Speech-language pathologists help patients overcome their cognitive communication conditions. They provide guided therapy and educate their family members or caregivers to improve their quality of life.
SLPs diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions associated with speech, cognitive or social communication, language, or swallowing issues. For example, someone with autism may have social communication struggles and find therapy with SLPs. Other related conditions that cause communication problems include dementia, brain injury, ADHD, and stroke.
SLPs can help patients with language problems, such as being unable to understand or communicate with others. Likewise, they assist patients with cognitive-communication problems such as paying attention, organizing thoughts, memory, and prioritization, for example, someone with ADHD.
To become an SLP practitioner, you are required to have a license that validates your expertise in the field. This is a requirement in all 50 states of the United States. Therefore, it is crucial to highlight your certification in your resume.
Below, we’ll talk about SLP roles more in detail and give you customized resume tips for each occupation. We’ve also included four downloadable templates that will help you get started.
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A speech-language pathologist is a clinical professional who helps individuals that struggle with communication and swallowing issues. The demand for SLPs is expected to increase by up to 21 percent, according to BLS. This is much faster than most occupations. Yet, you still need to craft a high-performing resume. Consider adding keywords to your resume to help it get past ATS filters.
To become an SLP practitioner, you are required to have at least a master’s degree in a related field, according to BLS. It is a license requirement. which is mandatory in all U.S. states. Therefore, it is important to highlight your academic value on your resume. Your potential employer might expect you to have advanced educational experience.
Clinical experience is also a strong requirement in this industry to obtain the SLP certification. By demonstrating your expertise you will indicate strong skills, such as case management, treatment techniques, and collaboration skills. Most SLPs work with other professionals, such as audiologists, teachers, physicians, and psychologists.
A speech therapist is just another way of saying SLP. They treat and diagnose children and adults who suffer communication problems to improve those conditions and their quality of life. Most speech-language pathologists work in schools, but others may work in hospitals or clinics. To make your resume stand out, highlight your accomplishments with patients.
It is essential to indicate your clinical expertise on your speech therapist resume. This way, recruiters can evaluate whether you have the necessary skills to treat certain conditions. Being specialized increases your authoritativeness and reliability. You can also mention multiple areas of expertise. This will make you look multidisciplinary.
It is a great idea to include clinical data and metrics on your resume if you want to increase your value. This way, you will show proof of successful patient cases and help recruiters get a better idea of your potential. You can include proven records of patients’ improvement when mentioning your achievements.
A speech therapist is a specialized professional who identifies and treats speech disorders. Speech therapists create and execute unique therapy plans for each patient based on their symptoms. Speech therapists may often work with children with speech impediments or other childhood speech disorders, or they may work with adults recovering from a speech impairment caused by stroke, injury, or something else.
If you want to become a speech therapist, you must have a master’s degree in speech therapy or speech language-pathology. Hiring managers will be looking to see you have completed this degree and are licensed as a speech therapist. Beyond the educational requirements, hiring managers will often require you to have internship or fellowship experience in speech pathology. Hiring managers may also like to see a candidate with additional certifications in speech pathology.
Lots of people might need to see a speech therapist. Since there are so many niches of speech pathology, it’s wise to decide what environment you’d like to work in, and get some experience there. For example, if you know you want to work with kids, getting a role as an assistant speech therapist at a school will give you pertinent knowledge and experience working with a young population.
A speech pathologist evaluates a patient’s problem, so they can provide a specialized treatment plan to improve their communicational fluency. Depending on the patients’ needs, they will guide them through vocal cord exercises to treat speech disorders or strengthen the muscles used for swallowing. It is essential to highlight your speech therapy techniques on your resume, such as tongue exercises, sensory feedback, and articulation speech therapy.
It’s also a good idea to mention your familiarity with clinical tools, such as SLP software that helps you keep track of patients’ progress and provide therapy or exercises. One of the most popular tools for this is Aphasia Tutor which helps therapists provide speech exercises and monitor patients’ performance.
A speech-language pathologist assistant works under the supervision of more experienced speech therapists. They assist them in the evaluation and treatment of speech disorder patients. They contribute to the improvement of patients’ sentence structure, vocabulary, verbal tone, etc., by following senior speech therapists’ designated plans. If you want your resume to be noticed, use an ATS-friendly title by including relevant keywords.
Since this is an entry-level job, you may struggle to find relevant job experience to include in your speech-language pathologist assistant resume. However, there are other ways to demonstrate your expertise. You can also include volunteering clinical experience or non-profit projects that you were part of.
Every medical field is in constant change as new trends arise to improve patients’ quality of life. As an SLP assistant, you must be up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry. This is something you should demonstrate in your resume if you want to differentiate yourself from the competition.
As a hiring manager who has recruited SLPs at top healthcare organizations like Mayo Clinic, Kindred Healthcare, and UnitedHealth Group, I've seen countless resumes from speech-language pathologists. In this article, I'll share insider tips on how to make your SLP resume stand out and increase your chances of landing an interview.
Many SLP resumes focus too much on responsibilities and not enough on clinical skills and specializations. To make your resume stand out, you should:
Here's an example of how to effectively highlight your clinical skills:
Skilled SLP with 5+ years of experience in acute care and outpatient settings. Specializes in treating adult patients with neurogenic disorders, including aphasia, dysarthria, and cognitive-communication deficits. Certified in LSVT LOUD and experienced in using AAC devices to facilitate communication.
A resume summary for an SLP is optional, but it can be a great way to provide additional context about your skills and experience, especially if you're changing careers or have a lot of experience to summarize. When writing your summary, focus on your most relevant qualifications and achievements, and avoid repeating information that's already covered in other sections of your resume.
Keep your summary concise and targeted to the specific SLP role you're applying for. Highlight your specialized skills, certifications, and accomplishments that make you stand out as a candidate. Remember, your goal is to grab the hiring manager's attention and convince them to keep reading your resume.
Your work experience section is the heart of your resume. It's where you prove to employers that you have the skills and experience to excel in the role. In this section, we'll cover what to focus on in your work experience section as an SLP, and share tips to make your resume stand out.
Your education section is a key part of your resume as an SLP. It's where you showcase your academic qualifications and specialized training. In this section, we'll cover what to include and how to format your education section for maximum impact.
You are an SLP professional, so your communication skills are what really need to stand out on your resume. When writing your resume, you should keep your message concise and precise. Because you are dealing with limited space, you should use your word selection wisely. That’s why action verbs can help you. They will summarize your work experience by using only a few words.
Now, word choice is essential when it comes to using action verbs. You should use words that better describe your work experience. If you are struggling to find the ideal action verbs, consider using our selection of words for SLP resumes.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
You should leverage the skills section to shine as an SLP therapist. This is where you’ll demonstrate your knowledge of different pathologies and their treatments. Include your familiarity with voice and resonance, neuroanatomy, linguistic competence, and basic science.
You should also mention the techniques you use as an SLP professional such as speech correction, conditions prevention, intervention, and evaluation. Some SLPs specialize in teaching. If this is your case, you should indicate that in your resume. It can also be a good idea to mention industry-relevant software that contributes to your research or therapy process. Below, we’ve included a few ideas that you can include in your SLP resume.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on SLP job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
