How to Make your Resume Stand Out When you enter the job market today, you will soon see that you have so much competition. There are too many people looking for too many jobs – and all the good ones seem like they’ve all been snapped up already. So, to make sure your resume is the best it can possibly be, you need to get creative and create something unique. This will make a lasting impression on the potential employer. As we all know, your resume is the very first thing people will get to see about you. It stands to reason that if you know what the nursing recruiters are looking for, you can include it in your resume and then be able to elaborate on it when you get to the interview stage. Recruiters are looking for nurses who are organized, thoughtful, and not afraid to speak up and someone who is detail-orientated. Related: 5 Things to Avoid When Your Patient Starts Crying Most resumes have a standard format which you can find on the internet, but there are a number of important parts in a nurse’s resume. It should not be longer than 2 pages and it should include information such as your work experience, your credentials, your education and your membership to any professional bodies. On the other hand, a Curriculum Vitae is an expanded version of your resume. The nursing career experts say that it is usually reserved for a doctorate environment, such as a University, a research company and / or the Publishing industry. Let’s look at some ways in which you can make your resume unique: 1. No errors It is quite amazing how so many people still make silly spelling mistakes, typos and grammatical errors on their resumes. In addition, some of them are so badly put together that one
interviewer said she only found out at the end of the document that the candidate was looking for a nursing position. You might think these kinds of mistakes only happen to newly qualified nurses, but alas, resumes from experienced doctors and management personnel are sometimes littered with glaring spelling and grammatical mistakes. 2. Cover Letter Your resume should include a Cover Letter. In it, you should introduce yourself, specify the job you are applying for and why you would make an excellent candidate. Also give some points on your qualifications for the job. The main function of a Cover Letter is to complement your resume and maximize your professional image. It is your chance to shine and put in any special Awards you have won, or societies that you are a member of. 3. Designing your Resume The artistic nurses can have a field day here and design beautiful resumes, whereas those who have no design skills need to concentrate on presenting yourself in the best light possible. Use a bit of color and some shading here and there to spice up the plain white pages. Both of you need to ensure that every single aspect of the design works to promote you for the job. The resume that is going to stand out will be the one that has some color, some variety while at the same time, creating a resume that is balanced and well thought out. We all know that if you see 2 resumes and one is simply black on white, and the other has a border, with some areas highlighted, and paragraphs in colored blocks – the first one to be looked at will be the more interesting one. How your resume is designed will also
give some insight to the interviewer about what kind of person you are – flamboyant or reserved a perfectionist or a plodder and so on. 4. What Information to Include in your Resume Now this is where most people battle – should they give a long history or just a summary of their work experience? Should they include their part time jobs they had at College or not? And this is a very valid point. If your 30 years of work history included nursing elderly patients and this is the job you are applying for now, well then, of course you include that job and that experience. Anything that will help you to be more qualified for the job you want should be included. Here are the main things to include in your resume: ● Your Objective – this should cover the reason why you think you are best suited to this particular job. Some recruiters say this is outdated, but you can tailor it to be a short summary of your experience and qualifications instead. ● Your Education – if you got grades higher than 3.7 and then graduated with Honors – put it in where it is easily visible – this tells the employer exactly how dedicated you are; ● Previous Employment – generally include the last 5 years. More than that is not necessary unless it details experiences you need for this current job; ● References – always use your manager’s or colleagues names. Never say “available on request” – that creates the impression that you have none, or that you couldn’t be bothered including the information. You do not need letters from your family doctor, or your local priest attesting to your character – you need comments on how you work; ● Qualifications & Memberships – detail all your relevant qualifications and include any professional Associations that you are a member of.
5. The Length of your Resume Think of your resume as an advertisement for yourself – it is not a biography. Think carefully on what you can say to get the employer interested enough to call you for an interview. If you have quite a long work history, then detail out the last 2 positions and then summarize the rest. If it is over 2 pages long, it is too long. Related: The Best Ways to Relieve Stress on the Job 6. Layout This refers to how you organize your information in your resume. Obviously you name and contact details should be at the top. You can highlight them or have them in a different color or even a different font – anything to make them stand out. Interviewers prefer a resume that is typed out in a font that is easy to read, such as Arial or Times New Roman. Do not use a script as there is always the danger that it can be difficult to decipher. You can put the information at the top of the page, the bottom or on one of the sides – just to be different and make your resume memorable. When you have a few points to say about one of your previous jobs, put them in bullet points so they are easy to scan quickly. No one has the time to be wading through long resumes anymore. They want to be able to glance at it and get the gist of it. The Bottom Line Now you have all the information at hand with which to compile your resume. You may think it’s a huge amount of data, but in fact it is split into useful headings so the reader can easily absorb what they are reading. Nursing is not a standard profession, so it is a good idea to also include some information on the following: ● Did you set up and start IV’s?
● Did you hand out medicine? What schedule were they? ● What wards have you worked in – i.e., Surgical, Maternity or Pediatrics ● How old were the patients you looked after? ● Name some specific equipment you worked with ● What industry procedures are you familiar with? These final questions are important to be included throughout your resume so your interviewer can get an idea of the kind of work that you did. This will also enable them to make a decision as to whether you will be competent for the job or not. It is important to write your resume with the assistance of professional nursing resume advisors – they can give you numerous tips – some mentioned here, and others – to help you land your dream nursing job. Related:
Leading Registered Nurse Cynthia Russo, RN, BSN, CRNA,
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