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Vet Tech Must-Have Resume Skills and Keywords

Are you interested in improving your job outlook and increasing your salary? How can you demonstrate that you are the most qualified candidate for a Vet Tech position? Of course continuing to gain experience working as a Vet Tech may be your best qualification, but there are other ways you can also develop your skills, like continuing education or volunteer opportunities. More immediately, however, you can be ready for your next opportunity or promotion by educating yourself about the duties, responsibilities, and required skills of a Vet Tech and making sure your resume reflects your experience properly.

We designed the ZipRecruiter Career Keyword Mapper to help you solve this problem and hopefully improve your resume. Using machine learning tools paired with industry research, our Marketplace Research Team helped analyze millions of job postings and resumes to identify the most important keywords related to Vet Tech jobs. Our goal is to help you discover opportunities to improve your resume or to help you understand what skills and qualifications you need to be a Vet Tech or to advance your career into beyond this role.

Top Skills Mentioned in Job Descriptions

Top
10
Job Skills
Employers require a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Vet Tech positions. The top three keywords make up 45.59% of the total set of top terms. Look to the Resume Checklist below to see how Veterinary Medicine, Paraveterinary Workers, and Surgery shares stack up against the share from resumes. Hospital, Technical and Anesthesia represent an additionally healthy share of the employer Vet Tech job postings with their combined total of 29.63%. At 24.78%, Clinic, Animal Hospital, Instruction, and Troubleshooting appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Vet Tech skills and requirements according to employers.

Top Skills Mentioned in Resumes

Top
10
Job Skills
Job seeker resumes showcase a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Vet Tech positions. The top three keywords represent 39.94% of the total set of top resume listed keywords. Look to the Resume Checklist below to investigate how Surgery, Veterinary Medicine, and Customer Service match up to employer job descriptions. Animal Hospital, Scheduling, and Clinic represent a very decent share of skills found on resumes for Vet Tech with 31.12% of the total. At 28.94%, Hospital, Receptionist, Kennel Management, and Animal Care appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Vet Tech skills and qualifications found on resumes.

Most Important Skills Required to Be a Vet Tech as Listed by Employers and Employees

Here is a simple table of the top 10 skills and qualifications as listed by employers in Vet Tech job postings since January of 2018, followed by the top 10 skills and qualifications most commonly listed by people who held the title of Vet Tech on their resumes.
Top Vet Tech Skills
Skills Required by Employers Share
Veterinary Medicine 17.67%
Paraveterinary Workers 14.81%
Surgery 13.11%
Hospital 11.30%
Technical 10.26%
Anesthesia 8.07%
Clinic 6.56%
Animal Hospital 6.42%
Instruction 5.96%
Troubleshooting 5.84%
Skills Listed by Employees Share
Surgery 14.00%
Veterinary Medicine 12.97%
Customer Service 12.97%
Animal Hospital 11.10%
Scheduling 10.37%
Clinic 9.65%
Hospital 8.61%
Receptionist 7.57%
Kennel Management 6.74%
Animal Care 6.02%

Vet Tech Resume Checklist

Our Resume Keyword Checklist is based upon an analysis of the most commonly found terms within both job descriptions and resumes for Vet Tech roles. Our algorithm helps isolate phrases and patterns to identify the most frequently recurring and reused keywords from each data source, while correcting for uncommon and outlier results. Various heuristic methodologies are then applied to ultimately create two top 20 lists of the most important and significant skills, certificates and requirements found within Vet Tech job postings and resumes. We then merge the two lists together and use a combination of statistics and rules-based scenarios to create a list that is audited by the Marketplace Research team, and finally turned into the checklist you see below. Our hope is that knowing this information can help you make your best impression with your next potential employer.
Uncommon Keywords on Vet Tech Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Instruction
Technical
Radiology
Paraveterinary Workers
Employer job listings often list Instruction, Technical, Radiology or Paraveterinary Workers as requirements in Vet Tech job descriptions; however, job seekers mention them far less frequently on their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Vet Tech role may help you stand out more to hiring managers.
Common Keywords on Vet Tech Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Patient Care
Diagnostic
Anesthesia
Veterinary Medicine
Hospital
Communication Skills
Surgery
IV
Dogs
Clinic
Phlebotomy
Animal Hospital
Both employer job listings and resumes from people who’ve held the role of Vet Tech tend to always include skills and requirements found in this list. Whether you’ve only got Patient Care, Diagnostic, Anesthesia, Veterinary Medicine, Hospital, Communication Skills, Surgery, IV, Dogs, Clinic, Phlebotomy or Animal Hospital in your background and experience, make sure to highlight the term prominently on your resume. As a job seeker you’ll be competing with many others who are bound to have as many as you (or more!) of these common resume keywords highlighted in their application for a job as a Vet Tech.
Uncommon Keywords on Vet Tech Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Animal Care
Vital Signs
Customer Service
X-ray
Scheduling
Employer job listings seldom list Animal Care, Vital Signs, Customer Service, X-ray or Scheduling as important skills or qualifications in Vet Tech job descriptions. Nevertheless, job seekers mention them much more commonly in their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Vet Tech role may go unnoticed or even discounted by hiring managers.

FAQs about Vet Tech Skills and Resume Keywords

What are the most important Vet Tech job skills to have on my resume?

The most common important skills required by employers are Patient Care, Diagnostic, Anesthesia, Veterinary Medicine, Hospital, Communication Skills and Surgery. These skills and requirements are just as likely to be mentioned by employers as well as on resumes of people that held a job as a Vet Tech, suggesting that having these keywords on a resume are important for success as a Vet Tech. Additionally, employer Vet Tech job descriptions list Instruction as a desirable experience, even though Instruction appears 5.53 times less on resumes, suggesting that it's worth considering including this term if you possess the experience.

What are the least important Vet Tech job skills to have on my resume?

Although you'd probably love to load up your resume with every possible keyword you can, employers tend to look for the things they specify in the job description. Our analysis suggests that highlighting too prominently terms like Animal Care, Vital Signs, Customer Service, X-ray and Scheduling may be something to reconsider. These 5 terms appear 2.05, 2.57, 2.67, 2.84 and 3.31 times less frequently, respectively, than in job descriptions for a Vet Tech role. This indicates that highlighting any of these keywords on your resume may not be a great way to stand out to a potential employer.

How do I make sure my resume has all of the right keywords for a Vet Tech position?

Unless your resume has a good density of the following skills and experience listed, you may not be considered for the role of Vet Tech. Make sure to include a strong showing for the following keywords on your resume:
  • Patient Care
  • Diagnostic
  • Anesthesia
  • Veterinary Medicine
  • Hospital
  • Communication Skills
  • Surgery
  • IV
  • Dogs
  • Clinic
  • Phlebotomy
  • Animal Hospital
Additionally employers frequently list the following as desirable qualities in a Vet Tech candidate, but they are far less common on most resumes:
  • Instruction
  • Technical
  • Radiology
  • Paraveterinary Workers
Finally people who held the position of a Vet Tech and list it on their resume are adding these terms that are less likely to be noticed by employers. You may want to consider downplaying these terms on your Vet Tech application:
  • Animal Care
  • Vital Signs
  • Customer Service
  • X-ray
  • Scheduling

Before applying for a Vet Tech job

At ZipRecruiter, we understand better than anyone the importance of using the right keywords to describe your experience — it’s crucial to attracting the right employers! We built our business on the ability to effectively match job seekers with employers using AI-technology that understands your resume and how likely you are to be noticed by a potential future employer. Having a ZipRecruiter profile that showcases your most relevant skills and abilities can help you get recruited into a new role as a Vet Tech. Get started on your journey with a new ZipRecruiter Profile today!