Examples & writing guide
Occupational therapy CV examples
Updated 7 November 2026
In the United Kingdom, occupational therapists use specific activities to limit the effects of disability and promote independence in all aspects of daily life. Connect your CV to that purpose by explaining your own actions and outcomes: these occupational therapy CV examples contrast supervised first-role contributions with sustained community practice and team responsibility.
Examples by experience level
First occupational therapist role - Supervised community placement
TemplateNavy Atlas4 / 5
Why this works
Connects a final learning project to supervised assessment, planning and review, with approval boundaries made clear; this profile, employer, history and every achievement figure are fictional and illustrative.
Continue writing your CVSenior occupational therapist - Community practice and team responsibility
TemplateGrey Frame5 / 5
Why this works
Shows progression into responsibility for four therapists while retaining individual intervention evidence and a separate recording improvement; this profile, employers, history and every achievement figure are fictional and illustrative.
Continue writing your CVJunior vs senior: what changes
| Aspect | Junior | Senior |
|---|---|---|
| Source of evidence | Riley: Use the supervised community placement and completed final project to explain preparation for a first occupational therapist role. The fictional history contains no previous full-time post at that title. | Jordan: Lead with current responsibility for four therapists, then show the earlier occupational therapist post that explains progression across 11 years of community practice. |
| Assessment and planning ownership | Riley: Describe contextual observations, a two-week draft kitchen-task plan and review contributions. Identify the supervising therapist's approval of decisions and changes rather than implying independent ownership. | Jordan: Explain responsibility for assessment discussions, agreed plans and timescales. Retain the individual example in which changed caring responsibilities prompted shorter practice sessions and a documented review. |
| Depth of outcomes | Riley: Show the qualitative kitchen-task outcome, fewer verbal prompts at review, and explain how service-user and carer feedback informed the next supervised discussion. | Jordan: Present more consistent individual participation alongside a separate recording comparison: named review points increased from 16 to 24 when the same 24 records were checked again. |
| Leadership evidence | The Health and Care Professions Council requires occupational therapists in the United Kingdom seeking or maintaining registration to recognise leadership as a skill all professionals can demonstrate, identify their own leadership qualities, behaviours and approaches while taking account of the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion, and demonstrate leadership behaviours appropriate to their practice. All proficiency standards apply at registration; continuing registrants must meet those relevant to their scope of practice. These regulatory proficiency requirements neither confer management responsibility nor restrict leadership to senior practitioners. This account establishes neither an effective date nor subsequent revisions. Riley's fictional contribution remains within supervision. | Jordan: The fictional biography separately establishes team responsibility. The supervision discussion considers a colleague's alternative view, adapts to a written case outline and assigns the colleague the next participation check, with reasons recorded. |
| Recommended emphasis | Riley: Give recent learning and placement early space. Connect the final project's feedback-recording structure to its use in review summaries discussed with the supervisor and wider team. | Jordan: Give current responsibilities, the individual intervention outcome and the bounded recording improvement more space. Keep older education brief and let the earlier substantive post explain progression. |
How to write an occupational therapy CV
Use a readable layout and reverse-chronological dates within experience and education. Choose the shortest length that explains your relevant contributions without cramped text or unsupported claims. Check the target application's stated layout and submission instructions before preparing the final document.
Start with accurate contact details and a concise personal statement. Arrange the remaining sections around your strongest evidence. Riley's recent learning and supervised placement deserve early attention; Jordan's current responsibilities deserve more space than older study. Adapt the occupational therapy CV template to your history rather than copying the examples' emphasis unchanged.
| Section | Writing priority |
|---|---|
| Contact details | Check your email, telephone number and profile address. |
| Personal statement | Connect your target role with evidence developed below. |
| Experience | Explain personal contributions and identify supervision. |
| Skills | Select capabilities supported by work or learning. |
| Education | Distinguish completed awards from ongoing study. |
| Extras | Include material that adds relevant evidence. |
Remove repetition before cutting useful context. Shorten older or less relevant material, and check that dates, titles and responsibility levels agree across sections. Give each achievement a main home so that your opening statement can refer to it briefly without repeating the full account.
Personal statement examples
Entry, Riley Sample: Occupational therapy graduate seeking a first occupational therapist role, with supervised placement experience in community rehabilitation. Contributed to contextual assessments, timed draft plans and reviews with service users and carers, with decisions and changes approved by a supervising therapist. Senior, Jordan Sample: Occupational therapist targeting a senior occupational therapist role, with 11 years of community practice and responsibility for a team of four therapists. Combines contextual assessment and collaborative planning with intervention reviews, staff supervision and a documented improvement in recording review dates. Each occupational therapy personal statement points to evidence developed in its fictional CV. Riley identifies the first-role goal and supervision boundary. Jordan states established responsibility and a recording improvement that the experience section explains through a defined comparison.
Entry: I am a passionate graduate with excellent skills who wants to help people and begin a rewarding career. Senior: I am a highly experienced professional with outstanding leadership skills and a proven record of success. These alternatives rely on adjectives and vague success claims. Neither explains a personal contribution, identifies the candidate's responsibility or gives the reader an outcome to find elsewhere in the CV.
Writing your experience
Build each bullet around the situation, your action, your reason for the approach and an observed result. Separate your contribution from the team's outcome and identify supervision.
The Health and Care Professions Council's United Kingdom occupational therapy proficiency standards effective from 1 September 2023 require occupational therapists seeking or maintaining registration to gather and use feedback and information, including qualitative and quantitative data, to evaluate service users' responses to care; evaluate care or intervention plans using recognised and appropriate outcome measures in conjunction with service users where possible; and revise plans as necessary. All proficiency standards apply at registration; continuing registrants must meet those relevant to their scope of practice. These are regulatory practice standards, not universal hiring criteria or identical duties in every setting; the effective date does not establish whether subsequent revisions occurred.
The fictional profiles demonstrate different writing decisions:
- Before: "Helped with assessments." After: "Contributed to 12 supervised assessments; recorded routines, cultural preferences and home constraints for the supervising therapist's review." Riley identifies the contribution, context and approval boundary.
- Before: "Improved care planning." After: "Introduced a planning prompt; a repeat check of the same 24 records found named review points in 24, compared with 16 initially." Jordan defines a recording improvement without claiming better care.
- Before: "Reviewed treatment." After: "Agreed shorter practice sessions with a service user whose caring responsibilities had changed; documented more consistent participation at the next review." The circumstance explains the decision and observed result.
Use observed, contributed, drafted, agreed, reviewed, recorded and revised where accurate. Use led or supervised only for responsibilities you held. For placement work, identify who approved decisions and changes; distinguish your draft from the agreed plan.
Key skills & ATS keywords
Hard skills
Soft skills
ATS keywords
Education & certifications
List your actual award title, field of study, institution and completion date. Mark ongoing study with an expected completion date rather than presenting it as awarded. Keep the wording consistent with your documents, and distinguish an academic award from a short course or attendance certificate.
For a first-role application, give relevant learning enough space to explain its connection to your experience. Riley's fictional final project concerns recording service-user feedback. The education note summarises the recording structure; the placement entry shows its practical use in supervised review summaries. This gives the project a purpose without repeating the full description in both sections.
For an experienced application, keep older education concise and prioritise learning that helps explain recent work. Jordan's fictional degree entry is brief because current practice and supervision examples carry the detail. Add further learning when it contributes useful information about preparation or recent responsibilities.
For training, record the exact title, provider and date. Describe attendance accurately, and keep completed, ongoing and pending items separate. Present any registration status accurately on its own line, without presenting an application or unfinished step as complete.
The fictional education records illustrate presentation; they do not prescribe an entry route or establish eligibility. Choose education detail for its relevance to your own application rather than copying either candidate's award or adding training to fill space.
Common mistakes to avoid
AvoidListing assessments and reviews without explaining your contribution.
InsteadDescribe the situation, what you personally did and what the work informed or changed. Riley's kitchen-task sequence explains the difficulty, draft plan and observed review outcome.
AvoidPresenting a placement contribution as independent responsibility.
InsteadIdentify supervised observations and draft work, including the supervising therapist's approval of decisions and changes. Keep that boundary consistent with your personal statement.
AvoidClaiming excellent communication or outstanding leadership without examples.
InsteadDescribe the discussion and its result. Jordan considered an alternative view, used a written case outline and agreed that the colleague would check participation at the next review.
AvoidUsing dates or job titles that contradict another section.
InsteadCheck the sequence across study, placements and employment. Use the same title and responsibility level wherever you describe the same experience, including your opening statement.
AvoidAdding skills that never appear in experience or education.
InsteadConnect each capability to a specific example and retain its supervision qualifier. Remove wording you could not explain through your own work, learning or supporting experience.
AvoidCopying fictional figures or treating improved recording as proof of better care.
InsteadReplace illustrative details with your own evidence. Jordan's repeat check concerns the same 24 records and demonstrates recording improvement; the individual's participation outcome is a separate achievement.
Frequently asked questions
Use relevant placements, projects, learning or supporting work and identify the level of supervision. Riley's example connects contextual observations, a draft plan and review contributions without claiming a previous full-time occupational therapist post; it illustrates evidence presentation rather than eligibility.
Choose the shortest readable length that covers your relevant evidence, following any length instructions in the target application. Remove repeated duties and weak extras before cutting the context that explains your personal contribution, supervision or outcome.
Connect your target role to evidence developed later in the CV. For a first role, identify learning and supervised contributions; for a senior application, describe established responsibility and outcomes that the experience section supports.
Compare the target application's wording with your experience and prioritise the closest truthful examples. Replace every fictional detail, retain accurate titles and dates, and check that the personal statement, skills and experience describe the same responsibility level.
Check the target application's stated instructions on photographs, file types and submission details. Inspect the document in the format you submit so that text is legible, sections are complete and nothing has disappeared during export.
Keep your actual job title and explain the relevant actions you performed and their results. Distinguish transferable work from occupational therapist responsibility, preserve supervision boundaries and use supporting work or learning to explain the connection without inflating your ownership.
From example to application
Turn this occupational therapy example into a CV that sounds like you.
Keep the structure that works. Tailor the details around your experience, strengths, and the role you want.