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Use this paraprofessional resume example and guide to write a resume that increases your chances of impressing hiring managers and securing a job.
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A paraprofessional is an essential role in many schools that provides support to certified teachers. To stand out to hiring managers, you will need to highlight your skills, experience, and knowledge that make you a suitable paraprofessional.
The perfect resume should mainly focus on major requirements of being a teaching assistant, such as classroom management and communication skills, which are common elements of any paraprofessional job description.
In this article, you will learn how to structure your paraprofessional resume and what you should include in each section to stand out to busy recruiters.
Build my resumeAny paraprofessional resume will follow a structure that best emphasizes the experience or skills that you have. Here are the three resume formats you can choose from:
Your header section is an important element of your resume and allows the hiring manager to easily contact you to schedule an interview. Include your name, phone number and email address. Also, if you have professional social media links, like your LinkedIn profile, be sure to include them here.
You can use a resume summary to give the hiring manager a brief overview of your skills and achievements that make you a suitable candidate. Your summary should only be 2-3 sentences long, and it should grab employers’ attention with your top qualifications and achievements. Here is an example:
“Seasoned paraprofessional with three years of experience assisting special needs students and helping the classroom teacher create lesson plans that keep individual students’ disabilities in mind.”
Your skills section is a chance for you to highlight all the qualities you have that make you the right candidate. Many employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) that will be looking for keywords in your resume, so study the job description to select key skills to use throughout your resume.
These bullet points list some of the common hard and soft skills employers will be looking for when filling a paraprofessional position:
Even if you choose to use a functional resume format, you should still include a work history section in your resume to give recruiters a good understanding of your professional work experience. If you lack professional experience, you can include work you have done as a volunteer, a student, or as an intern, as long as it relates to paraprofessional work.
Paraprofessionals require many interpersonal and social skills you can pick up from other job roles. If you are applying for a special education paraprofessional role, you will need specific experience working with students with special needs.
When applying for a paraprofessional position, you will be required to at least have a high school diploma and complete a local academic assessment to show that you are capable of a sufficient level of reading, writing and assisting. Use your education section to outline your top, most relevant qualifications, including the type of qualification (i.e., degree, certification), and the name and location where you got the credential from.
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You should always include a cover letter in a paraprofessional job application. A cover letter lets you elaborate on your skills and further explain how you can benefit an employer, increasing your chances of being offered a job interview.
You can write a paraprofessional resume without much experience by focusing on your education and skills that make you an ideal candidate. Using a functional resume format will allow you to do this while creating a professional resume.
It’s best to customize your resume to fit whichever job you are applying for, and you can do this by studying the job description. You will notice keywords within the job posting’s required skills that you should add to your resume. This shows the recruiter that you have the skills to perform the job duties.
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