Writing an Exceptional Resume for the Therapy Professional

Whether you are a new therapy graduate or ready to dust off your resume and looking for new opportunities as a therapy professional,you must be able to showcase your talents in a concise, well-organized, and professional manner. Here’s how to write an outstanding resume to jump start your career in therapy.

• Name and contact information
  
  Keep this simple and to the point. Bold your name but not your contact information. Ideal font sizes for your name is 12-14 point, whereas your contact information can be in 10-11 point. Include any earned designations after your name like PT, DPT or any other designation. Be sure your name on your resume matches how you are listed through licensing bodies so there’s no confusion.
   
• Profile
  
  Your resume needs to indicate why someone would be reading it – be specific and clear. For example, state which unit of a hospital or therapy organization you’re targeting. Think of your profile as the mini-excerpt around your professional life. Whether you label this category or not, this section highlights the core strengths and experience you bring to the proverbial table. Write it with a marketing perspective – clearly indicate you have what a prospective health organization wants. A profile is more forward-looking, whereas a summary takes more of an historical viewpoint. Look to the future when it comes to your therapy career.
   
• Education
  
  List degrees earned, schools attended, and graduation dates instead of dates of attendance. If you’ve graduated in the past 3 years, be sure to include your clinical rotations in the format: unit, organization and dates. You can also include a line with non-identifying patient information such as gender, age, and presenting condition to further highlight your therapy experience.
   
• Certifications
  
  List certifications and related designations earned, the issuing body, and completion dates as well as expiration dates.
   
• Experience
  
  Highlight positions held in reverse chronological order. Include dates of employment and the corresponding health organization names and locations. Format according to personal preference but keep in mind that bulleted statements are easier to scan quickly by the human eye, whereas your talents can get lost in paragraph-style entries.
  
  When discussing experience, stay within 3-5 statements; otherwise you risk trying to “say everything” which is counter-productive. Use this formula for all statements: Action Word + Detail + Impact. Quantify and/or indicate the value of your actions and tasks. Examples: accuracy rates, beds per shift, time frames, discharge efficiency, etc. Look at each bulleted statement and think about applicable metrics. Too many therapists list an action word along with a detail, and then stop. Follow the formula through to a powerful finish.
   
• Other experience
  
  This category is more likely to be used by new therapy grads. You need only go back 5-10 years. Even if your prior work history wasn’t in a therapy role, you still need to list your job titles, demonstrate dates of employment and provide the employer names. Briefly discuss universal skills such as how you worked independently or as part of a team, communication and problem-solving skills, customer relations, remained cool under pressure, etc.
   
• Therapy continuing education
  
  List most recent events and work backwards in reverse chronological order. Indicate the course title, seminar, conference, etc. along with the provider name and date of completion. List anything you’ve completed within the past 3 years to show professional currency and relevancy. Indicate number of hours completed per year as appropriate.
  
  For professional memberships and affiliations it is best to list current memberships. You can indicate length of membership, i.e. 2007 – current. If it’s important to list a lapsed membership on your resume, renew it first.
   
• Computer skills
  
  List any medical-related software with which you are familiar or proficient with, as well as MS Office Suite (2003 and/or 2007) and other relevant programs and electronic, handheld documentation tools.
   
• Volunteer experience
  
  List any healthcare-related or other relevant volunteer activities that show off your caregiving skills and traits or attributes.
   
• References
  
  Do not list your references on your resume unless they are specifically requested. Even then, your references deserve a page of their own. To be safe, have 5-6 references identified and focus on those individuals that can and will positively attest to your therapy skills.

Do you have any resume tips that you would like to share? All thoughts and suggestions are welcomed from therapy professionals, recruiters, and others. Thank you!

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