I got home from Nicaragua in May with a plan that was really just a direction: New Jersey, bartending, close to my family. The details were still very much to be determined.
If you’re smarter than me, you start this process in March. A lot of seasonal restaurants open in May and they’re hiring and training in April. I was applying in May which meant I was already behind the people who’d locked in their summers weeks earlier. Learn from that. If you know where you want to be, start earlier than feels necessary.
Here’s exactly what I did and what I’d do differently.
Start Online, But Don’t Stop There
I started on Indeed like everyone does. Applied to a handful of places — mostly the bigger restaurant groups, a couple of spots in Avalon and Cape May. The response rate was about what you’d expect: one place got back to me, one never responded, and the rest were silence.
Online applications at beach town restaurants are a black hole. These places get flooded with resumes every spring from college students, teachers, and anyone else who wants a summer by the water. You are one of hundreds. Applying online is worth doing — it gets your name in their system — but it cannot be your only move.
Beyond Indeed, here is what actually gets results online. Join Facebook groups for the area you are targeting — there are job-specific groups and general town groups where restaurants post openings. Go directly to the restaurant’s website and look for a hiring page or a contact form. That is actually how I got my surf shop job — I found their website, filled out a small contact form, and the owner texted me within the hour. Check their Instagram and Facebook pages too. A lot of places will post a quick we are hiring story or graphic before they ever update their website. None of these are guaranteed but together they give you a much wider net than Indeed alone.
Ask Someone Who Actually Lives There
This is the step most people skip and it’s the most important one.
I had a neighbor whose daughter lived in Ocean City. She texted her friends who’d lived down the shore their whole lives and asked one specific question: if you were going to make good money, where would you work? They gave her a list of seven restaurants. I had another friend who’d worked in the area briefly and gave me a few more names. Combined with spots I already knew from going down the shore my whole life, I had a working list before I ever left my house.
Google is not great for this. You’ll get reviews, not intel. What you want to know isn’t where the food is good — it’s where people are going out, where the volume is, where the tips are. Those are different questions and locals know the answers.
Also know the vibe of different parts of town before you apply. Where I work in Wildwood there’s a North End that’s all late-night bars — they open at 7pm and run until 2 or 3am. That was not what I was looking for. I wanted dinner spots and happy hour bars where people come in off the beach. Knowing that upfront saved me from applying somewhere that wouldn’t have been a fit anyway.
Go In Person. Always.
Once I had my list I printed hard copies of my resume, drove down to the shore, and walked in.
I know it’s uncomfortable. It feels like a cold call. You have to put yourself together, walk up to a stranger, and essentially say here I am, please consider me. Nobody loves doing it. Do it anyway.
Here’s why it works: when I walked into the restaurant where I ended up getting hired, they had a sign in the window saying they were hiring. I walked straight in, asked for a manager, handed over my resume, filled out their application on the spot, and had a conversation with a manager that same day. She looked at my resume and said I’m not going to ask you questions — you’re obviously qualified. Let me tell you what we offer. That was it. I had effectively gotten the job in one visit.
While you are driving around, look for hiring signs. My restaurant was not at the top of my list — it was a marina bar, a little off the main strip, and I was on my way to somewhere else. But they had a sign at the turn-in and I pulled in on impulse. That sign is the reason I have been going back for three seasons.
Compare that to the places that told me to apply online. I’d already applied online to some of them. Showing up in person with a second hard copy — walking in and saying I applied online but I wanted to introduce myself — got responses from places that had completely ignored my email. The double move works.
Timing and Tips
One important detail: timing matters. Do not walk in at 5:30 on a Friday during dinner rush and ask for a manager. They are slammed, they will not have time for you, and you will make a bad first impression before you even open your mouth. Come early in the day, before the lunch rush or during the mid-afternoon lull around 2pm when things are quiet. Come early in the season if you can — we were still hiring in June, so it is never too late, but April and early May is when managers have the most bandwidth to actually talk to you.
Also always ask for a manager specifically. Do not hand your resume to a server or a host. Servers are busy, resumes get set down somewhere and forgotten. Say is there a manager available, I would love to introduce myself. If there is not one, leave the resume anyway and follow up with a call. But get it into a manager’s hands if you can.
One more thing worth saying: sometimes it just happens organically. I got both of my Vail jobs by being somewhere, talking to the bartender, and asking if they were hiring. One of our servers got her job because her parents were having dinner at the restaurant off season, mentioned their daughter was looking for work, and the conversation led to a manager and then a hire. If you are down visiting the area, exploring, getting a feel for the town — talk to people working there. Ask if they are hiring. It is not weird. It is how this industry works.
Tailor Your Resume to the Job
This sounds obvious but I see people get it wrong constantly.
When I’m applying for restaurant jobs my bartending experience is at the top. Everything else is supporting detail. My JPMorgan VP title is not the lead — that’s irrelevant to someone deciding whether I can handle a Saturday night bar rush. My four years of bartending in Vail ski bars is the lead. That’s what proved I could handle volume.
Don’t have an ego about what goes on the resume. Put what’s relevant first. Leave off what isn’t. If you have a photo available and you’re applying from out of town, consider adding one — it helps a hiring manager put a face to the name when they can’t meet you in person.
On Getting Bar Shifts Specifically
Bartending at a popular beach town restaurant is a coveted position and people have been coming back to those jobs year after year. You are not walking in as a newcomer and going straight behind the bar. That’s just not how it works.
I came in with four years of ski town bartending on my resume and I still started with serving shifts. Two weeks of training as a server, then a mix of bar and serving shifts, proving myself before they moved me to primarily bar. By my second summer I was mostly bar. Third year I’m solely bar and pick up serving shifts in the shoulder season when we’re short-staffed.
That’s the process. Pay the dues. Don’t complain when they put you on serving. Show them you’re responsible, you can be trusted with money, and you show up. The bartending shifts follow.
If you only have one bar somewhere on your resume and you’re expecting to walk into a busy beach bar and tend immediately — recalibrate. Either build more experience first or be willing to start serving and earn it. Some smaller spots will hire you behind the bar faster because they just need bodies. But the good restaurants with the good money are going to make you prove it first.
Know the Season
Most seasonal beach town restaurants open around May 1st — some a little earlier, most waiting until Memorial Day weekend when the rentals start and the tourists arrive. The season runs through October, sometimes into early November depending on the place.
September and October are not slow. I want to be clear about this because people assume the shoulder season means easy money or less work. What actually happens is all the college students disappear and the lifers cover the remaining shifts. You end up working more hours, not fewer, because the weekends are still busy — Irish weekend, fireman’s weekend, there’s always something — and there are far fewer people to cover them. Shoulder season is actually some of the best money of the year if you’re still there.
When you’re applying, be upfront if you’re seasonal-only at a year-round restaurant. They still hire seasonal workers — they know how beach towns work — but they need to plan around it. Being transparent about your timeline actually builds trust rather than hurting your chances.
The Gut Check
I had offers from a few places and I sat with my friends in Vail — I’d gone back briefly to do some contract work — and talked it through. The marina bar wasn’t the highest-end option I’d interviewed at. I’d worked a sushi restaurant in Vail where the bills were enormous and the tips reflected it. This was more casual, more volume, different crowd.
But I’d vibed with the managers. The process felt right. No corporate nonsense, no online runaround — just a real conversation with people who seemed straightforward. Something about it just felt like the right fit even though I couldn’t fully articulate why at the time.
I chose it. Third year in I still choose it every spring — and funny enough, I eventually ended up buying a boat and living at the marina where I work. Didn’t see that coming when I walked in with my resume that first day.
Print the resume. Drive down. Ask for the manager. The rest follows.