Medical Illustrator Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Medical Illustrator resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Medical illustrators are highly skilled visual communicators who use their talent and creativity to create compelling imagery that helps medical professionals understand complex medical conditions and treatments. If you’re interested in a career that allows you to use your talents to help people, consider becoming a medical illustrator.
Because this career is so specialized, there are many different types of medical illustrators with unique skill sets and areas of expertise. Some medical illustrators specialize in creating drawings that show how the body works. Others create images that depict surgical or diagnostic procedures. Still others create charts and graphs that illustrate statistical information.
Here are some tips plus an example to follow when writing your own medical illustrator resume to help you land your next job.
How to Write a Medical Illustrator Resume
Here’s how to write a medical illustrator resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
The best way to make your resume stand out is to use strong, specific language. Rather than saying you “developed illustrations,” you could say you “developed medical illustrations for use in patient education materials, including surgical procedures and anatomy.”
This level of specificity will help hiring managers understand not only what you did but also how well you did it. And that can make all the difference when it comes time for them to decide who to interview.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you apply for a job as an medical illustrator, your resume will likely be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. This system looks for keywords related to the job, like “patient care” or “illustration” in order to determine whether your skills are a match for the job opening. If you don’t have enough relevant keywords on your resume, the ATS might discard your application.
To make sure your resume makes it past the ATS, focus on including relevant keywords throughout all sections of your application. You can add them into the work experience, skills, summary, and education sections. Here are some of the most commonly used medical illustrator keywords:
- Medical Illustration
- Medical Art
- Art
- Medicine
- Anatomy
- Illustration
- Biomedical Engineering
- Medical Education
- Sketching
- Medical Terminology
- Hospitals
- Radiology
- Clinical Research
- Dermatology
- Healthcare
- Graphic Design
- Patient Safety
- Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
- Surgery
- Vignette
- Medical Research
- Photography
- Inkscape
- Microscopy
- Adobe Illustrator
- Molecular Biology
- Adobe Photoshop
- Biology
- Bioinformatics
- Scientific Illustration
Showcase Your Technical Skills
Medical illustrators use a variety of technologies to create illustrations and animations that help explain medical procedures and concepts. They are typically expected to be proficient in programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Additionally, medical illustrators may be familiar with 3D software programs like Maya and 3ds Max, as well as medical imaging software like MRI Studio and 3D Slicer.