
35+ Successful Cover Letter Tips & Advice (With Examples)
Cover letter writing tips—sure to turn any boring letter into something employers want to read.
You’re a top-notch lab assistant hero in a white coat—but how can the hiring manager know? Prove your skills and talents with this pharmaceutical-grade sample lab assistant resume.
Without lab assistants like you, humanity wouldn’t be able to convert lab specimens and research data into applied science that saves lives.
But getting an admirable job like yours can be surprisingly hard. Candidates swarm on well-paid jobs like bacteriophages on big, tasty bacteria. So if you want to win the job hunt, you must leave your competitors behind and make your value visible to recruiters. In other words, you need an effective lab assistant resume.
This guide will show you:
Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. It’s fast and easy to use. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and create your resume here.
Sample resume made with our builder—See more resume examples here.
Need a more targeted resume? See other resume examples for jobs in your industry:
Robert Clark, Lab Assistant (CLA)
robert.q.clark@gmail.com
912-278-4954
Efficient Laboratory Assistant with 2+ years of experience, skilled in record keeping and specimen collection. Seeking to support efficiency at Health Integration Laboratories. At Duntower Health, maintained 99.9% error-free documentation of all lab tests for 2 years. Promoted to head lab assistant after 2 months for exceptional dependability.
Lab Assistant
Duntower Health
March 2017–April 2019
Volunteer Lab Assistant
University of North Georgia
Jan 2016–Jan 2017
2013–2015 University of North Georgia
Associate’s Degree in Laboratory Science
Clinical Lab Assistant (CLA) ASCLS
Volunteer to inoculate stray animals at the Gwinning County Animal Shelter 2x per month.
Coach soccer 2x per week for 4–6 year olds.
See here for our other resume guides: Resume Examples for All Careers
Here’s how to write a lab assistant resume that gets jobs:
The hiring manager needs to know you’re not an Igor.
Prove that at a glance with a cleanly-formatted lab assistant resume.
Here’s how:
Pro Tip: Does the length of a resume for lab assistant jobs matter? Yep. Put your most precious moments in your resume that fit a single page. Save the balance for the interview.
Some applicants get all the cookies.
That’s because they catch the hiring manager’s eye fast.
How can you do that?
With a profile on your resume that spins them like a stir plate.
If you’ve been assisting for 2 years and more, make it a resume professional summary. Add a couple skills, your job title, and the job you’re vying for.
Writing a first job resume? Then you’ll need a resume objective statement. That goes heavier on the skills.
But—fill either with key achievements.
Pro Tip: If you’re new to the assisting world, put transferable skills in your lab assistant resume. Those are things like teamwork, a detail-oriented mindset, or communication.
Why should they hire you?
If you list responsibilities and nothing more, they’ll pass you by.
So—
Show relevant work experience like this:
Pro Tip: Can’t get a response on your lab assistant resume? Try a temp agency. It’s not glamorous, but it gets you started. Do good work and you can transform into a full-time job.
Of course your lab assistant resume will show your education.
But hold on.
Don’t just list school name, degree, and years.
Everyone does that.
Educational background on a resume should prove hard and soft skills.
So—add educational achievements.
If you belonged to clubs, did projects, or excelled in classes that demonstrate your skills—
List them in your education section.
Did you come away from school with a certification like a CLA?
You can put that in your bullets. But also put it in a “Certification” section so employers can’t miss it.
Pro Tip: Got a GPA so high they have to write it in scientific notation? Awesome. List it. Is the notation subscript? Leave it off and use the extra space for eye-opening accomplishments.
Use this lab assistant resume skills list:
Hard Skills:
Soft Skills:
But wait!
There’s a right and wrong way to use that list.
Don’t just do a laboratory assistant skills dump in your resume.
Knowing the right skills to put on a resume means picking them from the job ad.
Pro Tip: You don’t need to list every skill in the world on your lab assistant resume. Stick to what you’re best at and what you can prove.
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.
When you’re done, our professional resume builder will score your resume and our resume checker will tell you exactly how to make it better.
You want the hiring manager to say, “Wow.”
Do it with other laboratory assistant resume sections that prove key job skills.
Choose from:
Pro Tip: You don’t need to add all those sections to your lab assistant resume. Just pick a few that let you prove your lab rat skills the best.
How important is a cover letter for a lab assistant resume?
Very.
A strong lab assistant cover letter can make them call you.
But it has to be unique:
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to send a follow up email on your application. It’s just the thing to put your lab assistant resume top-of-mind and get you interviewed.
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
That’s it!
That’s how to write a resume for lab assistant positions.
Worried you won’t get calls on your lab resume? Frustrated with the response your lab skills resume is getting? Give us a shout in the comments. We’d love to talk!
This article has been reviewed by our editorial team to make sure it follows Zety's editorial guidelines. We’re committed to sharing our expertise and giving you trustworthy career advice tailored to your needs. High-quality content is what brings over 40 million readers to our site every year. But we don't stop there. Our team conducts original research to understand the job market better, and we pride ourselves on being quoted by top universities and prime media outlets from around the world.
Cover letter writing tips—sure to turn any boring letter into something employers want to read.
The best job interview tips to turn any interview into a success. Last minutes before the meeting? Preparing well in advance? We've got it all.
An employment gap is a period of time (months of years) when a job seeker didn't have a job. While out of work, employees use their time to have children, travel or go to school full time.