Receptionists are found anywhere that requires a patient and professional approach to keeping an office on schedule.
Whether you're interested in working in healthcare as a medical receptionist or as a front desk receptionist for an insurance firm, you must ensure sure your resume makes a great first impression.
Nothing is trickier than staring at a blank screen and waiting for inspiration to come for the perfect resume, but that's why we're here. We'll guide you through some of our top resume tips and make sure you have the tools and resources you need for success.
These receptionist resume samples have been used to land actual receptionist jobs in 2023, so they're a great place for you to get started.
Why this resume works
Why this resume works
Why this resume works
Why this resume works
Why this resume works
The key to creating an exceptional receptionist resume is choosing the perfect format. While the format might seem like an arbitrary decision, it’s what will ensure your resume is readable, logical, and complete. A resume with no format at all is likely to be disorganized, and a resume with the wrong format won’t highlight the right information. Your resume's structural foundation should allow all the other aspects to fall neatly into place.
You can format your resume by taking a few simple steps:
Before you can start writing your resume, you need to decide which particular format you’ll use. The three most popular resume formats in 2023 are reverse-chronological, functional, and combination/hybrid. Each of these styles has its benefits and disadvantages, and plenty of job candidates have found success using all of them.
For your receptionist resume, it’s usually best to go with the reverse-chronological format. Recruiters and hiring managers are primarily interested in your work experience, so it makes sense to make it easy to find what they’re looking for.
At the top of your resume, you need to lay out your name and contact information. This brief header will act as a business card, letting people know immediately who you are and how they can contact you. Stating this information clearly at the top of the page, as seen in our numerous resume samples, will make it easier for recruiters to spot and file your resume.
In 2023, the header for a receptionist resume should include:
To make it as easy as possible for recruiters to contact you, it’s important to make your header stand out. You can do this by increasing the font size for your name, using a splash of color, and/or bolding labels like “phone” and “email.”
We live in an increasingly technological world, something you’ll have to keep in mind when creating your receptionist resume. These days, many companies screen applicants using an applicant tracking system (ATS). This technology rapidly checks resumes for certain keywords before determining which candidates deserve a look from recruiters. For your resume to make the cut, you’ll need to consider how ATS works and what it looks for.
You can maximize your resume’s chances of finding favor with ATS by adopting a few key strategies. First of all, use an ATS-friendly file type like .pdf or .docx. Also, sprinkle some central keywords throughout the document, especially phrases that correspond to the soft and hard skills you’ve gained as a receptionist. Finally, make sure you avoid putting these keywords in the header where ATS might not find them.
Our convenient and easy resume builder takes all this into account, ensuring that your resume will be easy for recruiters to read.
If writing your receptionist resume seems a daunting task, you’re far from alone. Lots of people worry they’ll make costly mistakes and ruin their chances of landing the job. At this stage, it’s important to take a deep breath and acknowledge that you have what it takes to write a fantastic resume. All you need to do is take it step by step and use our resume builder. This methodical approach will take the stress out of the process while helping you create a resume that makes you stand out as a candidate.
Here’s what you’ll have to consider:
Some candidates place a brief description at the top of their resumes to draw immediate attention to their strongest qualities. These descriptions can take the form of an objective or a summary. A resume objective spells out the candidate’s career goals while a resume summary succinctly states a candidate’s qualifications. As you apply for receptionist positions, you’ll have to decide whether either of these options is right for your resume.
If you decide to include a summary or objective, you must make them clear and succinct. Here are two examples that would do a prospective candidate more harm than good:
These examples are boring and vague. They tell recruiters nothing about the candidate’s specific capabilities, and they take up valuable space while accomplishing nothing.
These examples, on the other hand, effectively convey talent, experience, and strength of purpose:
These successful examples include traits, skills, and goals. They’re also specific and concise, providing recruiters with as much information as possible in a small amount of space.
First and foremost, recruiters are going to be interested in your work history. Try to include 2-4 jobs relevant to the position you’re currently applying for; however, if you lack receptionist experience, you can include positions that may seem irrelevant. As you write your work experience, consider how you may have used receptionist skills in previous positions, and draft your bullet points with those duties and accomplishments in mind. If you’ve held many relevant positions throughout your career, then use your judgment to determine which jobs will most help your chances.
Beneath each job title in the work experience section, you should include 3-6 bullet points that briefly explain your obligations and accomplishments. You can employ some stylistic tricks to get the most out of these descriptions.
Start the bullet points with forceful action verbs in the past tense. This type of language demonstrates your tangible role with the company or organization. You can also leave out the personal pronoun “I.” The reader already knows you’re the subject of every sentence, and full sentences with a subject and a predicate take up too much space. If your bullet points are phrases rather than full sentences, make sure you don’t put a period at the end.
Don’t succumb to these sorts of bullet points:
These examples are vague and sloppy. They use too much space to say very little, and they don’t focus entirely on the candidate’s actions and obligations.
Here are some better examples:
The language in these bullet points is succinct and powerful, letting recruiters know your exact impact.
You should supplement the effective use of language with meaningful statistics. Quantifiable data will show recruiters that you’re not all talk. Any number that demonstrates the impact you had in your previous positions will go a long way toward convincing recruiters that you have what it takes to be a difference-maker.
While you don’t want numbers to overtake your entire resume, about 60% of your bullet points should employ the use of metrics.
The skills section of a resume gives you the chance to sell yourself to recruiters. It’s important to mention both hard skills and soft skills in the document. Hard skills are technical and measurable, and, for a receptionist, they include things like:
Soft skills, on the other hand, are not quite as easy to measure and encapsulate habits, traits, and disciplines. Examples include:
When listing your skills, use some of the same keywords you see in the job description for the position. This will draw the attention of ATS systems and human readers. Try to list 5-10 skills, depending on the amount of space you have available.
While most receptionist jobs require only a high school diploma, it still makes sense to include all the education credentials you’ve acquired. This includes associate's degrees, bachelor's degrees, and any additional higher education. You should also include any certifications you’ve received as a receptionist, especially those pertaining to a specific subcategory of the profession. These details could set you apart from other applicants.
There’s some debate about whether projects, hobbies, and interests belong on a resume. In general, it’s better to skip these types of personal details in favor of adding more skills and work experience. There are particular cases, however, where this background information could work in your favor. For anyone fresh out of school or new to the workforce, projects and interests can help get a foot in the door.
Some candidates simply lack the relevant work experience they’d like to put on their resume. If you find yourself in that position, projects and hobbies give you another way to show recruiters why you would make a great receptionist.
When listing projects and hobbies, make sure you choose details related to the job you’re seeking. Pick interests requiring skills that would translate well to a receptionist position. Projects worth listing include organizing a food drive and creating a new club in school. These types of endeavors require the same skills and habits that recruiters will be looking for in a receptionist.
Hobbies and interests like researching your ancestry and planning parties are also smart to include. By showing recruiters that you’re employing the skills you’ll need on the job, you can make up for a lack of experience.
Every receptionist job you apply to will have its own set of responsibilities and expectations. To give yourself the best chance of success, you should create a separate version of your resume for each application. This doesn’t mean you have to start the document from scratch. Simply look for skills or certifications that are stressed in a particular job advertisement and make corresponding adjustments to your original document.
This might be the most obvious step in the entire process, but it’s one that far too many people overlook. A few typos or spelling errors might not seem like a big deal, but recruiters will take it as a sure sign of carelessness. When competition for a position is fierce, you can’t afford to put yourself in a hole. Re-read the document several times before sending it, and take advantage of our quick and easy resume checker to spot pesky issues concerning consistency, active voice, resume length, and more.
There’s a basic roadmap all job seekers should follow in creating the perfect receptionist resume. It looks something like this:
Once you’ve followed the steps above and completed your resume, give yourself a hearty pat on the back. All this hard work should pay off in the form of greater attention from recruiters. Before you know it, you will have landed your next job!
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