Tips for Writing a Stellar Veterinary Resume

A resume is a key component to applying for jobs, but they are not always easy to write. What all should you include in it, and how do you emphasize your skills and strengths can be difficult to determine. This is the first thing a prospective employer will see about you, so it is important to make your resume stand out. Here are some tips for putting together a great resume.

Contact Information

Your name, phone number, and email should all be at the top of your resume, in a clear, easy to read font. Make sure you have a professional voice mail greeting too, as calling a prospective employee and getting an odd greeting, like a fake answer greeting, can give them the wrong impression of you.

To make your resume stand out, try making your name and phone number a different color than the standard black ink used in resumes. This will help you stand out as someone different from everyone else applying.

Employment Objective

The next section of a resume usually displays your employment objective, which can be one of the more tricky sections in a resume. If you know exactly what you are looking for in your job opportunities, including might help you gain the position. However, this may also be detrimental if you are looking for a specific niche position and the clinic you are applying to does not have that available. Try not to make your objective sound too broad but leave enough room in it that a prospective employer can get an idea of what you are wanting.

Summary

Some choose to include a summary next, to give a basic overview of their qualifications, experience, and skills, so the employer does not have to read the entire resume to gain this knowledge. If you choose to include this, do not go over three sentences. This information is highly detailed later in your resume, so you can be brief in this section.

Experience

This section covers your employment history for at least the last 10 years. Begin with your most recent job and work backward from there. For each job, list your job title, the employer's name, the dates of your employment, and your job duties. If there are any specific accomplishments from the job, include those as well.

Education

For listing your degrees, do what you did for the experience section and begin with your most recent degree, moving backward from there. List your major and any minors you obtained, along with any certifications or licenses, and special training. If you took any specialized classes that are relevant to the position, include those as well. For example, if you are applying at a clinic that only treats dogs and cats, you may not need to include your studies into livestock medicine, since it may not be likely to come up in that job.

If you had any honors or won scholarships, include those in this section too.

Special Skills

If you have any special skills, like you studied a specific field, or mastered a specific surgical technique, those should be included here. This is also where you can list your technical skills.

Additional Information

Create a section for any memberships in professional associations, community service groups, and scientific organizations.

If you have specific research interests, that should have a section too, along with grants you have received, published journal articles you wrote or contributed to, and any presentations you have given at conferences.  

If you have any experience volunteering, include that information too, it can help show your prospective employer that you care about helping animals.

Additional Tips

Try to keep your page to one to two pages. It can be hard to rein it in sometimes but giving a prospective employer a six-page resume is excessive, and it is unlikely to be read in full.

Make sure everything is written clearly, yet briefly. Try to avoid using statements like "excelled at," because they can be seen as too over the top.

Make sure you are always completely honest about your background in your resume. If you lie about experience or give your credentials a little "padding," and the employer finds out, it can cost you the job, even if it is years after you were hired. This can hurt your chances of working in the industry in general later on.