creating resume for entry level leadership/management positions

SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN · Jun 22, 2016

Bedside experience in detail is good if you are trying to land a Charge Nurse position. Otherwise, it needs to be on the bottom of your resume as one liners (do not take up much space).

The space of your resume needs to reflect clinical committee membership and/or leadership positions, career ladder projects, process and quality improvement projects, and/or outside organizational membership/leadership and related volunteer experience and/or projects. If you have not been doing any of the aforementioned, you will have a hard time landing an entry level position because the competition can be stiff!

The exception to the rule are people that are liked by the hiring manager. So, network your bottom off and you can bypass the other requirements I have listed.

By the way, I did everything to land my first position and I still had a hard time. Now that I have work experience as an Assistant Nurse Manager under my belt, I am getting cold calls (and emails) from recruiters... Good luck.

Yuppers21 · Jun 26, 2016

Thank you MBARNMSN, I really appreciate your feedback. I am currently a charge nurse and a member of a clinical committee on my unit so I will make sure to display those in a way that is informative and visible. Thanks for the tip on reducing the amount of space I give to my patient care experience, I will work on that as well. My resume starts with a short mission statement which basically states I am looking to advance my career as a nursing leader at my workplace while obtaining my graduate degree in management. Since I'm applying to leadership positions, would you recommend including a cover letter that goes into a bit more detail about my career goals and remove the mission statement from the resume? I imagine that those responsible for hiring might want a little more "meat" from a applicant for a leadership position than someone applying for a floor nurse position, but I'm just assuming. Do they too spend little time browsing through resumes simply because of the sheer number they need to get through - in which case a cover letter would just be skipped where as a mission statement might be noticed?

SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN · Jun 28, 2016

OP: You can use a cover letter, but the cover letter should not be too detailed on your career ambitions. A cover letter for a leadership position is not a scholarship application. With that said, hiring managers want to know how hiring you vs. someone else will further his/her objectives for their unit. Therefore, if you choose to write a cover letter (and this is not a bad idea) it needs to focus on what you can or will offer the hiring manager.

What skills do you bring to the table? What leadership positions have you had in the past? Have you ever had direct reports? If so, how many? It is OK to use your burger flipping / retail experience if you have it... I have been passed over while attempting to be hired into my first management position by managers who preferred nurses that had direct reports as prior managers in other fields.

In addition, as a charge nurse, what have you done to improve your current unit? What have you done to make your facility survey-ready?

By the way, do you know of the initiatives that are being implemented on the unit to which you are applying? If not, it will help to find out prior to your interview.

Bobjohnny · Jun 29, 2016

In addition, as a charge nurse, what have you done to improve your current unit? What have you done to make your facility survey-ready?

Also make sure that you talk up being a resource to fellow staff and how you perform service recovery in this position.

Make sure to have examples in mind of the normal off the shelf questions if you get an interview.

Ex: Tell me about a difficult situation and how you dealt with it. What is your greatest weakness? What is your greatest strength? What is the most important thing you can do if you don't get this job?

Honestly, my interview got me my current job. There was another nurse (that was also in house), who's resume was slightly better than mine. But, I interviewed well (or so I'm told) and got the job over the other candidate when she didn't interview well. You can always buy some time to come up with an answer by rephrasing the question. "Tell you about a difficult situation and how I dealt with it, correct?"

Yuppers21 · Jun 30, 2016

Thank you again MBARNBSN and bobjohhny for your replies. They have been very helpful and given me some more things to consider for my resume. The interview advice is bonus! Looks like I have some work to do to tweak my current resume