Occupational Therapist resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 18 skills, tools and credentials that come up in occupational therapist job posts, sorted by type, and how to put them in bullets a recruiter believes.
By Nazir Elmurodov, Founder, LaunchCV · Updated
/ The list
Keywords by type. Use only the ones that are true for you.
Hard skills · 12
- Occupational therapy evaluation (used in Priya's sample resume)
- ADL retraining (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Plan of care (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Goal writing (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Neuromuscular re-education (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Therapeutic exercise (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Cognitive screening (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Orthotic fabrication (used in Priya's sample resume)
- DME recommendations (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Home modifications (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Discharge planning (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Medicare documentation (used in Priya's sample resume)
Tools & software · 2
- MoCA (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Epic (used in Priya's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 3
- OTR (NBCOT) (used in Priya's sample resume)
- Occupational therapist license (used in Priya's sample resume)
- BLS (used in Priya's sample resume)
Soft skills · 1
- Caregiver training (used in Priya's sample resume)
18 of 18 appear in Priya's sample resume. See where
/ How to use them
Put keywords in bullets, not just in a skills list.
A skills list tells the software you have a skill. A bullet shows a recruiter what you did with it.
ADL retraining, Neuromuscular re-education, Therapeutic exercise
Weak: Skills: ADL retraining, Neuromuscular re-education, Therapeutic exercise
Strong: Write measurable goals and plans of care, then lead ADL retraining, neuromuscular re-education and upper extremity therapeutic exercise
Caregiver training
Weak: Skills: Caregiver training
Strong: Started a structured caregiver training session in the week before discharge; family-reported confidence with transfers at discharge rose from 58% to 81% on our unit survey
Home modifications, Discharge planning
Weak: Skills: Home modifications, Discharge planning
Strong: Recommend DME and home modifications and coordinate discharge planning with case management, PT and speech-language pathology
Epic, Medicare documentation
Weak: Skills: Epic, Medicare documentation
Strong: Document evaluations and daily notes in Epic the same day and follow Medicare documentation guidelines
Strong bullets come from Priya's sample resume and our occupational therapist bullet examples. Names and figures are illustrative.
/ Use them honestly
Keywords get you found. Proof gets you hired.
Mirror the job post's wording for skills you really have. If an occupational therapist post asks for Occupational therapy evaluation and you've used it, say Occupational therapy evaluation, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If an occupational therapist post says "ADL retraining", write "ADL retraining", not a near-synonym — as long as it's accurate. Recruiters search for the post's exact term.
Only claim what you can back up
Expect to be asked about every term you list. If you couldn't spend two minutes on Occupational therapy evaluation — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know ADL retraining. A bullet like the one under Occupational Therapist, Inpatient Rehabilitation in the example above shows what you did with it.
No stuffing, no hidden text
Repeating a word or hiding keywords in white text doesn't make you a better match. A person reads the resume in the end.
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/ Questions
Occupational Therapist keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should an occupational therapist resume have?
There's no magic number. Priya's sample resume uses all 18 terms on this page, because each one fit that job. Cover what your post asks for that you can back up, each where it fits; repeating a keyword doesn't help.
Should I copy keywords exactly from the job post?
Use the post's wording for skills you really have. If an occupational therapist post says "Occupational therapy evaluation", write "Occupational therapy evaluation" rather than a synonym, so a recruiter searching for that term finds you. Don't add skills you don't have just because the post lists them.
Where should keywords go on my resume?
In your summary, a short skills section and, above all, the bullets under each job, where you show what you did with the skill. In Priya's sample, ADL retraining shows up in a bullet under Occupational Therapist, Inpatient Rehabilitation. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on an occupational therapist resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in occupational therapist posts include MoCA and Epic. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list OTR (NBCOT) and Occupational therapist license on my resume?
Spell them the way the job post does, and include both the abbreviation and the full name if you have room. Put licenses and certifications in their own section or next to your education, and only list ones that are current.
Keywords for related roles
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