Resume Summary Help

[opalbee]

Hello, everyone~ I'm writing my resume for my first healthcare job (as a nurse's aide). On sample CNA resumes, I saw people putting "summaries" and I thought it looked like a great way to give a snippet of your personality on your resume, and that it would hopefully make them give a longer-than-a-second look at my application. If you wouldn't mind reading my summary real quick to see if it looks professional, I would really appreciate it!

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A dedicated and highly-motivated professional looking to transfer to healthcare as a CPR-certified nursing assistant. Wanting to work weekends. Several years of experience with customer service and an eager-to-learn attitude. Future goals include obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and working on the Medical Surgical floor.

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I'm afraid that randomly inserting "wanting to work weekends" might seem abrupt, but I did that because it's for a part-time position, and that really is basically the only time I think I'll be able to work since I'm going to school full-time and want to focus on my grades.

The hospital also states that there is no obligation to work on weekends, but I thought that it would still look good to employers to show that that's what I want to do and I'm 100% willing.

The second part I'm concerned about is stating that I want to attain a degree in nursing. I've heard that if an employer hears that you don't intend on staying, they won't be interested in hiring you, but on a different website with a sample CNA resume they said to go ahead and put your goals into the intro and that sample resume for the same position said "interested in attaining RN-licensure". The position I'm interested in is on a Medical Surgical floor, as well, and that's what I'm really interested in doing as a nurse, so I'm excited at the prospect of being able to work on it.

Last thing... Is the font too small? It's a size 10, so I think it is, but when I bring my resume's font to a size 11 or 12, only the references go onto the next page which looks really bad... I also read that you should keep your resume to one page.

I appreciate any advice. Thank you

[Mavrick, BSN, RN]

Brilliant to counter the hospital's "no obligation" to saying you actually prefer working weekends. Not at all unusual for nursing students to be unavailable during the week. I agree, your classwork will make you a more desirable employee.

However, you are not a nurse (not yet anyway). What you may have heard about is working RNs that leave or require special hours to go back to school to obtain a BSN degree.

[idkmybffjill]

I wouldn't go below 11-point font (preferably 12-point font though). You don't want to do anything that will make it difficult for someone to read it. The statistic I've heard is that a recruiter spends on average 5-7 seconds looking at a resume before going to the next one.

Also, from everything I've been told, you no longer need to include references on your resume. They generally will either ask you for them if they want them or will include an area for references in the actual application. So, you could easily take off your references and have no issue with keeping it at one page then.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

References don't go on your resume. I find a summary statement unnecessary (though it is better than an objective). I don't have one on my resume and I've been called for 4 interviews in the last 2 weeks but, then again, I do have 10+ years of nursing experience. I would leave it as a 12 point.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a CNA saying that she is interested in going into nursing. That doesn't necessarily mean that you will leave the employer and, with the abundance of nursing students looking for CNA positions, employers don't generally have a difficult time filling those positions anyway.

[opalbee]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I had gotten two job offers- one of them being in a transitionary care unit where I would have the potential to learn some really cool stuff, but I was afraid of it conflicting with my school schedule and also being overwhelmed by the particular department with almost no experience as a CNA at all.

Instead, I got a job working at an assisted living center that's much slower-paced. It works incredibly well with my school schedule and I think it's a good way for me, personally, to transition into working in the healthcare field. I won't be starting until sometime next month, but man, I'm excited.