Medical jobs are some of the most rewarding careers out there. A career in healthcare can cover anything from working in a nursing home, a pharmacy, or even in a surgery. Due to the variety of positions offered in the medical sector, the average salary varies greatly. According to labor statistics, this could be as low as $20,000 but depending on the job could be as high as $300,000 a year!
Seasoned medical assistant with more than 10 years of experience providing exceptional care to people across a wide variety of units. An inspirational leader dedicated to motivating and guiding teams to exceed patient-care objectives, enhancing satisfaction and supporting extensive healthcare improvements.
Work History
Medical Assistant at Ascension Health
21/03/09 - Present
Collaborated with healthcare and medical professionals to devise strategies to provide patient-centered areas to improve the environment for inpatients and families.
Responsible for the front desk including answering phones, scheduling appointments, greeting patients and ordering supplies as needed.
Conducted tests for patients and clients, including urine, vision and hearing.
Education
American School of Nursing & Medical Careers, Manchester (2001-2007) Maple Leaf Academy, (1997-2001)
These jobs are highly varied and cover a wide range of essential skills in medicine, and this results in a wide range of specific degrees and paths to apply to the specific niche in healthcare. Ultimately, this results in a highly competitive career path.
Don’t worry though, we’ve got great news. Throughout this article, we will be providing advice into all of the elements of healthcare resume writing to help job seekers score their dream job by writing excellent resumes for medical.
The average annual salary for a job in the medicine sector varies massively depending on which career path you choose. Here is an overview of average annual salaries in the USA for a variety of medicinal career experience levels based on labor statistics:
Medical Assistant - $34,700
Registered Nurse - $66.000
Pediatrician - $155,000
Physicians/Doctor - $202,000
General Surgeon - $292,000 (Payscale.com)
Medical assistants and assistant nurses could earn as little as $20,000, whilst doctors or a general surgeon could earn over $300,00 per year! Here are a few examples of different medicine employers and their average annual incomes:
Nursing Assistant at Ascension Health, $31,000
Registered Nurse at Texas Health Resources, $71,000
Pediatrician at ABC Pediatrics, $155,000
General Physician/Doctor at Kaiser Permanent, $235,000
Medical Resume Examples
Hopefully this basic sample medicine resume sample has helped you get started, but if you want to see more just like it then check out our resume examples written by career experts!
How to create a resume for medicine
It’s essential to create a personalized resume that demonstrates passion and relevant experience in the specific position you are applying for and avoid generalized resume content. The resume should be clear, concise and to the point, in addition to providing the following information:
Your resume should summarise skills that are relevant to the role you are applying for
Avoid using general terms that are relevant to the field as a whole
Write an accompanying cover letter and explain exactly why you are applying for this position
????Expert Tip Employers will often use automatic recognition software that will filter out any resumes that do not include certain keywords or include irrelevant abilities. This is why it is essential to actively take note of the skills required on job descriptions and make sure you mention them in your resume!
The layout of the Medical Resume
There are several different ways that you can approach the layout of your resume, but one of the most popular and effective methods is reverse-chronological order. This essentially means that you begin by listing your most recent experiences in the medicine sector, saving valuable reading time for the manager who will immediately see your most recent career experience.
The structure of the Medical Resume
A career in the medical sector can offer very practical and hard-skill-based job opportunities, in which case the functional resume may be an appropriate option. On the other hand the combination resume structure is a combination of both a functional and reverse-chronological resume which can often be more useful if you are not highly experienced in the medical sector yet.
If you are ever stuck with structuring your resume, check out some of our templates of HR approved medical resume samples on our resume builder website to point you in the right direction.
Start with the header of the Medical Resume
The header of your resume is one of the first things a manager will see, so it is important to write this methodically in the right format. This should include all essential information about yourself including your full name, current position or area of expertise, contact information and anything else you deem essential to your application.
Example of a good header
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Tiffany Moorhead
General Physician
987-654-321
tiffanycmoorhead@gmail.com
Lexington, Kentucky
linkedin.com/in/tiffanymoorhead
Example of a bad header
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Tiffany Moorhead
General practitioner in many different sub-disciplines
987-654-321
Flat 345
Straford Park
40507
Brooklyn, New York
tiffanycmoorhead@gmail.com or tiffancycmoorhead@hotmail.com
https://twitter.com/tiffanymoorhead
Is a photo required in Medical Resumes?
A medical profession is not based around physical appearance and therefore including a photo can look unprofessional and cause the manager to question why it was included in the first place. Including a photo when unnecessary can potentially be detrimental to your job success, with 80% of US companies stating that they would not consider an applicant who had a photo in their resume.
Choosing your Medical Resume Title
It is always very important that you choose your medical resume title very carefully and ensure that it is tailored specifically to the position that you are applying for. If your medical resume title is too vague and general, this could appear as a serious red flag to potential prospective employers and leave a negative and lasting impression!
Professional summary for Medical Resumes
Writing a professional overview/profile for your medicinal resume allows you to outline your key abilities, experience and achievements that are relevant to the position.
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Accomplished Family Doctor with 5 years of health care experience and administrative expertise including using medical software packages for scheduling patients and recording information.
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Dedicated family doctor with plenty of experience in working with families including talking with them, helping them and making sure everyone is happy.
If you already have experience in the area you are applying for, your professional summary is a great place to mention this. However, if you have recently completed training and currently lack professional experience, it might be worth considering the resume objective format.
Work Experience in the Medical Resume
One of the most important parts of your medical resume will be the employment history section. This is where you should include all relevant career experiences and demonstrate to your potential prospective employer what you are capable of!
If the first thing your employer reads in your education section is basic training when you recently worked as a professional physician, they could be misled into thinking you are not qualified for the position. This is why using the reverse-chronological resume format as a general rule is usually an excellent idea when writing your medicine resume.
Introduction of the Professional Experience section
It will always be essential to start your professional experience section with an introduction. The medical sector is a highly practical one and prospective employers will expect you to have some form of prior professional experience. This is your opportunity to provide an overview of this before describing specific experiences.
Describe your professional experiences on your Medical Resume
When you write your professional experience section for your medicine resume, you will have to begin by stating the job title and the place of employment. For each individual position, you should include around five bullet-pointed sentences that provide information regarding your responsibilities on the position.
Examples of professional experiences for Medical Resume beginner/junior
Nursing AssistantHames Health.
Engaged in games on a daily basis to create positive moods, improve memory and provide entertainment.
Assisted patients with daily living needs, such as bathing, dressing, and exercising
Made notes in patient charts and communicated updates of patient status to the interdisciplinary care team.
Examples of work experience for a Senior Medical Resume.
Pediatric Nurse, California Pediatric Surgery.
Acted as instructor and supervisor to a large body of staff in the pediatric unit.
Took part in various wellness workshops to enhance nursing abilities and knowledge.
Collaborated with health care teams to create appropriate patient care plans
Leadership experience
Education in the Medical Resume
Educational background in the healthcare sector is almost always essential, especially when it comes to highly-skilled and practical positions. Use this section to outline any qualifications in reverse-chronological order. If you have a university degree in a specific medicine area, this should be the key focus of this section.
Should you start with education or work experience in a Medical Resume?
Choosing whether to start with your educational background or work experience will depend greatly on the experience level required for the job. Generally speaking it is better to start your medical resume with your employment history. This is because most jobs in the medicine sector will require relevant work experience, so this is what your potential employer will be looking for.
How to properly list your education in a Medical Resume
It is essential to include all relevant information regarding your medical qualifications. You should include the name of the university or school, high school diploma certification, qualification and the amount of years spent studying. For many other jobs it may not be necessary to include the grades or GPA that you achieved through your years of study, but for a medical industry resume this is often essential.
Example of the Education section of a Medical Resume
Nursing Care
University of Illinois
2011-2015
GPA: 3.9
If you want to see more medical resume examples to help you structure your educational history properly, check out our examples for guidance!
Skills to put in the resume for a Medical Resume
An additional section that you should always include on your medical resume is a skill section. Job application websites will use ATS systems which will automatically read through your resume to determine if it includes any mention of the required medical skills, filtering out any resumes that do not appear relevant on first glance. You can use this to your advantage by analyzing the required abilities and including these keywords in your skills section.
What are the main skills sought for a Medical Resume?
The abilities required to work in the medical field will vastly depend on the experience level required and the job that you are applying for. You can list these medical skills in this section through bullet points, leaving some space to separate different types of abilities. These examples will give you a better understanding:
What skills for a junior in the medical field?
Patient Care
Communication
Health education
Medical imaging
Maintaining medical records
What skills for a qualified senior in the medical field?
Long-term care
A certified medical assistant
Expertise in medical billing
Wound care specialist
Clinical training
Leadership skills
However, if you need some additional guidance throughout your job search then you can check out our sample medical resume examples for inspiration. The resume samples come in all sorts of varieties so you can be sure to find a template that will help you!
Write the Ideal Resume Hook for a Medical Resume
An employer spends less than a minute looking at a resume, so writing a strong opening statement is essential to ensure they spend more time reading your entire medical resume. A resume hook is a short and snappy paragraph that summarises the value and experience that you will bring to the new job.
Example of a tagline for a junior employee
Quick-thinking nurse apprentice with 2 years of experience in care homes, delivering top-quality patient care by closely monitoring vital signs of mental deterioration and collaborating with doctors.
Sample tagline for a senior level Medical Worker
Accomplished general practitioner with 25 years of healthcare experience and administrative expertise including using healthcare software for scheduling meetings and recording information.
Additional Headings for your Medical Resume
It is important to customize your resume so that it gives an excellent overview of why you are fit for the job in addition to any other relevant professional accomplishments. Depending on your circumstances, there may be additional headings that you should include on your medical resume to ensure that you stand out amongst the crowd.
Computer skills and certifications for medical resumes
Whilst it is easy to think that computers are not really needed in the healthcare sector, this could not be wrong. Almost every medical field profession requires a lot of use of computers and therefore you should have an additional section for any relevant computer experience. This could include:
Personal data entry and management
Experience in medical intranet systems
Excellent understanding of digital communication
Strong grasp on digital data protection
Data analysis and illustration software
Interests for Medical Resumes
Including an interests, section is almost always a bad idea as it can distract your potential employers and the ATS system from the most relevant information. Furthermore, it can often come across as informal and suggest that these interests could be distracting.
Languages in medical resumeWhen applying for medical job titles it will always be essential that you are fluent in English. This may need to be proven through a literacy test or through evidence of further qualifications.
It will be necessary to provide evidence of your language abilities if requested. You can make this clear by providing the following:
For English, take the IELTS or TOEFL (with a 30-point or higher score).
Obtain a Goethe Zertifikat for German (65 or above)
DELF for French (with a score of 70% and above)
Summary: key points for writing a perfect Medical Resume
As a summary, let's take a look at some final key points for writing the perfect medical resume that will get to the top of the pile.
Formatting your resume in a clear and concise manner is essential. You can always take a look at the medical resume template if you get stuck.
Remember that managers will usually automatically filter out CVs through ATS systems that do not use keywords and abilities listed in the job description.
Never submit a generalized resume. Every resume should be customized for the job as this will show high effort and avoid any irrelevant information in the resume.
Leave yourself plenty of time to write your resume as you should never rush writing it. This will be clear to the manager and can be a serious red flag!
Finally, if you ever get stuck and need to take a look at some more example resumes written for medical professionals, check out our medical resume examples to refresh your memory!
Write a cover letter that goes with your Medical Resume
Despite the fact that cover letters are not always required for job applications, it can be a very good idea to write one even if one is not requested. This is your opportunity to write a supporting document that goes into more detail about why you want the job, what you will bring to the company and what skill sets you have.
Frequently Asked Questions for Medical Resumes
What should a medical resume look like?
A medical resume should be presented as a word-processed document and generally no longer than one page.
What is a good objective for a medical resume?
Your medical resume should provide an overview of your work history, abilities, education and other qualifications relevant to the position you are applying for.
What skills should I put on my resume for healthcare?
You should include any abilities relevant to job descriptions including a combination of both soft and hard skills.
What should I put on my resume for the hospital?
Your resume contents for a hospital job will depend on the role - if it is an admin job then focus on soft skills, but if it is a practical job then focus on hard skills.
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