Physical Therapist Assistant resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 18 skills, tools and credentials that come up in physical therapist assistant 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 · 13
- Physical therapist assistant (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Plan of care (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Therapeutic exercise (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Neuromuscular re-education (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Gait training (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Transfer training (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Modalities (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Fall prevention (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Home exercise programs (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Patient education (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Documentation (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Outpatient orthopedics (used in Derek's sample resume)
- Skilled nursing (used in Derek's sample resume)
Tools & software · 2
- WebPT (used in Derek's sample resume)
- PointClickCare (used in Derek's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 3
- PTA license (used in Derek's sample resume)
- NPTE (used in Derek's sample resume)
- BLS (used in Derek's sample resume)
18 of 18 appear in Derek'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.
Plan of care
Weak: Skills: Plan of care
Strong: Treat 14–18 outpatients a day under the supervising physical therapist's plan of care, mostly post-op knee, shoulder and spine patients
Therapeutic exercise, Neuromuscular re-education, Gait training, Modalities
Weak: Skills: Therapeutic exercise, Neuromuscular re-education, Gait training, Modalities
Strong: Lead therapeutic exercise, neuromuscular re-education, gait training and modalities such as electrical stimulation, ultrasound, heat and ice
WebPT
Weak: Skills: WebPT
Strong: Write daily notes in WebPT the same day and flag changes in pain or function to the PT before the next visit
Home exercise programs
Weak: Skills: Home exercise programs
Strong: Raised plan-of-care completion for my patients from 64% to 79% by building clear home exercise programs and calling patients after missed visits
Strong bullets come from Derek's sample resume and our physical therapist assistant 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 a physical therapist assistant post asks for Physical therapist assistant and you've used it, say Physical therapist assistant, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a physical therapist assistant post says "Plan of care", write "Plan of care", 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 Physical therapist assistant — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Therapeutic exercise. A bullet like the one under Physical Therapist Assistant 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
Physical Therapist Assistant keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a physical therapist assistant resume have?
There's no magic number. Derek'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 a physical therapist assistant post says "Physical therapist assistant", write "Physical therapist assistant" 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 Derek's sample, Plan of care, Outpatient orthopedics and Skilled nursing are in the summary and Therapeutic exercise shows up in a bullet under Physical Therapist Assistant. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a physical therapist assistant resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in physical therapist assistant posts include WebPT and PointClickCare. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list PTA license and NPTE 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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