Veterinary Technician resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 16 skills, tools and credentials that come up in veterinary technician 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 · 11
- Anesthesia monitoring (used in Emily's sample resume)
- Surgical assisting (used in Emily's sample resume)
- Dental radiography (used in Emily's sample resume)
- Dental cleanings (used in Emily's sample resume)
- Laboratory diagnostics (used in Emily's sample resume)
- IV catheter placement (used in Emily's sample resume)
- Medication administration (used in Emily's sample resume)
- Triage (used in Emily's sample resume)
- Emergency and critical care (used in Emily's sample resume)
- CPR (used in Emily's sample resume)
- Patient restraint (used in Emily's sample resume)
Tools & software · 1
- Cornerstone (used in Emily's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 3
- VTNE (used in Emily's sample resume)
- Licensed Veterinary Technician (LVT) (used in Emily's sample resume)
- AVMA-accredited program (used in Emily's sample resume)
Soft skills · 1
- Client education (used in Emily's sample resume)
16 of 16 appear in Emily'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.
Dental cleanings
Weak: Skills: Dental cleanings
Strong: Perform dental cleanings and take full-mouth dental radiographs for the veterinarian to diagnose and treat
CPR
Weak: Skills: CPR
Strong: Assisted with CPR and trauma stabilization, and kept the crash cart checked and stocked at the start of every shift
Cornerstone
Weak: Skills: Cornerstone
Strong: Monitored 8–12 hospitalized patients a night and updated treatment sheets and the medical record in Cornerstone
Strong bullets come from Emily's sample resume and our veterinary technician 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 veterinary technician post asks for Anesthesia monitoring and you've used it, say Anesthesia monitoring, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a veterinary technician post says "Surgical assisting", write "Surgical assisting", 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 Anesthesia monitoring — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Dental cleanings. A bullet like the one under Veterinary Technician 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
Veterinary Technician keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a veterinary technician resume have?
There's no magic number. Emily's sample resume uses all 16 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 veterinary technician post says "Anesthesia monitoring", write "Anesthesia monitoring" 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 Emily's sample, Dental cleanings shows up in a bullet under Veterinary Technician. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a veterinary technician resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in veterinary technician posts include Cornerstone. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list VTNE and Licensed Veterinary Technician (LVT) 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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