Personal Support Worker Resume Guide + Tips + Example
Want a job as a personal support worker? Then you need a great personal support worker resume. We’re here to help. Use our guide to create a stand-out resume for a personal support worker and make the most of your empathy and communication skills.
Start by editing this personal support worker resume sample, or explore our library of customizable resume templates to find the best personal support worker resume template for you.
Personal support worker resume example (text version)
Jane Smith
Los Angeles, CA 90022
(555) 555-5555
example@example.com
Professional Summary
Empathetic personal support worker with a sensitive and compassionate approach to cultivating a trusting, stimulating and varied lifestyle for residents. Offers enhanced care with a flexible learning approach for patients. Experience in hospital and in-home settings providing guidance and encouragement to patients through physical and emotional support.
Skills
- Long-term care
- Resident advocacy
- File management
- Palliative care
- Care plan development
- Resident assessment
- Problem-solving
- Communication
Work History
November 2020 – Current
Independent Life Skills, LLC – Los Angeles, CA
Personal Support Worker
- Assist up to 60 residents per month to complete activities of daily living, including hygiene, feeding and toileting, and help them clean and maintain eyeglasses, dentures and hearing aids.
- Perform preventive care, routine wound management, medication administration and specimen collection.
- Provide safe mobility support to help patients move around personal and public spaces.
September 2017 – October 2020
Maxim Healthcare – Los Angeles, CA
Healthcare Support Worker
- Monitored client vital signs, administered medications and tracked behaviors to keep the healthcare supervisor well-informed.
- Kept 100 accurate records for client files and handled related paperwork.
- Prepared meals for patients so they can keep a healthy, balanced diet, improving their health by 55%.
June 2014 – August 2017
Senior Helpers – Anaheim, CA
Personal Care Aide
- Assisted an average of 20 clients per week with daily living needs to maintain self-esteem and general wellness.
- Cleaned house, ran errands, managed laundry and completed weekly grocery shopping.
- Scheduled and accompanied clients to up to six medical appointments per month.
Education
- June 2021
Glendale Community College Glendale, CA
Associate of Science Healthcare Administration - June 2014
Los Angeles Trade Technical College Los Angeles, CA
Certificate Personal Care Aide
Certifications
- CPR / First Aid Certification – American Red Cross – (Updated 2022)
- Personal Support Worker (PSW) Certification – (2016)
5 essentials of a top personal support worker resume
Contact details
Add your contact information to the top of your resume so hiring managers can contact you. As our personal support worker resume example shows, your contact information must include your full name, city, state and ZIP code, phone number and professional email address. If you have a LinkedIn profile and professional website, add them last.
Personal statement
A personal statement, also known as a professional summary, is a concise, three-to-five-sentence statement that tells the hiring manager who you are and what you offer. Your summary must include job-relevant skills and one or two notable accomplishments. It should also touch on how long you’ve been in the industry. If you are applying for your first job or changing careers, use a personal support worker resume objective instead.
Skills
Create a skills section on your resume so hiring managers can see if you match their needs. Add your job-relevant personal support worker resume skills to a bulleted list. It’s best to include both hard and soft skills such as care plan development and active listening.
Work history
Whether this is your first job or you’ve been at it for decades, a resume for a personal support worker must include a section to display your job history. In reverse-chronological order, show your current and previous employers and provide company names, locations and the dates you worked for them. Include three bullet points of measurable achievements for every job you list.
Education
A personal support worker resume must include an education section, whether or not you have a degree. In reverse-chronological order, display the names of the schools and the years you graduated using bullet points. If you did not attend college, list your high school information and the classes you’ve taken since graduating.
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Action words for a stand-out personal support worker resume
Use action words and numbers to add impact to your resume.
Here’s a short list of perfect action words for a personal support worker resume:
- Assist
- Provide
- Perform
- Prepare
- Maintain
- Organize
- Clean
- Observe
- Report
- Assess
- Document
- Engage
- Plan
Check out our collection of resume samples to help you write the perfect resume for a personal support worker job. You’ll find personal support worker resume samples to inspire you!
Need a professional resume now? Our Resume Builder has all the tools you need to create a professional resume in minutes! Just fill in one of our templates, and you can make edits as you go, download your finished resume and save it in any file format you want. It is that easy!
Top skills for a personal support worker resume
Review the job description closely and match the required skills to the skills and traits that fit you.
Some personal support worker resume skills might include the following:
- Administration
- Management
- Leadership
- Organization
- Verbal communication
- Written communication
- Active listening
- Microsoft Office
- Attention to detail
- Interpersonal
- Advocacy
- File management
- Palliative care
- Planning
- Assessing
- Problem solving
- Critical thinking
- Persuasion
- Empathy
- Relationship building
Certifications for a personal support worker resume
Having a certificate for a personal support worker job is not required, but having at least one medical certificate on your resume will show hiring managers that you have the skills and knowledge necessary to perform specific tasks required for the job.
The following certifications can boost your resume:
Pair your resume with a matching cover letter
Personal support worker resume FAQ
1. What is the right way to include keywords in a personal support worker resume?
Having the right keywords in your resume is more important than ever, as employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to scan resumes based on keywords. Browse through the job requirements and find words that spell out the job’s significant requirements.
2. What does a personal support worker resume look like?
There is no standard personal support worker resume template; you can use any of our templates and customize them for your desired job. A good resume for a personal support worker will look like the sample resume on this page. It must display the job seeker’s contact information, hard and soft skills, job history, education and certifications, if applicable. Your resume might also contain sections for awards and honors if the job candidate has them to display.
3. What is the correct format for a personal support worker resume?
The resume format you use depends on your experience and goals. If you have a few years of experience, choose the combination resume format, which highlights your remarkable work history and skills. If you’re a fresh college graduate or are just beginning your career, go with the functional resume format, which focuses on your job-related skills and training. If you have more than five years of experience, go with a chronological resume format, which leans heavily on your work achievements. Refer to resume examples for personal support workers to find the best format for you.
Do’s and don’ts for building a personal support worker resume
- Use measurable achievements to describe your personal support worker abilities and experience.
- Use action words to make an impact on your personal support worker resume.
- Tailor your resume to your target personal support worker job.
- Use keywords from the job description throughout your personal support worker resume.
- Format your personal support worker resume so that it is easy to read by ATS software and human eyes.
- Lie about your personal support worker experience and skills.
- Boast that you’re the “best personal support worker ever.”
- Include irrelevant personal information such as your ethnicity and age.
- Add skills and experience not about being a personal support worker.
- Forget to proofread. A personal support worker resume with errors is unprofessional.
Top 4 tips for acing a personal support worker interview
Research.
It’s vital to take the time to learn about the company’s history, goals, values and people before the interview. Doing so conveys interest, passion and commitment — traits that can set you above the competition.
Practice.
Practice does make perfect. To prepare for your interview, start by reviewing the most common interview questions, such as:
- How would your coworkers describe you?
- What attracted you to this company?
- Give me an example of how you juggle multiple deadlines.
Write down two or three possible answers for each question, then practice answering them with a friend.
Ask questions.
Always have at least three questions for each person you speak with during the interview process. Doing so shows that you’re interested and that you’ve been paying close attention.
Some questions you might ask for a personal support worker job are:
- What is the team’s most significant accomplishment this year?
- What are the biggest challenges of this role?
- What are the expectations about managing workflow within the team?
Prepare references.
Have professional references ready before you enter your interview — you never know if the hiring manager might want to contact them immediately. Ask a former manager and two former colleagues who can speak about your performance and who you know will give you an excellent review.
Cover letter examples for the next step in your healthcare support career
- Caregivers Companions Cover Letter
- Home Health Aide Cover Letter
- Homemaker Cover Letter
- Medical Biller Cover Letter
- Medical Receptionist Cover Letter
- Occupational Therapist Cover Letter
- PCA Cover Letter
- Patient Care Tech Cover Letter
- Patient Service Representative Cover Letter
- Personal Care Aide Cover Letter
- Personal Care Assistant Cover Letter
- Personal Support Worker Cover Letter
- Phlebotomist Cover Letter