Posted by Amy Carbone on May 22, 2025 10:42:31 AM
Congratulations! You worked hard to reach your goals and are poised to enter the dental world as a properly trained and highly educated dental professional.
Now, it’s time to put your best foot forward and share all your amazing dental skills and traits with potential employers or partners via a standout resume.
Determine What Type of Position You Want
The first step in crafting your dental resume is to determine your goal position. For example, what you put in your resume may differ based on the position that you are seeking, be it a position with a DSO, an associateship in a private practice, a mentorship arrangement, or an associateship with the potential to buy-in.
Now, on to some actionable tips:
7 Tips For Crafting a Professional Dental Resume
An impactful resume will include these sections:
- Education: Your dental school accreditations and degrees
- Leadership: Professional experiences where you were responsible for certain outcomes or improvements
- Awards: Achievements, scholarships, honors, or other accolades
- Research: Presentations, projects, and other areas where you contributed to the education of the dental community
- Community service: Volunteering and/or non-profit work that you’ve done
- Professional affiliations: Memberships you have with different organizations and why they’re important
Once you have those in place, you can start on these tips:
1. Focus on Your Skills
A dental student's resume should highlight the experience and technical skills gained during school.
Lead with your technical skills and experience at the top of your curriculum vitae (CV), which is a summary of your jobs, education, research, skills, and experience.
This will help those looking at your CV or resume, like dental professionals, recruiters, or hiring managers, garner an understanding of who you are at a glance.
Other dentist resume tips include adding bonus sections, like teaching experience, assessments, military service, published articles, appearance in publications or presentations, and more. Just don’t go overboard. Remain focused primarily on the pertinent and applicable information.
2. Use Data When Possible
Back up your claims with data when possible. After all, anyone can say they have a good rapport with patients, but highlighting awards or reviews you’ve received can be seen as much more impressive.
3. Know Your Audience
Consider who will be reading your resume as you apply for jobs. When joining a small practice, another dental professional or the practice owner might screen you. If you’re joining a DSO, a recruiter or hiring manager might be who reads your resume.
Each audience will look for differing factors when they determine what resume merits a follow-up to set up an interview and which resume is set aside.
4. Customize Your Resume for the Recipient
Your resume should read differently if you are submitting it through an applicant tracking system than it does if you are sending it via email. Use words that are similar to the job description you read.
This helps software understand how qualified you are for the position and increases your odds of getting flagged for a potential interview. It works for recruiters and hiring managers as well because it demonstrates that you read their listing carefully.
5. Read It Backwards
After you make sure what you wrote makes sense, it’s time to get rid of any typos that might exist. The easiest way to do this is to read your resume backwards, word by word. This allows you to focus on each word independently instead of as part of a phrase. This makes it easier to catch each and every typo.
6. Have at Least One Other Person Review It
You should never submit a resume that you wrote and reviewed on your own without letting someone else look it over first.
Choose someone like your family, advisors, peers, or a mentor to look over your resume. Many times, when you write something, you fail to recognize that it doesn’t make sense or that you’ve made errors. It might make sense and look right to you, in your own head, because you know what you meant, but it might not be clear to another reader.
7. Include A Summary Section (Optional)
This section sums up everything you state in your resume in one succinct location. It is similar to the information you lead with in your CV, but instead of introducing yourself, you are summing up everything that makes you an ideal candidate for the job in one easy-to-find location.
Creating Your Standout Resume
Writing a memorable dental resume that gets you noticed is a vital part of pursuing the position you seek. Without the right information and impactful wording, it will be difficult to gain the attention you need to earn that coveted interview.
Consequently, spending time on crafting this one document may yield unparalleled results, so take your time and follow the tips listed above.
Get Your Handbook to Surviving After Dental School
Dental school was stressful, had its own challenges, and probably threw you a few curveballs, but you succeeded. Graduation marks the entry into your new career.
As you start this next chapter of your professional life, there may be more challenges, and you will survive these, too. Are you looking for more insights to prepare for life after dental school? You may be interested in topics such as:
- How to avoid money mistakes as a new dentist
- Income protection strategies
- Becoming a future practice partner
- And much more
Take a moment to download our complimentary ebook, The Post-Dental School Survival Guide, to find answers to the important question, “What happens next?”
About Treloar & Heisel
Treloar & Heisel, an EPIC Company, is a premier financial services provider to dental and medical professionals across the country. We assist thousands of clients from residency to practice and through retirement with a comprehensive suite of financial services, custom-tailored advice, and a strong national network focused on delivering the highest level of service.
Insurance products offered through Treloar & Heisel, LLC.
