Costa CV Example

Founded in 1971, Costa is a UK-based coffeehouse chain and leading roaster, revolutionising coffee culture with handcrafted beverages and welcoming café experiences. It operates in the food and beverage and hospitality industries.

After reading this article, you'll have all the information you need to create a positive first impression with Costa hiring teams, and stand out in a competitive field of applicants. Putting these tips into action will give your CV the best chance of passing the ATS screening stage and increase the likelihood of your Costa application progressing to the interview stage. Now let’s explore the main sections of a CV and see how to structure each one for maximum impact.

Main sections of a Costa CV

How you approach writing your Costa CV will vary according to your experience, your level and the details outlined in the job description.

However, no matter where you are in your career, a Costa CV must present a clear, compelling narrative of your professional journey. To help you build that story, we’ll now break down the document piece-by-piece—from the initial contact header to your most significant career milestones.

CV Header

Start your Costa CV with a professional-looking header that includes all the relevant contact information. This usually includes your name, your email address, your phone number and your location, but not your full address. Additionally, listing your LinkedIn profile in your CV header can be valuable. It serves to provide more detailed information about your career journey, your qualifications and your industry standing, in an easily accessible way.

For UK jobs, it's generally not a good idea to add a photo or any other personal details beyond your basic contact information. This means leaving off details such as your age, gender, ethnicity and nationality, as these can introduce bias to the selection process and complications related to the Equality Act 2010.

CV Objective

Under your header, write a brief CV summary or CV objective, outlining a few of your key skills, qualities and achievements. This short paragraph can help employers to quickly assess your suitability for the role, setting the tone for your Costa CV. The CV objective provides an alternative to the standard CV summary. While the CV summary focuses on your skills and achievements through your work experience, a CV objective highlights your ambitions and plans for the future, including how the role fits with these. This makes it ideal for junior candidates.

Whether you choose to write a summary or an objective, aim for a length of two or three sentences, introducing your key skills, unique qualities and key achievements or ambitions, making sure they reflect what's included in the job description.

An effective CV summary will focus on a few of the key skills required for the role and show how you've put them to good use in your career to date. You'll want to give the reader a good impression of your unique qualities and briefly provide evidence of their impact in previous roles. See below for an example of a strong Costa CV summary, featuring quantifiable evidence of your impact and concise, easy-to-read sentences.

Above is an example of CV summary that doesn't follow best practice, with some subtle shortcomings and failings. For a summary to make less of an impact, it might include generic or vague information, lack evidence of your impact, or fail to highlight specific personal qualities that make you stand out from other candidates. It may also lack tailoring to the job description or include long, poorly structured sentences.

Employment History

In your work experience section, you'll want to showcase your relevant experience in the food and beverage industry. Focus on the job description, and include skills and career achievements that will appeal to Costa recruiters, showing how you can make an impact for the organisation. List previous jobs relevant to the food and beverage sector in reverse-chronological order, starting with your current or most recent role. Include your job title, the name of the employer, its location and the dates you worked there. Under each entry, add several bullet points outlining your key skills and achievements in the role.

A successful CV should emphasise relevant previous roles in the industry, providing evidence to show how your key skills related to the food and beverage sector have led to positive achievements in your career to date.

Your work experience section could miss the mark if it places too much emphasis on jobs that aren't relevant to the food and beverage industry, or if it fails to offer suitable evidence to confirm you have the key skills and qualities needed to work in the sector.

Education

In your education section you'll want to list your highest and most recent qualifications, particularly if they're a requirement for the role.

Working as a Costa employee doesn't tend to require a specific degree. However, while employers may not request a degree in the job description, it can be useful to include other relevant qualifications, certifications or training in your CV's education section. These might include Food Hygiene Level 2 Certificate, or courses that show your skills, such as inventory management forecasting techniques or cash handling reconciliation methods.

When listing your qualifications in your education section, select only the most suitable qualifications and list them in reverse-chronological order, starting with the most recent and working backwards. Add the name and level of the award, the institution, its location and your dates of study or graduation. If you have space or if you particularly want to emphasise your qualifications, you could add one or two bullet points under each entry, highlighting specialist areas of study, projects you worked on, awards you won or societies you were a member of.

You might also wish to add specialist qualifications, certifications or licences that are required for the role. If you add any of these, include the expiry date, if the qualification requires renewal in the future.

Skills

Your CV's skills section CV's skills section is a great place to showcase some of the key skills necessary for the role. Check the job description to understand which skills are most essential, and provide a combination of hard and soft skills, reserving space to include some unique qualities that can help you to stand out from the competition. In a Costa CV, only list the most relevant and essential skills you possess, such as teamwork and cash handling reconciliation methods, to make a positive first impression and show you're qualified for the Costa employee position.

Hard Skills

Hard skills refer to the technical and specialist skills required for the everyday duties of the job. They might include specialist knowledge, or the use of certain software and equipment. You can gain these skills through study, training or industry experience, and they might require a licence or certification. For Costa employee positions, hard skills that match your abilities, such as POS system usage accuracy, and inventory management forecasting techniques tend to be valued by recruiters and hiring managers. After reviewing the job description, compile a list of four or five key hard skills for your Costa CV to show you're capable of carrying out the duties required for the role.

The best hard skills section will contain a mix of your strongest technical skills and those listed in the job description as 'essential' or 'desirable'. The closer your skills list is to matching the essential job description skills, the better your chances of success.

Review the examples below to understand which skills are often added to the hard skills section of a Costa CV.

Soft Skills

Soft skills are the personal strengths and qualities that show employers how well you'll fit into the role and complement other members of the team. Soft skills tend to be more transferable and applicable to different roles than hard and technical skills. As a result of rapid technological changes in the world of work, soft skills are becoming ever-more valued by employers. Soft skills can also be particularly valuable for junior or entry-level roles where candidates haven't necessarily had the time to develop hard skills and career achievements.

Just like the hard skills section, begin by reviewing the job description to learn the most desirable soft skills to include in your Costa CV. Only add soft skills that you can provide evidence for throughout your CV. Draft a list of up to five key soft and transferable skills, combining the most essential skills from the job description with your strongest personal qualities.

Here are typical soft skills candidates include in a Costa CV.

Language Skills

If you speak any languages in addition to your mother tongue, you might want to include them in your Costa CV as a languages section. These can be valuable for your application, whether languages are specified as a requirement in the job description or not. Under this section, list any foreign languages you speak to a professional standard, with an indicator of your competency level for each.

There are several ways to cite your proficiency in foreign languages. Firstly, you could use a simple descriptive word to indicate your abilities, such as:

• English: Fluent
• Spanish: Intermediate

You might wish to use an internationally recognised standard for your language skills, such as the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). This divides your language skills into the following categories:

• A1: Beginner
• A2: Elementary
• B1: Intermediate
• B2: Upper intermediate
• C1: Advanced
• C2: Proficiency

Certifications

To showcase additional qualifications and training beyond the basic requirements for the role, consider adding a certifications section to your CV. It's often beneficial to include it as it can illustrate a positive attitude towards self-improvement and professional development, as well as a proactive mindset. All these qualities will appeal to most employers and decision-makers. Furthermore, if there are any necessary certifications or licences for the job, this CV section takes on even more importance. If you're applying for a technical role or a position that involves the use of specialist software or equipment, these might make it more necessary to include a section showcasing your training.

Here is a list of some key certifications and licences that can be particularly useful for Costa employee applications:

Additional Sections

Including optional sections in addition to the core sections of your Costa CV can help you to show employers you're a strong candidate for the job. If you're unable to show you have all the necessary skills for the job through your work experience, optional sections can be a valid way of providing further evidence of your suitability, to give you the chance of gaining an interview. If you're an entry-level candidate or a career changer, optional sections can be particularly valuable.

Explore our career resources for practical strategies to make your CV stand out and move you closer to landing an interview.

Hobbies and Interests

One valid way to show you have relevant skills for the job is by listing your hobbies and interests. Additionally, hobbies and interests are an ideal way to show the employers some elements of your personality and interests beyond work, which can set you apart from other candidates. However, only mention hobbies and interests that are relevant to the role, and that help you prove skills that you haven't been able to show in your work experience or other CV sections.

Achievements

Creating a list of your key career achievements can be an effective way of drawing attention to the things you're most proud of from your career. In your list, add any awards you've won, industry recognition or key career milestones that tell a story about your suitability for the role and place you ahead of other candidates.

Volunteer Roles

Listing any previous voluntary work is another useful way of showing you have the necessary skills and experience for the job. If you don't have much relevant work experience, either because you're a junior candidate or you're changing jobs from an unrelated field, volunteering can provide valuable examples of your skills in action. Structure your volunteering section the same as your work experience section.

Add your job title or the name of the volunteer role, the organisation, its location and the dates you volunteered. Also add some bullet points outlining your skills and experience in the role, as well as any key achievements.

References

In the UK, it's not normal for references to be requested as part of a CV, or at the early stages of an application. However, it's worth checking the job advert and being ready to supply them if necessary. If references are needed, opt for two or three, and always make sure you approach them for permission before including them.

Add their name, their job title, the organisation they work for and their contact details. Alternatively, if references aren't required you could simply add a line to your CV confirming you can provide them when needed, such as 'references are available upon request'.

Most effective action verbs for a Costa CV

Adding strong action verbs to the bullet points in your CV's work experience section is a great way to focus on the key skills required for the job, while showing the impact you've made. Start each bullet point with an action word that reflects the job description, so the reader can easily identify your best qualities. You'll also want to back up any action verbs you're using with quantifiable evidence that showcases the value you added for previous employers. Use the past tense for action verbs that describe previous roles, with the present tense for any current responsibilities and achievements.

Costa CV sample

Now that you know exactly what to include in your Costa CV, we can take a look at a final, finished example below:

To see how your CV might look after finalising its design and layout, take a look at our CV examples.

Guide to CV ATS optimisation

Employers and recruiters now routinely use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to ease the burden of the selection process. One of the key functions of these systems is CV screening, which reviews CVs and ranks them based on their likely fit for the role. This saves recruiters and hiring managers the time and effort of reading every CV in detail. With many vacancies often receiving hundreds of applications, ATS software can really relieve the burden on hiring teams and free them up to focus only on the most suitable candidates.

The growing prevalence of ATS means candidates need to write and format their CV in a way that's compatible with the software, giving it the best chance of being accurately scanned and parsed, and ranking highly against other candidates. Here are some tips on how to optimise your CV for ATS screening:

• Include keywords and phrases that mirror the job description to maximise your chances of ranking highly in the ATS screening stage.
• Use clear, standard CV headings that are easily recognisable, such as 'work experience', 'education' and 'skills'.
• Choose a standard CV layout that avoids the use of any special design elements that might make your CV less compatible with ATS scanning software.
• Select a font that can enhance the readability of your CV, such as popular serif and sans serif fonts, with size 10 to 12 for body text and 14 to 16 for headings.
• Use bullet points in place of full sentences and paragraphs. This can reduce the overall length of the document, make the keywords stand out and make it easier for ATS apps to scan.

You might feel there are a lot of things to remember when writing an ATS-compatible CV, but with just a few small tweaks, you can ensure yours passes this stage. Use one of our expert-designed, ATS-compatible CV templates to avoid the stress of adapting your CV for ATS screening.

Key takeaways for an impactful Costa CV

To give you the best chance of success with your CV, tailor it for every specific application, including keywords that reflect the job description. Select a suitable CV format for your experience level, and show the reader how you've used skills relevant to the role, to create a positive impact in your career to date.

Finally, building your CV using Jobseeker's HR-approved CV templates can help to catch the eye of recruiters and hiring managers, making your application stand out and giving you the best chance of gaining your dream job.

References:

1. Transport for London (TfL), Writing a CV and cover letter
2. Jobseeker, HR Statistics