Receptionist CV Example

How to write a receptionist CV summary

Your summary should tell the reader what kind of front desk you can run and how busy it was. In three or four sentences, include:

• The setting: corporate office, hotel, GP surgery, dental practice, gym, car dealership or school. Each has its own pace and systems.
• Volume: calls per day, visitors or guests per day, meeting rooms or appointment diaries you managed.
• Systems: the switchboard, visitor management, booking and practice systems you know.
• Extras: first aid, fire marshal, a second language, administrative tasks you took on.

Instead of bubbly and professional, write something a manager can check, such as sole receptionist for a 150-person office, 70 calls and 30 visitors a day.

Experience: show volume, systems and trust

Recruiters know what receptionists do, so your bullets should show the scale of the desk and how well you ran it. For each job, aim for three to five bullets that cover:

• Volume: calls, visitors, check-ins, appointments, deliveries or meeting rooms per day.
• Systems: switchboards, Outlook or Condeco room booking, visitor management tools such as Envoy or Proxyclick, hotel PMS such as Opera or Mews, and medical systems such as EMIS or SystmOne.
• Security and safety: visitor passes, key and access card logs, fire roll calls, first aid.
• Improvements: procedures you wrote, systems you helped introduce, fewer missed appointments or complaints.
• Trust: handling confidential post, payments, patient details or VIP clients.

If you also did administration, such as invoice processing, data entry, ordering stationery or arranging travel, add a bullet. Many receptionist roles are partly administrative and employers value the overlap.

Hotel, medical and corporate reception: what to emphasise

The same skills apply across front desks, but each employer looks for different proof first.

• Corporate and professional services: switchboard, meeting room management, catering, client care and visitor security. Mention any experience with senior clients or board meetings.
• Hotels: check-ins and check-outs per shift, PMS experience, reservations, upselling, night audit and handling cash and card payments.
• GP surgeries, dental and private clinics: appointment systems, triage of calls according to practice protocols, confidentiality and data protection, repeat prescriptions, insurer authorisations and calm handling of anxious or upset patients.

If you are switching settings, for example from a hotel to a corporate office, put the transferable evidence first: call volume, visitor handling, payments and complaint handling.

Skills to list on a receptionist CV

Split your skills into systems and working style. Systems should be named: Mitel switchboard, Envoy, Opera PMS, EMIS Web, Microsoft 365. If you type fast and accurately, you can add your typing speed in words per minute.

For working style, choose skills that matter at a front desk: staying polite with a queue in front of you and the phone ringing, prioritising calmly, handling confidential information discreetly and keeping the reception area welcoming. A second language is worth listing with your level, especially for hotels, airports and international offices.

Format, length and presentation

One page is enough for most receptionists, two if you have long experience or have also worked as an office administrator or PA. Use a clean, well-aligned layout with consistent dates and no spelling mistakes; hiring managers often treat the CV as a test of the attention to detail you would bring to emails and visitor records.

Before applying, check the advert for the systems and duties listed and use the same words where they are true for you. If the job includes hours such as early starts, late finishes or weekend cover, a short note on your availability can help.

Receptionist CV summary examples

Receptionist CV bullet point examples

• Answered and routed around 120 calls a day on a 40-line switchboard, keeping the average answer time under three rings.
• Welcomed up to 60 visitors a day, issuing passes and producing accurate roll-call lists for every fire drill.
• Managed bookings, catering and set-up for 20 meeting rooms in Outlook and Condeco, cutting double bookings to almost zero.
• Checked in and out up to 150 guests a day on Opera PMS during peak season at a 140-room city hotel.
• Reduced missed patient appointments by sending text reminders through the practice system and calling patients who had missed before.
• Handled cash and card payments of around £4,000 a day at a hotel front desk, balancing the float at every shift change.
• Wrote a reception procedures manual covering calls, visitors, deliveries and emergencies, used to train six cover receptionists.
• Coordinated taxis, couriers and travel bookings for 12 partners, keeping a log of every request and cost code.
• Acted as fire marshal and first aider for the ground floor, leading evacuations and recording incidents.

Skills for your Receptionist CV