Personal Support Worker (PSW) Resume: Sample & Writing Tips

Being a personal support worker can be an enriching experience as you build genuine relationships with your clients, listen to their fascinating life stories, and help them lead their full lives. But too many PSW jobs are plagued by overwhelming caseloads and mediocre wages, and landing a good PSW position can border on luck.

But it doesn’t have to. With the right PSW resume, great personal support jobs become surprisingly easy to get—even if you think you have the same qualifications and skills as everyone else applying for the job.

This guide will show you: 

• A PSW resume example better than 9 out of 10 other resumes.
• How to write a personal support worker resume that will land you more interviews.
• Tips and examples of how to put skills and achievements on a PSW resume.
• How to describe your experience on a resume for a personal support worker to get any job you want.

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PSW Resume Sample

Looking good? Your PSW resume can be just as good—or even better. Here’s how to write it, step by step:

1. Opt for a Proven PSW Resume Template

Healthcare professionals are exceptionally busy people. You know this too well. So be kind to your future boss and respect their time by crafting a resume that’s easy to follow.

Your safest bet is a reverse-chronological resume. That is the most popular resume layout because it shows your professional growth in an easy-to-read resume format: you start with your most recent work experience and move on to your earlier jobs.

This is how you format your resume page:

• 1-inch resume margins on all sides
• A classic resume font like Arial or Calibri between 10–12 font-size points (the default font in your text editor or resume template will do the job quite well)
• Line spacing set to 1.15
• Left-alignment of the contents

Then create a prominent resume header with your contact information: your name, job title, phone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile, if you have one. Make sure your email address looks professional—no, that funny username you created when you were a teen won’t do.

Below the header, create the following sections:

• Resume Summary or Resume Objective
• Work Experience
• Education Section
• Relevant Skills
• Additional sections (Certifications, Languages, Volunteering, or anything else you find relevant).

Make sure the headings are big and easy to spot and leave generous amounts of whitespace between the sections. Otherwise, your resume will look painfully crowded.

Pro Tip: When you’re done with your resume, save it as a PDF file unless the job ad specifically tells you to submit a Word (DOCX) file. PDF files don’t lose their layout and formatting when opened on another device.

2. Demonstrate Your Work Experience on Your PSW Resume

For now, let’s skip the first section (the one titled Resume Summary or Resume Objective) and head straight to your work experience.

Why? A resume summary or objective is pretty easy to write when you’re done with the rest of your resume. But if you try to write it first, you’re doomed to stare at a blank page indefinitely.

So let’s start with your work experience. Here’s how to write it:

• Start with your most recent job and go back in time.
• Make sure each entry contains your full job title, the company’s name and location, and your start and end dates (months and years are enough).
• Feel free to add up to 6 bullet points to each entry.
• The bullet points should describe your achievements rather than duties and responsibilities.
• If you can describe an achievement on a resume using a number, go for it.

Here’s what it can look like in practice:

Personal Support Worker Resume Sample: Work Experience

This PSW gives specific facts that prove how well she took care of her clients, literally saving their lives in some cases.

Simply stating your responsibilities and duties doesn’t prove that you were good at them. Remember that a person can be formally responsible for something and actually fail at it.

So keep your PSW job descriptions on your resume specific and relevant. If you’re not sure how to phrase your bullet points, you can opt for the Problem-Action-Result (PAR) formula:

• Problem: clients were experiencing life-threatening mental health emergencies.
• Action: you kept them company (so they wouldn’t harm themselves) and persuaded them to contact mental health professionals.
• Result: the clients survived.

Now just combine these three bits of information into one sentence that starts with an action verb:

Helped 5 clients survive life-threatening mental health emergencies by providing company and encouraging them to contact mental health professionals.

But what if you’re just starting out as a PSW and don’t have any work experience to list?

Guess what? You do have experience, even if you’ve never held a full-time paid PSW job yet. Just rename your resume section to Experience rather than Work Experience and go ahead:

• List the field placements that were part of your PSW education.
• Describe your volunteering activities if they involved caring for people.
• You can even mention caring for elderly or sick family members.

Here’s what a PSW candidate with no experience can write on their resume:

PSW Resume with No Experience

This candidate uses their volunteering experience to prove that they’ve already done some of the work a PSW is expected to do—and that they were good at it. If they’re also a certified PSW, they definitely deserve a job interview.

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3. Fill Out the Education Section of Your PSW Resume

Now that you’re done with the work experience section of your resume, let’s move on to education.

How much should you write there? It depends on how much work experience you have.

If you’re a seasoned PSW with a lot of professional achievements, there’s no need to provide in-depth details of your education. Just mention the name of your diploma or certificate, the name of the school, and the graduation year.

If you’re relatively new to the field, add some bullet points and mention some of your most relevant academic achievements. You can also add relevant coursework and extracurricular activities if you have no experience and need to beef up your education section.

Personal Support Worker Resume—Education Sample

By mentioning the client satisfaction rating, this example offers proof that the candidate will make a good PSW.

Unless the job ad calls explicitly for a PSW with above-average physical fitness and teamwork skills, football is most likely irrelevant to the job.

PSW Resume with No Experience—Education Example

This candidate hasn’t held a full-time PSW job yet, but the education section of their resume clearly proves they’ve got what it takes. The bullet points highlight both the candidate’s real-world experience (placements and volunteering) and their most relevant coursework. 

4. Pick Relevant PSW Skills for Your Resume

If you listed all of your professional PSW skills, you’d probably come up with several pages of bullet points.

But you only need to pick somewhere between 8–10 hard and soft skills for your resume. Which ones should you go for?

You’ll find the answer in the job ad. Here’s how:

• Read it carefully and identify all skills-related keywords.
• If you have those skills, put them on your resume (yes, it’s quite straightforward).
• Make sure you mention the exact keywords from the job ad and not synonyms.
• Go over your work history and education section, adding skills keywords where necessary.

Below, you’ll find a long list of skills that employers might want to see on your PSW resume. But don’t copy and paste it—instead, refer back to the job ad and only mention the most relevant skills.

PSW Resume Skills: Bucket List

Hard Skills to Put on Your PSW Resume:

• Meal preparation
• Household management
• Administering medication
• Oral and dental hygiene
• Personal hygiene
• Assisting in daily activities
• Monitoring health
• Care plan development
• Long-term care
• CPR
• MS Office
• G Suite

Soft Skills for a PSW Resume:

• Teamwork Skills
• Communication Skills
• Critical Thinking
• Empathy
• Intercultural Skills
• Emotional Intelligence
• Time-Management

Remember: all of those skills can’t go on a single resume. You have to pick 8–10 of them. Focus on the skills that the employer believes to be the most relevant. Here’s what your skills list could look like:

PSW Resume Sample: The Skills List

• Assistance in daily living activities
• Oral and dental hygiene
• Administering medication
• CPR
• Intercultural communication
• Empathy
• Active listening 
• Problem-solving
• Conflict resolution

Of course, your skills list might be quite different, depending on the job you’re applying for and the employer’s expectations. Remember to keep your resume closely tailored to the specific job opening.

5. Add Extra Sections to Your Personal Support Worker Resume

Is there anything else you’d like to add to your resume?

For example, many employers ask for a driving license and an additional first aid / CPR certificate. Make sure your resume clearly shows that you’ve got all the required certifications.

You can also add other relevant information, such as the languages skills. Most employers value PSWs who are fluent in more than one language—after all, you’ll work with clients from various cultural backgrounds.

Should you put hobbies on your resume? If you’ve got an interesting hobby that illustrates relevant skills, feel free to add it! For example, mentioning that you play team sports can prove that you’re (quite literally) a team player.

Here’s an example of extra sections on a personal support worker resume:

Resume for a PSW: Additional Sections

6. Craft Your PSW Resume Objective or Resume Summary

It’s finally time to finish that section on top of your resume that we skipped at first.

This section is called a resume summary or objective, depending on how much experience you bring to the table. What’s the difference between the two?

A resume summary is, well, a summary of your key achievements and skills, coupled with an offer to achieve similar things for your new employer. Write a resume summary if you’ve got more than a few years of experience.

On the other hand, a resume objective highlights your skills and passion rather than achievements, so it’s the logical option if you’re just starting out in a new career.

The basic template for resume summaries and objectives is the same, though:

Adjective + Job Title + Years of Experience + Achievements + Skills + What You Want to Do for the Employer

How do you fill it out?

First, read through the job ad and your resume again. Is there anything that really stands out, like an important skill you want to highlight or a particularly relevant achievement?

Pick 2–3 accomplishments and skills and construct your summary or objective. Like this:

Personal Support Worker Resume—Summary Example

This resume summary is clear and to the point, just what it should be.

Saying that something is your passion doesn’t prove you’re any good at it (just think how many people are passionate about singing in the shower). Also, that second sentence shouldn’t even be there—it’s pretty evident that you’re looking for a PSW job in this area, or else you wouldn’t send your resume, would you?

PSW Resume Objective (No Experience)

This candidate is applying for a job at a facility that cares for people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, so they highlighted their language skills.

This candidate is apparently interested in their own growth (whatever they mean by it) rather than the well-being of their clients. Self-centred objectives like that don’t make a good impression on recruiters.

7. Do Write a PSW Cover Letter

Writing a resume can be a lot of work, so you might be tempted to call it a day and submit your job application without a cover letter. No one reads them anyway, right?

Well… wrong. Many employers do read cover letters. In fact, the lack of a cover letter can make an employer reject you without even looking at your resume.

So don’t sabotage your job-seeking efforts, and do write a PSW cover letter.

Fortunately, it’s easier than you probably think—the optimal cover letter length is 200–400 words.

If you feel that you need more guidance, check out our detailed article on how to write a cover letter step by step. And if you just need a quick recap of a cover letter structure, you don’t even have to click anywhere. Here it is:

• Start your cover letter with a header that contains the date and contact information—both yours and the employer’s.
• Address your cover letter properly. Open your cover letter with “Dear Mr./Ms. Lastname” (most healthcare settings have a pretty formal workplace culture, so it’s safer to use the last name rather than “Dear Firstname”).
• Lead with an attention-grabbing paragraph that shows a jaw-dropping achievement or demonstrates your passion for the position.
• In the following paragraph, prove that you understand the employer’s expectations and give examples of relevant achievements.
• After that, explain why you want this particular position at this specific facility or agency.
• End your cover letter with a call to action: ask the reader to schedule a call or meeting with you and promise to talk about the value you can bring to the employer.
• Sign off with “Sincerely” or a similar closing and add your name.

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:

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Key Takeaways

Here’s how to write a PSW resume step by step:

• Format your page according to current best practices in resume writing.
• Start with your work experience section, focusing on accomplishments rather than duties and responsibilities.
• Describe your education—opt for more detail if you’re a newbie PSW, or just state your degree if you’re an experienced pro.
• Pick 8–10 relevant skills and put them on your resume.
• Add sections for your certifications, languages, and other information you want to include.
• Now, go back to the top of your resume and write a resume objective or a resume summary.
• Write your PSW cover letter, preferably in a matching design.
• Start getting ready for job interviews!

Thanks for reading my guide! Now I’d love to hear from you: 

• What are the biggest challenges of writing a PSW resume? 

• What part of the resume for PSW do you struggle with the most?

Let me know. Let’s get the discussion started!

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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.

Sources

• https://www.nova.edu/prehealthadvising/forms/par_statements_-_updated_2016.pdf
• https://nmu.edu/writingcenter/parts-business-letter