Resume/ interview help, new RN

kbs36 · May 26, 2012

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.

blinky, ASN, RN · May 26, 2012

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

blinky, ASN, RN · Jun 19, 2012

updated and uploaded cover letter/ resume any tips?

resume online safe.docx

mike cover letter2 online safe.docx

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jun 19, 2012

[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.

I don't know that I'd belabor every little point as though it were a major achievement when it comes to the Sitter position. If you're applying to a healthcare facility, the person reading this already knows quite well what a sitter does. All you want to do is focus on how YOU, personally, were an asset, and not necessarily a 'bullet list':

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 :)

blinky, ASN, RN · Jun 21, 2012

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

blinky, ASN, RN · Jun 21, 2012

Nevermind I see.

blinky, ASN, RN · Jun 22, 2012

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/

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jun 22, 2012

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!!

blinky, ASN, RN · Jun 23, 2012

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.

blinky, ASN, RN · Jun 27, 2012

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?

blinky, ASN, RN · Jun 27, 2012

new version

Resume 1 onlinesafe.docx