The purpose of any resume is to make you appear professional, educated, and good at what you do.

Those working in a medical assistant job are constantly under pressure to be perfect with every patient and there is no room for error when it comes to the service levels you provide or the detailed documentation used to track patient medical procedures and overall health.

Keep the last point in mind before you send your medical assisting resume and cover letter out for consideration to any office – spelling, grammar, structure have to be flawless – and you must include all the right information within limited space.

All the while it is also essential that you exude the type of confidence that any competent certified medical assistant should have.

Your medical assisting resume should include all of the essentials the medical practice is looking for:

1. personal information
2. professional objective
3. work history
4. education
5. professional skills and qualifications
6. professional references
7. Cover Letter
8. Writing Your Medical Assisting Resume

If you do not have space to list out your professional references then a notation about your ability to provide references will suffice.

1. Personal Information

There is nothing stressful about writing this part of your medical assistant resume. It’s information you should know by heart.

Put your name, address (including zip/postal code), phone number and email at the top of the page.

Make sure your name is in bold and use a slightly larger font than the font used in the resume body, so it stands out.

2. Professional Objective

Customize the name of this heading to whatever suits your personal taste.

The objective statement of your medical assistant resume should briefly state your experience, qualifications, and briefly touch on your unique skill-set.

Try to not be vague, or too general with this statement – be specific and try to relate it to the office you’re applying and the position you want.

Examples:

Certified medical assistant, with three years of professional experience: Seeking employment in your medical center, where my staff coordination skills can benefit your experienced staff.

Long time medical assistant, with 5 years of insurance billing experience, seeking new opportunity working in the not-for-profit sector of the health care field.

3. Work History

This section details your medical work history and should be the second or third section of your medical assisting resume.

You may choose to place your professional skills after the objective statement, if you’re lacking office experience, but if you have at least two years of experience, then place this section next.

Include any work experience you have as a certified medical assistant and detail the responsibilities you’ve had.

For instance, experience working with: Microsoft Word 2007, medical billing software, diagnostic equipment, medical paperwork, etc.

Also include any specialties you have that might set you apart from other candidates including: assessment of vital signs, allergy testing, taking blood, administering medication, etc.

Be detailed, be direct and use skills that are displayed in the medical assistant job description provided by the office doing the hiring.

4. Education

Another section of your medical assistant resume that shouldn’t give you too much difficulty. In fact, included in your medical assistant education program should be career services to help with your resume.

Name the certified medical institution you attended, the degree you obtained, etc. Also include any relevant coursework you’ve taken – both courses you’ve taken on your own time, and those that may have been provided by previous employers.

Continuing education is a must for medical assistants.

5. Professional Skills and Qualifications

As mentioned in the work history section: A newly certified medical assistant should place this section after their objective statement, unless they have some on-the-job experience in the health care field.

Otherwise, you can place your professional skills wherever you feel they fit best on the medical assistant resume.

Place any certifications you have: Certified Medical Assistant (CMA), first-aid, CPR, defibrillator, etc.

Also state specific skills you excel at including: appointment scheduling, scheduling, medical reporting, software (word 2007, billing software, etc), lab testing, etc.

You can use bullet points, or a comma separated list if you have 10 or more specific skills you want to list.

6. References

Put “available on request” under this heading and prepare a separate sheet of paper (or file) that include all of your personal and professional references.

Aim to be able to provide at least three separate ones (minimum of 2 professional, and 1 from your professor/trainer/volunteer coordinator.)

7. Cover Letter

This will compliment your medical assisting resume and also help convince the hiring staff that your medical office skills make you a worthy candidate for the job (I.e., that your resume is worth reading.)

Introduce yourself in the first paragraph and indicate your willingness to work for them.

The second paragraph should talk about one or two key attributes you bring with you to the job.

The last paragraph is where you tell the employer you’re looking forward to hearing from them, and when/where you can be reached to schedule an interview.

8. Writing Your Medical Assisting Resume

When it comes time to write your medical assistant resume, start by writing out the essentials listed here.

By including all of this information and presenting it in a perfectly written and formatted resume you will be making a good confident first impression upon your potential employers.

That first impression is what will get your more interviews where you are given the opportunity to convince the employer to hire you.

If you leave out the above medical assisting resume essentials, then you won’t make a very good first impression and will likely miss out on interviews and job opportunities.

Your Turn

Well, there you have it. The 8 essentials your medical assistant resume needs to have to help you land the job you want.

So, now its time to get started.

Use the outline above and make sure your resume includes all 8 of these essentials before you begin sending it out for job applications.

And remember to listen to the responses that you get. Consider “optimizing” or editing sections of your resume that you think could be improved based on the feedback you received from the company responding to your application and resume.

Questions or comments about medical assisting resumes? Ask us in the comments below 🙂