Occupational Therapy Assistant Resume Sample

Does helping patients come easy to you, but resume writing leaves you flustered? Improve your job prospects with our occupational therapy resume sample and writing tips.

November 1, 2024

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Occupational Therapy Assistant Resume Template

How you format your resume matters. Follow this template to make a strong first impression on employers.

[Your Name]

[Your Address], [City, State]

[Your Email Address] | [Your Phone Number]

[LinkedIn Profile] (optional)

Professional Summary

Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with 8+ years of experience in long-term and acute care settings. Seeking to pursue career opportunities in a specialized rehabilitation setting with a focus on advancing occupational procedures and delivering competent care to patients.

Skills

Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
Bilingual in Spanish and English

Professional Experience

Symbria/Alliance Rehab

Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant | Lemont, IL | May 20XX – Present

Coordinate a caseload of 10-12 patients daily with set minutes per Medicare and Medicaid guidelines
Collaborate with speech and physical therapists regarding treatment, plan of care, prior level of function, and discharge goals
Interact with family members, nursing and social work services to discuss patients’ current progress and discharge planning as per therapist recommendations
Work in short-term/long-term care and in-house outpatient settings providing services to independent living and convent residents to make them ready for next level of care
Provide home exercise programs for higher-level patients, including advice on home adaptive equipment and its purchase

RML Speciality Hospital

Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant | Hinsdale, IL | August 20XX – April 20XX

Delivered immediate treatment following evaluation by the occupational therapist while maintaining daily collaboration with speech and physical therapy staff
Treated and educated 1000+ clients annually with an average caseload of 10-15 patients
Organized daily documentation and updated progress note and discharge notes sheets within 24 hours for occupational therapist to complete
Oversaw all activities of junior OTAs and clinical fieldwork for 5+ interns
Coordinated care to vent-dependent patients to help them progress from vent-dependency to nasal cannula to room air
Managed various textures and diets for feeding sessions, educating patients in proper feeding with tracheostomies

Education

Resume Genius University | Associate of Science in Occupational Therapy

Graduation Date: May 20XX

Average occupational therapist salaries in the US

The following table includes information from O*NET Resource Center by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. The data is presented based on the top states in the United States.

Average occupational therapist annual salaries by state

State	Salary / Year
California	$112,390
New York	$101,840
Florida	$96,010
Texas	$98,970
Pennsylvania	$92,660
Illinois	$97,040
Ohio	$90,520
Georgia	$101,290
North Carolina	$91,100
Michigan	$82,970
National Average	$93,040

How To Write An Occupational Therapy Assistant Resume

Job hunting as an occupational therapy assistant is surprisingly difficult. You can have a long line of former patients who appreciated your work, but if you can’t prove your skills on paper, you’ll lose out on job opportunities.

A strong resume can showcase the work you’ve done, demonstrate your skills, and make it clear that you’re the best candidate for any position.

These three tips will help you write a great occupational therapy assistant resume that will increase your chances of landing an interview:

1. Highlight your occupational therapy assistant resume skills

When you’re helping people re-learn basic life skills, employers need to know you have the right skills to treat patients effectively. The last thing they want is an employee who could mishandle a patient’s treatment.

Assure hiring managers that you have the basic skills needed for the job by writing a strong resume skills section.

Use these top occupational therapy assistant skills on your resume to show that you know how to administer top-notch care:

Accounting and billing software
Office suite software (Microsoft Office, Google Workspace)
Medical software (BrainTrain Captain’s Log)
Time management skills
Communication skills
Problem-solving
Decision making
Teaching
Persuasion
Management skills

As occupational therapy is a patent-facing field, your soft skills are usually the most important. Don’t forget to include some hard skills, though, to show that you understand the most commonly used software in the field.

All of these abilities go hand-in-hand with the knowledge you’ve earned from your certification program. So be sure to also list your certification in the education section of your resume.

2. Open with a strong occupational therapy assistant resume summary

Think of a resume summary as your application’s elevator pitch. It’s a short section at the top of your resume that concisely sums up your qualifications and experience so a busy hiring manager can quickly understand who you are and why you’re the best candidate for the job.

A convincing resume summary can help you immediately stand out from other applicants. Most employers only spend a few seconds on each resume, so with a summary, they know that you’re qualified without having to search the entire page for the information they need.

Here’s an example of what a strong occupational therapist resume summary looks like in action:

Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with 8+ years of experience in long-term and acute care settings. Seeking to pursue career opportunities in a specialized rehabilitation setting with a focus on advancing occupational procedures and delivering competent care to patients.

Notice that with just a few seconds of reading, you know that the candidate is certified, deeply experienced, that they have the skills to help both long-term and acute care patients.

3. Include occupational therapy assistant-related keywords in your resume

Larger employers often use software called an applicant tracking system (ATS) to automatically filter through candidates by scanning their resumes for specific keywords. What that means for you is that if you don’t have keywords on your resume that the employer is looking for, there’s a high chance your application won’t make it through to the interview phase.

To find out what these keywords are, search through the job description for the position you want. Take note of any words that pop up repeatedly or are mentioned in the “Requirements” section. Then, work these keywords into your work experience section or your skills section.

Not only will this help you get past the ATS, but you’ll also appear tailor-made for the position, which is the fastest way to impress any hiring manager.

However, if you’re not sure what keywords a specific employer is looking for, here are some general occupational therapy assistant keywords that will make your resume pop:

COTA (certified occupational therapy assistant)
Occupational therapy
Rehabilitation
Clinic
Hospital
Treatment planning
Long-term care
Acute care
Patient care
Interventional
Geriatric
Pediatrics
Patient education
Healthcare management

With these occupational therapy assistant keywords, you’ll be able to get your resume past the ATS and impress people to get the interview for your next job.

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