Considering a career move? Bring along a sterling resume
Considering a career move? Bring along a sterling resume
Recruiters give tips on what they're looking for
Whether you're starting out in nursing, considering a move into occupational health nursing after a career as an RN, or looking to move into nursing management, the first impression you're likely to make will be a two-page summary of who you are professionally — your resume. Creating a resume is much more than listing your employment history, nurse recruiters and hiring managers say, but the work history should be the centerpiece of a well-crafted resume.
Hiring managers are busy people who want to be able to quickly glean what they need to know about you, says Jan Crissey, RN, a nurse recruiter for the University of Michigan Health System School of Nursing. Colored paper, fancy fonts, and design worthy of a graphics artist are, at best, not going to make any difference and, at worst, could distract the reader from what's important — your qualifications for the job you want.
"The employment history — that's what we want to know about. With new people, they might not have a lot of history in the health care field, or maybe they worked as techs or respiratory therapists or at some other health care job before getting their nursing degree," says Crissey. "They should clearly describe what their responsibilities were in those jobs — what kinds of things they did; if he or she were a monitor tech, what kind of monitoring they did."
Packing a lot of information into an easy-to-read format, excluding what's not important in a resume, but not making omissions that could haunt you later — Crissey says these are reasons a good resume takes careful time and thought.
Keep it simple, professional
"Make it easy to read — almost an outline format with clear categories and bold subheadings," Crissey suggests. This format not only makes it easy for potential employers to go right to the information they need, but also helps the resume writer organize his or her thoughts into coherent order.
Jean Bey, RN, MPH, COHN-S, CCM, occupational health manager for 3M Corporation headquarters in St. Paul, MN, says keep the position you're aiming for in mind when you write your resume. Such tailoring makes the difference between a generic nursing resume and a resume that speaks directly to the position under consideration. In other words, no cookie-cutter resumes need apply.
"If there's a career objective listed on the resume, make sure that it's relevant to the position," says Bey. "And have the resume reflect the culture of the organization and type of position that you're applying to."
Bey, like Crissey, says plain paper and design makes more sense for a traditional occupational health nursing position in a conservative company.
"If you're applying for a marketing position, however, and submitting a hard copy resume, you might want to use more interesting paper or design," she says, because creativity is a consideration in marketing.
If you submit your resume electronically, simplicity is even more important. Simple formatting ensures the resume will remain readable when it passes into the company's electronic database, Bey points out.
If you are changing careers, coming into occupational health from another nursing (or non-nursing) field, you have the additional task of convincing a potential employer that you can be successful in the new field. Your resume should be persuasive and clearly focused on why you are the right person for the job.
"Sometimes I think that if you want to include a narrative as to your career goals, that's best addressed in a cover letter," Crissey says. "One candidate [I encountered] wrote in the outset of his resume that his life goal is to work in mother/baby nursing, and that's great if you're sending your resume to positions in those areas, but if you don't get in there — and in our institution, he would not get into mother/baby as an external candidate — somebody could read that in his resume and think he probably would not stay [if hired] because he has indicated he is very strongly headed in a direction that he could not immediately get here."
Not every job is going to work out as we hope, but jobs that ended soon after they began, or worse, jobs from which you were terminated, should not be omitted from the resume.
"I don't think the fact that the job ended in termination should be addressed in the resume, but do bring it up, perhaps at the interview," says Crissey. Don't gamble on a potential employer not finding out.
"I recently worked with a hiring manager considering a candidate, and I recognized her as someone who had taken a job with me, gone through a couple of weeks of orientation, and left after a couple of weeks of work," she recounts. "But she didn't list that on her resume, and there I was looking at her resume. I told the hiring manager to look closely before hiring this person."
So while terminations and other negative details don't necessarily need to be on your resume, the jobs themselves do.
"And I can't stress enough how important it is to have that work history," she adds. "Stay with jobs for at least a year [before leaving]."
Bey, however, is of the opinion that if a candidate has good experience, one or two short-term jobs (less than a year long) won't likely limit his or her ability to get an interview.
Nursing students seeking their first jobs should list their highest degree and describe their most advanced programs, Crissey suggests. Don't bother listing high school and grade schools, she adds — "Only list the education that is pertinent to what you're applying for."
That includes workshops, certifications, affiliations outside of school that are applicable to the position, and licensures.
"At the end, where you talk about other experiences, list volunteer experiences, both health-related and non-health-related," advises Crissey. "That shows how well rounded the individual is."
Resumes should be included, preferably on a separate page, she adds. Don't just list names and contact information — be clear about their relationship to you and how they are connected to your work experience.
Everything in your resume should be included carefully, reviewed by someone with a good eye for detail, and be worded as succinctly as possible, Bey says.
"Your resume is a sample of your writing skills, so typos and poor grammar reflect negatively on your writing abilities," she points out. "Keep your resume to two pages or less. You can always bring a [curriculum vita] with you to an interview, but hiring managers are busy and want your resume to be a brief summary of your relevant education and experience."
Don't forget those non-clinical skills
Occupational health nursing is not just nursing. The business environment, possible management responsibilities, and administrative demands require more than just clinical skills, career advisers remind candidates.
While each hiring manager is looking for someone with job-specific skills, there are qualities that applicants can hone and call attention to that will benefit them no matter what the potential new job might be.
These so-called transferable or soft skills are considered positives in any profession, and include, among others:
- Communication — spoken and written communication with co-workers, supervisors, and clients; includes listening, as well as speaking skills, negotiation, persuasion, and tact;
- Leadership — even someone who has never been a manager likely has been in a position of leadership; describe projects, crises, or non-career situations in which you drew on leadership skills; can include teaching, counseling, and dispute resolution;
- Organizational skills — accepting responsibility and carrying out the task; meeting deadlines; working as part of a team; time management.
Use cover letter, interview to expand on resume
Cover letters are the preferred means of conveying a little more about yourself and your career goals, Bey and Crissey says. But more information does not mean lots more information.
"Cover letters should be short — preferably one page — and highlight several important reasons why you're an excellent fit for the position," says Bey. "Again, no typos or grammatical errors should be found."
Crissey says cover letters and resumes should both contain the applicant's contact information, including email address.
A cover letter can be the personal touch that makes you stand out from the rest of the crowd, but career advisers say many hiring managers don't read the cover letter until after they've scanned the resume, so do not rely on the cover letter to get your foot in the door. It should be viewed as a way to further pull your resume out of the stack of competing applicants.
Crissey says she likes to see cover letters that tell her why the applicant chose to go into nursing in the first place. The letter is the candidate's first chance to interpret the top skills on the resume and discuss why they make him or her the best candidate for the position.
"It should tell me where your passion for nursing is," she explains. "But don't go too far. Last summer I worked with a candidate who is in a gay and lesbian rights association that she very much wanted to bring people's attention to, and she went into great detail about it in her cover letter.
"I thought it was probably better not to bring it up in the cover letter, because when you have such a strong passion for something — anything —- outside of nursing, it could scare some people off."
Address the cover letter to a person, not "to whom it may concern." A call to human resources or an administrator's office should yield the name of the person who is in charge of hiring for the position. This gives you a specific person with whom you can follow up later, and tells the hiring manager that you are motivated and resourceful enough to do your homework about the company.
Bey says the cover letter could be the appropriate place to discuss the specifics of why you left a particular job, but her advice is to save that information for the interview.
"I think it's important to be truthful but without being negative about the previous employer, and going into too much detail explaining the situation [in the cover letter] could lead the applicant into saying more than they intended, or make them appear unprofessional," she explains. "If the job wasn't a good fit, say so [in the interview], and be brief but professional about it. Then, be prepared to talk about your career objectives and what you're looking for in your next position as well as five years from now."
Sources
- Jan Crissey, RN, nurse recruiter, University of Michigan Health System, School of Nursing. Email: [email protected].
- Jean M. Bey, RN, MPH, COHN-S, CCM, occupational health manager, 3M Corporation. Phone (651) 736-2350. Email: [email protected].
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