We have prepared a carefully curated guide that is the answer to all your queries, worries and questions regarding speech language pathologists resume. So let's dive in!👇
How to write a job winning SLP resume?
- Use bullet points
- Use past tense, third person language
- Avoid pronouns
- Use numbers and action verbs wherever possible
- Proofread your resume twice
- Use formal label for document: Your Name Resume
- Use compatible document format: Word or PDF
- Ensure accuracy of grammar, language and information
- Highlight your skills and experience
In addition to following these guidelines of professional resume writing, you need to do some research and also choose the right resume format.
You need to explore your role, responsibilities, job descriptions, potential employers and more to get some insight into the current trends and scenario of the job market. It will also help you figure out how to best present your profile in order to stand out and increase your chances of getting job offers.
After the research, you need to choose the right resume format. There are various resume formats such as functional for freshers, reverse chronological order for seasoned professionals and combination format for those looking for career change. Once you have decided the resume format, you can get to writing your speech language pathologist resume.
SLP resume header
- Your name: in a slightly bigger fonts (you can also include your name's pronunciation and your pronouns)
- Your headshot: your professional photograph taken in formal attire (not mandatory)
- Your contact number: your mobile phone number where you are available, mention it with area code
- Your email ID: your professional, formal email address
- Your LinkedIn profile link: if your profile is carefully curated and you are active on the platform (also any other social media profile links if you are active on them in professional capacity)
- Your home address: your brief home address (not mandatory)
Profile summary
To determine treatment plans or the disorders evaluation is easy when you can note the symptoms well and determine the in depth scenario (patient/clients' suffering and reason for it etc.).
Profile summary is also a little bit like that, it is the summation of symptoms to determine if you are a good fit for the position.
Hence your profile summary should be well written, it should have the highlight worthy aspects of your resume and profile. You should use bullet points no more than 5 and no less than 3. You should mention your role, your total years of experience with a little background.
Along with this information, you should talk about your most remarkable achievements and exceptional cases with a summary of your career so far. You can also mention what kind of opportunity you are looking for next and how you will use your skills, knowledge and experience so far, to provide the best services possible.
You may provide the services as a speech language pathologist to anyone, students, children, adults and they will have people in their environment that may reach out to you. For example, teachers of students or parents of children or spouses and friends or close people of adult clients may reach out to you to get some insight into how to be helpful and patient.
What this means is that you need incredible patience and ability to be compassionate, you might want to reflect the same on your resume.
Experience
Your experience section may have the experiences written in the reverse chronological order with highlighting the important experiences of your field.
You should use the bullet points to describe the details. You should mention your job title, full name of the employer and your employment period.
In your experience description, you should mention all your usual job responsibilities and also your notable performances, the exceptional diagnosis and treatment plans. You should reflect your knowledge and skills along with your learning ability. You should talk about all the job duties no matter how small because it will reflect you as a thorough person who pays attention to the detail with passion.
You can also talk about exceptional cases that you performed well with such as autism cases or cases where disorders diagnosis was difficult to determine but you managed it well. You should showcase your ability to provide all the relevant services and highlight your field experience to create a picture of a seasoned professional.
Education
When you are going through the various job ads, you will find that your role requires a specific education level. Your education needs to be relevant and at the level that is required.
You need to mention your degree, your education institute (schools, colleges) from where you acquired the degree and the relevant subjects, your majors and any important minors.
Avoid including the year of these degrees as that can lead to bias on the recruiter's part, especially if you are a recent graduate, fresher or have up to 3 years of experience.
You can also mention any online course and programs you may have completed, any training you may have received as it can add more value to your resume.
Skills
As speech language pathologists, you need soft skills just as much as you need hard skills. Many other medical professionals such as radiology technologist or veterinary technician or pharmacy manager and such do not need soft skills as much as they need the hard skills because they do not have to interact with the ill patients as much as you or someone else such as nurses and doctors in OPD.
What this means is that you need to showcase your soft skills with as much importance as you do the hard skills. You would have mentioned all your soft skills, hard skills and any relevant technical skills in the other sections such as profile summary, experience and so on.
Skills section is the specific section just for skills where you list the skills in a few words. You need to mention the skills that are most important and are also your top strengths. You need to make sure that you pick up skills from the job descriptions as well.
Extra
Apart from the sections mentioned above, you can also add more separate sections for information that may be relevant.
For example, you can mention your language fluency and proficiencies which may open the doors for you because of patients and clients that speak different languages (apart from English or any one language that may be your first).
Multiple languages proficiencies can be very beneficial especially for your job because it expands your clients groups. You can indicate clearly the language you speak well along with the mention of proficiency.
Another important relevant information can be your personal interests that may be relevant, they may not be your pursuit in professional capacity however your personal interest may indicate knowledge and that may be valuable. For example, your personal interest in learning new languages, learning the origins of languages as well as history of languages and so on.
You can also talk about any relevant events, workshops, seminars, programs you may have attended or any courses you may have completed as well as any volunteer or informal work experience you may have that may be relevant for your role.
References
As a speech language pathologist you have the necessary skills, experience and knowledge but your profession is related to health, often children and young adults. Which means that your soft skills such as compassion, passion, interpersonal skills etc. are very important.
While you can mention those skills on your resume, a reassurance or your former employer or clients' positive feedback can go a long way for your chances of getting the new jobs. Soft skills are scrutinized because they are difficult to measure and prove, especially on a paper such as a resume.
You should mention any references you might have on your resume so that the recruiter can contact them and get positive feedback that substantiates your skills mentioned on the resume.
While mentioning the references, you should state the name, the connection you have with the person and the contact information so that the recruiter can reach out to them.
You should only mention the references that you know would provide the right feedback and positive feedback that would increase your chances of getting hired. And you also need to let the people know that you have mentioned them as references on your resume and they might receive few calls from the potential employers.
Cover letter
The cover letters are not always mandatory however including them in your job application can increase your chances of getting the jobs. Cover letter is an opportunity to include more keywords, describe your profile-experience, skills etc. in a better and more descriptive manner.
Cover letter is where you address the hiring managers directly and pitch yourself as the suitable candidate for the job. You can look up the hiring manager and personalize the letter as well.
You can attempt to reflect all your strengths and your passion, dedication and genuine interest to work with the particular employer organization or such.
You can also appeal to the recruiter to give you a chance to pitch your candidacy in an interview and provide assurance that the recruiter will not be disappointed after giving your application proper consideration.
Keywords
The relevant keywords to your job and role, responsibilities, job descriptions and the industry along with the potential employers, should be included throughout your resume.
The keywords are important because they reflect how thorough you are along with your skills and experience. Another more important reason to include keywords on your resume is to beat the ATS or the applicant tracking systems.
The ATS is an AI driven software used by the hiring managers to scan and filter the resumes they receive in order to shortlist them. Hiring managers receive hundreds and thousands of resumes for every job ad and going through them manually is tiresome as well time consuming.
This is why hiring managers across the globe and industries, use the applicant tracking systems to reduce their workload. These software work on the parameters set by the recruiters and the recruiters use the relevant keywords, the exact qualifications they are looking for as parameters, to filter the resumes.
You need to include the keywords throughout your resume to ensure your resume beats the ATS successfully and gets shortlisted. You need to use the keywords throughout the resume carefully, in a way that the information is sensible and meaningful.
Do not stuff the keywords anywhere in a random manner, it will compromise the readability and the recruiter will not be impressed, rather disappointed to see information that doesn't make sense.
- Communication disorders
- Speech language pathology
- Speech language pathologist
- Language therapy
- Treatment plans
- Speech
- Disorders
- Treatment
- Evaluation
- Autism
- Science
- Practices
- Parents
- Diagnoses
- Swallowing
- Coordinating
- Attention
- Monitor
Conclusion
- Use keywords
- Use the professional resume guidelines
- Choose the right format after research
- Explore various job descriptions
- Proofread your resume twice
- Highlight and reflect your most important skills and experience along with your passion
Now that you know all about writing a professional SLP resume, you may be looking for some resume examples and templates. We have a great collection of the same which you may want to take a look at. Good luck with the job hunt!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is a 2 page SLP resume acceptable?
Yes, the standard length for a professional SLP resume is 1 to 2 pages. Try not to extend your resume to a third page.
Which are the top skills for a SLP resume?
There are many soft skills and hard skills necessary for the role of SLP. Some of the top skills may be:
- Speech correction
- Language therapy
- Patient relations
- Articulation therapy
- Developing treatment plans
Is a cover letter necessary with a SLP resume?
Cover letters are usually optional however they add value to your job application and increase your chances of getting hired. We advise you to always enclose a cover letter along with your SLP resume.
