How to Write a Perfect Caregiver Resume (Examples Included)

caregivers, also known as home health aides, are an essential part of the healthcare industry. they may not get the glory or the fame, but it doesn’t get much more necessary than helping people get through their daily lives. with patience, compassion, and a stellar bedside manner, these aides work with patients at home to help them with daily tasks like feeding, bathing, and moving around. their patients may include people with disabilities or the elderly. if you don’t have a degree (beyond high school/ged), or are just getting started, this can be a great career path.

let’s look at caregiver resume samples from three different caregivers: one just starting out, a daycare provider, and a certified home health aide. first up is helene, who is looking for her first full-time job as a caregiver.

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helene may not have a lot of full-time work experience as a caregiver, but she does have some very relevant personal experience, assisting her sister with daily tasks. she also mentions specific responsibilities in her role as a nanny that would show her skills as a caregiver: creating activities, accommodating special dietary needs, and managing the children to and from activities. if you’re just starting out in the workforce, employers understand that you won’t have a ton of experience yet. but it’s important to use the experience you do have to your best advantage, and show how you would use that to do the job you want.

next up is karen, who is an experienced home health aide, but does not hold certification.

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karen has been working with kids for a long time, so she wants that experience to be very prominent. the traditional reverse-chronological format works well for her, as it’s important to establish a long history of her caregiving. she uses her headline to establish the narrative for her resume: she’s certified, she’s experienced, and she focuses on the educational well-being of her charges. she also mentions her personality—which isn’t always a factor in a resume, but when you’re applying for a job that requires constant interaction with customers or patients, it’s a good idea to mention personal qualities that will help you fit well into the job. after all, someone hiring a caregiver for their child is likely going to want someone who is patient with kids, and has an upbeat temperament.

next is frank, who is a certified home health aide, more on the medical side of caregiving.

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Frank wants to play up his skill set, and emphasize his reliability as someone who goes into patients’ homes and takes care of them. this is a job that requires a lot of trust, so it’s important to make sure that his competence and compassionate care shine through in this resume. for this reason, frank picks a more functional, skills-based format, then uses his experience bullets to emphasize those qualities. instead of parking his education and certification at the end of the resume (as so many of us often do), he makes sure it’s listed up front, as a selling point and not an afterthought. certification underlines his competence and reliability, so he wants to make sure that’s very clear to the resume reader.

He also includes his volunteer experience with his work experience, because that volunteering service is extremely relevant to his career path as a professional caregiver. it helps flesh out the qualities he wants to establish. listing volunteer experience isn’t necessary, but especially if it’s relevant to the job you’re seeking, it certainly can’t hurt. it can also show what kind of a person you are outside of work hours—and in this case, it suggests frank is as caring outside of work hours as he is on the job.

looking for a caregiver job? TheJobNetwork has listings for positions at all levels. search here for jobs in your field and area of the country: