Student CV for a part-time job in retail, hospitality or on campus

What employers hiring students for part-time work want to know

A manager hiring for a bar, café, shop or campus role reads a student CV with a handful of practical questions in mind. Can this person work the shifts we need? Will they turn up on time and stay for more than a few weeks? Can they deal with customers politely when it is busy? Will they pick up the till, the coffee machine or the stockroom routine quickly? Are they allowed to work in the UK, and for how many hours?

That is a different set of questions from a graduate recruiter's, and it changes what a good CV looks like. Your degree matters less than your availability. A short spell in a café matters more than your dissertation. A friendly, reliable tone matters more than impressive vocabulary. The best part-time CV answers the manager's questions in the first few seconds and leaves out everything else.

Many part-time jobs are filled quickly, sometimes after a short chat or a trial shift, so your CV is often a quick screening document rather than the main event. It needs to be easy to read on a phone, easy to hand over in person and easy to upload to a retailer's online form.

Keep it to one page, in the right order

One page is enough for a part-time CV, even if you have a few jobs behind you. A manager might have a stack of applications for one weekend role, and a short, clear page is more likely to be read in full. Use a single column, a plain font at a readable size, and bold headings.

A good order for a student applying for shift work is:

• Name and contact details: phone number, email address and the area you live in. Managers like to know you can get to work easily.
• A two-line personal profile, including your availability.
• Work experience, with any customer-facing work first.
• Volunteering, sport or other activities, briefly.
• Education, in two or three lines.
• Skills and certificates, such as food hygiene, first aid or languages.
• A references line.

Education goes lower down here than on a graduate or placement CV because it is not what the manager is hiring for. One line for your degree, the university and expected graduation year, plus one line for A-levels or equivalent, is plenty. If you are in your first term, say so; it explains why your work history is short and that you are likely to be around for a while.

If you have never had a job at all, our guide to a student CV with no experience shows how to use volunteering, school roles and casual work instead.

Put your availability where it cannot be missed

Availability is often the first thing a shift manager looks for, and many student CVs leave it out entirely. Put it in your personal profile or as a short line straight under your contact details. Be specific and realistic, based on your timetable:

• Weak: "Flexible availability."
• Strong: "Available Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5pm and all day Saturday and Sunday during term; full time over the Christmas, Easter and summer breaks."

Check your timetable before you commit to anything. University timetables can change between terms, and labs, placements and exam periods can take more time than you expect. It is better to offer fewer shifts and keep them than to over-promise and start cancelling. If you are going home for the holidays, say so; if you are staying in your university town over summer, say that too, because summer cover is often hard for employers to find.

If the advert mentions specific shifts, such as early mornings, late closes or weekends, say clearly whether you can do them. A line such as "Happy to work late closes on Fridays and Saturdays" can be enough to get you a call.

Retail, hospitality and campus jobs

The same CV can work for most part-time roles, but a few minutes of tailoring makes it fit each type of employer better.

Retail. Shops care about customer service, handling payments accurately, stock and keeping the shop floor tidy. Mention till and card payments, cash handling, stock rotation, deliveries and any experience during busy periods such as the run-up to Christmas. Larger retailers usually recruit through online application forms, so a clean, plain layout helps the system read your details correctly.

Hospitality. Bars, cafés, restaurants and hotels want people who can stay calm and friendly at busy times, work as part of a small team and follow food safety rules. Mention table service, taking orders, making drinks, food preparation, opening and closing, and any certificates such as food hygiene. If you have barista experience or know a particular till system, say so. For bar work, managers may also ask whether you have experience of checking ID or handling difficult customers.

Campus jobs. Universities and students' unions employ students in libraries, cafés, bars, sports centres, halls of residence, admissions events and as student ambassadors, often advertised through a university jobs portal. These roles are usually designed around your timetable and term dates, which makes them a good first job. For campus roles, mention your course, any society involvement and what you know about the university, because many of these jobs involve helping visitors and other students.

Writing bullets when your experience is short

Most students applying for part-time work have one or two short jobs, a Saturday job from school or some volunteering. That is fine. What matters is describing it in a way that shows the manager you have done the things their job involves.

Start each bullet with a verb, keep it to one line where you can, and name the specific task rather than the general area:

• Weak: "Worked on the till."
• Strong: "Took cash and card payments on a busy lunchtime till and balanced the float at the end of each shift."
• Weak: "Made drinks."
• Strong: "Made hot drinks to the café's recipes, including espresso-based coffees, at peak times on Saturday mornings."
• Weak: "Cleaning."
• Strong: "Followed the opening and closing checklist, including cleaning schedules and fridge temperature checks."
• Weak: "Helped out at the club."
• Strong: "Coached an under-10s football squad every Saturday morning, running warm-ups and keeping parents updated."

Volunteering, sports coaching, open day work and babysitting are all worth including if you have no paid jobs, because they show reliability and dealing with people. Three or four strong bullets for your most relevant role, and one or two for the others, is plenty on a one-page CV.

Right to work and visa conditions

Before you start any job in the UK, your employer has to check that you have the right to work. UK and Irish citizens usually do this with a passport or another accepted document. Many other people, including international students, prove their status online and give the employer a share code from the UK government's right to work service. Expect to be asked for this at the offer stage.

If you are an international student, your visa sets conditions on the work you can do. There is a limit on how many hours you can work a week during term time, the rules can differ in official vacation periods, and some types of work, such as self-employment, are not allowed. The exact limit depends on your visa and your course, so do not rely on what friends or a job advert tell you. Check the conditions on your own visa record, and ask your university's international student advice team if anything is unclear. Breaking these conditions can put your visa at risk, so it is worth getting right before you accept shifts, especially if you are thinking about taking more than one job.

On the CV itself, you do not need to give your nationality, date of birth or visa details, and a UK CV should not include a photo. If you want to reassure an employer, a short line is enough, such as "Right to work in the UK" or, for international students, availability that already sits within your visa limit, for example "Available for weekend shifts during term and full time in vacation periods, within my visa conditions".

Personal profile, skills and the references line

Your personal profile for a part-time job should be two lines, not four. Say what you study, what kind of work you want, one or two relevant strengths and your availability. Leave out ambitions about your future career; the manager wants to know about the next few months.

The skills section should be short and practical: customer service, cash handling, card payments, food hygiene certificate, first aid, barista skills, languages, and anything specific to the job such as a till system. Languages are worth listing for any customer-facing role, especially in tourist areas, city centres or near a university with many international students.

Finish with a references line. "References available on request" is the usual UK wording, and it saves space. Have two referees ready before you apply: a previous manager or supervisor if you have one, and otherwise a tutor, a volunteering coordinator or a sports coach who knows you. Ask their permission first and give them a heads-up when you apply, because part-time employers sometimes contact referees quickly.

Example: Jamie's part-time CV

Jamie Doyle is a fictional first-year Sport and Exercise Science student in Cardiff looking for part-time bar, café or retail work. His first CV was half a page long. It said he was looking for "a part time job to earn money", listed a café job as "Cafe, 2023: made drinks, cleaned" and mentioned football coaching in a single line. It did not say when he could work. Checked against a café team member advert, it scored 46.

His new version opened with his contact details and a two-line profile naming his course, the kinds of roles he wanted and his availability: Tuesday and Thursday evenings and all day at weekends. His Saturday job became "Café Assistant (Saturday job), independent café, Swansea, Jun 2024 – Aug 2025", with bullets on taking payments at busy lunchtimes, making drinks to the café's recipes, opening up and logging fridge temperatures, and covering extra shifts in the summer. His three years of volunteer coaching for a junior football club got its own entry, and his recent open day work as a student ambassador showed he was already working with the public on campus.

His skills section listed customer service, cash handling, a Level 2 food hygiene certificate, emergency first aid and conversational Welsh. Education took two lines near the bottom, and the CV ended with "References available on request". Checked again against the same advert, it scored 84.

Applying online, in person and what comes next

Apply in whatever way the employer asks. Larger chains usually want you to apply online through their careers site, sometimes with a short questionnaire about availability and customer service. Independent cafés, pubs and shops often prefer a CV handed in during a quiet moment, so avoid lunchtime rush and Saturday afternoons, and ask for the manager by name if you can. Campus jobs are usually advertised through your university or students' union jobs board.

Before you send or print your CV, check that your phone number and email address are correct, your availability is up to date and the file is a PDF or Word document with your name in the file name. Our free ATS CV checker reads your CV in your browser and checks the layout, contact details, sections and skills; paste in the job advert and it compares your keywords with that role and suggests fixes. It is a quick way to make sure an online application form will read your details properly, though no score can promise an interview.

If you want a tailored version for a particular advert without rewriting it yourself, StudentCV can help. Upload your current CV or type in your details, paste the advert, and it writes a short CV aimed at that role. You can see and edit the whole thing for free and only pay if you want to download it, with a single CV costing £5.99 as a one-off payment. Later on, when you start applying for a placement year or graduate roles, the part-time experience on this CV will be worth keeping.