Paraprofessional Resume Example

This comprehensive guide will give you all the tools you need to craft a paraprofessional resume that positions you strongly against other candidates. The article will take you through the key steps of creating a resume that presents your key skills, qualities and career achievements in a format that employers favor. It will also help you tailor your resume according to your unique skills and experience level. Continue reading to find expert tips and advice from Jobseeker that will help you with your paraprofessional resume.

Core sections to include in a paraprofessional resume

Most resumes contain similar key sections, with a paraprofessional resume being no different. If you're lacking relevant work experience, you might choose to add sections that showcase your skill set earlier than in a traditional resume layout. These sections might include projects, education, hobbies and interests, skills and other optional sections.

How you choose to present your resume is up to you. There are plenty of options for a professional resume layout and format, but every application should include the following:

Resume Header and Personal Information

Your paraprofessional resume header is the place to add your contact details. Start by adding your full name and underneath, include your email address, phone number and location. Adding your LinkedIn profile, if you have one, can help the employer get a better insight into your skills and industry expertise. You don't need to include any additional personal information or a photo. Make sure your resume header is as brief as possible and doesn't take up too much valuable space. Choose a clear, professional design that sets the tone for your application.

Opt for a professional-looking email address based on your name. If your email address could be construed as unprofessional or inappropriate because it contains nicknames or unsuitable language, create a new, more professional email address for your job applications. Always check your contact details to make sure they're up-to-date before you send your resume.

Resume Summary

In your resume summary, write a short paragraph that highlights two or three of your key achievements and skills for paraprofessional roles. You could also call this section 'resume objective' or 'personal profile'. A resume summary covers your career experience to date, while a resume objective focuses more on your ambitions for the future. Additionally, make sure your resume summary reflects the job description and focuses on qualities that are relevant to working as a paraprofessional.

Alternatively, use this summary to introduce your personal career ambitions and explain why paraprofessional roles are a good fit for you at this stage of your career.

The best resume summaries reflect the job description and focus on qualities that are relevant to working as a paraprofessional, while highlighting elements of your personality that make you an ideal candidate. They also quantify the information provided with evidence. See below for some great examples of what to include in your paraprofessional resume summary.

Alternatively, a poor resume summary would include bland, generic information that does little to prove your suitability for the role, while failing to provide any useful insights on you as a person or as a candidate. The graphic above shows some of the pitfalls to avoid when creating your resume summary.

Hard and Soft Skills

Listing your key skills can help to prove your suitability for paraprofessional jobs. These could be CPR/AED certification, attention to detail or various other relevant skills. Once more, review the job description and pick out any key paraprofessional skills listed that match yours. Focus on these skills and any other key transferable skills that make you a strong candidate for the job.

Showcasing hard skills on your paraprofessional resume

For your hard skills list, include any technical abilities or specific industry knowledge that's essential to working as a paraprofessional. These could be skills gained through work experience or qualifications. Furthermore, your hard skills list helps to show employers how competent and experienced you are at key paraprofessional duties and responsibilities. It's best to aim for four or five key hard skills that match the job description. These can really showcase your suitability for the job.

For an effective resume hard skills section, focus on the technical skills that are most essential in the job description, and that match your specific expertise. Some examples of the best hard skills for a paraprofessional resume are listed below.

Showcasing your best soft skills

Soft skills are your transferable skills and personal qualities that make you a good match for a paraprofessional position and the organization. Soft skills tend to be more universal than hard skills, and can often apply to multiple jobs and industries. In fact, as technology develops, soft skills are growing in importance for recruiters and employers, so be sure to add several of these to your resume. You should generally look to include up to five soft or transferable skills that match the job description.

An effective paraprofessional resume soft skills section should be targeted to include skills that reflect your personality and unique characteristics, while also matching the job description. The graphic below includes some examples of good resume soft skills.

Education and Qualifications

In your education section, include details of your most relevant paraprofessional qualifications and educational achievements.

Typically, working as a paraprofessional requires a university or college degree, which you'll need to list on your resume. If you're working in this sector, it's usually a good idea to highlight your Bachelor of Science in Education degree or other relevant qualifications. Focus on qualifications that showcase your data entry proficiency or special education knowledge.

Enter the name and level of the qualification, the institution you studied at, its location and your dates of study or graduation. If you have space, include some bullet points outlining any specialist areas of study, awards or high grades, so the employer can learn more about your unique skill set and knowledge.

Additionally, mentioning any leadership roles or any societies and clubs you participated in while studying shows proactivity and initiative.

Certifications and Training

Under certifications and licenses, add any further qualifications that show you're a good fit for the job. These could be professional accreditations and licenses, or certifications that improve your level of suitability for the position. Therefore, make sure you list the dates of your certifications and licenses so employers can see they're up-to-date and valid.

Take a look at some example certifications for a paraprofessional resume below:

Employment History

Your resume work experience section is the chance to show your relevant previous jobs and career achievements as a paraprofessional. Include any relevant jobs you've held in reverse-chronological order. Start with your current or most recent roles and work back through previous roles. For each job, list your title, the name of the company, its location and the dates you worked there.

Under each job entry, add several bullet points highlighting your responsibilities and achievements. Consult the job description for a list of the key requirements for the role and make sure your work experience section showcases how you meet these requirements.

A good resume work experience section includes your most relevant previous jobs and highlights your key achievements in each role. To make the best possible impression on hiring managers, make sure each entry in your work experience section references skills and experience listed in the job description, and shows how you added value to each role with quantifiable evidence and outcomes. Review some strong examples of resume work experience sections in the graphic below.

The example above can give you some idea of what not to include in your resume work experience section. Less effective resume work experience sections might take a more vague, descriptive approach to previous jobs. They focus on responsibilities and everyday duties rather than referencing career achievements and the value you've added for previous employers.

Optional Sections

If you need to provide further evidence of your suitability for the job, optional sections can be useful for a paraprofessional resume. Choose any optional sections that showcase essential or desirable skills or experience for paraprofessional jobs.

Personal Hobbies and Interests

Add any hobbies and interests that reinforce your credentials for the position. They also help to show a different side of your personality, and can help your resume create a more memorable impression on hiring managers. If you're short on real world work experience, hobbies and interests can be a useful way of providing more information about your qualities. Just make sure any hobbies and interests you include in your resume add genuine insight into your personality, in ways other sections of the resume can't.

Voluntary Work

Listing volunteer work is another useful way to prove your relevant experience for paraprofessional roles. List your volunteer job title, the organization you volunteered for, its location and the dates of your involvement, alongside a brief explanation of your responsibilities in the role.

References

It's relatively unusual to include references in a standard paraprofessional resume, but they are required occasionally. Check the job advert to see if you'll need to add references to your resume. Before adding any referees to your resume, ask them for their assistance and prepare them for contact by the employer.

Best action words for your paraprofessional resume

Add strong verbs to your work experience section to show the hiring manager the impact you made in your previous roles. Choose from the list of words below to increase the impact of your work experience section.

For help creating an eye-catching resume design to catch the attention of hiring managers, see Jobseeker's professional resume layouts. You can also use our clear, effective cover letter templates to complete your application.

Example of a paraprofessional resume

The paraprofessional resume example below incorporates all the information from above into a full-designed resume template, so you can see how a final resume will look:

Guide to making your resume ATS-friendly

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) help recruiters and employers to streamline their hiring process. They can store and process data, including applications and applicant data, quickly and efficiently. One of the jobs ATS applications are increasingly responsible for is initial candidate screening. The systems can quickly scan and rank resumes based on how closely they match the job description. There are several things you can do when writing your paraprofessional resume, to give yourself the strongest chance of ranking highly in the ATS stage and progressing through the recruitment process.

Here a some simple tips to follow for an ATS-friendly resume:

• Use a traditional resume format, such as reverse-chronological or functional. These will give your resume a structure that's easier for ATS systems to scan.
• Use of job description keywords throughout your resume will help it rank higher in the ATS scanning stage, as it will more closely match the requirements laid out in the job description.
• Use clear headings that break your resume up into readable, scannable sections that match the standard content employers expect from a resume.
• Adopt a resume design that uses clear, professional design principles and leaves white space for your content to breathe. Use the most readable fonts and incorporate subtle design elements to enhance the readability of your document.
• Adopt simple, professional language to keep your resume as concise as possible. This tends to make your document more readable, and easier for ATS software to scan.

Key takeaways for your paraprofessional resume

The best resumes focus on your skills and the value you've added to previous roles, rather than focusing on your duties and responsibilities. Choose a resume structure that makes the most of your relevant experience, whether through work or other activities, and be sure to tailor your resume to match the job description.

Remember, Jobseeker resume templates and other tools make it easy to create a resume and cover letter that leaves a positive impression on hiring managers. Sign up now to start building your perfect resume. Whether you're a junior or senior candidate, a professional cover letter can help to grab the attention of the employer. Jobseeker's cover letter examples were created by careers experts to provide useful tips and ideas for your cover letter.

Sources:

(1) Writing a Resume, California Department of Human Resources: https://www.calhr.ca.gov/employees/Pages/resume-tips.aspx

(2) Resumes, Cover Letters and Job Applications, New York State Department of Labor: https://dol.ny.gov/resumes-cover-letters-and-job-applications