Resume Question - Include previous career employment?

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Specializes in Pediatrics, ICU, ED.

I am working on my resume. I am a new grad and just got my LVN license. I worked in IT prior to going to school for nursing. Since I have no nursing work experience, I was wondering whether I should include my previous employment in IT. I worked in IT for 5 years and my thinking is that I can use those business, management and soft skills I learned from that job and carry it over to a future nursing job.

Would this work or am I just shooting myself in the foot since it clearly looks like I changed careers. Also, I KNOW they will ask my why I am not doing IT. I plan to go into Nursing Informatics later down the line so, I'm not leaving IT per say.

Thanks in advance!

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Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

All of your experiences count - - it shows that you worked somewhere, that you were steady/reliable, etc.

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I was in IT before nursing. My first resumes showed that. Would have been difficult to explain what I had been doing for all those years otherwise. Also looks like you have something to hide if you don't mention it. The longer you work in nursing, the more your IT experience will drop off your resume, until you can leave it off altogether (10 year mark according to resume people; maybe seven years, depends).

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Specializes in Hospice, ALF, Prison.

" I worked in IT prior to going to school for nursing. "

I worked in IT also (when DOS was king (:). You can play on your documentation skill, attention to detail and ability to learn, and being a great team player. Also if you did any user training is a great skill used in nursing. On the negative side IT may be considered a face in the screen experience (as in a programmer) where creativity and problem solving is a meaningful skill. Not great for nursing.

Informatics is great, although your success is probably depends upon gaining some thorough hands on clinical experience. There maybe alot of years in the trenches before you get the opportunity to again sit in a cube.

The great thing about nursing though is there are so many types of experiences available to you. Look around to see what is really respected regardless the type of nursing you work in i.e. advanced degrees, certifications, professional affiliations etc. Sorta like getting a Microsoft Certification in advance network engineering.

Good luck and have fun!

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Specializes in allergy and asthma, urgent care.

I think you should definitely include it. You don't have to go into any great detail about your previous position, but emphasize any experiences you had with problem solving, critical thinking, and customer service. All of those things translate readily into nursing.

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Specializes in Global Health Informatics, MNCH.

I'm a IT person/programmer turned nurse now in nursing informatics research. I always keep all my work experience on my resume. For clinical jobs I would just remove some of the technical skill stuff, though I have experience in EMR implementation and project management so I always left that on.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I've been wondering about this sort of thing too. I was a certified tutor (I tutored math & science) at my previous college (certified by some national tutoring org.) and I'm going to be getting a job as CNA. When I'm a BSN new grad (finally!) I'm wondering if I should put my tutoring job on my resume for internships/job offers, or if I should just put my CNA job down. Does anyone know what would be appropriate? I don't know much about resumes lol! Also, I was a temporary cashier for my previous college's bookstore (that was my 1st real job). Should I put that down, or is that useless to put on a serious resume?

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Yes include your revious IT background but in your case, I would used a Skills based Resume ase opposed to a chronological based resume

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Specializes in LTC.
I've been wondering about this sort of thing too. I was a certified tutor (I tutored math & science) at my previous college (certified by some national tutoring org.) and I'm going to be getting a job as CNA. When I'm a BSN new grad (finally!) I'm wondering if I should put my tutoring job on my resume for internships/job offers, or if I should just put my CNA job down. Does anyone know what would be appropriate? I don't know much about resumes lol! Also, I was a temporary cashier for my previous college's bookstore (that was my 1st real job). Should I put that down, or is that useless to put on a serious resume?

Absolutely!! Teaching is a HUGE part of nursing. Plus, it shows you have patience with people which is also an important skill to have as a nurse. If you have the space to put down the cashier job, I don't see why not! That job has all the basic skills (customer service, time management, etc.) that are necessary for any job--esp. if your former boss will give you a glowing review. Congrats on your impending graduation! :)

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I need to create a resume and a CV for various externships. I see so many different examples but I'm not sure if I have them in the correct order. What are the major headings in a resume? In a resume, I know education always comes first. What goes after education? In terms of where to list your clinical work and the number of hours you did at the rotation, how do I go about in listing clinical experience? Any suggestion is deeply appreciated.

For CV, what is the correct order for the headings? Is it education, research experience, work experience, professional affiliation, certificates, and awards?

Mucho gracias!

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