Resume Advise, 23 yrs experience

hollidc · Dec 18, 2018

bump

Anyone?

KrysyRN, BSN · Dec 20, 2018

I've been working on my resume and have been learning a lot about how resumes are structured these days. It's recommended that a "Highlights" section under the Summary should be included. I'm still trying to figure out what that means. I did discover it doesn't mean tasks that we do as nurses but things we, individually (I think), excel at.

Suggestions for your resume: Some of the bullet points for your present job were a bit wordy. Consider listing your job title as "Staff nurse - Pediatric Emergency Room" (or any variation of this). This would allow you to eliminate some of your bullet points because they are, in essence, a listing of what a pedi nurse does. The bullet points should list your accomplishments. For instance, eliminate the 1st three bullet points. Keep the 4th and 5th bullet points [reason: probably not every nurse in your dpmt is doing these things, but you are]. Remove the 6th through 8th bullet points. Add your Daisy Award and Nurse Excellence award as bullet points, if obtained at this hospital. They are significant awards and should be right up there.

Dropping down to your Certifications and Training, maybe list ACLS, PALS, TNCC, and CPEN under one heading and your licenses under another heading.

I hope this is helpful..

hollidc · Dec 20, 2018

Thank you so much for the feedback. I'm not sure what a "highlights" section looks like but would be willing to add it. I tried to put as many key words in my resume to make it past the software I hear most companies have now , which is why I have so many bullet points. Trying to figure out what all to include of a 23 yr career is tough. For example should I put all the committees I've been on instead of the removed bullet points? Again thank you for any and all suggestions

KrysyRN, BSN · Dec 20, 2018

You are very welcome. I just hope I'm steering you in the right direction. I completely get how tough this is.

A "Highlights" section, which can also be called a "Qualifications" section, is also a bulleted list but may be in columns. In other words, two or three columns with maybe three bulleted items in each column. "Highlights" can also be just one short list of bulleted items. Probably the best way to see how this looks is to do google search for nurse resumes. I wish I knew how to post a copy-and-paste on here for you but haven't figured out how. I've read the key is not to list your tasks [under "Highlights"] that you do, but list things about yourself that would make an employer say, "I want to talk to HER." Or if your manager was going to brag about you, you'd want to list the things a manager would say about you.

As far as resume scanning software, I learned that there are websites out there that will look at a copy-and-paste of a job posting you are interested in, then look at a copy of your resume, then see if your resume has the correct wording/qualifications/etc that software will capture. It sounds like it could be really helpful.

I think putting your committees where the the removed bullet points are is an excellent idea.

Good luck!