, city, role, dates, then three to five bullets, each with a number or a named responsibility. Likewise, write months, not just years: a reader here is reading for length of service, and a bare year hides it.

Team Member, Rivertop Chicken Co., Greenville, SC, March 2023 to Present
Work all three areas of the restaurant: front counter, kitchen and drive-thru, 14 to 22 hours a week around a college schedule.
Train new team members through a five-shift onboarding; of the 13 trained, 11 were still employed at six months.
Hold the weekend opening: dining room reset, drink station stock, temperature logs and the first drawer count, with recorded variance under $2 a week.
Handle counter complaints directly, including remakes and refunds up to $25, and log them for the manager rather than passing the guest along.

Each restaurant hires for itself, so write for the person who owns it

This is the part that makes a quick service application at a franchised brand different from an application to a large employer, and almost nobody writes for it.

The company states that employment opportunities in each restaurant "are unique and at the discretion of the franchisee Operator or Chick-fil-A, Inc. Interim Manager", and openings are searched and applied for per restaurant on the careers site (chick-fil-a.com restaurant careers, accessed September 2026). As a result, there is no single queue, no shared shortlist, and no transfer of your application between one restaurant and the next.

Therefore, four things follow, and each of them changes the file.

Four ways a franchise owner changes your file

One: you apply to a place, not a company. Two restaurants four miles apart are separate decisions made by separate people, and an application at one is invisible at the other. Apply separately to each restaurant you would actually work at, keep a note of which ones and when, and change the target line each time. Applying once and waiting is the common mistake.

Two: the reader will also be your manager. In a corporate pipeline a recruiter screens against a rubric and the manager sees you later. Here the reader is usually the person who will schedule you, train you and cover your shift when you are ill. That reader is buying a low-risk hire, which is why length of service, a clean attendance record and a nearby address outweigh a long list of duties.

Three: references are real. A local owner can and often does call your last manager, because the restaurant trade in one town is small. Name two references, or say they are available, with the role and relationship attached.

Show you can work front, back and drive-thru

Four: the work spans the whole building. The company describes team members as working "front and back of house and in the drive-thru" (chick-fil-a.com restaurant careers, accessed September 2026). Someone a manager can schedule in only one of those three is half a hire, so organize the skills block by area and say which areas you have actually held.

Applying for: Team Member, front counter and drive-thru, Woodruff Road restaurant, Greenville
Areas worked: front counter, kitchen, drive-thru window and headset, dining room
Availability: weekday evenings from 4 p.m., all day Saturday, and holiday weeks
References: shift manager and general manager at current employer, both contactable, named on request

That block takes four lines and answers, in order, the four questions a restaurant owner has before they read a bullet.

Build a snapshot of your key skills

Group eight to fourteen entries by area of the restaurant, because that is how a manager builds a schedule.

Front of house: Front counter ordering, Point of sale and cash handling, Guest recovery and remakes, Dining room reset and stocking, Catering and large order handoff
Back of house: Breading and fryer station, Grill and holding, Assembly and packing, Temperature logs and cooling records, Stock rotation and date labeling
Drive-thru: Window and payment, Headset order taking, Outside order taking in peak periods, Order accuracy checks before handoff
Shift and safety: Opening and closing checklists, Cash drawer count and reconciliation, Allergen handling and separation, Hand hygiene and glove protocol, Training new team members

List your education and certifications

School status first if you are still in school, then any food safety credential with its issuing body and date, then anything else short and relevant.

Associate in Business Administration, Greenville Technical College, Greenville, SC, expected 2027. Evening and online classes, scheduled around restaurant shifts.
Reedy Hill High School, Greenville, SC, graduated 2024
Certifications: ServSafe Food Handler, National Restaurant Association (2024). First aid and CPR, American Red Cross (2025).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics records no formal educational credential and short-term on-the-job training as typical for food and beverage serving and related workers, so a certificate is never a gate into the job (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, food and beverage serving and related workers, May 2025 data published 27 August 2026). It is a cheap differentiator.

However, aiming at a shift or team leader role changes that. For example, BLS names the Food Protection Manager Certification, obtained by passing a food safety exam, and states that some states and localities require food service managers to hold food safety certification (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, food service managers, published 27 August 2026). Holding it before a promotion is the cleanest argument that you are ready.

In addition, one published fact is worth knowing if you are studying: the company states it has "invested more than $191 million in scholarships" since 1970 through its Remarkable Futures scholarship program (chick-fil-a.com, accessed September 2026). Eligibility sits with the company, not with this guide, but many people hold this job alongside study, and your resume should show the two fitting together.

Choose the right layout and design

Above all: single column, 11 or 12 point, one page, black text on white, headings in bold and nothing else decorative. Similarly, no photograph, no icons, no rating bars.

Print it once before you send it. Many restaurants still take these applications in person, and a file designed for a screen often prints with half a section stranded on a second page.

Chick-fil-A job market and outlook

In fact, quick service team member roles sit inside the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation food and beverage serving and related workers, which is one of the largest occupations the Handbook publishes.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, food and beverage serving and related workers, May 2025 wage data and 2025 to 2035 projections, published 27 August 2026.

What salary you can expect

Overall, the median annual wage for food and beverage serving and related workers was $31,710, or $15.24 an hour, in May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, published 27 August 2026). Meanwhile, within that group, fast food and counter workers had a median of $15.00 an hour.

By comparison, back of house sits in a different published occupation: cooks had a median of $17.62 an hour in May 2025, with cooks in fast food at $14.85 and cooks in restaurants at $17.98 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, cooks, published 27 August 2026). That is why cross-training between counter and kitchen is worth writing down.

Each restaurant sets its own pay and no published figure exists for any one of them, so do not assume one. Instead, what a resume can move is the step from team member to trainer or team leader, which sits in a different published band: food service managers had a median annual wage of $69,390 in May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, published 27 August 2026). In practice, the evidence that gets you onto that ladder is what this page asks you to write down: months held, people trained, checklists owned and money counted without error.

Key takeaways for a Chick-fil-A resume

1. This is a quick service team member resume; the brand belongs in the target line and nowhere else.
2. Apply restaurant by restaurant, because the decision sits with the local Operator or interim manager.
3. First, name the three areas: front counter, kitchen and drive-thru, and say which you have held.
4. Give months of service, not years, since length of service is what a local owner is buying.
5. Then put a number in every bullet: shifts covered, people trained, drawer variance, complaints handled.
6. In addition, offer references with roles attached; in a small local market, owners do call them.
7. Finally, keep it one page, single column and plain, and change one sentence for each restaurant.

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Pair it with a matching Chick-fil-A cover letter.