Having a hard time with resume

ERRNTraveler, RN · Nov 16, 2007

I don't include any of my non-medical related jobs on my resume, but, if you are a new grad with NO prior medical-related work experience, then you will just have to put your last few jobs on your resume. If you've had any kind of internship, you can put that.

nurz2be · Nov 16, 2007

Hi there. Well, I made it... I am going to graduate in December and will take the NCLEX ASAP after that. Right now, I am looking for a job (they encourage us to start looking now as nursing managers know that new grads are ready to work). I am trying to come up with a resume for myself (I do my husbands and can make him look like a genius!) but I am having a tough time doing so. I have already talked to the lady at our college and she handed me some sample resumes but never really helped me brainstorm for my own qualities.
Here's where I'm thinking I'm lacking:
I have been a stay-at-home mom since 1997. I have not had "normal" jobs. My husband and I managed apartments for about a year and then got away from it simply because we didn't want to be known as "slum lords" in our community. We live in a small town and the company we were working for would do NOTHING to fix the apts up inside or outside. They were all about making $$ without regard for tenants. We felt that was wrong and quit. Other than that, I worked at a gas station as an attendant from Aug 1996- Jan 1997 when I became a stay at home mom when our daughter was born. Before that, I worked as a telemarketer from March 1996-August 1996 when I left there for more money at the gas station and then from April 1995-March 1996 i worked at another telemarketing firm when I left that place to go to the other place for more $$.
As you can see, nothing is too impressive on my work history. I have been an excellent student since I started going back to school. I slowly started me prereqs in August of 2003 and started nursing school in the fall of 2005 and have gone straight through without having to retake any of the nursing courses or any courses for that matter.
I feel so insufficient and worthless on paper. Does anyone have any ideas? Do I just leave out my crappy work history? Any ideas are very appreciated. TIA!

First of all, "I have been a stay-at-home mom since 1997. I have not had "normal" jobs" This is A REAL JOB. Kudos to you for being a at home mom.

I would put down for your experience all the clinical sites that you visited while you are in nursing school, (we were told by our instructors that hospitals like to see where new grads do their clinicals and it is legal and acceptable to call it "experience."). You can put down your past employers and when you get your interview and you are asked about the gap in employment you can explain. You can ask your preceptor for a letter of recommendation, which is really a boost for your resume. I would also suggest getting a few letters of recommendation from at least 1 non-nursing instructor. If you have a family physician you can ask him/her to write you one. My friend had her kids Pediatrician write one, she glowed about how well the mother (my friend) attended to the medical needs of her children.

GOOD LUCK

Wildphire · Nov 16, 2007

I will be graduating in December as well! Congrats! I didnt have much healthcare experience to include in my resume either, so I listed all my clinicals and the skills I performed during each rotation. Good luck!!!

llg, PhD, RN · Nov 16, 2007

I disagree with the advice given by nurz2be. Don't substitute your work experience with you school clinical experiences on your resume. People in the hiring business ALREADY KNOW that as a nursing student, you did the standard clinical rotations -- and if you are applying for jobs in the same community as your school, they probably already know more about those rotations than you do!

When new grads include all of their standard coursework as if it were something special, it looks as if they are trying to "pad" their resume and that reflects poorly on you.

While your work experience is not health care related, it is valuable work experience that taught you a lot about yourself and about life in general. You worked with other people and the public and were successful at those jobs. Employers value those general career skills even when they were learned in non-healthcare settings. List them briefly without going into details unless asked. Show prospective employers that you can hold down a job and weren't fired, etc.

As for school experiences, list only those that were "special" or different from those normally taken by a student -- particularly if they relate directly to the job you are seeking. For example, if you did a senior year practicum or worked on a special project, etc. If you would like to list all your routine school experiences, list them on a separate sheet that accompanies your resume. On the main page of your resume, say something, "See attached list of nursing school experiences." Such a strategy allows you to include them, but makes it clear that you understand they are student experiences and not previous work experience. There is no chance for confusion by anyone.

Finally, use your cover letter to your best advantage. Use it to introduce yourself and to say that you had held a series of non-healthcare jobs as a young woman while you decided on a career path for yourself. Once you realized that nursing was the right career choice for you, you enjoyed nursing school and look forward to working in ...... .

Good luck

nurz2be · Nov 16, 2007

I disagree with the advice given by nurz2be. Don't substitute your work experience with you school clinical experiences on your resume. It is not a substitution. OP stated she has NO job experience prior to 97. There is NOTHING to substitute. People in the hiring business ALREADY KNOW that as a nursing student, you did the standard clinical rotations -- and if you are applying for jobs in the same community as your school, they probably already know more about those rotations than you do! IF the OP is not applying in her community then what???
When new grads include all of their standard coursework as if it were something special, it looks as if they are trying to "pad" their resume and that reflects poorly on you. Ridiculous statement indeed. end quote
Actually that is not true in ALL cases. There are 10 nursing programs in my area of Florida. Those facilities are NOT up to date as to each schools clinical rotations because they change, or at least they should if they are any good. My nursing director, with 34 + years of nursing experience, told us to include those facilities on the resume because the facility you are applying for IS Interested in what areas you trained, to assume otherwise is foolish and naive. It is not "padding" as this poster says. It is stating FOR FACT what you did and where you did it. For instance, the class before us did NOT do a rotation in a morgue, we are. That is a HUGE difference in clinical settings. Another example a friend of mine is attending another school, their Ped rotation consists of working in a mental health facility where Peds are the focus. My Ped clinical rotation is on a Peds ward along with an Ped Oncology ward. Those are ENORMOUS differences. These staffers that do the hiring want to see what YOU have done and are capable of doing. There is no shame in placing any of that information on your resume that shows any of this.

RNfaster · Nov 16, 2007

Don't feel worthless. As others have noted, stay-at-home moms work really hard. Consider what you did for each job. A stay-at-home mom monitors the children, maintains the house, defines and administers a dietary plan and budget, manages schedules, etc. If you worked at a gas station, you were likely responsible for a cash register, customer satisfaction, inventory, etc.

I think it is okay to list the clinicals. I don't think of it as resume padding. It is listing of clinicals, which are relevant. I think you should list your title while at the clinical, e.g., student nurse, that way all are clear on your role there. And that in no way reduces that experience.

Give yourself credit. You finished nursing school. You also did it while holding together a family. And you have increased your earning capacity. People who see your resume will likely be impressed by that.

First of all, "I have been a stay-at-home mom since 1997. I have not had "normal" jobs" This is A REAL JOB. Kudos to you for being a at home mom.
Good advice:
I would put down for your experience all the clinical sites that you visited while you are in nursing school, (we were told by our instructors that hospitals like to see where new grads do their clinicals and it is legal and acceptable to call it "experience."). You can put down your past employers and when you get your interview and you are asked about the gap in employment you can explain. You can ask your preceptor for a letter of recommendation, which is really a boost for your resume. I would also suggest getting a few letters of recommendation from at least 1 non-nursing instructor. If you have a family physician you can ask him/her to write you one. My friend had her kids Pediatrician write one, she glowed about how well the mother (my friend) attended to the medical needs of her children.
GOOD LUCK

Agnus · Nov 16, 2007

Hi there. Well, I made it... I am going to graduate in December and will take the NCLEX ASAP after that. Right now, I am looking for a job (they encourage us to start looking now as nursing managers know that new grads are ready to work). I am trying to come up with a resume for myself (I do my husbands and can make him look like a genius!) but I am having a tough time doing so. I have already talked to the lady at our college and she handed me some sample resumes but never really helped me brainstorm for my own qualities.
Here's where I'm thinking I'm lacking:
I have been a stay-at-home mom since 1997. I have not had "normal" jobs. My husband and I managed apartments for about a year and then got away from it simply because we didn't want to be known as "slum lords" in our community. We live in a small town and the company we were working for would do NOTHING to fix the apts up inside or outside. They were all about making $$ without regard for tenants. We felt that was wrong and quit. Other than that, I worked at a gas station as an attendant from Aug 1996- Jan 1997 when I became a stay at home mom when our daughter was born. Before that, I worked as a telemarketer from March 1996-August 1996 when I left there for more money at the gas station and then from April 1995-March 1996 i worked at another telemarketing firm when I left that place to go to the other place for more $$.
As you can see, nothing is too impressive on my work history. I have been an excellent student since I started going back to school. I slowly started me prereqs in August of 2003 and started nursing school in the fall of 2005 and have gone straight through without having to retake any of the nursing courses or any courses for that matter.
I feel so insufficient and worthless on paper. Does anyone have any ideas? Do I just leave out my crappy work history? Any ideas are very appreciated. TIA!

So graduating nursing school leaves you worthless? Thanks a lot! Lets look at this a little more realistically. Your strongest and most important assets are 1. Graduated nursing school. 2. you have held down jobs in the real world. 3. You have been a full time mother.

List your prior work but you do not need to go into a lot of detail since they are not nursing related. You may or may not want to mention some of the skills you utilized in managing your home / raising your children. In any case on a resume. Mention first your education second your work experience. (for this 1st resume) List those areas where you has elective or extended or extra rotations such as maybe you got to spend some time in a clinical area that not every student get to. Or you spent more time than average in a certain area.

Talk about your strength is school. You maybe excelled in micro, or you organized a fund raiser for your class, or you got extra experience volunteering for a health fair . Even if none of this seems to fit you you can talk about the area of nursing you are most attracted to or your personal philosophy.

Actually anything beyond education and work experience for this first job is not need on your resume. If you did want to include some of this in your cover letter that is appropriate. You may get an opportunity to talk about these in the interview.

Also, did you win any scholarships? If so list them. If you got any kind of awards ever in your life list them no matter how small. If you belong to a nursing organization say the national student nurse assocaiation or if you were active in a club while in school. list these things.

First understand you will be hired simply because you are a new grad. As a new grad you will only be competing against other new grads. No one expects a new grad to come with a list of nursing accomplishments and work experience. If you have good grades say so on your resume. If you made deans list for example or graduated in the top whatever percent of your class. Say so. You can find out exactly where you fall academically in your class ranking by asking.

They know you are new and do not expect experience. Just maturity and teachability.

llg, PhD, RN · Nov 16, 2007

[quote=nurz2be;2499463

Actually that is not true in ALL cases. There are 10 nursing programs in my area of Florida.....

I am sorry that my earlier post seemed to upset you. That certainly was not my intention.

As someone who has interviewed and hired a couple hundred nursing students and new graduates over the course of my 30+ nursing career during which I worked in several different areas of the country ... I can say with great confidence that most people reading resumes do NOT want to see them cluttered with the student's school experiences. The only school experiences a hiring manager is interested in are those experiences that relate directly to the job for which you are applying and/or those that are particularly unique and show that you have some special qualities to bring to the job that would be relevant. They don't care if you went to the morgue as a student -- unless you are applying for a job in the morgue.

Most employers read dozens of resumes on a regular basis and want to be able to look at them and quickly see the basic facts. The OP has nothing to be ashamed of and she should present the facts about herself in a straightforward, professional way. She should list her previous jobs, perhaps including a few phrases that indicate the extent of her responsibilities and skills she learned there. She should list any school experiences that indicate any special accomplishments or leadership qualities (such as participation in a student organization -- or an independ student study, special project, or preceptorship). The student experiences should be clearly labeled as student experiences to avoid any hint of misrepresentation.

Then she should state something like, "See the attached list of additional nursing student experiences" and the reader can review the total list if he/she is interested. But the reader won't get bogged down in them when trying to assess this applicant in comparison to all the others. We all know you did some med/surg, some peds, some OB, etc. and don't want to see all the details on the front page of the resume unless there is something unusual about them. They just get in the way and become annoying. The last thing you want to be when you are applying for a job is annoying.

futurecnm · Nov 17, 2007

We were told NOT to put clinical details on our resume. All managers know we did clinicals and what they entailed. Did you have a preceptorship or internship?

If not, put your past jobs, and how they will help you in nursing. How you were a leader, manager, organizer, problem solver. How you worked with people and how that will pertain to nursing. That is all you can do and hope for the best. I do not have much medical experience other than clinical and my summer internship. I feel lucky that I got that experience to put on my resume. Hopefully it will help. I am hoping for a preceptorship this spring (we don't all get one).

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Nov 17, 2007

Agree 100% with IIg advice: All students have a foundation of courses required for degree. Most mangers aware of area nursing program requirements. If one took an additional course or specialized practicum, that should be mentioned.

I do look to see if a person has prior work experience and length of time at position. If gaps in work history, reasonable explanation for gap----many interviewee's have no response!

For each position held, list job skills developed with position:

Telemarketing: learned communication skills, handing multiple phone line, customer service, assertiveness training

Gas station attendant: cashiering, supply ordering, customer service

Apartment manager: Managed # apt units, responsible for apt maintenance, rent collection, customer service skills, etc.

Any volunteer or community work with children's school: lunch monitor, reading assistant, home room parent these all count.

Check out my stickied thread in Career forum for resume help:

Wondering why you can't get hired or promoted: Resume + Interview hints!

Good luck on successful launch in nursing.

ICUNurseJess · Nov 17, 2007

My question is for llg:

I am in the same situation, very little work experience. My instructor told me to list on my resume where I did my clinicals each semester. For example: Semester 1 Oncology ABC Hospital; Semester 2 OB/L&D/Peds XYZ Hospital, etc. What do you think of that?

Thank you