With the aging population and the looming threat of the pandemic, there is an increasing need for professionals in the healthcare industry. We need more doctors to meet the medical demands of the times, but unfortunately, there is a scarcity of talent.
PA programs are rushing to recruit and churn out more physician assistants to contribute manpower to healthcare settings. That’s why the career outlook for PAs is positive, with the demand for more healthcare professionals expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
But despite the strong and urgent need for more PAs, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to land a PA job. In fact, it’s the opposite. While there are many job opportunities for PAs, the talent landscape is as competitive as PA school itself. Hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities are very particular about the people they hire, so if you’re looking to get a job as a PA, you need to present yourself as a strong and deserving candidate — and that starts with how you craft your resume.
The first step of the hiring process in healthcare settings is by perusing the pool of resumes submitted by interested applicants. HR managers or hospital applicant tracking systems conduct the first screening at this point and filter out candidates with less than satisfactory CVs.
That means that how well you draft your resume can spell the difference between you being considered for the job or not. So you need to create a resume that meets the criteria, stands out, and refuses to be ignored.
Tips to Upscale Your PA Resume
The good news is that creating a stunning and impressive resume is not impossible. It just requires your time, energy, and dedication. Here are some proven tips to help you level up your resume and land a PA job.
Find Inspiration
First thing’s first — you need to know what employers are looking for in their applicants’ resumes. The format for a PA resume may be different from the standard and basic CVs that we are familiar with. So to give you an idea of how a PA resume should look, find inspiration by scouring examples online.
Some employers want their applicants’ resumes to be professional and formal, with basic details such as their educational background, work experience, awards, and accomplishments, etc. Others may demand something more and appreciate resumes that show off the applicants’ creative and innovative side.
There are resume templates and examples that can cater to the requirements of your employer. But when looking for inspiration and utilizing a template you find online, remember to be selective about the details to include. Some sections may not be relevant for the job you are applying for. In that case, you can forgo them.
On the other hand, don’t allow the templates to limit what you add to your resume. Even if it’s not provided, you may want to include additional sections to give details about:
Awards
Certifications
Memberships
Special projects you were a part of
States where you hold active licenses
Volunteer work
Other relevant interests and extracurriculars
Use Professional Contact Information
The contact information that you include in your resume is your employers’ means of reaching you. You need to provide up-to-date details so that you don’t miss their job offers! Further, because you are applying for a professional position, avoid using email addresses that are childish and silly. If you need to create a new email account, choose an address that is professional-looking and simple.
List Your Job Experience in Reverse Chronological Order
One important factor that employers consider is the depth of your experience in the healthcare industry or similar roles. They can learn this by reviewing the work history section of your resume. While it sounds like a good idea to arrange your work experience according to importance, this might make it hard for HR managers to identify your latest roles.
Make it easy for them to view and understand your work history by listing your jobs in reverse chronological order. Place your most recent work experience at the top of the list so that they can easily be referred to.
Consider Limiting Job Details
It’s good practice to keep your job history as detailed as possible and outline all the responsibilities that you had in your previous positions. But if you have been a practicing PA for the past 10 to 20 years, what you did a decade or two ago may no longer be relevant today.
In these cases, it’s a good idea to limit the bullet points you include down the line. Explain your latest jobs and work experience in-depth, but stick to one to three bullets as you go further back.
Highlight Your Most Relevant Coursework
Among the things that employers would consider is a PA’s relevant specialization. Make sure that you include your coursework in your CV, including areas of focus in:
Cardiology
Clinical rotations
Critical care medicine
General surgery
Internal medicine
And other fields of study
Tailor Your Resume to the Job Description
Employers are looking for specific skills sets and specializations, according to what they announced in their job posts. So you want to tailor your resume to highlight what they’re looking for. Analyze their job description and identify the key roles, responsibilities, and qualifications that make up your employers’ criteria. Then, adjust your CV to meet them.
For example, if you are applying for a position in emergency medicine, you want to highlight relevant work experience in the field and mention skills that will help you excel in the role. In short, craft your CV in a way that it becomes the answer to what your employers are looking for.
Tips for New Graduates Without Official Work Experience
It can be tricky to leverage work experience if you don’t have any. If you’re a new graduate and don’t have an extensive list of past jobs to boot, you can focus on other parts of your resume. Proceeding work history, the next crucial section of a PA resume is the part that outlines your education.
Add important details about your academic achievements, honors, awards, coursework, shadowing hours, and clinical experience. At this point of your professional journey, it’s worthy to note that you don’t need to mention your high school education in your resume. Your secondary achievements no longer find relevance in a PA setting. Focus on higher educational accomplishments instead.
Don’t worry about being a fresh graduate. After all, every physician assistant has to start somewhere — and your employers are well aware of that.
Provide a Summary of Your Resume
Sometimes, employers will just scan a resume for important points. Especially because they have to go through a lot of documents in a day, you want to make it easier for them to identify the crucial details in your resume. You can do this by writing a short summary that outlines your work experience, skills, and educational background.
In your cover letter or at the topmost part of your resume, provide a one-paragraph summary that is no more than six sentences. This is your opportunity to identify key details that will help you stand out from other candidates on their radar, so make it count!
Include Unique Selling Points
Chances are, there are hundreds of applicants who have the same level of experience and education as you do. So you might want to add something more to your resume to stand out. You can add more sections to your CV to highlight your skills sets and unique abilities. Some notable things to include are:
Volume of patients you can manage
On-call services, if any
Specialization
Languages you can speak
By adding these unique selling points to your resume, you’re reducing your chances of competing with applicants who have the same level of education and work as you. Show your employers what you can do that others can’t to increase your competitiveness and appeal as a candidate.
Avoid Over-Selling Yourself
Just because your resume is a crucial part of your application process, doesn’t mean that you can get away with exaggerating your skills, abilities, and experience. Likely, you will be invited to an interview where your employers will verify your listed skills and ask for specifics. The last thing you want is to not have an answer when they ask you to explain how you conducted a particular procedure or ask you to create a treatment plan on the spot.
You don’t have to oversell yourself to be a qualified candidate. Be truthful and honest about your experience and what you are capable of doing. The right job will come to you!
Keep Your Formatting Simple
It may be tempting to try and make your resume look like you spent a lot of time and effort on it, but be careful not to go overboard. Avoid fonts and colors that are straining to the eye and stick to the basics. Your format should be simple and have the following specifications:
Readable fonts like Tahoma, Calibri, or Arial
Font size of at least 11 to 12
Balanced white space
Margins
Subheadings to mark each section of the resume
Proper use of bold, underlines, and italics
Also, make sure that your format is consistent throughout your resume. If you underline a subheading, for example, all other subheadings should be underlined as well.
Optimize Your Resume
Technology has changed the game for employers, helping them simplify the hiring process. Most hospitals use software to pool applicants and filter resumes. So there’s a good chance that your application will not be reviewed by HR personnel but by a software program.
Hospital applicant tracking systems typically pool resumes by looking at certain keywords. For example, employers can provide the software with details about what types of candidates they’re looking for. The platform then scours the resumes and dumps those that don’t meet the criteria.
Here lies the importance of optimizing your resume for these pooling tools and software by including specific keywords that your employers are likely using. This is easy to determine with keyword research.
Go back to the job description and take note of the key terms being used. If you cannot determine the relevant keywords, identify what is essential for the role that you’re applying for. You want to include these important terms in your resume.
Include a Cover Letter
PA resumes should be supplemented with a well-written cover letter. As part of your application, make sure you attach a formal letter with your CV that expresses your interest in the job, provides an engaging introduction about you and your relevant education and work experience, highlights your skills and achievements, etc.
Write your cover letter to address the HR manager or recruiting personnel directly. This is your one-page chance to impress your employers and get them interested in you. Make sure that you write it well!
Write a Call to Action
By nature, humans are compelled to respond to calls to action. So by including one in your cover letter, you are increasing your chances of getting contacted by your employers and also showcasing that you are eager for the job.
At the end of your cover letter, write a simple line that tells them you’re looking forward to meeting them and talking more about the role and what you can do for their hospital. Follow it up with a call to action asking them to contact you at their convenience.
Upscale Your Resume and Land a Job as a PA
The first hurdle of the hiring process is the initial screening of your resume. Make sure that you craft it well to increase your chances of getting noticed. With these tips in your arsenal, you can improve your PA resume and land that dream job you’ve been yearning for!
