New Grad RN - Please Review/Critique My Resume

[nursetribe]

Hello Everyone,

I passed NCLEX recently and I am in the process of finalizing my resume for a Job Search.

I am finding new grad resumes are very different from resumes for other professions. In my opinion, they are simple without exaggerating or highlighting past experiences that are not related to health care. Being a new grad with no prior healthcare experience, that is a significant issue for me. (I'm prepared to experience difficulties until I find a job.)

Also I've seen conflicting opinions about whether or not to include "objective" and "school clinical experience". I would like to include them if they aren't making it look worse.

This is the current copy, which was simplified a lot from the previous version.

I would really appreciate it if anyone could offer inputs to help me increase the chance for getting job interviews for any acute bedside positions (med-surge, cardiac, neuro, oncology...).

Thank you very much!

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ABC ABC, RN

1000 ABC Rd. City, State, Zip

Phone: [phone], Email: [email protected]

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OBJECTIVE:

To obtain a registered nurse position that will allow me to grow professionally and provide excellent patient care.

EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS:

Registered Nurse - State Board of Nursing (1/2013)

BLS for Healthcare Providers (2/2013)

Diploma in Nursing - ABC School of Nursing, City, State (12/2012)

Bachelor of Science in Finance - ABC University, City, State

CLINICAL EXPERIENCE:

Senior Preceptorship - ABC Hospital, Medical/Telemetry Unit, City, State (10/2012)

- Refined assessment skills, medication administration, care planning, and patient/family education.

- Acted as advocate for patients/families and as resourceful team member along with hospital personnel leveraging strong interpersonal skills.

Clinical Rotations - ABC Hospital (Medical/Surgical, Telemetry, ICU, Acute Rehabilitation), DEF Hospital (Medical/Surgical), Levine Children's Hospital (Progressive Care), GHI Hospital Maternity Center, JKL Hospital (Psychiatric).

WORK EXPERIENCE:

Order Specialist - ABC Company, City, State (11/2006 - 11/2010)

- Processed orders for sales team and customers while ensuring accuracy, complying with guidelines, and troubleshooting time sensitive issues.

Sales Support Coordinator (Temporary) - ABC Sales & Marketing, City, State (3/2006 - 6/2006)

- Managed high-volume customer accounts and provided superior customer service to ensure needs of vendors and sales personnel were met.

Facilities Coordinator - ABC Corporation, City, State (2/2004 - 9/2005)

- Maintained office facilities and services. Planned and implemented short and long term facility improvement including complete office relocation, inventory management and vendor relations.

Server - ABC Restaurant, City, State (5/2003 - 2/2004)

- Worked collaboratively with other servers, kitchen staff, and management with emphasis on team work and customer service in an extremely faced-paced environment.

VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES:

Mental Health Association of ABC, INC., City, State (05/2006 - Present)

- Participate in friendship and socialization program for mentally disabled adults.

ABC's Lunch Place, City, State (5/2003 - 8/2005)

- Supported kitchen operation and daytime shelter services for homeless & low income female clients and their children.

ABC General Hospital, Volunteer Department, City, State (11/2003 - 2/2004)

- Assisted with clerical duties.

LANGUAGE:

English, Japanese

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[RNewbie]

I would lose the objective, just include a cover letter so employers know what you are looking for. I would make 3 seperate sections for education, certifications, and licenses. I might move the certifications and licenses sections at the bottom with languages.

[mclennan, BSN, RN]

No objective. Keep clinical experience but just list what units in what hospitals, we know what you did on clinicals so no descriptions needed.

Replace objective with 3 bullet points, "attention grabbers" if you will. Like

- Fast learner, comfortable with technology and equipment

- Calm and compassionate in high-stress environments and situations

- Excellent professional and academic references

[knittygrittyRN, MSN, RN]

First off congratulations on passing the NClex! I'm garduating this May and I'm sending out my own resumes. For mine I did a personal profile instead of an objective. Our campus Career Development said it give more of a snapshot as to who you are and what you want rather then a typical objective. It's up to you what you prefer but it might 'sell' your resume a little bit more. There's a few examples online if you google nursing new grad resumes that have a personal profile.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I would leave off the non-healthcare work experience details - list the companies, and dates but that's all. And your volunteer activities could be summarized in a single sentence - just listing the agency with years in parenthesis. You want the important stuff to stand out, and lots of words that don't relate to nursing just clutter things up.

[tlcrn#1]

make it short,concise and effective

[nursetribe]

Thank you everyone for responding so fast to my post!! I'm so glad I decided to post and ask for advice. English is not my first language and boy writing an effective resume is hard! I really appreciate all your time and comments

RNewbie - moving certs. & licenses to the bottom sounds good since I already indicate "RN" in the header.

mclennan & russodem - I started thinking "personal profile" is the best option over omitting "objective" entirely or including "objective" with no impact. I will come up with a few simple & strong sentences to help them keep on reading my resume.

marycarney & tlcrn#1 - I'm a strong believer of "less is more" but since I don't have many relevant/solid items to include on my resume now I'm worried if the resume will appear "blank". But I will continue working on it! Thank you so much.

[nikki_nurse]

You need to use action words in your resume.

Here is a list

Resume - Action Words and Phrases

For example you say "Managed high-volume customer accounts and provided superior customer service to ensure needs of vendors and sales personnel were met."

Maybe switching superior to efficient. Its not on the list but it can add a different meaning than superior. So it would say "Managed high-volume customer accounts and provided efficient customer service to ensure needs of vendors and sales personnel were met"

So trying to use those action words to describe what you did, instead of filler words that don't describe as easily what you did and it takes up less space.

I think that since you have no nursing experience (except outside of clinicals), its good to have your other job experience listed there as well because it will give the employer something to look at in terms of how you work. If you did any extra projects in you senior placement, then list them as well.

And make sure you keep a master resume. As time goes on and if you apply for different positions, you resume will change to reflect current jobs and you will be able to organize it to reflect what position you are applying for (ex if you are applying to work in the ER, you can change you action words to show that you have been able to work in a fast paced environment efficiently.) And keeping those action statements (because they can be hard to create) to use on different resumes.

Also, if you know anyone who does hiring, they would be good to look at your resume for wording. Or if your school has any resume workshops or help. And keep your formating the same throughout. If all of your heading are bolded and in size 12 font, then keep all your heading that way. Be consistent in how you write dates as well.