Occupational Therapy Resume Examples to Help You This Year

Updated September 2, 2022554

Write a stand-out occupational therapy resume that highlights all your medical skills to help you get a physical therapist or occupational therapist job.

Occupational Therapy Resume Example

Occupational therapists (OC) care for injured or disabled patient needs to help them bounce back into their daily living routine. They create treatment plans that help patients with physical or mental disabilities or severe injuries. Let’s take a closer look at how you can craft the perfect resume for your next occupational therapist job search.

Jobs That Can Use Occupational Therapy Resumes

When you write an occupational therapy resume, you probably want to get a job as one. You could also apply to become a physical therapist. Although physical therapy requires different training, if your experience proves that you have a good understanding of what the job description requires, it can be easy to make the jump. You can also use the occupational therapy resume template to apply to most other kinds of healthcare jobs.

Here are a few other jobs that will use an occupational therapy resume:

Psychologist
Mental health counselor
Health technician
Teacher
Sports coach
Life coach

Important Elements for Occupational Therapy Resumes

The structure of your occupational therapy resume should be as follows:

Header

The header of your resume should contain all your contact information. This includes your full name, city, state, phone number and email address. You can also include your professional social media links, such as your LinkedIn profile.

Resume Summary

The resume summary is a two-to-three-sentence paragraph that goes over your unique skills and work experience. You should also mention any certifications and achievements you’ve earned. Hiring managers will be more likely to hire a certified therapist over a non-certified one.

Skills

The skills section of your resume can be a short bullet point list. Knowing how to develop treatment plans, acute care and making diagnoses are excellent hard skills for an occupational therapist. Communication and problem-solving skills are also good examples of soft skills to add.

Work Experience

It’s important to add previous health care work, such as pediatric work, outpatient evaluations or discharge planning to your work experience section. You don’t need years of experience to become an occupational therapist. There are plenty of entry-level occupational therapy assistant roles out there.

Under each job title, you should add a bullet point list of four to five duties in each position. Your previous jobs should also be placed in reverse-chronological order so recruiters can track your work history and overall career growth.

Education

Many occupational therapists have a master’s in occupational therapy. In the education section, you should also include any certifications you’ve earned. Many master’s programs require you to pass the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) exam before you’re even allowed to practice.

Occupational Therapy Resume Examples You Can Use

When writing an effective occupational therapy resume, presenting yourself as the very best candidate is key. This requires several marketable skills that can shift over to many other careers.

ResumeNerd can provide you with great resume writing tips for a career change, as well as a resume builder to help you get started.

Tips for Creating Your Occupational Therapy Resume

Need a little extra help with writing your occupational therapist resume? Check out these professional resume writing tips:

Study the job description

Most potential employers won’t have the time to look through a bunch of job applications for one position. They instead run them through an applicant tracking system (ATS), which scans every application for keywords pulled from the job description. The more words you add, the better your chances of a potential employer seeing your resume. For an occupational therapist resume, you should include plenty of health care skills and experiences that match up with those listed in the description.
Proofread

OCs are responsible for creating detailed treatment plans and looking over medical records. Noticing mistakes can be a valuable skill to have. If your application has way too many errors, the recruiter might just toss it all away.
Use a resume builder tool, then customize

Resume builder tools are fine to help you get started. They contain plenty of resume samples and examples that you can use. However, that doesn’t mean copying the template’s content is a good idea. Taking the time to customize your resume for the position will help you stand out way more.
Always be honest

Becoming an occupational therapist (or even occupational therapy assistant) requires certain medical knowledge. Lying about your certifications or abilities can put a patient at risk of more harm.

FAQ: Occupational Therapy Resume Examples

Do I need to submit a cover letter with occupational therapy resumes?

The cover letter gives you a leg up over your competition. This letter gives you more room to discuss your work history and skills at length to convince the hiring managers that you’re the best fit for the job.

Can I get an occupational therapist job with no experience?

OCs need some kind of patient care training to be considered for the role. Professional experience in the field is a must. This can include internship experience and volunteer experience in hospitals if you don’t have any health care work history built up yet.

Is it a good idea to change my occupational therapy resume for every job posting?

Your skills and experience won’t change much from resume to resume. However, customizing your resume shows that you care about the position. Pulling keywords from the job description and adding them to your resume can also help you land an occupational therapy job.

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About The Author

Cindi Cervone Carlson

Cindi Cervone Carlson is a Senior Vice President for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Cindi is responsible for developing, delivering, and implementing a dynamic, world-class organization dedicated to delivering outplacement consulting, training, support, and executive coaching. Cindi started her career at Challenger as a client who had lost her job. Over the past nine years, she has risen from an entry-level, part-time professional to Senior Vice President.