Speech Pathologist Resume: Examples, Template, and Resume Tips

As social beings, communication is central to our lives and a key aspect of communication is speech.

Easily taken for granted, the ability to speak and convey messages is not an ability everyone has. Due to various reasons, from developmental challenges to diseases like stroke, anyone can end up being unable to speak.

In many cases, unless one encounters someone with speech problems, he may never understand the impact this has. But as a speech pathologist, or speech language pathologist or speech therapist, you understand these challenges well enough.

You’re probably mostly moved by compassion for those unable to speak or swallow comfortably. And with the training you’ve received, you’re hoping to help those affected be able to communicate effectively.

There’s however a potential barrier to your chances of success. That potential barrier is the process to get a job as a speech pathologist. And the process starts at the resume writing stage.

Writing a perfect resume is not difficult although it’s always a tense moment for many speech pathologists.

Not only do you have to write it well but you resume must beat all the others to qualify you for an interview. And since you don’t know who else is applying and what their qualifications are, it’s normal to be tense.

But that doesn’t have to be the case. Your levels of anxiety will definitely drop after reading this article and implementing the advice provided.

We’re going to show you how to write the best speech pathologist resume so that you won’t be job hunting for too long. And after that, we’ll show you two sample speech pathologist resumes from which you can see how it all comes together.

The first one is to help you see how to write if you’re looking for your first job. But if you have some work experience, then the second one will show you how to take advantage of that.

But before going into the resume writing, here are some important things to know.

SPEECH PATHOLOGIST SALARY

One of the biggest influences when choosing a career is the pay you expect. And whereas the pay package may vary, the part most speech pathologists consider is the salary.

As a speech pathologist, the desire to see your patient successfully learn how to speak may be big. But at the same time, you also want to get some satisfaction from your pay. Knowing what other speech pathologists earn will also help you when negotiating your salary.

Taking a look at data from salary.com, you will learn that the median annual pay for speech pathologists in the USA is $81,690.

If you consider that the 10% least paid speech pathologists earn around $69,000 then you know that you’re not badly off. With more education and some years of experience, you could add almost $30k to that salary alone.

Isn’t that great news?

Speech pathologist salary by employer

As you would expect, not every employer pays the same.

There are some employers who pay their staff more than others. There are different reasons. Probably a high-end clientele, a high number of patients or anything else.

Here are a few employers you can think of applying to work for depending on the pay they give. But keep in mind that the high pay indicated could also be for speech pathologists who have work experience.

Also note that these figures indicate what you could be paid for every hour worked.

There’s very little difference in the salaries of employers on this list. But taking the individual figures, you can easily calculate your annual salary if you prefer looking at it from that perspective.

For example, $39 per hour works out to $1,560 in a 40-hour work week. In a month, that comes to $6,240. Multiply that by 12 for the whole year and you get a salary of $74,880.

This is assuming that you don’t work on weekends. Not to mention that we haven’t factored in any other payments like bonuses.

Speech pathologist job growth

Something else worth looking at is the job growth for your occupation.

Although you may have considered this before enrolling for your degree, it’s good to stay updated. This way, you’ll know what lies ahead.

For job growth, we’ll head over to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Data from their employment projection program indicates that the speech pathologist occupation is set to grow. In fact, the growth is quite high.

At 27% growth rate for the decade between 2018 and 2028, your career is definitely secure.

To put it into perspective, this projected growth is 5 times more than what is projected for all occupations in the US economy.

As you can see from the above graph, health diagnosing and treating practitioners have a projected occupational growth of 13%. It’s very likely that your occupation’s growth is connected to the high number of people seeking medical attention due to conditions related to old age.

With a career set to be secure for many years, you have to position yourself in the right place. Where you’ll not only offer patients compassionate care but will also enjoy growth in your career.

And it all starts with getting the resume right. This is the one document which can stand between you and the opportunity to practice your passion.

So, how are you writing your speech pathologist resume?

HOW TO WRITE YOUR SPEECH PATHOLOGIST RESUME

Whatever challenges you have encountered so far will come to an end by the end of this article.

In this article, we’ll cover the 5 main sections of a speech pathologist resume. After that we’ll give you two resume examples to help you see the final picture of how your resume could look like.

Don’t forget that we also provide you with resume templates to help you get things done faster.

Let’s get into it.

Section 1: Personal information

This part is easy. It’s all about introducing yourself. Right?

Yes and No.

Yes because that’s what is expected in this section. No because it’s not just about writing your name and contact information. It’s about righting it right.

You have to be professional when it comes to everything on your resume. Write your name in full and include a professional email address.

Depending on the resume format or template you’ll use, your name could be in different positions. It could be center aligned or on either the left or right side of the resume. Whichever side, it has to be at the top.

Here is how to write your name and email address professionally.

As the first thing the hiring manager looks at, you should take this section seriously. Though containing just a few things, the smallest mistake here could disqualify you.

Section 2: Summary of Objective

The second part of your resume is arguably the most important. And although it largely borrows its contents from the sections coming after it, it plays a crucial role in your resume’s ability to win you an interview.

Since recruiters and hiring managers have to go through many resumes, they have to spend the least amount of time on every resume. Typically, the time spent on a resume is 6 seconds.

6 seconds are not enough to read your whole resume, yet that’s what you want to happen.

The only way to do this is by grabbing the hiring manager’s attention as quickly as possible and sustaining it. This is what the summary and objective does.

If you don’t manage to do this, then you might keep the “job seeker” tag for longer.

At this point, you have to answer one question: which one do you use between the summary and objective?

This is a common question and the best way to answer it is by telling you the situations which warrant their use.

Use a career objective when…

• Just entering the workforce
• Making a career change
• Returning to the job market after a long break

Use a professional summary when…

• Loaded with tons of work experience in the field
• Have career-specific achievements to show off
• Moving to a different company but similar position/role

How to write a speech pathologist professional summary

If you have some work experience, then writing your professional summary should be a breeze. And if you write it well, you’ll have an edge over the other job applicants.

Having worked in one or several clinics, hospitals or even rehabilitation centers, your work experience will provide the content for your summary. Just pick the best of your work achievements for listing in the summary.

There is one thing you must do for your summary to be effective. You must use numbers in at least three or four of your achievements. Numbers are great in showing the amount of change or benefit you brought about.

For example, saying that you helped patients learn how to speak after a stroke is okay. But saying that you helped more than 20 stroke patients re-learn how to speak is better. Including the number of patients is a small change which makes a big difference in the eyes of the hiring manager.

Check out the below example of a well-written summary.

How to write a speech pathologist career objective

At first, it may seem as if a career objective can’t do a good job when compared to a summary. But once you know what to write and how to write it, you’ll be at peace.

Your career objective mainly focuses on your academics, skills, and any work experience you have other than that of a speech pathologist.

And just like the experienced speech pathologist, use numbers to show the measurable success you achieved in any past work you did.

Here is how to write your career objective like a pro.

Section 3: Work experience

This is often a tricky section for speech pathologists with no work experience. They wonder what they should write. Some write that they have no work experience yet while others even leave it blank.

Other speech pathologists even remove the section altogether since they have nothing to write. No matter how logical you think that might be, it’s simply not wise.

Just to be clear, this is one section every hiring manager will look at after going through your summary or objective. So, if you haven’t worked before as a speech pathologist, write about other jobs you’ve had.

What should be evident in this section is the relevant work experience. You may have done some work which is not related to speech pathologist at all. However, if you learned something while there and it can be used in your career, that’s what you should write about.

Some of the sources of work experience for this section are your internship, volunteer and freelance work.

Here’s how you could write this section.

Note how the second example shows the tweaking of the work experience to suit job being applied for. This makes the work experience which is not directly related to speech pathologist become relevant.

If you have worked as a speech pathologist before, then you have a lot to write about. As mentioned in the summary/objective section, your work experience should reflect your achievements.

To do this, you must use numbers to show the difference you made.

This can be a bit challenging at first. But if you take some time and think of what you did, you’ll see that you can easily turn your responsibilities into achievements.

Section 4: Education

Next is the education section. This might seem like a pretty straightforward section with nothing much to write here.

But don’t be fooled. This is one section you can use to your advantage, especially if you’re looking for your first job.

If you’re a senior speech pathologist, then you probably have several degrees which you can list. This is to your advantage. In this case, just list them down starting from the most recent.

If you’re looking for your first job, then you can play around with this section to better attract the hiring manager’s attention.

First of all, for your case, you don’t have to write the work experience before education. There are no rules dictating what should come first. This rule only applies to the name and summary/objective sections.

In fact, to better sell yourself as the candidate of choice, writing your education right after your objective is the best move. This draws attention to your academic qualifications.

Get some keywords from the job description provided in the job ad. These will help you choose what coursework to include in this section. Since you have no work experience, the coursework details will help show that you have the relevant knowledge required to perform well at work.

Secondly, you can alter the way you write your education to add more emphasis on your academics.

For example, if you attended Yale University, you should start with the name of the university. This will give you some attention when the hiring manager imagines a Yale University graduate working in her company.

As long as the university you attended is well-known, start with its name. This works better than the traditional way of starting with the name of the degree program you did.

Look at the difference in the below examples.

Section 5: Skills

The last thing you must write about is the unique skills you have. These will hopefully set you apart from the other job candidates.

In the skills section, there isn’t much writing or explanation to give. You’ll just be providing a list of your most valuable skills.

Again, tailor these to the keywords from the job description.

Here is a list of common speech pathologist skills. Pick a few and include them in your resume.

• Compassion
• Patience
• Communication skills
• Enthusiasm
• Adaptability
• Resourcefulness
• Team work
• Interpersonal skills
• Innovativeness

SPEECH PATHOLOGIST RESUME SAMPLES

As promised, here are two resume samples for your reference. They clearly show how the final copy of a well-written speech pathologist resume can look like.

And to make the samples relevant, one is for an entry-level speech pathologist while the other one is for the experienced speech pathologist.

Entry-level speech pathologist resume

Experienced speech pathologist resume

CONCLUSION

There you go. You’re now equipped to write the kind of resume that will help you grow your career.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’re going up the career ladder, a resume is what often stands between you and your progress.

Now that has been dealt with.