Resume/ interview help, new RN

Hi, Blinky! You should include your clinical experiences on your resume as well. List where you did your clinicals and then put a bullet or two underneath explaining what you did at that clinical and what types of patients you had. Also, you don't need to list your high school...just what colleges you attended after high school. Is there a way you can pm the word document of your resume? maybe i can help.

Also, definitely list your restaurant experience! Customer service is very important and nursing recruiters like to see that experience on a resume.

i was checking out the resume posted by Char below and it just blew mine away, thinking of just editing alot of it to suit myself and using that, not sure on the photo part though

i can attach files but not sure how here

updated and uploaded cover letter/ resume any tips?

resume online safe.docx

mike cover letter2 online safe.docx

[Personal info at top edited out]

-Previous employment is all restaurant work and not sure If i should list it or not, longest job was 3 years and was fired. Was also fired/let go / quit from the adult sitter job, not sure if i should include it.

Yes, include it. You need to show that you've actually been employed at some point; focus on the strengths of each job. For instance, while you were a restaurant hostess (or whatever), you were responsible for maintaining positive public relations with patrons of the restaurant. You handled all customer complaints with the diplomacy required to satisfy the patrons and ensure repeat business. You were often the person staff sought out to help settle disputes and your supervisor looked to you to find ways of improving employee morale as needed. You left for school or a more suitable job, or maybe because you and your supervisor could not come to agreeable terms for a change in your responsibilities, resulting in your termination. Or some such somethings along those lines :)

Obviously I don't know what you did, but you get the gist of the spin I'm placing, yes?

Objective

Obtain a Registered graduate nurse position.

No it isn't. No such position exists. You are seeking a graduate nurse position, with continuation of employment upon your successful passing of the NCLEX-RN. OR, if you already possess a RN license, you are looking for a 'new grad' position, not a 'graduate nurse' position. A graduate nurse has merely graduated from nursing school, not passed licensing.

Employment

- {location] -Adult sitter, 8-08-08 to 5-20-09

• Maintain central lines and IV lines in-patient.
  

• Ensure the provision of quality care.
  

• Fill out Adult sitter observation form every 15 minutes as ordered.
  

• Call nurse if any emergency arises.
  

• Make sure patient gets assistance as needed.
  

• Advocate for patient needs.
  

Sitter ---dates of employment--:

Responsible for maintaining a safe environment for my assigned patient. Kept careful records of patient activity on the quarter hour, ensuring constant communication with the nursing staff. Constantly available to the needs of my patient, including psychosocial ones as they arose. Many of my patients needed reassurance that someone was nearby, that they were safe, and I prided myself in being able to calm an anxious patient and quiet one who had been upset. The nursing staff knew that when I was on duty, they could rely on my patient being well-attended.

And other some such stuff :)

[h=2]Education[/h]

• Lee M. Thurston High School, Redford, Michigan, graduated 2002
  
• University of Michigan Dearborn, Dearborn, Michigan 2002-2005
  
• Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, Michigan 2005-2011
  
• Licensed 4/5/2012 (Michigan)
  

[h=2][/h]References available upon request

Also I have 3 letters of recomendation and am working on a generic cover letter format that I can alter to each job. Can post that as well.

Some letters I have in email some are hard copies only.

If you graduated high school with a Regents diploma, Honors, anything but general ed, I'd mention it. I see you attended U of MI; did you graduate? With what? If you did not graduate, mention what you studied. If you left the first college to attend the second, did you continue the same line of study?

I do have to say....this part doesn't look good.....three years at a university (presumably one year shy of graduation) and you then spend another SIX years at a community college?

You don't say what you studied at the CC, nor what you were licensed in. Do you mean RN licensure? If so, does that mean you're applying for a 'new grad' spot, not a 'graduate nurse' one?

Hope this helps more than confuses :)

why were half the useful posts here deleted, and yet my files remain seriously?

Nevermind I see.

Hope this helps more than confuses :)

Found this link in yahoo with resume advice, how reliable is it?

-As I have somethings in mine that the article says i should not

10 Things to Leave Off Your Resume - Yahoo! Finance

http://www.askamanager.org/

Checked out the Yahoo article; it's a general guideline, and not a bad one. I wish the last posts I made on this thread were still here! Would make it easier to retrace my steps.

Anyway, it said to not list an objective, and of course you have one. I don't have a problem with it being listed, as frankly I get resumes from people that don't have any desirable skills I'm looking for; might as well know what THEY think they're applying for. If your resume couldn't ever be construed as anything but a request for a floor nursing position, then you don't need one. But if they think you are looking for anything else....well, I'd leave it. Your choice, of course.

It also said to not list short-term jobs, and I agreed. Which is why I said to leave off the job that only lasted months...the one that lasted for three years is really the ONLY thing you have to give any kind of frame of reference for work history, so you need it there.

High school, unless you had honors or went to a brand-name private or specialty school, isn't really worthwhile mentioning. Which is why I asked about whether you had a general ed diploma, or Regents, honors, etc. You had said that yours was general ed, so....it can stay off.

Before it got deleted, did you get a chance to read my post about listing just the dates of your degrees rather than the total time spent IN the schools? In other words, DON'T say "XX Community College 2005-2011", say "Associate of Science May 2008, Associate Degree in Nursing May 2011" or something like that. Leave off the university you attended but did not graduate from; in this case, it does more harm than good in that it makes you look like a screwup (sorry for the wording, but I'm being honest here) in that you were there for three years and got nothing out of it. You want the potential employer to focus on the achievements, not the failures.

I looked at the second link, but not sure where the connection is....are you wondering if you should list references with your resume? If so, I'd say don't: no one ever puts anyone on a reference list who could possibly give you anything but a glowing, 'Mother Theresa doesn't compare' kind of reference. In an interview (or a followup to it), you might be asked to provide the name of your last employer who can validate dates of employment, or the name of an instructor who can vouch for your nursing capabilities, a former co-worker or fellow student in the nursing program. Nursing is a small world, and some names you provide may already be known to the employer. With any luck, you already know people employed by the organization you're seeking to join (who think well of you), and can provide THEIR names if asked. Again, you don't have a big history to pull from, so they're going to be going 'by the seat of their pants' a bit on you as it is.

Hopefully you'll read this before there's another "data base" glitch!!

Before it got deleted, did you get a chance to read my post about listing just the dates of your degrees rather than the total time spent IN the schools? In other words, DON'T say "XX Community College 2005-2011", say "Associate of Science May 2008, Associate Degree in Nursing May 2011" or something like that. Leave off the university you attended but did not graduate from; in this case, it does more harm than good in that it makes you look like a screwup (sorry for the wording, but I'm being honest here) in that you were there for three years and got nothing out of it. You want the potential employer to focus on the achievements, not the failures.

I changed all the dates. Left off High school and U of M Dearborn.

-So i should leave off " references available upon request" as well?

Any tips on the cover letter? Not sure if you commented before the wipe, but i never read any comments about it.

Checked out the Yahoo article; it's a general guideline, and not a bad one. I wish the last posts I made on this thread were still here! Would make it easier to retrace my steps.

Anyway, it said to not list an objective, and of course you have one. I don't have a problem with it being listed, as frankly I get resumes from people that don't have any desirable skills I'm looking for; might as well know what THEY think they're applying for. If your resume couldn't ever be construed as anything but a request for a floor nursing position, then you don't need one. But if they think you are looking for anything else....well, I'd leave it. Your choice, of course.

It also said to not list short-term jobs, and I agreed. Which is why I said to leave off the job that only lasted months...the one that lasted for three years is really the ONLY thing you have to give any kind of frame of reference for work history, so you need it there.

High school, unless you had honors or went to a brand-name private or specialty school, isn't really worthwhile mentioning. Which is why I asked about whether you had a general ed diploma, or Regents, honors, etc. You had said that yours was general ed, so....it can stay off.

!

So i went to HFCC's job placement center and had the job guy [forgot his actual title] looked over my resume and cover letter. And he had a lot of different things to say then what you did. Now don't know what advice/template to follow.

He thinks jobs should have bullet points of facts of what you did at said job, quantifiable. Not a short paragraph about how I did the job.

-As he put it "why would anyone describe how they did their job in anything but a positive/best light?"

On the cover letter he circled every " I" "my" and etc. Saying I was in fact talking to much about myself and again " no one is going to talk about themselves in anything but positive" -His advice was to look at the mission statement of each place of employment I apply to and work it into my cover letter saying how "I am a good match for the company because I can do that, and then give a example from work/clinicals"

On objective.....

-He said to put the actual job title and reference/job code on it instead of "new grad nurse position"

Advice?

new version

Resume 1 onlinesafe.docx

So i went to HFCC's job placement center and had the job guy [forgot his actual title] looked over my resume and cover letter. And he had a lot of different things to say then what you did. Now don't know what advice/template to follow.

I think you should follow whatever seems best to you. I gave you my thoughts on what I'd want to see on an applicant's resume, from the standpoint of the nurse manager looking them over before deciding whether to interview applicant. Perhaps my view isn't what the placement center guy is expecting? Did you ask him how many RNs he's worked with on resumes and how many have gotten the jobs they wanted?

He thinks jobs should have bullet points of facts of what you did at said job, quantifiable. Not a short paragraph about how I did the job.

-As he put it "why would anyone describe how they did their job in anything but a positive/best light?"

While it's true only the positive is emphasized, you don't have much material to work with, which is why I suggested it be the way I did. He likes it as bullets, I liked it another way (for the reasons I gave--most notably that any nurse manager reading it would already know the 'bullet point' list quite well and would be more interested in how you see the job). Again, I looked at it the way *I* would like to see it. If Job Placement Guy has found it to be more effective with a bullet list (has he?) then you should do it that way.

On the cover letter he circled every " I" "my" and etc. Saying I was in fact talking to much about myself and again " no one is going to talk about themselves in anything but positive" -His advice was to look at the mission statement of each place of employment I apply to and work it into my cover letter saying how "I am a good match for the company because I can do that, and then give a example from work/clinicals"

Sound advice.

On objective.....

-He said to put the actual job title and reference/job code on it instead of "new grad nurse position"

I think this is splitting hairs. I'm quite sure if I see an application from Jim Bob, RN and it references 'new grad RN position' it's going to be clear to me what he wants. I specified "new grad" because you want it to be clear you're seeking a preceptorship/orientation designed for new RNs. In most facilities, typically HR gets the resume in, looks it over to see who might be interested, and sends it to those nurse managers of relevance. In my facility, anything that looks like a nurse is sent to me. Not sure why a job code (and how would you know this?) is so important. If you know it, go ahead. The "actual title" of the job is going to be "Registered Nurse", so....I figured you had it covered. As I said, splitting hairs on how to say "RN".

Advice?

That's about it. If you have local resources (like the job placement center) who can show you their success in getting new nurses hired, you should use them. I gave you what I thought was best based on what I'd like to see.

So from here out, I wish you the very best of luck in getting hired soon; I'd like to see your perseverance pay off!