What to Include on Your Medical Assisting Resume

Medical job applications are a bit different than applications in other industries. Like all other job applications, however, the most important part is the applicant’s resume. Medical resumes typically have more specialized, thorough skills sections, and because healthcare employers put more value on work experience, references are extremely important. There are many variables in medical resumes depending on what specialization position or field one is going into and to what kind of medical facility you’re applying, among other factors. To give students in EBI’s Medical Assisting Program insight into the medical application process, the following is a review of what aspiring medical assistants should include on their professional resume.

Contact Information

First thing’s first. At the top of your resume, where the eye goes first, list your name and contact information. It’s standard to list your home address, phone number, and email address. Without this information, the rest of your resume is basically pointless.

Work Experience/Accreditations

Accreditations and work experience are the meat of any medical assisting resume. These are the things employers will focus on most. Accreditations should come first if applicable. Listing a CMA (certified medical assistant) accreditation, or any other sort of certification, is the most important thing you can put on a non-physician medical resume. Accreditations prove to employers that the applicant is qualified and has taken initiative to achieve certification after his or her education/training.

For recent graduates of a medical assisting program, or anyone entering the medical field in the medical assisting position, certificates and accreditations are more important than work experience. These aspiring medical assistants do not commonly have much work experience in healthcare of any type. If the applicant does have medical work experience, he or she should absolutely list it after the accreditations section.

 For those with zero work experience, it is best advised to list any kind of managerial or administrative work experience if possible. If not, the applicant should simply stay away from listing completely unrelated work experience, such as retail or other service jobs. The only exception to this is if the applicant has worked in retail or service position for a long period of time and has a close professional relationship with his or her supervisor.

Education

After contact info, accreditations and work experience comes education. For those who did not attend a college or university, listing high school education is adequate. For students in EBI’s Medical Assisting program and programs like it, be sure to include the following:

• Start date and completion date
• Certificates earned during program
• Skills mastered during program

While it is important to list skills, and even courses, the education section should be a succinct as possible. No employer wants to read a full paragraph. Employers mainly look to see that the applicant has graduated or completed the program and that the applicant’s education was fairly recent.

References

Here is where medical resumes differ from other resumes. Healthcare employers place enormous value on an applicant’s references. All medical assistant applicants should have at least two medical professionals listed as references. Practicing physicians are ideal, but other solid medical references could be professors/instructors, experienced working medical assistants, experienced nurses, and any current medical administrative professional. Reference information should include:

• Full name
• Current occupation
• Relation (how you know them)
• Email address or phone number

Optional Statements

Some job hunters prefer to include a small blurb about themselves, about their employment goals, or about their skills. This is totally acceptable if the applicant keeps the blurb brief, succinct, and easily readable. Employers won’t want to read a full six sentence paragraph with run-on sentences that doesn’t give them any new information about the applicant. What they would read is a short two sentence statement that directly relates to their employment potential. Long explanations and descriptions about the applicant’s life, career goals, passions and values are better suited for a cover letter (which ever job seeker should have).

With these key resume elements in mind, any aspiring medical assistant should have no problem forming a professional resume that will catch the interest of healthcare employers. For further reference, medical assistant resume examples can be found here. Happy job hunting!