Occupational Therapy Assistant Resume Sample

Job hunting as an occupational therapy assistant is surprisingly difficult. You can have a long line of former patients who appreciated your work, but if you can’t prove your skills on paper, you’ll lose out on job opportunities.

A strong resume can showcase the work you’ve done, demonstrate your skills, and make it clear that you’re the best candidate for any position.

These three tips will help you write a great occupational therapy assistant resume that will increase your chances of landing an interview:

1. Highlight your occupational therapy assistant resume skills

When you’re helping people re-learn basic life skills, employers need to know you have the right skills to treat patients effectively. The last thing they want is an employee who could mishandle a patient’s treatment.

Assure hiring managers that you have the basic skills needed for the job by writing a strong resume skills section.

Use these top occupational therapy assistant skills on your resume to show that you know how to administer top-notch care:

• Accounting and billing software
• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, Google Workspace)
• Medical software (BrainTrain Captain’s Log)
• Time management skills
• Communication skills
• Problem-solving
• Decision making
• Teaching
• Persuasion
• Management skills

As occupational therapy is a patent-facing field, your soft skills are usually the most important. Don’t forget to include some hard skills, though, to show that you understand the most commonly used software in the field.

All of these abilities go hand-in-hand with the knowledge you’ve earned from your certification program. So be sure to also list your certification in the education section of your resume.

2. Open with a strong occupational therapy assistant resume summary

Think of a resume summary as your application’s elevator pitch. It’s a short section at the top of your resume that concisely sums up your qualifications and experience so a busy hiring manager can quickly understand who you are and why you’re the best candidate for the job.

A convincing resume summary can help you immediately stand out from other applicants. Most employers only spend a few seconds on each resume, so with a summary, they know that you’re qualified without having to search the entire page for the information they need.

Here’s an example of what a strong occupational therapist resume summary looks like in action:

Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with 8+ years of experience in long-term and acute care settings. Seeking to pursue career opportunities in a specialized rehabilitation setting with a focus on advancing occupational procedures and delivering competent care to patients.

Notice that with just a few seconds of reading, you know that the candidate is certified, deeply experienced, that they have the skills to help both long-term and acute care patients.

3. Include occupational therapy assistant-related keywords in your resume

Larger employers often use software called an applicant tracking system (ATS) to automatically filter through candidates by scanning their resumes for specific keywords. What that means for you is that if you don’t have keywords on your resume that the employer is looking for, there’s a high chance your application won’t make it through to the interview phase.

To find out what these keywords are, search through the job description for the position you want. Take note of any words that pop up repeatedly or are mentioned in the “Requirements” section. Then, work these keywords into your work experience section or your skills section.

Not only will this help you get past the ATS, but you’ll also appear tailor-made for the position, which is the fastest way to impress any hiring manager.

However, if you’re not sure what keywords a specific employer is looking for, here are some general occupational therapy assistant keywords that will make your resume pop:

• COTA (certified occupational therapy assistant)
• Occupational therapy
• Rehabilitation
• Clinic
• Hospital
• Treatment planning
• Long-term care
• Acute care
• Patient care
• Interventional
• Geriatric
• Pediatrics
• Patient education
• Healthcare management

With these occupational therapy assistant keywords, you’ll be able to get your resume past the ATS and impress people to get the interview for your next job.