Abbreviations on a resume

[gregmotz]

On a resume for a prospective CNA, should healthcare related abbreviations be used? Following the sticky links in the career advice section leads to conflicting opinion.

Standard practice is never use abbreviations. The example resumes do use abbreviations. Some were, understandably due to my experience level, cryptic.

For example, would you use the abbreviation ADL or write out Activities of Daily Living when submitting to a Long Term Care (LTC) facility?

On the flip side I can't imagine writing out Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Automated External Defibrillator (CPR & AED).

Where's the line? A former boss would go bonkers if he rec'd an e-mail that contained an acronym he didn't know where the writer just asumed he knew it. So I'm sensitive...

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

It is always good practice to spell out the word(s) and add the abbreviation behind them in parentheses the first time you use it in your document - and a resume is no different.

Paper based resumes are usually scanned into a software system, and these applications do not work well with lots of different formatting options. Keep it simple by using Arial & Times Roman.

Also be aware that online employment application systems have some peculiarities - be sure to read all of the instructions and follow them carefully.

Good luck on your job hunt

[gregmotz]

Thanks that fits.

I'm also finding that having a few different formats readily available is helpful. Examples might be having one resume specifically formatted for the "Copy and paste the text of your resume here" scenario. Within reason, for those situations caps, dashes, and tabs or spaces are preferred for delimiting sections instead of bulleted lists, italics, bold, or the table created by some programs.

Copying and pasting the text from an existing resume into a plain text editor (Notepad) can show just how odd it might look on the other end. Make it look pretty, but resumes are not an exercise in impressing the recipient with mad MS Word skillz.