Avoid These Resume Pitfalls and Land Your Dream Psychology Position
Expert‑backed fixes to make your psychologist resume stand out to hiring managers and ATS.
Common Mistakes That Kill Your Chances
Each mistake includes why it hurts, how to fix it, and before/after examples
- Fails to convey your specialty area
- Doesn’t capture measurable impact
- Often filtered out by ATS keywords
- Replace the objective with a 2‑sentence professional summary
- Highlight your clinical focus, years of experience, and key outcomes
- Insert relevant keywords such as CBT, DSM‑5, and case management
Objective: Seeking a position where I can use my skills.
Professional Summary: Licensed Clinical Psychologist with 7 years of experience delivering evidence‑based CBT to adult patients, achieving a 30 % reduction in depressive symptoms across a caseload of 120+ clients.
- Provides no proof of effectiveness
- Makes resume look like a job description
- Reduces impact for hiring managers
- Start each bullet with an action verb
- Quantify results (e.g., % improvement, number of patients)
- Showcase therapeutic techniques used
- Conducted therapy sessions for patients. - Completed case notes daily.
- Delivered CBT to 25+ adult patients weekly, resulting in a 28 % average reduction in PHQ‑9 scores. - Streamlined documentation workflow, cutting case‑note completion time by 35 %.
- Hiring managers may question eligibility
- ATS often scans for required licenses
- Missed opportunity to differentiate you
- Create a dedicated "Licensure & Certifications" section near the top
- List state license, license number, and expiration date
- Add certifications such as CPR, EMDR, or Neurofeedback
Education: M.A. Clinical Psychology, XYZ University, 2016
Licensure & Certifications: - Licensed Clinical Psychologist, State of California (License #123456, Expires 06/2027) - Certified EMDR Therapist, EMDRIA (2020) - CPR Certified, American Heart Association (2022)
- Academic achievements get lost on clinical hiring managers
- ATS may not map research terms to clinical keywords
- Translate research duties into clinical relevance
- Highlight publications, presentations, and grant funding
- Use lay‑friendly language when appropriate
- Performed statistical analysis on neuroimaging data. - Authored manuscript on brain connectivity.
- Conducted statistical analyses of neuroimaging data to inform evidence‑based treatment protocols, contributing to a peer‑reviewed publication on brain connectivity in anxiety disorders. - Presented findings at the American Psychological Association 2023 Annual Meeting, influencing clinical practice guidelines.
- Reduces readability for recruiters
- ATS may misinterpret unstructured text
- Key information can be missed
- Use bullet points, not paragraphs, for experience sections
- Keep margins at 0.5–1 inch and use a clean sans‑serif font
- Limit resume to 1–2 pages
Professional Experience: I worked at ABC Clinic where I provided therapy to patients. I also collaborated with psychiatrists and wrote reports.
Professional Experience: ABC Clinic – Clinical Psychologist (06/2019 – Present) - Provided individual CBT to 30+ adult patients weekly, achieving a 25 % reduction in depressive symptoms. - Collaborated with psychiatrists to develop integrated treatment plans, reducing medication adjustments by 15 %. - Authored comprehensive progress notes and discharge summaries in compliance with HIPAA standards.
- Include a targeted professional summary
- List state licensure with number and expiration
- Showcase measurable outcomes for each role
- Add relevant clinical keywords (CBT, DSM‑5, case management)
- Use bullet points, not paragraphs
- Quantify research impact where applicable
- Keep font size 10–12 pt, sans‑serif
- Maintain consistent date format (MM/YYYY)
- Save as PDF for final submission
- Proofread for spelling and APA‑style consistency
- Convert objective to professional summary
- Add quantifiable outcomes to every bullet
- Highlight licensure and certifications
- Standardize dates to MM/YYYY
- Insert top clinical keywords
