Occupational Therapy Resume Examples to Help You This Year

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.