Rewriting my resume - what and how?

[five_apples]

Hi,

I'm a newly licensed RN. I graduated 9 months ago abroad and came to the U.S. b/c of my husband's studies.

I was licensed 3 weeks ago, and started looking for a job in our area a month ago, but have failed to get ANY call-backs.

I'm really trying to keep an open mind about the positions I'm willing to take for my first job as a nurse. My only red line is that I won't do night exclusively (rotation is OK) and I prefer not to apply for "pure" medical wards for now, just b/c there are things that interest me more.

I think that in the past month I have applied to about 20 position in three different hospitals, and still - no call-back.

What am I doing wrong?

I started to think that perhaps my C.V. isn't doing me a good service. I have lots of non-nursing experience, in customer service and such. should I leave it out? Plus, I'm 28 - how long back should I go? My current c.v. consists of 2 paged, 3 if you count the cover letter... I feel like it's to long but don't want to leave anything important out. Help please!

Thanks :)

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

It may not be your resume as much as being a newly licensed, internationally educated nurse without experience who graduated 9 months ago. Most new grad programs are for those who graduated within the past 6 months. Plus the job market is very tight right now in most of the US with new and experienced nurses competing for few jobs. Some postings have over 1,000 applications submitted for a single opening. Plus you are being too picky as most new nurses start out on nights (shifts are often seniority based) and most start out in medical-surgical units to gain nursing experience before specializing. Consider consolidating your resume to one page and applying for ANY open position accepting an inexperienced nurse.