After putting in countless hours of hard work and finally completing your dental assisting program, you’re not quite out of the woods yet—one of the last things you’ll need to do before stepping into your new role is create a resume to help you land the job! A well-crafted resume is your first impression with any dental employer, and truth be told, it can make all the difference in the world. Here’s a closer look at how to build a resume that highlights all your clinical expertise and paints you as an excellent potential employee.
1. Make Your Resume Readable & Clear
The easier your resume is to read and navigate, the easier it is for employers to quickly identify all of the necessary information. Avoid excessive walls of text, graphics and pictures, wacky fonts, bulky headers, odd formatting, or anything else that might be distracting to anyone reading your resume. This doesn’t mean your resume will be boring—it ensures that it’s able to do its job and quickly provide accurate details about yourself!
2. Provide Up-to-Date Contact Information
Potential employers will need a reliable way to get in touch with you before and after any scheduled interviews. At the top of your resume, be sure to include your updated contact information, including your full legal name, telephone number, email address, and current mailing address/city. Also, be sure that your email address is professional, and even consider creating a new one that is solely for professional purposes.
3. Highlight Your Education Prominently
For new graduates, your education is your biggest credential, so don’t bury it at the bottom of your resume! Instead, give it its own clearly-labeled section near the top to let employers know exactly how you were trained. Include the name of your school, the program you completed, and your graduation date. If your program included a specific course outline covering topics like radiology, dental materials, or infection control, list those as coursework highlights. Any externships or hands-on training can also be mentioned here.
4. Include a Relevant Skills Section
The dental assistant role varies greatly from office to office, and many employers are looking for particular skill sets. A dedicated skills section will let you showcase all of your clinical and administrative abilities at once, and everything from dental radiography and instrument sterilization to scheduling and front desk duties is fair game here. Just remember to be honest and only list skills you genuinely have; otherwise, you’ll be setting yourself up for an awkward interview!
5. Carefully Polish All the Details
There are few things more off-putting than a resume that’s riddled with typos. Proofread everything carefully; things like spelling or grammatical errors can signal poor attention to detail, which is actually a critical quality in clinical settings. Also, be sure to save your file as a PDF unless the employer specifically requests another format, for the sake of accessibility, and give it an easy-to-read filename.
The bottom line is, with the right structure, a clear account of your education and training, and careful attention to detail, your resume can work wonders for you and help you land your dream dental assisting job!
About Green Country School of Dental Assisting
At Green Country School of Dental Assisting, our team is passionate about helping aspiring students in Claremore turn their training into successful careers. We offer a comprehensive dental assisting program designed to give you all of the real-world skills employers are looking for. Just contact us today or give us a call at (918) 984-7095 for more information about enrollment.