

Write a PSW resume that proves you’re the best candidate for your dream PSW job. Here’s how.
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:
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Lynn W. Hopper
Personal Support Worker
905-609-3774
lynn.hopper@eeemail.com
linkedin.com/in/lynn-hopper-psw152
Summary
Empathetic certified PSW with 5 years of experience in agency and retirement home settings. Consistently maintained client satisfaction rates of 90%+, excelled in multicultural communication, and acted quickly in crisis situations. Eager to join the team at Rockingchair Retirement Condominium to provide daily assistance, company, and medical care to its residents.
Experience
Personal Support Worker
Aidemploy, Toronto, ON
April 2019–Present
Personal Support Worker
Caringhand Retirement Condominium, Toronto, ON
May 2017–March 2019
Education
Ontario College Certificate, Personal Support Worker
Seneca, Toronto, ON
May 2016–May 2017
Skills
Licenses & Certifications
Languages
Looking good? Your PSW resume can be just as good—or even better. Here’s how to write it, step by step:
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 format: you start with your most recent work experience and move on to your earlier jobs.
This is how you format your resume page:
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:
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.
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:
Here’s what it can look like in practice:
RIGHT |
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Personal Support Worker Aidemploy, Toronto, ON April 2019–Present
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This PSW gives specific facts that prove how well she took care of her clients, literally saving their lives in some cases.
WRONG |
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Personal Support Worker Aidemploy, Toronto, ON April 2019–Present
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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:
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:
Here’s what a PSW candidate with no experience can write on their resume:
RIGHT |
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Volunteer Haven Hospice, Mississauga, ON April 2020–Present
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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.
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, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
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.
RIGHT |
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Ontario College Certificate, Personal Support Worker Seneca, Toronto, ON May 2016–May 2017
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By mentioning the client satisfaction rating, this example offers proof that the candidate will make a good PSW.
WRONG |
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Ontario College Certificate, Personal Support Worker Seneca, Toronto, ON May 2016–May 2017
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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.
RIGHT |
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Personal Support Worker Certificate ABM College, Toronto, ON May 2021–May 2022
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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.
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 skills for your resume. Which ones should you go for?
You’ll find the answer in the job ad. Here’s how:
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.
Hard Skills to Put on Your PSW Resume:
Soft Skills for a PSW Resume:
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:
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.
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 that you speak. 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:
Licenses & Certifications
Languages
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:
RIGHT |
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Empathetic certified PSW with 5 years of experience in agency and retirement home settings. Consistently maintained client satisfaction rates of 90%+, excelled in multicultural communication, and acted quickly in crisis situations. Eager to join the team at Rockingchair Retirement Condominium to provide daily assistance, company, and medical care to its residents. |
This resume summary is clear and to the point, just what it should be.
WRONG |
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I’ve been a PSW for five years, and caring about people is my passion. I just moved to this area, so I’m looking for a new PSW job. |
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?
RIGHT |
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Newly certified PSW with 2 successfully completed field placements and outstanding international communication skills (at least A2 level in 3 languages). Eager to assist the team at Haven Medical Centre in maintaining excellent standards of personal care and ADL. |
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.
WRONG |
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I haven’t had a PSW job yet, but my supervisors at college said I was pretty good. Eager to find a position where I can grow. |
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.
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:
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.
Here’s how to write a PSW resume step by step:
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Overwhelming details. Overwhelming details everywhere. And you only googled, “CV format.” What if I told you, you’re about to feel an overwhelming relief in a second?
Finding out about the functional resume was quite a revelation. So another resume format exists? Heck yeah, it does! And you’re about to learn all about it in a few moments.
Kick-start your career with a professionally written first job resume that steals recruiters’ hearts—even if you’ve got no work experience to show.