Stunning Physician Assistant Resume Examples for This Year

Updated March 31, 2023908

Learn how to write a physician assistant resume highlighting your health care expertise and certifications to impress hiring managers.

Physician Assistant Resume Example

A physician assistant also called a medical assistant or physician associate will possess a wide variety of medical care skills, including working with patients’ medical histories, performing physical exams and creating care plans. It helps to know where and which of these skills and experiences should be placed on a resume. Let’s take a closer look into how you can give your physician assistant resume a much-needed boost with these resume writing tips.

What To Highlight in a Physician Assistant Resume

Your professional resume needs to highlight your health care expertise and certifications. Physician assistant jobs will require you to hold specific certifications before you are allowed to practice. Previous health care experience will also make you seem like a more valuable candidate.

Structure of a Physician Assistant Resume

The best resumes tend to follow the same crucial structure:

Header with all your contact information
Resume summary or objective
Skills
Work experience
Education and certifications

Header

The header of your resume should contain your contact information so that hiring managers will know the best ways to contact you. It should include your full name, current address, phone number, email address and professional social media links, such as your LinkedIn profile.

Resume summary or objective

The resume summary is for professionals with some experience and will go over your best achievements and highest metrics. This should only be a two- to three-sentence paragraph. However, if you have little to no experience, you should opt for a resume objective where you will showcase your skills and indicate any intentions and goals you hope to accomplish in the new role.

Skills

The skills section should be made up of both hard and soft skills. Hard skills for a physician assistant should center around the patient care duties, such as running diagnostic tests, knowing how to complete physical examinations and even medical skills, like suturing or providing x-rays.

Soft skills can help you better connect with your patients and the physician you’re shadowing. Communication, teamwork and time management are all excellent soft skills to place on a physician assistant’s resume.

Work Experience

Physician assistants are often fully immersed in patient care and aid physicians in carrying out diagnostic tests and examinations. Your previous work history should reflect that you can perform these critical procedures or care. If you are new to the field, you can also add internship or volunteer experience.

Education

Physician assistants will typically require a master’s degree in physician assistant studies. Suppose you have a specific medical focus, such as pediatric care, family practice medicine, internal medicine, oncology, orthopedic care, urgent care or several other fields. If that’s the case, you must also emphasize that in your education section.

Ensure you earn and mention your Physician Assistant Certification from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.

Do’s and Don’ts for a Physician Assistant Resume

If you’re still having trouble knowing what to add to your professional resume, check out these essential do’s and don’ts:

Do:

Discuss years of experience. A physician assistant often performs other primary care duties, such as administering emergency medicine if the physician is not available. Recruiters will be far more likely to hire a candidate who demonstrates that they are familiar with these procedures as opposed to someone who has no clinical experience whatsoever.
Study the job description. The job description contains several important keywords you can use throughout your resume. Most recruiters will run your resume through an applicant tracking system (or ATS) to scan your resume for these keywords. The more keywords you include, the better your chances are of being noticed and even hired.

Proofread. Medical care often requires strict attention to detail. Your application will be immediately tossed out if you send in a resume full of typos or errors. Take the time to look over your application for these errors beforehand.

Don’t:

Copy and paste from a resume builder tool. Though these tools are excellent at providing physician assistant resume samples, resume templates and examples, you can’t just copy and paste your resume directly from it. Resume templates are great starting guides, but they shouldn’t be the final draft you send. Recruiters will appreciate the time you take to customize each resume you create from a resume template instead.

Be afraid to use bullet points. Bullet point lists can help condense your skills and work experience into easier-to-read tidbits. They can also help you save space on a resume that should be no longer than a single page.

Forget to follow up. When you send in a resume, it might take some time before you hear back from recruiters. In that case, you might want to send a follow-up email reminding them of your unique skills and work history.

FAQs: Physician Assistant Resume Example

Do I need to include a cover letter with a physician assistant application?

Yes, you should always write a cover letter with every job application you create. The cover letter allows you to explain further why your skills and experience make you the best fit for any physician assistant position.

How can I write a physician assistant resume without a lot of experience?

Physician assistants are considered entry-level jobs in the health care field. As such, it is expected that you won’t have much experience to list.

Fortunately, you can add critical internship or volunteer experience instead of any work experience. You can also list relevant physician assistant studies in the education section as well.

How do I change my physician assistant resume to apply to different jobs?

You should always customize your resume for each job you submit a resume to. You can do this by carefully reading the job description and highlighting the skills and experience the recruiter is looking for. You can then use these keywords in your resume to stand out as the best candidate for the 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.