Professional experience - only one job listed?

[Neldavi]

Hello, I am going to graduate in December and am working on my resume. I worked as a nurse extern this summer, so I am definitely listing that under work/professional experience, but other than that I have no relevant work experience. I've basically been a stay-at-home mom for 8 years, with a couple of sporadic stints as a nanny and a barista thrown in there. I don't really want to list those because the timing looks flaky and they're completely irrelevant to nursing, but I feel like a list of one job under experience doesn't look too great either.

Any advice?

Thanks!

[llg, PhD, RN]

Are you sure you can't list those barista and nanny experience? How brief were they? Did you have the same employer multiple times? (which would show that you were good enough for them to hire you a 2nd time) Was there anything really nagative about them such that you wouldn't want a potential employer to contact your former places of employment?

If you left under good terms, I might try to include those jobs by lumping them together under one statement ... something like ... "Intermittent, short-term employment as a barista and nanny during 200X = 200X while my primary focus was caring for my growing family." But be prepared if they want names & contact information so that they can verify your employment and that you did not do anything terrible there.

If you don't feel you can include those jobs, then don't. Go with what you feel you CAN include.

[Neldavi]

Yes, I was only a nanny for one family. Baby-sitter is probably a more accurate term (though nanny sounds better :)), because it was very part-time and she's a friend of mine (so would provide a good reference). I worked for her sporadically over a year and a half, 4-5 years ago. I worked as a barista for ten months seven years ago. I'm not sure the owner would even remember me by name. I was a good employee, but I'm not sure he would really remember that, as he was not around much. I would hope that he could verify my employment. My manager at the time is not employed there anymore.

I like your idea of lumping them together under one heading.

[itsnowornever, BSN, RN]

I'd lump them together under "customer service" or something similar to that. We had a nurse manager come talk to us and she said that bartenders, starbucks people, waitresses and such should be listed as "customer service" or "Hospitality manager".

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

Make a clinical experience section and include your nurse extern position and nursing clinical rotations. As others have mentioned, you can make a customer service experience for your other positions.