5 Physical Therapist Resume Examples Built For 2021

Why this resume works

• If you take away one thing from this resume guide, let it be this: metrics are key.
  • As a physical therapist, you need to include metrics on patient follow-through (remember, this is a common problem in PT), specific numbers on your patients per hour efficiency, the number of treatment modalities you provide, and more. 
    • Proving that you can encourage patients to follow through with treatment plans, therefore reducing the number of sessions they will need, is one of the top things PT hiring managers look for. 
    • Not to mention, hiring managers spend extraordinarily little time looking at your physical therapist resume. It may be as little as 6 seconds! Numbers will draw their eyes to your resume and get them to absorb the most pertinent information about you.
• This physical therapist resume opted to include a resume objective. They are not always necessary, but we recommend them if you just finished your DPT or are looking for a career change.
  • Remember: your resume objective needs to be specialized for every job you apply to. In this PT resume, the applicant included the specific job title they are applying to, skills mentioned in the job description, and the specific company name.

Why this resume works

• We always recommend listing your work experiences in reverse chronological order, with your most recent experiences towards the top of the page. But this is even more critical if you have been working in physical therapy for several years. 
  • Hiring managers are reviewing your sports physical therapist resume for just a few seconds, so you should aim to highlight the most recent, most impressive jobs you have held.
• Think about relevancy. You should include only your most recent 3-4 work experiences on your resume. 
  • As a physical therapist, you will have completed at least one clinical internship after completion of your advanced degree. Though it’s relevant to include this information on your resume early in your career, it’s unnecessary to include it when you’re years into your professional career. Save this information for an interview.

Why this resume works

• If you are a physical therapist with limited experience, you should consider adding relevant internship, volunteer, or even DPT school projects to your work experiences. 
  • You should aim to have close to 6 bullet points for each work experience when you do not have decades of job titles. But remember to avoid the temptation to fill empty space. There is no need to use filler words when you can provide meaningful, quantified bullet points instead. 
    • If you are having a hard time summarizing your work, think about how many pieces of equipment you have received training on, if/how many/how frequently you participated in training events or administrative work, and what types of therapeutic modalities you have learned to use.
• Notice that this physical therapy student resume easily fills a whole page, even with just two work experiences. Use vertical and horizontal margins, fonts, and font size to create a resume with just the right amount of blank space.
  • If you’re not certain on how to do this, be sure to use this resume checker to properly format your resume in seconds.

Why this resume works

• Notice that this experienced physical therapist resume is packed full of information without being overwhelming on the eye. Using quantifiable metrics will save you space and provide a succinct demonstration of your skills. 
  • As an experienced physical therapist, you should aim to provide metrics on organization, patient interactions (surveys or reviews), efficiency in both patient healing and appointment length, specialties, evaluation techniques, and treatment methods.
• Emphasize the management skills you practice as a senior physical therapist. You may still perform more routine tasks carried out by lower-level physical therapists, but you should focus on the increased responsibility. 
  • Leave the more standard PT responsibilities for your older work experiences. By doing this you will highlight growth and upper management skills.

Why this resume works

• Remember in school when professors pleaded that you read the directions on a test? Well, you should make sure to heed that advice now, too. 
  • Applicants are often so anxious to complete their applications that they miss critical information in the job description.
  • The job description is one of the best ways you can ensure you get an interview. The company is telling you exactly what they are looking for.
    • Read through it several times to pinpoint the specific skills they’re looking for and find a way to incorporate them into your work experiences.
• You should also use the job description to write your resume skills. 
  • In fact, this section is the second most important section on your entire physical therapist assistant resume because it determines if people ever see your resume. 
  • That’s right. Because 200+ people apply for most physical therapy job postings, hiring managers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to search resumes for skills, automatically discarding applicants deemed not a good fit.