Orthodontist Assistant Resume Example
Craft a new Orthodontist Assistant resume with our easy to follow writing guide and example. Short on time? Hire Leet Resumes to write yours for free.
Marc Cenedella
Marc Cenedella is a nationally recognized thought leader on careers, resume writing, job search, career management and recruiting, Marc is frequently sought out by national media organizations for his expert commentary on employment, resumes, the job search and the job market.
How to write a compelling Orthodontist Assistant Resume
Feeling like your professional path has turned crooked? A new Orthodontist Assistant resume can set your career trajectory straight.
Whether we’re talking about the mouth or the examination room, you know the importance of keeping things clean and tidy.
After all, orthodontics is all about order, and your role as an Orthodontist Assistant means you’re responsible for both patients and practice.
Luckily, your professional skill set puts you in a great resume writing position.
Just like success in orthodontics, a clean and organized approach is integral to constructing a compelling new resume that will produce more job interviews and opportunities.
This guide will teach you, step by step, how to put together a winning Orthodontist Resume the right way.
Leet Resumes also offers comprehensive, personalized resume writing services. We’re happy to write your resume for you.
The best part? We’ll do it for free. (tips appreciated!)
Why you need a great Orthodontist Assistant resume
A properly aligned set of teeth promotes a healthy smile, a strong bite, and robust overall oral health.
Similarly, an ideal Orthodontist Assistant resume must feature a clean and concise layout to avoid rejection.
Here’s an interesting (and relevant) fact: The average recruiter will read your resume for a meager six or seven seconds before making a judgment call.
Your resume needs to tell its story quickly and clearly. Hiring managers simply don’t have time to decipher a messy or confusingly ordered resume.
On top of all that, you have to consider ATS software as well. A significant portion of job listings these days are managed by automated systems that sort through and either reject or approve the initial batch of applicants.
These programs are helpful for recruiters, but unforgiving toward applicants with poorly put together resumes.
If the software can’t make heads or tails of your work experience section due to a confusing layout, or doesn’t detect enough relevant keywords, your resume will be disregarded before it ever reaches a living breathing human.
Our resume format will help yours avoid those common applicant pitfalls, all while maximizing your chances of getting a callback.
How to format your Orthodontist Assistant resume
What makes a good commercial? Simplicity and shortness. There’s a reason infomercials air in the early morning while no one is watching.
We’re talking about commercials because a resume is a promotional tool for your career. While on the lookout for a career upgrade, you need to put forth the best possible version of yourself. A great resume advertises your unique skills, accomplishments, and experiences quickly and vividly.
Achieving all that may sound like a tall order, but we’ve put in the work so you don’t have to. After writing countless resumes, we’ve perfected the ideal format:
- Name + Contact
- Professional Headline
- Professional Summary
- Work Experience
- Education
- Keywords
Plenty of applicants think they’re doing themselves a favor by adding extra colors, patterns, or columns to their resumes. It’s understandable to want to insert some personality into your resume, but this is the wrong approach. A winning resume is direct, not long-winded and difficult to decipher.
While we’re at it, avoid getting too creative with fonts. Always go with a classic like Times New Roman or Arial.
Make no mistake: A great resume does display the writer’s personality, but it does so with its words, not elaborate color schemes or silly visual additions.
Next, we’ll go over each section of your resume in more detail.
Name + Contact
At the very top of the document place your name in slightly larger text than everything else.
Below that readers should find your contact information; professional email address and phone number. Always keep this information respectable. In other words, no goofy, childish, or hobby-related email addresses.
If you’re active on a daily basis on LinkedIn feel free to add your profile. Besides that, avoid mentioning any other social media platforms.
Professional Headline
Considering your Orthodontist Assistant resume will have mere seconds to convey your story, the importance of starting off on a strong note can’t be understated.
The professional headline is your first chance to command the reader’s attention and stand out from other applicants.
Of course, this is only a headline so keep things short: Just three to five words. We recommend beginning with a positive adjective describing your personality, workstyle, experience level, etc, followed by your current job title or level of seniority.
Here’s what we mean: “Organized Orthodontic Dental Assistant” or “Focused Orthodontist Assistant”.
Professional Summary
In keeping with our advertising theme, the professional summary section will condense and recap the most marketable aspects of your career so far. Even better, you’ll also directly tell readers what you want to do next.
The Leet Resumes professional summary consists of at least two lines, or a maximum of four lines, depending on your level of experience. Each line will broach a different, yet no less important, aspect of your journey as an Orthodontist Assistant.
Here’s a breakdown line by line:
Line one: Write down a few positions or job titles you want to accept as your next role. Importantly, these don’t have to be positions you’ve already held or currently hold. This line is about your future! You’re telling readers point blank what you want next professionally. A few examples: “Head Orthodontic Assistant” or “Senior Dental Orthodontic Assistant”.
Line two: List some of your most desirable or sought after orthodontic skills. Common skills seen on Orthodontist Assistant resumes include communication, dental radiography, patient education, and equipment sterilization.
Line three: This line is optional, but if you have enough experience list some of your biggest accomplishments or achievements in the orthodontic field.
Line four: Also optional, this line can be used to display any promotions or awards you’ve earned during your career.
A fantastic resume is a must-have in today’s job market, but you know what else is essential on any day? Free time.
If you wouldn’t mind having a bit more of that, you can always hire Leet Resumes to write your resume for you.
Kick back, relax, and leave the resume writing to the pros. We’ll even do it for free! (tips appreciated)
Work Experience
The buck stops with the work experience section. So far your resume has done a good job of spouting off your abilities. Now it’s time to recall and articulate the professional experiences that helped you hone that skill set.
For each prior or current position you detail, don’t just list off the generic duties and responsibilities listed on your job description. This is how most people write their resumes, and why most applicants never make it past the first round of rejections. Your work experience section needs to highlight just that: Your personal and unique experiences on the job.
Here’s how:
Yours is a success story
Each and every sentence in this section should detail one of your proudest professional accomplishments, achievements, or successes. Success in the past predicts positive results in the future, which is exactly what hiring decision makers want to see.
Numbers > words
Utilizing as many numbers as you can throughout this section is a great way to prioritize brevity without sacrificing specifics. Numbers provide instant context to your achievements, making them more descriptive and easier to understand.
Accentuate action
Starting each sentence with an action verb (updated, developed, etc) is an easy way to cut out any unnecessary grammatical fat and start telling each success story quickly.
Here’s an example: “Sterilized and prepared dental tools and instruments prior to 200+ successful orthodontic procedures.”
A word on career gaps
Don’t try to hide any gaps in your work history. Taking a year or two off for whatever reason used to be something of a red flag to recruiters, but times have changed. Be upfront about your career breaks, most hiring managers nowadays will give you ample opportunity to explain.
Education
The education portion of your resume should be straightforward; just list the degrees you’ve earned and the schools you attended.
Only include completed degrees, and always add accurate dates of attendance.
If you’ve earned COA certification from the Dental Assisting National Body, add that information to this section as well.
Keywords
Remember those ATS software systems we were talking about earlier? When they scan your resume and decide if you're a candidate worthy of human attention they’ll be looking for relevant keywords.
What are keywords? Any orthodontic hard skills, soft skills, or awards you haven’t already mentioned. The last area of your resume represents a final opportunity to add any keywords you may have neglected in earlier sections.
Here are some examples:
- Manual dexterity
- Patient billing
- Dental molds
- Patient data gathering
- Braces maintenance/adjustments
And you’re done. That's everything you need to know to write a new resume!
I need a resume writing miracle
If you’re in urgent need of a resume ASAP, don’t spend another minute procrastinating.
Get in touch with us right away and we’ll craft you a fantastic, personalized Orthodontist Assistant resume.
We write great resumes for free. Tips appreciated!
