Veterinary Technician Resume Sample

Veterinary technicians assist veterinarians in treating animals. They also help ensure the animals are safe, healthy, and comfortable.

To land a job as a vet tech, you need a one-page resume that commands hiring managers’ attention. Here’s how to create an effective veterinary technician resume:

1. Include your key skills on your veterinary technician resume

Strengthen your vet tech resume by demonstrating both hard skills and soft skills. Your hard skills are abilities that can be learned and applied in a specific context. They’re tangible skills like surgical techniques or animal control strategies. Soft skills are more abstract and aren’t normally taught in a classroom setting.

Veterinary technicians’ key hard skills include:

• Animal handling, restraint, and feeding
• Basic grooming
• Medication administration to animals (including injections)
• Surgery assistance (including suturing)
• Laboratory testing
• Knowledge of animal anatomy
• Ability to work with both large & small animals
• Ability to read medical records
• Ability to maintain accurate records and reports

Here are some examples of soft skills that veterinary clinics value:

• Empathy
• Interpersonal skills
• Good telephone manner
• Attention to detail
• Ability to deliver bad news
• Coping strategies
• Communication skills

Veterinary technicians also need to be able to follow instructions carefully and work on their own without supervision, so make sure to highlight these qualities on your vet tech resume.

2. Add veterinary technician certifications to your resume

List your certifications on your resume to prove to hiring managers that you have the qualifications required of a veterinary technician.

Most veterinary technicians have an associate’s degree from an accredited college program. However, some complete their bachelor’s degree or higher and get certified by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

Veterinary technicians can earn certifications in a variety of areas, such as:

• anesthesia
• dentistry
• emergency care

List these specializations on your veterinary tech resume to show prospective employers that you have the necessary skills to work in their clinic or hospital.

Usually, you should put these certifications in your resume education section. But if you have several certifications, consider creating a separate certifications section on your resume.

For each certification, list the:

• awarding institution
• date you earned it
• date it expires (if applicable)

3. Add a resume summary to your veterinary technician resume

A resume summary is a one- or two-sentence statement that summarizes your skills and qualifications. It’s the first section of your resume, and its purpose is to get the hiring manager’s attention and to encourage them to read your full application.

A good resume summary includes your:

• years of experience
• key achievements and skills
• career-related goals

The following is an example of a veterinary technician resume summary:

The above summary is effective because it summarizes the applicant’s relevant experience, skills, and plans for their target role.