Respiratory Therapist resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 18 skills, tools and credentials that come up in respiratory 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 · 10
- Mechanical ventilation (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- Ventilator weaning (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- ABG analysis (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- Airway management (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- Noninvasive ventilation (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- Oxygen therapy (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- Aerosol therapy (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- Airway clearance (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- Code blue (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- Rapid response (used in Marcus's sample resume)
Tools & software · 3
- BiPAP (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- CPAP (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- High-flow nasal cannula (used in Marcus's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 4
- RRT (NBRC) (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- Respiratory therapist license (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- ACLS (used in Marcus's sample resume)
- BLS (used in Marcus's sample resume)
Soft skills · 1
- Patient education (used in Marcus's sample resume)
18 of 18 appear in Marcus'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.
Mechanical ventilation
Weak: Skills: Mechanical ventilation
Strong: Manage mechanical ventilation for up to 8 ICU patients a shift, adjusting settings from ABG results and physician orders
Ventilator weaning
Weak: Skills: Ventilator weaning
Strong: Run daily spontaneous breathing trials with nursing under the ventilator weaning protocol and report readiness to the ICU team on rounds
Code blue, Rapid response
Weak: Skills: Code blue, Rapid response
Strong: Respond to every code blue and rapid response on my shift, manage the airway with bag-valve-mask ventilation and assist with intubation
Noninvasive ventilation, BiPAP, CPAP, High-flow nasal cannula
Weak: Skills: Noninvasive ventilation, BiPAP, CPAP, High-flow nasal cannula
Strong: Set up and titrate BiPAP, CPAP and high-flow nasal cannula, and trained 12 new nurses on noninvasive ventilation alarms
Strong bullets come from Marcus's sample resume and our respiratory 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 a respiratory therapist post asks for Mechanical ventilation and you've used it, say Mechanical ventilation, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a respiratory therapist post says "Ventilator weaning", write "Ventilator weaning", 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 Mechanical ventilation — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Mechanical ventilation. A bullet like the one under Respiratory Therapist, Adult ICU 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
Respiratory Therapist keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a respiratory therapist resume have?
There's no magic number. Marcus'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 respiratory therapist post says "Mechanical ventilation", write "Mechanical ventilation" 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 Marcus's sample, Rapid response is in the summary and Mechanical ventilation shows up in a bullet under Respiratory Therapist, Adult ICU. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a respiratory therapist resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in respiratory therapist posts include BiPAP, CPAP and High-flow nasal cannula. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list RRT (NBRC) and Respiratory 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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