Resume help

[oluchika]

I have been applying to various places and have not gotten any interviews. I'm a new grad with no nursing experience, so I tried to include experiences that I felt were beneficial. I also had my employer look over my resume to get her input and she didn't see any problems. The difference is that she deals in social work, so I don't know if what she looks for is different from what hospitals might look for. Any additional critiques/comments would be greatly appreciated! :)

My cover letters and reference page also use the same header as my resume. I figured it would be good to keep it consistent across all the documents, so it looks like letterhead :).

resume critique by oluchika.doc

[kayemmejay]

Instead of a standard resume create a curriculum vitae highlighting what you did during your clinical experiences.

[Rednights]

I think it's a bit too general and should be trimmed / tailored a bit better for nursing.

Relay for Life, American Cancer Society April 2011

• Assisted with the decoration and preparation of the Survivor’s Dinner

Meh who cares.

Clinical Rotation / Experience horribly under-detailed / expanded on ... didn't even reach the minimum IMO.

• Supervised student volunteers at scheduled events

• Advertised CPR courses through flyers, blog entries, and email correspondences with newspapers

Again .. who cares ....

Something like that ... needs to be narrowed down ... it's all over the place and isn't written well enough to focus the reader onto how your experiences cater to the job or nursing in general ...

[eleectrosaurus]

I agree with Rednights, if you cant relate work exp to something nursy/useful don't include it. No one really cares about decorating, cashier, food server etc. UNLESS you can back it up. i.e. difficult clients, undeserved community etc.

Agree again with expanding clinicals, do not put basic nursing skills. i.e. assessments, vitals, med-admin, 5 rights etc. That is student stuff and is assumed. Try to include things that are unique, special, specific to you or your clinical.

You can take a look at mine, the layout is pretty similar to yours but content varies. Its not perfect, but has been pretty well received so far.

Goodluck!!

anonymous_resume.pdf

[oluchika]

Okay. Here's the new version. Is this better? Problem is that most of the time during our clinicals, we pretty much did the same stuff, were only allowed to do certain tasks, or I was stuck with someone who didn't allow me to do anything . I know that I wouldn't be able to differentiate much between the different departments, hence just leaving them as bullet points.

To the above poster, I understand what you were saying and wish that I could do this, but I just don't see how. I guess I need to really think about what I did and see what I can add for each setting

resume critique.doc

[eleectrosaurus]

Herm, the update still sounds like a generic nursing student, very plain and not-so-special . Maybe go throught your old careplans and find some unique cases or situations you dealt with. Talk with your old classmates you shared clinicals with for some special cases. You didn't have any tricky cases in PICU/NICU or Home health? Maybe pay a professional resume writer who knows nursing.

Sorry to hear your school or nurses kept your hands tied .

I guess im kinda glad my school threw us to the wolves!! sink or swim! My final semester we took a full patient assignment, the students were almost running the unit while the nurses were on a 8hr coffee break, it was a trip.

[oluchika]

My PICU and NICU experience was just one day in each (alternative experiences). Honestly, I wish i would have had more time there, especially NICU as that is what I want to specialize in. My ICU experiences were good but there is only so much they allow you to do as a student, especially with the interesting cases. Most of the time, it came down to how much your nurse would allow you to do. I did the most during my preceptorship, but even then I basically did the same skills, just on my full patient assignment.