What are bakery assistant CV skills? (With examples)

A bakery assistant is an entry-level position in the hospitality industry for those interested in pastry. They're responsible for helping more experienced bakers with elements of production, such as baking and layering goods into tins or packing produce, etc. A bakery assistant may also present goods for sale and engage with members of the public who wish to purchase items from a bakery, meaning that they need a variety of hard and soft skills for the job. In this article, we list beneficial skills to include on a bakery assistant's CV and provide written examples.

What are bakery assistant CV skills?

A bakery assistant handles the daily operation of a bakery and ensures that customers receive the best service. For this reason, it's strongly advised that all applicants create a skills section for their CV to highlight any experience that could benefit the role and set them apart from other candidates. Use this section to showcase your understanding of the principles of baking whilst showing enthusiasm for the industry overall. Ideally, you're also going to use this section to demonstrate that you have a basic understanding of baking and health and safety regulations.

Skills that may benefit a bakery assistant

Skills sections often help candidates to create the impression that they're a good choice for a role. It's important to clearly set out each skill whilst giving the employer a brief description of how you're going to use each skill in this job or how you've used them in the past. Examples of skills popularly used in a CV for a bakery assistant:

Baking

Baking skills are important for the role of a bakery assistant as they prove an applicant can produce a variety of products. An employer generally looks to see whether their candidates possess the baking techniques necessary to create the correct texture and flavour of their products so that they can adequately help bakers. Typically, baking assistants help bake and decorate a range of fresh products to high standards. Paying close attention to detail is beneficial, as the bakery assistant has to help accurately design cakes and cookies for weddings and events.

Example: ''Due to previous experience working as a bakery assistant, I have plenty of baking skills and experience to offer. For example, I can operate most kitchen machinery such as bread mixers, potato peelers, spiral slicers, meat grinders and others to create high-quality food. I can also apply the essential food safety practices when safely operating this machinery. I am an enthusiastic individual with a passion for baking who's excited by the idea of working in a fast-paced retail environment such as yours. With over 6 years of experience, I'm calm and confident when working.'

Related: Important baker skills (with tips for improvement)

Organisation

Good organisational skills are necessary for the assistant's role in any bakery as their main responsibility is to support bakers. This means they may carry out a variety of tasks, including working with dough, wrapping and packing finished products, cleaning work surfaces and equipment and ensuring the following of health, safety and welfare regulations. Often, bakers need their assistants to manage these tasks before peak hours of customer traffic to ensure that production is fast and that as many of them as possible are happily served. For this, organisational skills are paramount as it helps assistants reach deadlines.

Example: 'I realise that strong organisational skills are essential for a bakery assistant. So, I have previously exhibited and built upon these skills during past roles. My main objective is to maximise sales and profits of the bakery shop I currently work for. In this role, I've created systems that allow me to identify trends in customer behaviour. This way, I can suggest new products and promotions. This has led to an increase in sales by 3% over last year. This system also means that I'm able to prep and package products that reach customer satisfaction to deadlines.'

Related: What is time management? (Importance and how to improve it)

Cleaning

When applying for an assistant role inside a bakery, it's beneficial to demonstrate how you're going to use these skills in your new position. For example, a bakery is a workplace with a lot of cleaning duties. If you notice that an advert requests these skills, you can write about them within this section of your CV. This direct reply to what is in the ad can attract the attention of recruiters and illustrate to them that you have the strong cleaning skills required.

Example: 'I am a candidate able to clean and organise a bakery's interior (e.g. sweeping, mopping, hosing down the floor), ensuring it is hygienic and welcoming for customers. I understand that the bakery's cleanliness and look are both important factors in enticing customers and making sales, whilst it's also necessary to impress food critics and the food standard agency, etc. I'm also able to safely use common kitchen equipment and appliances, including microwaves and dishwashers. In previous roles, I usually undertook a rota of cleaning duties, including toilets, floors, machinery and more labour-intensive cleaning.'

Related: How to become a bakery operative (plus key skills)

Handling cash

Cashier and cash register skills help a bakery assistant to increase sales by promoting special offers, discounts and up-selling products. This means that it's important for candidates to display knowledge of the products they sell whilst using their initiative to improve sales and customer service. Reflecting this on your CV can be advantageous as it demonstrates that you can learn new skills and be innovative in sales. It also helps to convey numerical skills to an employer and that you're able to correctly take in cash whilst giving out the required amount to customers accurately.

Example: 'In this role, I would be able to enter, view and change various product prices, including promotional discounts on the till system, after a quick adapting period. I'd also be able to calculate the total of each customer's shopping and give out the correct change by searching through the database for products that have been previously entered, printing and giving out customer receipts if necessary. I can also take payment from customers using a card machine, overseeing common issues such as failed transactions and restarting the process. This is because of past experience using different till systems and responding well to customers.'

Providing excellent customer service

A bakery assistant usually assists bakers by attending to the needs of customers. This means they're then required to demonstrate the patience and skills required in customer service when dealing with the general public, including knowing when it's appropriate to ask for help from their manager. To outshine other candidates, it's important to reference the ability to communicate in a clear, confident manner in a CV. This shows employers that you can advise customers on the range of products that are available within the bakery, selling items to customers over the phone, through email and in person.

Example: 'I believe that I am an ideal candidate for this role as I have a range of personal customer service skills useful within a bakery. For example, I'm able to follow set procedures and implement them properly, which is important in ensuring that each customer at the bakery has the same experience. I also have the ability to deal with customers politely and professionally, showing a good personality when answering customers' calls so that I can gain trust from them by patiently listening to their queries and offering appropriate responses, which can help boost the local reputation of the bakery.'

Related: 10 ways to consistently offer good customer service

Working in a team

A bakery assistant with evidence of exceptional team working skills is a strong candidate. They're able to ensure that products are all made to the same high standard as they communicate with their team during the creation of each treat. For example, baking assistants work in teams to ensure that everything is accurately measured and that they're accurate when following recipes and carrying out instructions. These skills help them to keep an eye on new production lines to ensure they're working properly and check that food is correctly stored to reduce spoilage, so be sure to highlight them.

Example: 'I recently assisted a senior baker in the production department of a previous bakery with making 145 Belgian almond Macaroons for an event. This process tested my team working skills as I was regularly required to communicate with the other baking assistants to help prepare and weigh out all ingredients, mixing and combining these ingredients carefully to ensure that the right amounts of each ingredient were evenly distributed through the mixture. I rolled each macaroon by hand before placing them onto baking sheets to set, after which the senior baker passed them for quality checks.'