Writing a Dental Resume that Gets Attention

By Grace Carter

A well-written resume is critical to getting a job in the dental industry. You don’t need to have a wealth of experience or a ton of awards, all you need is an appealing and informative resume to get an interview. Read on to learn how to write a dental resume that gets attention.

Summary Statement
Start off you resume with a summary of your qualifications. This part should be kept brief — four or five sentences at most — describing your education and qualifications. It should only include things relevant to the position you’re applying for. Be descriptive and use examples from how you have used your skills and knowledge in the dental field at previous jobs.

Education
List your education in reverse chronological order, remembering to include your degree and major, month and year of graduation, the institutions you attended, their location and any licenses connected to your degree. Specify if you are licensed to practice dentistry or are a certified dental assistant. If you’re applying to an entry level position, you can include any internships you completed. Recent graduates may include courses they completed, such as local anesthesia or radiology. If you were a high-achieving student, then include your GPA and any honors or awards you received — these will help you stand out from the other applicants.

Experience
List your previous positions in reverse chronological order. Include the name of the practice, the position you held there, the location and the time period you worked there. Do not add jobs that are irrelevant to your career path. It’s important that you discuss your area of expertise. Make a bulleted list of keywords related to your area of expertise, resumes organized in ways other than paragraphs are eye-catching. Describe the type of facility you worked at previously, as this will help your employee imagine what your experience was like. “Make your resume stand out by paying close attention to what the employer is looking for and highlighting the experience you have that matches it. Use lots of action verbs in your resume; these words stand out better than adjectives. Remember to focus on action verbs specific to the dental industry,” recommends Charles Hildebrandt, resume writer at BigAssignments.

Skills
Skill sections are one way for inexperienced dental professionals to separate themselves from the competition. You can include things like advanced procedures you have learned and practiced in internships. List your skills and accomplishments in order of importance and not chronologically. Don’t forget to include professional associations you are a member of, like the American and Florida Dental Associations, or the American Student Dental Association. You also can include soft skills, such as your ability to work well on a team. Teamwork is important in dentistry, so if teamwork played a part in past jobs that were not otherwise related to dentistry, you can mention that here.

Should You Include References?
Generally, references are not included on a dental resume. They add length and do not improve your chances. You should just wait until your employer requests references, and then provide them. Employers will usually only ask for two or three references. Make sure you have their permission and preferred method of being contacted.

Use Online Tools to Help Write Your Resume
Writing doesn’t come easily to everyone, so don’t be afraid to get some help from the experts. Here are some good resources to get you started:

1. ViaWriting and WritingPopulist – These are grammar resources you can use to check over your resume for grammatical mistakes.
2. Resumention – This is a resume service you can use to improve the quality of your resume.
3. CV Service and Academized – These are editing tools, recommended by BestBritishEssays, you can use to make sure your resume doesn’t have any typos or other errors.
4. StateofWriting and StudyDemic – Check out these writing guides for ideas and advice on how to improve your resume. Even experienced writers can benefit from some extra guidance now and then.
5. BoomEssays and Essayroo – These are online proofreading tools, recommended by Essayroo review, you can use to make sure your resume is polished and error-free.
6. MyWritingWay and Lets Go and Learn – Check out these career writing blogs for tips and suggestions on how to improve your resume. You’ll find posts here by people who have successfully written dental resumes before.

Conclusion
There are a lot of job opportunities for dental professionals, but to get hired you need to create the right kind of resume. Write a resume that stands out by highlighting achievements, making it suit the position you’re applying for and emphasizing your strengths.

Grace Carter is a proofreader at Do My Assignment and Write My Paper services. She works with the team of writers and content creators. Also, Grace teaches online courses at OX Essays website.