Creating My RN Resume
Crafting your first resume? Be organized and specific
Have you ever arrived at a career fair with a resume you created the night before? Did your resume look overwhelmingly generic, with one or two bullets to describe your experiences in nursing school? I can relate. The first draft of my new graduate RN resume was a jumble. My bullet points were all over the place. There was no flow whatsoever.
I'd read a few resume books and attended resume-writing seminars, so I knew all my nursing experiences needed to be translated onto a 8.5 x 11 paper. Exactly how to translate the experiences was the tricky part. To tackle the problem, I divided my resume into parts: a skeleton, a head and a body.
Types of Resumes
The first part, the skeleton, is the basis for the type of resume. There are four types of resumes: chronological, functional, targeted or combination.
- Chronological: Sections of the resume were created in a sequence of ascending or descending order of experiences.
- Functional: Work experiences (paid, unpaid, academia) were mentioned and emphasized to meet criteria for a career field.
- Targeted: Experiences (paid, unpaid or training) were focused on a specific job.
- Combination: Mixture of chronological and functional.
Second is the objective. To me, an objective is as necessary as a head on a body. It provides focus and a sense of direction for a resume. Be specific. For example:
- Entry-level RN position on a pediatric unit in a health care setting that offers opportunity to master clinical skills
- Opportunity to apply recent nursing theory to clinical practice on a pediatric unit
Either objective is appropriate because both give the recruiter what to expect in the body of the resume.
The Body
The body makes up the majority of the resume. To assist in readability, it should have headers and sections. Each header should be one or two words to introduce specific section. For example, "Education" as a header will have bullet points to list academic training.
In my new graduate nurse resume, I used a header to show licensure. Using the header "Licensure" allowed me to list the state I became licensed as a registered nurse. I listed CPR in the "Certification" section and placed this directly underneath licensure.
Within the body of my resume, I created a section to list places I worked as a student nurse, and a separate section for clinical rotations. I'm glad I did. Nurse recruiters commented that listing specific tasks I had performed during clinicals - such as administering immunizations or performing gastric residuals - gave them specific information about my current skills. About 70 percent of the body of my resume was devoted to externships and clinical rotation experiences.
Include Computer Skills
My computer skills are strong. But, initially I did not mention them because I thought they were not important in nursing. After taking a nursing informatics course, I learned that it is vital to mention computer software skills, specifically documentation software. During several of my interviews, nurse recruiters commented on my computer skills and explained how their organization is interested to hire new graduate nurses with exposure to specific software programs in electronic documentation.
I listed information about accomplishments were in three sections: awards, presentations and volunteer activities.
Last but never least, a critical area on the resume is contact information. State how you can be contacted for an interview (e.g., postal address, e-mail address, phone number) to give yourself the opportunity to be asked for an interview. If the contact information is incomplete, the resume either sits on a desk or gets tossed into a trash can.
A Resume's Life Span? Short
A resume has a short life span. I learned that my resume will be viewed for no more than 5 seconds and by at least three people before I get the call for an interview. First, the human resource personnel or the nurse recruiters will review it. Second, the nurse manager reads it, followed by the nurse supervisor or charge nurse.
I learned the best resume is one that I create without a pre-format. As a new grad, all pertinent information describing my training and accomplishments needs to fit on 1 page.
Usually, I take a few hours to create the first draft resume. The next day, I look at it and check for composition, readability, misspellings and typos. I arrange sections so eduction, licensure, certification and nursing experiences are at the top on the first page. I ask a colleague or instructor to review the third draft. When I feel confident my resume is finalized, I keep both an electronic and hard-copy version, although many applications for new grad nurse positions are online.
Creating a resume, frankly, can be challenging and time-consuming. But it is time well-spent. A good resume is the first step to obtaining an interview.