How to write a nursing resume

With modern technological growth and advances competition for the good nursing jobs, a vague, uninspiring resume just will not cut it. The opportunities are broad, employers have diverse requires and each nurse is unique. In this ever-changing world of online apps, writing a strong nursing resume that impressively portrays your accomplishments and skills can be a daunting task. This guide will serve as a simple to follow, step by step guide to ensuring a targeted, well-written nursing resume that will aid you to make significant changes to your job search and career.

Define Your Brand
Defining your brand as a nurse to make your resume stand out Think of your job search as your marketing campaign. And the product is you Your resume is an Ad for your brand. A brand is not easy a logo, it is the overall impression you give your audience. In this case, your audience is the employer. As with any advertisement, the goal of your resume is to pique the interest of your audience. It doesn’t get you the job. It gets you an interview. Once you have been invited for an interview, your audience is already partially sold but it is up to you to close the deal. Just as an advertisement has few secs to capture the attention of an audience, your resume also has limited time to express your value to the reader. Or, in many cases, a resume reading robot.

Do Your Research
The 1st and most important step in any marketing campaign is the research phase. Learn about your audience, also called your potential employers. Take some time to answer the following questions:

  • Who are they?
  • What is their company culture?
  • What are their pain points?
  • What qualities do you possess that will compel them to purchase the product or, in this case, invite you for an interview?

The internet has made it fairly simple to hop online and start your research right now from your mobile device. Instead of easy reading, a job posting takes some further steps to:

  • Check out their website
  • See what they tweet about
  • What photos are they posting on Instagram?
  • What articles do they share on Facebook?
  • Who do you know on LinkedIn who works there?

Social platforms will give you an inside glimpse of their values and culture.

Target Your Specific Audience
A perfect place to start is by targeting 2 to 3 employers and creating a strong resume foundation. Read a few job descriptions to determine industry-specific requirements and targeted keywords. This foundational resume can then be altered slightly for every role you apply to. No requirement to reinvent the wheel but, never submit a cookie-cutter resume to each position. Taking some moments to target your resume can lead you to the interview of your dreams. And not targeting it can lead you on the fast track to nowhere.  

Required vs. Preferred qualifications
When reading job postings, you will likely come across the terms Preferred Qualifications and Required Qualifications. Understanding the difference between these 2 is key. Required qualifications. They’re just what they say requirements. Those who don’t possess these qualifications won’t be considered. Preferred qualifications. These are the skills that are desired but aren’t deal breakers for the employer. You can yet be considered even if you don’t possess these. If you do not have all the qualifications listed, do not sweat it, you can yet apply and be considered for the role.  

Navigate Online Applications
Do you remember your 1st resume? If it was over 15 years ago, maybe your Career Counselor told you to print it on the highest grade (scented, eh hem) paper and hand-deliver it with a small chocolate gift to be followed up with a thank you card. If it was created less than ten years ago, and you tried a similar strategy, you were likely struck down with, you’ve to apply online. increase your hand if you can relate. As you can realize, the internet has transformed the hiring process and affected the entire labor market in a very short time. We will let you in on a small secret, Nurse Managers and Nurse Recruiters rarely read resumes in detail. They can skim them for some seconds, but for the huge majority of healthcare employers, resumes are prescreened and selected by robots. Robots that have been programmed to forward only the most qualified candidates to a decision-maker.   

What Is A Resume Reading Robot?
The resume reading robot is a program called Applicant Tracking Software (ATS). It’s highly technical and individualized, but not nearly as smart as a human. It does what it has been programmed to do. How to get around resume reading robots for nursing jobs. An employer can enter specific keywords for the ATS to scan for. They can select to enter knockout questions to rapidly eliminate unqualified candidates. Such as, do you have an active Washington State Nursing License. They can even select to involve disqualifying statements to automatically screen candidates out. Such as, if an ATS is programmed to screen out all resume lacking a Bachelor’s Degree, anybody with an Associate’s Degree will automatically be rejected. If you’ve both, consider listing only your BSN. Recruiters can also configure the ATS to only deliver resumes that involve exact keywords.

How Does ats Work?
Not all ATS systems are created equal. They vary greatly in their functionality and behavior. Such as, few ATS won’t be able to differentiate between titles like Registered Nurse and Clinical Nurse II. Other ATS systems cannot be able to distinguish between the Basic Life Support and terms BLS. The bottom line, read the job description, and utilize the exact wording. If you use abbreviations and acronyms, ensure to spell out the entire word followed by the shortened version. While ATS has streamlined the hiring process for employers, it is also made job search extremely challenging for the job seeker. 94 percent of hiring professionals say that ATS has positively influenced their hiring aims, while 80 percent of job seekers say that their online job search is stressful.

Does Each Employer Use Ats?
It’s estimated that 75 percent of employers now use ATS and that number only continues to grow.1 yet, not each employer uses ATS. In those examples, a Human Resources professional screens the resumes themselves and invites the most qualified in for an interview. The problem here is that most employers will receive hundreds of resumes for a single opening. To get through the resumes rapidly, the HR professional can resort to an easy scan of the resumes knowing that even qualified applicants cannot make it. It is easy a way to decrease the number of applicants. In either case, the modern resume aims to sell yourself in an organized, targeted manner for an exact role. The good way to design an effective, attention-grabbing resume is by making strong assertions at the beginning followed by supporting evidence.