Veterinary Technician Resume—Examples, Skills & Guide

Being a vet tech means being compassionate and empathetic—no surprises there. But compassion and empathy alone don’t count for much without a rational and pragmatic foundation.

What does this have to do with your career? To be a great vet tech, you need to love your job and to earn a decent living. This is where your veterinary technician resume comes in.

In this guide:

• A veterinary technician resume sample better than most.
• How to create the perfect veterinary technician job description for resumes.
• How to write a resume for veterinary technicians that stands out.
• Expert tips and examples to boost your chances of landing a veterinary technician job.

Save hours of work and get a job-winning resume like this. Try our resume builder with 20+ resume templates and create your resume now.

Create your resume now

CREATE YOUR RESUME NOW

What users say about ResumeLab:

I had an interview yesterday and the first thing they said on the phone was: “Wow! I love your resume.”
Patrick

I love the variety of templates. Good job guys, keep up the good work!
Dylan 

My previous resume was really weak and I used to spend hours adjusting it in Word. Now, I can introduce any changes within minutes. Absolutely wonderful!
George

Create your resume now

Need another kind of medical, clinical or laboratory resume? Just getting started or looking to branch out? These are just some of our guides:

• Caregiver Resume

• Dental Assistant Resume

• Internship Resume

• Medical Assistant Resume

• Medical Receptionist Resume

• Medical Resume

• Medical School Resume

• New Grad Nursing (RN) Resume

• Nursing Student Resume

• Paramedic / EMT Resume

• Phlebotomist Resume

• Recent College Graduate Resume

• Best Resume Samples for Any Industry

Veterinary Technician Resume Sample

Veterinary technicians assist veterinarians as they diagnose, treat, and monitor patients in veterinary clinics, animal hospitals, and elsewhere. The purpose of your veterinary technician resume is to show hiring managers you have the clinical and soft skills to make a positive impact.

Now here’s how to write a veterinary technician resume they’ll love:

1. Select the Right Veterinary Technician Resume Format

Meet Julie: She’s responsible for hiring at ABC Veterinary Clinic. Julie looks a little annoyed as she deletes your resume after having spent all of 15 seconds scrolling through it.

Why would she do that? She’s got a bunch of resumes to get through, they need a new vet tech ASAP, and yours was a pain to navigate.

Make life easier for the Julies of this world with a great resume format that’s clean, clear, and quick. Here’s how:

• Use the reverse-chronological layout for your resume to show your most recent stuff first.
• Make it easy to read. The best fonts for a resume are the classics: Arial or Calibri, set to 11–12 pt.
• Leave your resume page margins at one inch all round, and be strategic about your spacing. Adding section headings helps to break up the text and guide the reader through your application.
• Submit a resume that’s the right length: one page. Go with a two-page resume only if you have tons of experience that’s relevant and genuinely worth mentioning. 
• Include these sections: Resume Header, Summary, Experience, Education, and Skills.

Before sending in your resume, check the job ad for a preferred resume file format. Go with whatever they list there, or a PDF file if they don’t specify a preference. The PDF format keeps your resume layout intact, plus it makes your resume ATS-friendly. 

2. Start With a Winning Veterinary Technician Resume Objective or Summary

What’s the best way to start a resume for veterinary technicians? With a career profile statement that shows your professionalism, passion, and suitability.

Been working as a vet tech for a year or more already? Write a resume summary for your profile. It’ll let you make the most of all that experience. Use:

1. One adjective (passionate, reliable, dedicated)
2. Job title (Veterinary Technician, Emergency Veterinary Technician)
3. Years of experience (1+, 3+)
4. How you’ll help (provide excellent patient care)
5. Two or three of your most relevant achievements (supported 5–10 surgeries a week with pre- and post-op care and equipment preparation and maintenance, trained and mentored three veterinary assistants and a receptionist)

These veterinary technician resume examples show how:

Veterinary Technician Resume Examples—Resume Summary

Passionate veterinary technician with 5+ years’ experience, well-versed in veterinary medicine. Seeking opportunity to provide excellent animal care at the ABC Veterinary Clinic. At the Orlando Animal Hospital, logged 800+ hours in the emergency department and managed a pharmaceutical inventory worth $30,000+.

Veterinary technician with 5 years’ experience. Seeking opportunity to join an easy-going practice with a great benefits package. At the Orlando Animal Hospital, spent a lot of time in the emergency department and managed the pharmaceutical inventory.

The first of these veterinary technician resume examples does two things particularly well: It manages to put numbers to duties, basically turning them into professional achievements and it stays focused on bringing value to the employer, not giving them a laundry list of preferences.

What if you have little or no professional experience working as a vet tech? Write a resume objective for your profile and use it to talk up relevant achievements from non-veterinary technician jobs.

Veterinary Technician Resume Objective—Examples

Dedicated veterinary technician with 10+ months’ experience, well-versed in medical terminology. Seeking opportunity to provide excellent animal care at the ABC Veterinary Clinic. At the Paws/Play Veterinary Clinic, recorded vital signs like temperature, pulse rate, and respiration metrics for 400+ patients and raised $3,400+ for the treatment of injured strays.

Recently certified and still pretty inexperienced, but I’m a regular Dr Dolittle with the animals. Looking for better pay than at previous job. Can’t do Monday mornings.

Struggling to make your resume profile as good as our veterinary technician resume samples? It’s not you, and there’s a simple trick to getting unstuck. Write your resume profile last of all, it’ll be much easier and you’ll do a much better job.

3. Create the Perfect Veterinary Technician Job Description and Skills Sections

Think the work experience section of your resume is there to summarize your employment history? That’s what most people think—And it won’t be the last time that most people are wrong.

Here’s the truth: Your veterinary technician resume is there to help employers see the value you can bring by showcasing the value you brought to previous employers.

How to write a veterinary technician resume job description:

1. Take your time, re-read the job ad.
2. Spot the veterinary technician skills and duties mentioned there.
3. Think of times you’ve used those skills to impress employers.
4. Write resume bullet points that describe and quantify those times.

These veterinary technician resume examples show how:

Veterinary Technician Job Description for a Resume

Veterinary Technician

Orlando Animal Hospital, Orlando, FL

August 2019–present

• Logged 800+ hours in the emergency department.
• Managed a pharmaceutical inventory worth $30,000+.
• Supported 5–10 surgeries a week, with pre- and post-op care and equipment preparation and maintenance.
• Prepared and administered 1000+ doses of medications and vaccines as prescribed by veterinarians.

Veterinary Technician

Orlando Animal Hospital

2019–present

• Spent a lot of time in the emergency department.
• Managed pharmaceutical inventory.
• Supported surgeries with pre- and post-op care and equipment preparation and maintenance.
• Prepared and administered medications and vaccines as prescribed by veterinarians.

It’s OK to estimate the numbers you’ll need for your job descriptions—Just be ready to explain how you arrived at them.

Don’t have the veterinary technician experience to pull something like this off? Lean on achievements from non-veterinary technician jobs, internships, or education. 

And while you’ve got veterinary technician resume skills on the brain, you’ll need a resume skills section. But crowding your resume with random vet tech skills is not the way to go. Instead, cover the skills mentioned and alluded to in the job ad and leave it at that.

Veterinary Technician Resume Skills

Hard skills

• Medical terminology
• Monitoring vital signs
• Animal welfare / animal care
• Veterinary medicine
• Diagnostic tests
• Veterinary technology
• Clinical skills
• Post op care
• Cleaning wounds
• Administering anesthesia

Soft skills

• Customer service
• Active listening
• Communication skills
• Decision-making
• Interpersonal skills
• Time management
• Organization
• Prioritization
• Compassion
• Attention to detail

The ResumeLab builder is more than looks. Get specific content to boost your chances of getting the job. Add job descriptions, bullet points, and skills. Easy. Improve your resume in our resume builder now.

CREATE YOUR RESUME NOW

CREATE YOUR RESUME NOW

Nail it all with a splash of color, choose a clean font, and highlight your skills in just a few clicks. You're the perfect candidate, and we'll prove it. Use our resume builder now.

4. Turn Your Education Into a Reason to Hire You

Education is an important part of becoming a veterinary technician. So much so that everyone’s resume education section starts to look the same. Here’s how to stand out from the pack:

First: List your degrees (with majors), schools, and graduation years.

Then: Add at least two bullet points that speak to your key vet tech skills.

This veterinary technician resume example shows how:

Veterinary Technician Resume Sample—Education Section

Associate Degree in Veterinary Technology

Florida A&M University (FAMU), Tallahassee, FL

2013–2015

• Pursued a passion for pharmacology coursework.
• Graduated with a 3.85 GPA.

Short on veterinary technician experience? Include bullets with projects, classes, and accomplishments that show veterinary technician traits like clinical skills and customer service skills.

5. Feed Your Veterinary Technician Resume With Added Sections

It’s not just your education section that can blend in with all the other candidates’. Most resumes for veterinary technician jobs stop with experience, education, and skills. So add one or two of these sections to set yourself apart:

• Additional Activities
• Foreign Languages
• Classes Taken
• Awards
• Hobbies and Interests
• Volunteering
• Certifications
• Professional References

These two veterinary technician resume examples show yes vs no:

Sample Resume for Veterinary Technicians—Extra Sections

Certifications and Memberships

• Certified Veterinary Technician (CVT), 2015
• Member, American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)—since 2015

Languages

• English—native proficiency
• Spanish—intermediate

Certifications and Memberships

• CVT, AVMA

Hobbies and Interests

• Collecting posters (mainly of mugs)
• Collecting commemorative mugs
• Adult coloring books

The second of these veterinary technician resume samples isn’t wrong to include hobbies and interests as such, but every single thing you add to your resume has to be clearly relevant to the job ad. If your interests include running a blog on animal welfare, writing e-books on animal care, or something else that’s related to your job, by all means include it on your resume. 

One last hoop: Have you been asked not to include a cover letter with your veterinary technician resume? If not, then you absolutely need to write a cover letter to go with your resume. Not doing so is a great way to get eliminated very early on.

Double your impact with a matching resume and cover letter combo. Use our cover letter generator and make your application documents pop out.

CREATE YOUR COVER LETTER NOW

CREATE YOUR COVER LETTER NOW

Want to try a different look? There's 21 more. A single click will give your document a total makeover. Pick a cover letter template here.

Key Points

For a veterinary technician resume that gets interviews:

• Use the veterinary technician resume template up top. It’s as clean and organized as an OR.
• Put veterinary technician achievementsin your profile (summary or objective), work history, and education sections to show them what you’re capable of.
• Pick the right veterinary technician skills. This isn’t as subjective as it sounds—the job ad will spell it out for you what skills those are.
• Write a veterinary technician cover letter. Make it stand out by filling it with both your passion and concrete facts that prove your skills.

Got unanswered questions on how to bring your veterinary technician resume up to scratch? Or maybe some advice for those just starting out? Leave a comment.

About ResumeLab’s Editorial Process

At ResumeLab, quality is at the crux of our values, supporting our commitment to delivering top-notch career resources. The editorial team of career experts carefully reviews every article in accordance with editorial guidelines, ensuring the high quality and reliability of our content. We actively conduct original research, shedding light on the job market's intricacies and earning recognition from numerous influential news outlets. Our dedication to delivering expert career advice attracts millions of readers to our blog each year.