Veterinarian Resume Example

In a dog-eat-dog world, it is essential to present veterinary recruiters with the best possible resumes that showcase your veterinary experience and highlight the skills you've acquired in your practice.

Since 2019, the Occupational Outlook Handbooks states veterinarian jobs have been growing at a fast rate of 16% per year. This means there are over 89,200 veterinary jobs looking for qualified veterinarians like you.

Now, to become a veterinarian, you are required to have the following:

• Bachelor's, Master's or Doctor's of Veterinary Medicine degree
• Licensure in your state

With these qualifications in the bag, all that's left is to impress veterinary recruiters with your detailed resume, and in this article, we're going to help you do just that.

Here's an overview of what we'll be covering:

1. Formatting your veterinarian resume
2. Writing a best-of-breed resume summary
3. Listing your work experience
4. Including certifications in your resume
5. Adding your education to your resume
6. Listing key skills in your resume
7. Including organizations in your resume

1. Format your resume to look like that of a professional veterinarian

In an industry that's growing as quickly as veterinary, veterinary recruiters are receiving applications like if it was raining cats and dogs. With that said, it is very important to make sure your resume stands out of the pile.

How do you do that? Well, by making sure your resume is formatted like that of a professional veterinarian.

Here are three ways to format your resume in a professional-looking way:

1. Reverse-chronological, which emphasizes your previous work experience
2. Functional, which highlights your key skills
3. Hybrid, which combines the previous formats to give veterinary recruiters a closer look at what you're bringing to the table

As a veterinarian, it is important to show veterinary recruiters that you have experience in the field. Therefore, leaning towards a reverse-chronologically formatted resume may help you present your experience in the clearest and most efficient way.

At the same time, vet recruiters also want to see what skills you can bring to their practice. With that said, formatting your resume in a hybrid way lets vet recruiters know you are the professional dog-and-cat-lover they are looking for.

Take a look at our guide on how to format your resume if you want to learn more.

Tip: Make sure that your contact information is correct on your resume so that vet recruiters can contact you. If you need help organizing your contact information, we have a guide for you.

2. Write a best-of-breed resume summary

Considering the fact that hiring managers and recruiters look at each resume, on average, for 6 seconds, having a resume summary at the top of your resume may help you get one step ahead of the competition.

A resume summary is a 1-2 sentence blurb that summarizes everything in your resume. It makes vet recruiters know you mean business and respect their time, which can help you get hired faster.

Here's what you should include in your resume summary:

• Years of experience
• Kind of experience
• Specializations

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Now, there are good resume summaries and bad ones, and we think it is best to show you both.

Here's a good example of a resume summary for a veterinarian:

Veterinarian with 4+ years of experience in animal emergency and critical care. Specialized in treating and diagnosing animals as well as surgical procedures and fostering excellent animal care.

Here's a bad example of a resume summary for a veterinarian:

Vet with experience in pet examinations while working at an animal hospital.

Want to write the perfect resume summary? Our guide on writing resume summaries has tons of examples.

3. List your work experience

You wouldn't want someone without experience taking care of your pet, so neither do veterinary recruiters.

Listing your work experience in your resume is crucial because it shows vet recruiters that you've done the dirty work and are trustworthy because of your amount of practice in the field.

Tip: Because veterinary work is a part of the medical industry, it is important to showcase your work experience in the aforementioned reverse-chronological format. This shows veterinary recruiters what you've last been working on and what practices and information are most fresh in your head.

It's also helpful to use good action verbs in the work experience section of your resume to let recruiters know you're qualified.

Luckily for you, we have a list of 350+ action verbs that will help make your resume more effective.

If you're not exactly sure what descriptions to add to your work experience, don't worry. We've got you covered.

Here are some examples of job descriptions that you can include in your work experience:

• Provide veterinary clinical care for the animals
• Perform surgical support and provide anesthesia, surgical, and analgesic technical expertise to facilitate protocol development
• Assist in training for veterinary technicians, and research staff.
• Provide animal health care guidance for veterinary services personnel as required.
• Ensure that reports and other materials are prepared and submitted as required.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable regulations, guidelines, and standards that relate to animal care and use.
• Make recommendations and assist in establishing and enhancing veterinary and animal care standards.
• Performed emergency and surgical procedures and monitored the recovery process
• Evaluated traumatic injuries and diagnostic tests
• Detailed case reports
• Supervised intensive care units
• Oversaw veterinary technicians or other support staff
• Provided specialty consultations on referral cases
• Examined pets presented for appointment
• Discussed all health issues, nutritional recommendations, and preventatives
• Worked up treatment plans or surgical plans and present estimates to clients
• Worked with the technicians to perform treatments and surgeries

Now, your experience as a veterinarian and the kind of veterinarian you are will determine what descriptions you can include with the jobs you have worked.

Tip: See what job requirements veterinary offices are asking of applicants and include those descriptions in your resume if you meet them to appear higher on their candidates' lists.

Want more tips and tricks on how to write your work experience description? Check out our guide on describing your work experience.

4. Include certifications on your resume

When it comes to medical professionals, including certifications on your resume is key. It shows vet recruiters that you have the experience and are certified to do specific work in a veterinary office, which means they are more likely to hire you over someone who doesn't have any certifications.

Tip: Since you need a license in your state to practice veterinary medicine, be sure to include this licensure and certification in the certifications section of your resume.

Here are some certifications you can get and put on your resume that will make your resume shine:

• Certified Veterinary Practice Manager
• Clinical Proficiency Examination
• Veterinary Anatomical Pathology Phase II
• Board Certification in Veterinary Toxicology

Becoming certified in these practices showcases veterinary recruiters you've put in the hours and are a dedicated veterinarian.

If you're looking for more certifications to include in your resume or want to know how to correctly list them, check out our guide.

5. List your education to let veterinary recruiters know you mean business

The truth is, it's very unlikely for you to get into a veterinarian position without a formal veterinary education.

In fact, to even be qualified for a veterinarian job, you need a minimum of a bachelor's degree. Even then, master's and doctorate degrees are preferred because you have your diploma and required courses to back up your veterinary knowledge.

If you're not sure how to exactly list your education, let this example below help you out:

Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

College Park, MD

2015 — 2019

Masters in Veterinary Science

University of Maryland

Baltimore, MD

2011 — 2015

Bachelor of Science in Biology

Tip: Be sure to list your education in reverse-chronological order, and if you're a new grad, be sure to put your education section above your work experience section. ‍

Don't know if to put your GPA on your resume? Take a look at our guide on adding your GPA to your resume, which includes tips and examples.

6. List your key skills to make your resume shine

As a veterinarian, it's important to show vet recruiters all that you can do. Therefore, it's crucial to highlight your key skills in your resume.

Tip: You can even make your key skills stand out by formatting your resume in a way where they are in boxes or bubbles like in our resume example above.

With being a veterinarian, there come specific skills you can list on your resume like the ones listed below:

• Emergency and Critical Care
• Surgical Skills
• Anesthesia
• Ability to work under pressure
• Rational Objectivity
• Companion Animal Practice

There are also more common key skills you can list that can help to impress vet recruiters like these:

• Communication Skills
• Time Management Skills
• Technical Skills
• Interpersonal Skills
• Organizational Skills
• Problem-solving Skills
• Decision-making Skills

Adding key skills is sure to make your resume shine and stand out to vet recruiters.

If you're having trouble identifying key skills, we have a guide with 100+ key skills that can help you out, too.

7. Add your organizations to your resume

If you're not already part of a veterinary organization, we recommend joining one and adding it to your resume.

Being a part of a veterinary organization is a great way to get knowledge on the field and be a part of a community that shares the same passion for animal care as you. Not to mention, it looks great on your resume and is sure to impress veterinary recruiters.

Here are some veterinary organizations in the U.S. that you can join and include on your resume:

• American Veterinary Medical Association
• American College of Veterinary Surgeons
• American Holistic Vet Med Association
• American Animal Hospital Association
• Student American Veterinary Medical Association

Just be aware that some organizations and associations do require specific qualifications to join as well.

Tip: Check out what veterinary organizations are available in your state that you can join and include in your resume.

Adding your organizations is sure to strengthen your resume, and that's exactly what you need to do to up your chances of getting interviewed for the position.

Interested in knowing the strengths and weaknesses of job interviews in 2021, we have a guide that can help.

Key Takeaways

In order to become the best-of-breed veterinarian, you need to have a best-of-breed resume, and hopefully, by following our guide, you'll achieve just that.

We know we've gone over a lot of different components. So, here's a summary of everything we've discussed:

1. Format your veterinarian resume in a hybrid-style format
2. Write a quality resume summary that shows vet recruiters why they should hire you
3. List your work experience to let vet recruiters know you've put in the time
4. Include certifications in your resume to show that you're qualified for this position
5. Add your education to your resume
6. List key skills to make your resume shine
7. Include organizations in your resume to let vet recruiters know you're passionate about the field.

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, but with your impressive resume, you're sure to come out a winner.