Paramedic CV Examples & UK Templates

On the frontline, you often need to make life-saving decisions in a split second. Choosing a career as a paramedic means you’re no stranger to relying on your instincts in tough situations. But the pressure of writing a compelling paramedic’s CV for your job hunt can feel different.

Committing your experience and skills to paper can feel daunting. After all, we all know that a top-class CV is a key tool for a successful job hunt. With a strong CV, you can stop looking for a new role and start making a difference in your community. But is your CV serving you as well as you serve others?

If you’re unsure, don’t let warning sirens go off in your head. The remedy you need to take your paramedic CV from average to over-achieving is well within your reach with a few simple tips.

CV guide for a paramedic CV

Achieve professional success as a paramedic with our CV guides and CV examples. Covering over 150 professions, you have plenty of options to choose from, as well as additional help from our CV builder.

This CV guide and corresponding paramedic CV example will cover the following:

• How to write a paramedic CV
• Choosing the right CV format for a paramedic
• How to add your contact information
• Using summaries
• Adding your paramedic experience
• Listing education and relevant experience
• Picking the right CV design/layout
• What the paramedic job market looks like, and what salary you can expect

How to write a paramedic CV

When writing your paramedic CV, first take the time to understand what sections to include. Your CV should contain the following elements:

• The CV header
• The CV summary (aka profile or personal statement)
• The employment history section
• The CV skills section
• The education section

The skills and education it takes to succeed as a paramedic are varied. Writing your paramedic’s CV will be about making those shine on paper. Employers will want to know that you’re not only up to the task of handling emergency vehicles but that you have the compassion and cool head needed to make the right calls in high-stress situations.

People’s lives will quite literally depend on you. While you’ll likely have the support of a junior team member, they will look to you as both an example and a leader. So, when you sit down to write your paramedic’s CV, every section of your CV should come together to demonstrate to a potential employer that you’re the person who can hit these demands time and time again.

These are some ways you can guarantee that the message comes through in your CV’s content: 

• Highlight your wins. Shine a light on what you have accomplished so far in your career. This isn’t about bragging; it’s about demonstrating the positive impact you’ve had on your service users, with clear examples.
• Personalise your CV. Each version should suit the needs of the organisation you’re applying to. This could be as simple as drawing focus to certain skills by adjusting the order in which they’re listed or changing the examples you provide of results you’ve achieved.
• Keep your CV clutter-free. Paramedics are all about organisation and pragmatism. So, approach your CV’s content and layout in the same way.
• Keep one step ahead. Beat the ATS software by ensuring your CV contains the necessary keywords to get your job application through the first round of screening.

Choosing the right CV format for a paramedic

A paramedic’s CV should be professional, clear, and extremely well-organised. So, to ensure your CV hits the mark, use the reverse chronological format. This will draw a focus to your employment history section, which should also be listed in reverse chronological order.

You may want to consider the functional format if you’re fresh out of training to become a paramedic and don’t boast much experience. Instead of focusing on your employment history, this CV format highlights your skills and training and shows the hiring manager that you’re ready to excel.

Design-wise, we recommend opting for a simple and professional layout. Employers will be more interested in your skills and professional accomplishments than your graphic design skills. The main goal of your layout should be to facilitate an easy reading experience of your CV content for the hiring manager.

To save time, utilise the tools you have at hand. Don’t forget that you can add our CV builder to that toolkit at any time. With a variety of templates to choose from, select what you feel drawn to as a healthcare professional.

Include your contact information

Make sure you’re just a call away from your potential employer by properly completing your CV header. If it’s doing its job properly, your contact information will be easily legible in this section.

Alongside being easy to find, your contact information should be presented professionally and align with the design you chose for the rest of your CV’s content. Most importantly, it should be correct. So check for typos before submitting!

• Full name and title. List your first and last name. You should also include the title of the role you are pursuing.
• Professional email address. Use a clean format like [email protected]. An unprofessional email address will be frowned upon.
• Phone number. Include a number where employers can easily reach you, with a professional voicemail greeting.
• Location. Only list your town or city. Listing your street address or postcode is now considered both outdated and unsafe. Include 'Willing to Relocate' if applicable.
• LinkedIn. Include your LinkedIn profile if you are an active user and feel it could be relevant to the role.

Don’t include:

• Date of birth: This is not required and could lead to age discrimination.
• Personal details: Your marital status, social security number, passport number, etc., are not necessary for your CV.

Make use of a summary

Excellent verbal communication is central to allowing you to do your job. It lets you carry out the technical parts of your job, and often, more importantly, it can help patients to trust you. 

While the stakes are not as high with your CV summary, introducing yourself will give employers an insight into your ability to communicate clearly and succinctly. You’ll have more time on your hands to finesse this than you would in an emergency — there’s no reason why you can’t nail it!

Aim to introduce yourself in two to three sentences maximum. These shouldn’t be a snapshot of your entire CV’s content but rather the highlights of who you are as a professional. Your summary should encourage employers to delve into the rest of your CV’s content to learn more, so keep it snappy and engaging.

Despite being one of the shortest parts of your CV, treat your summary with the same level of importance as you would any other section, if not more. It’s your chance to hook the interest of potential employers. 

Your summary’s sole function is to impress and place your value as a paramedic in pride of place. So, seize the opportunity and advocate for yourself.

Check out some adaptable paramedic CV example summaries below for even more ideas:                 

Outline your paramedic work experience: know your results  

When outlining your paramedic work experience, use reverse chronological order. Start by listing your current job at the top of this section, and then work backwards. If you’re a seasoned paramedic with lots of experience under your belt, only go back the last 10-15 years.

For each employer and role heading, detail your input through concise bullet point statements. There’s no need to use “I” statements here. Instead, focus on specificity and let the verbs you choose do the talking. These can be similar to the ones you used in your summary.

The nature of your job means that you’ll likely have performed various tasks throughout your time in any paramedic role. So try to hone in on the outcomes of your work on the job instead of only your paramedic duties for your CV. 

When detailing what you’ve achieved, think carefully about the definition of success in your job. This could mean crunching numbers to show how you outperformed co-workers in similar roles or simply drawing on your soft skills to highlight how you got the job done. Whatever you opt for, remember that it needs to respond directly to the employer's needs in the job you’re applying to.

Remember, your accomplishments may vary depending on how much work experience you have, and that’s fine. For some more inspiration on what your paramedic employment history could look like, take a look at the sample below:

Include the relevant key skills that make you a great paramedic

A great paramedic must have a range of soft and hard skills. A good mix of both should be presented in your paramedic CV skills section so employers know you’ve got what it takes. 

Your hard skills will include your formal education, driving licence, and knowledge of public safety and security.

Your soft skills, meanwhile, are more varied and will ultimately be what allows you to be a cut above others in your profession.

Let’s take a closer look at which of those skills you could include: 

• Sensitivity. While you might not always be on the receiving end of it yourself, it’s your job to ensure that you anticipate your patient's needs in more ways than one.
• Patience. You are on the frontline of interacting with a range of diverse people every day. Patience is your key to ensuring those interactions go well.
• Adaptability. Your working environment will vary multiple times within a single shift. Your working hours will also likely be variable. Being able to acclimatise quickly and still do your best work is a must.
• Teamwork. To handle an emergency to the best of your ability, you need to be capable and willing to work with and rely on the teams behind the scenes sending you on calls and your team on the ground

Bear in mind that there is limited space in your CV, so when creating this section, only include the skills that you feel are the most pertinent. If you’re really stuck for ideas, remember you can also check the job description for an idea of what employers are looking for in a candidate. 

Include the relevant skills you feel could tick those boxes. Alternatively, lean on us for some support and have a look at some of our pre-written key skills in our CV builder.

We’ve included an example of what your skills section could look like in our paramedic CV example content below:

Detail your education & relevant paramedic certifications

The education section of your paramedic CV is where you specify your entry route to the field. List your training or qualifications in reverse chronological order. 

Each qualification should include the name of your qualification, the institution you studied at, your attendance dates, and the location.

Your training or degrees could include the following: 

• Undergraduate degree: Your training as a paramedic may have been through a formal bachelor's degree in paramedic science.
• An apprenticeship degree: If you worked while studying, impress your prospective employer by explaining what this route into becoming a paramedic entailed with some additional bullet points under the subheading.
• HCPC registration: This is the section to remind your prospective employer that you’re able to practise as a paramedic in the UK and are registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council.

Make sure your education section is on the right track by having a look at the paramedic CV sample content below.

Pick the right CV layout and design for a paramedic CV

Employers will want to assess your CV’s content with the same efficiency you employ when you arrive at the scene of an emergency. With this in mind, prioritise readability and organisation above all when deciding on your CV’s layout and design.

A paramedic’s CV should be professional and visually polished. While your uniform at work may be distinctive, your CV should avoid excessive colour use. 

Instead, aim to channel a sterile work environment. Too much colour can be distracting and pull focus away from your professional career story. 

If this feels like a lot to consider, don’t worry. Creating the perfect paramedic CV can be a joint effort. We have plenty of field-tested CV templates. 

This, paired with our AI-powered suggested phrases means you can create your paramedic CV template to tweak to suit your job application. That way, you can return to serving your community as soon as possible.

Paramedic text-only CV example

Paramedic job market and outlook

Qualified paramedics have a range of different career paths they can pursue. You could work towards becoming a team leader, supervising other paramedics and emergency care assistants in a specific area of medicine, or even go to work for the air ambulance service.

 There are also opportunities to sidestep into teaching, research, or other management roles.

What type of salary you can expect as a paramedic

If you work as a paramedic under an NHS ambulance trust, you’ll be paid on the Agenda for Change (AFC) pay system and start at band 5, progressing to band 6 after 2 years. The salary you can expect can, therefore, range from £28,407 to £42,618 a year. 

Key takeaways for building a paramedic CV

A career as a paramedic demands extensive training and many skills you can pull out in high-stress situations. Your ability to communicate, your leadership, and your compassion are your most important skills when it comes to guaranteeing the best patient care.

With so much responsibility on your shoulders, there’s no shame in easing the pressure by teaming up with our online CV builder. We’ll take care of the design and layout so you can focus on taking care of your patients.