Massage Therapist Resume Template: Complete Guide + Free Examples

• How to Write Your Massage Therapist Resume

Pick the correct resume format

Before you can write your resume, you’ll need to determine which of the three resume formats will best elevate your experience level and skills.

• Functional resume: This resume downplays your non-existent work history and focuses on your skills, massage methods, and specialized treatments like hot stone massage. Choose this format if you have plenty of technical knowledge, training from certification programs, and specialized massage therapy classes. Perfect for first-time job seekers.
• Combination resume: If you’ve held one or two jobs and have three-to-nine years of experience, you should opt for this resume format. This layout lends equal importance to your skills and your former work experience, allowing you to showcase your massage knowledge while giving a hiring manager an idea of your professional commitment to former employers.
• Chronological resume: The chronological resume is best suited for experienced massage therapists with over 10 years of experience; it showcases your growth in skills and responsibility. This is best if you wish to highlight organizational development alongside customer satisfaction and your masseuse prowess.

Add the best massage therapy skills

Remember that you should always tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for and highlight your most relevant skills. One of the easiest ways to personalize your resume is to create a master list of all of your skills. The benefits of making this master list means that you’ll:

• Be able to pick and choose skills to feature on your resume’s skills, work history, and summary statement sections.
• Easily identify qualifications that match open job postings.
• Save and add to this master list for future job searches.

The skills section will vary in size depending on what type of resume you’re creating. For massage therapists with prior experience, a chronological resume is often a good option. In this format, the skills section is incorporated within the work history.

Make sure the skills you’re listing are directly relevant to the post you’re applying for and that you’re framing them in a way that makes you a more enticing hire. One excellent way to make sure you’re covering the needed bases is to be on the lookout for the kinds of keywords that make hiring managers sit up and take notice.

Keywords are common buzzwords and industry-specific terms found in job postings. You can work out what keywords apply to a specific job posting by reading the qualifications section of the job description (and others similar to it) or by frequenting online forums dedicated to massage therapists. Other good sources for keywords are the Bureau of Labor Statistics and O*Net. See our in-depth skills list or sample listing of possible keywords below:

Make a stunning introduction with a summary statement

Your summary statement is the first part of the resume a hiring manager sees and is your chance to highlight your qualifications for the job. It’s meant to directly and concretely answer the question: “Why should you hire me?”

Personalize your summary statement by following a few simple guidelines:

• Be concrete about how your experience can add value to the company. For example, if you had the highest rate of repeat business (return rate) in the last therapeutic massage practice in which you worked, specify that figure.
• Use action verbs to describe your experience: Aided, helped, supported, adapted, and encouraged are excellent examples. Choosing the right action verbs helps the reader picture you in the role.
• Avoid commonplace skills and clichéd phrases. Vintage buzzwords like “multitasker” and “team player” have long since lost their impact.

Showcase your work history and best accomplishments

Your professional history is a crucial part of a massage therapist resume, especially since many positions specifically require experienced candidates. Focus on previous jobs that have directly relevant experience for the position at hand, or at the very least, provided related and transferable experience.

In presenting your work history, you should incorporate the previously identified keywords and skills. Each professional position you list provides its opportunity to mention skills you learned or deployed and mobilize those keywords.

Your work history should be listed chronologically, in reverse order starting with the most recent position you had in the field and going back to your earliest relevant job experience. Keep formatting clean and easy to scan, avoiding too many colors, images, and other design elements. For each entry, you should include:

• Position title
• Company name
• Company location
• Dates worked at this position, by month and year
• A single-sentence summary of what the job involved
• Two or three bullet points listing your accomplishments and skills learned in the position

Play up your education section

For a working professional in the massage therapy field, the education and training section confirms that you have the appropriate certifications — particularly when applying to registered massage therapist (RMT) jobs — and to showcase any additional accreditations you’ve acquired related to the field.

Although educational listings for a chronological resume are relatively brief, you can still tailor your resume to the job. Entries in this section can mention specific courses and skills acquired in disciplines where applicable. Remember that the keywords we listed above are still relevant here. Just as with work history, the education and training entries should be provided chronologically in reverse order from most to least recent. Entries could include the following:

• The degree, certificate, or other programs of study
• Institution and location
• Year completed
• Any relevant skills and accomplishments

Massage Therapist FAQ

How much does a massage therapist make in the U.S.?

Your potential income depends on where you practice. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a massage therapist earns these national average salaries across these specialized practices and industries.

How do I write a resume for a massage therapist with no experience?

If you have no formal work experience but ample academic training, you can still write a powerful massage therapist resume using a functional format.

A functional resume orients your skills and utilizes multiple skills, education, and training sections so you can list the different massage specialties that you can practice. Visit our functional writing guide to learn more about this resume.

What do hiring managers look for in a massage therapist?

Every hiring manager is looking for a unique combination of skills in their new massage therapist. You can pinpoint what massage techniques and customer service skills you need to highlight on your resume by reviewing the open job advertisement. Look for any of the following hints on what a hiring manager is looking for:

• Repeats specific tasks, skills, or massage techniques on the job ad
• Adds special font treatments like bold, italicized, or underlined texts, different font colors.
• Lists priority skills or requirements in a bulleted or numbered list