Wondering why you can't get hired or promoted? Resume + Interview hints!
I've been reviewing resumes for open positions in my department and can't believe the resumes I've received: misspelling, words crossed off, no cover letter, including personal information about family life.
Look at your resume! Please don't send a resume if you have none of the job qualifications, unless your cover letter has explanation. eg. enrolled in education program etc.
I was taught in LPN and BSN program how to prepare a resume. Is this a lost art being skipped??
Also agree with our BB members that calling facility and finding out who is department manager, then forwarding your resume to them along with hr is great idea.
I work in smaller organization than hospital but has taken me over two months to get open positions advertised and three weeks to get resumes sent to me...those that sent to me directly have interview same week.
Questions during the job interview should be related to the job you are inquiring about. The following questions is illegal to ask during a job interview here in the U.S.:
Your personal life (married, divorced, children)
Pregnancy
Provision for child care
Religion
Club Memberships
Dependents
Ethnic background
Native Language
Physical Problems
Psychiatric Problems
Spouse's Employment
Credit Rating
Home Ownership
Questions You Should Ask (From Hospital Soup)
How long is the orientation phase and what can I expect?
If for any reason it seems that orientation is just not going well for me what will happen and who should I talk to about it?
Will I work with one preceptor throughout or will I have several different preceptors?
Who will be precepting me? Can you tell me something about them? Will I always have the same preceptor or will there be more than one?
What kind of professional advancement is available to nurses here?
What are some of the attributes of working for your hospital?
If I were to get a job offer from another hospital, why would I want to work for this one?
What is the criterion you will use to select the person you are looking for?
What kind of support can I expect from the nursing educators and preceptors?
What unique challenges has this unit faced over the last year? (I.e. successes, failures, etc.)
How much independence do nurses have in being creative problem-solvers?
Resigning From A Position
Check your facilities policy and procedures--most require that you give notice equal to amount of vacation provided, often 2-3 weeks; long term employed RNs can be 4-5 weeks.
Managers often need 1-3 months notice to be eligible for rehire --don't burn your bridges.
Mine wanted to know. That affected whether i got the job or not.
Some of the recent grads from my school said the same thing when they were interviewing at a job fair. I am assuming they have x number of spots and their GPA will be one of the determining factors too. Makes perfect sense to me although I may not totally agree with it. ?
Do NOT pad your resume or try to make school experiences look like employee experiences. I've seen a lot of that -- and it makes a very bad impression. It makes me think the applicant is sneaky, someone I can't completely trust. No one wants to hire a person they can't trust.
llg
Student here, I Just applied for a nurse extern position.
On the application, I put down my hospital school clinical experience under employment history/experience, job description, and what my qualifications are. I put down the name of the hospital I've had clinicals in as the name of the employer. It is not my intention to be sneaky, it is just that I dont have any previous work experience. I have not worked anywhere before, yes you better believe it.
My question is, I am doing another application for another hospital; Should I take down the name of the hospitals I had clinicals in, and my clinical job duties out of the Employment experience/history? If so, where should I put student work experience?
I'm still a student, who wants to do student nurse externship, and it is very difficult to write a resume without any prior paid job experience.
On the application I am trying to apply for, (it is an online application) I have the oppurtunity to skip the resume, and instead, write down what am I "qualified" for the job as a nurse extern. Should I just put down my school clinical experience under qualification and leave employment history completely blank? Or Should I just make a resume base on school experience, the hospital I had clinicals in, and my primary duties, completely leaving the employment history blank.
Under employment history, it says this:
You currently have no employment history listed in our system. You MUST complete at least one employment record in order to apply for jobs.
I need one employment history, but I dont have any. It really annoys me, because as you said, I shouldn't try to put down my hospital clinical school experience. But I cant do anything else with it.
If anyone here is willing to answer my questions I would really appreciate it.
Hi, just wanted to add a comment. Where I used to work, whenver I called HR about a job opening to ask who the manager is, they refuse to tell me, even if I was an employee. The only way to find out was by word of mouth, asking the nurses who go to the different campuses such as IV team nurses, etc. In general, from my experience, the last thing you want to do is to involve HR in anything!
Student here, I Just applied for a nurse extern position.
On the application, I put down my hospital school clinical experience under employment history/experience, job description, and what my qualifications are. I put down the name of the hospital I've had clinicals in as the name of the employer. It is not my intention to be sneaky, it is just that I dont have any previous work experience. I have not worked anywhere before, yes you better believe it.
My question is, I am doing another application for another hospital; Should I take down the name of the hospitals I had clinicals in, and my clinical job duties out of the Employment experience/history? If so, where should I put student work experience?
I'm still a student, who wants to do student nurse externship, and it is very difficult to write a resume without any prior paid job experience.
On the application I am trying to apply for, (it is an online application) I have the oppurtunity to skip the resume, and instead, write down what am I "qualified" for the job as a nurse extern. Should I just put down my school clinical experience under qualification and leave employment history completely blank? Or Should I just make a resume base on school experience, the hospital I had clinicals in, and my primary duties, completely leaving the employment history blank.
Under employment history, it says this:
You currently have no employment history listed in our system. You MUST complete at least one employment record in order to apply for jobs.
I need one employment history, but I dont have any. It really annoys me, because as you said, I shouldn't try to put down my hospital clinical school experience. But I cant do anything else with it.
If anyone here is willing to answer my questions I would really appreciate it.
Would volunteer experience be accepted? Do you have any? Just a thought
Student here, I Just applied for a nurse extern position.
On the application, I put down my hospital school clinical experience under employment history/experience, job description, and what my qualifications are. I put down the name of the hospital I've had clinicals in as the name of the employer. It is not my intention to be sneaky, it is just that I dont have any previous work experience. I have not worked anywhere before, yes you better believe it.
here is willing to answer my questions I would really appreciate it.
I am an employer who hires nurses and here's my advice. Your clinical experience in school is supervised closely and unpaid. Thats not to say it wasnt valuable, but in some settings, their are reimbursement and regulatory reasons for requiring at least a year of experience. For those pursuing their first professional job, I would suggest focusing on other skills you may have acquired that are valuable! Most important, dont fudge that resume. All new hires will be reference checked, if this prospective employer contacts the HR dept of where you did your clinicals, you are not in the records as an employee. We know that if you graduated in '05 and your stated experience was in 03 and 04 it was student clinicals.
Did you do any part time work involving people skills? Have you volunteered which demonstrates committment and generosity? Have you sought out time management or other life skills courses which shows initiative? In settings where new grads are welcomed, these are also important considerations. Best of luck to you.
We know that if you graduated in '05 and your stated experience was in 03 and 04 it was student clinicals.
This is not true. I was hired outside of school as a student nurse at a level one trauma facility in Neurotrauma. I worked there, earning my way through nursing school caring for patients with an RN signing off on my work.
Some of the recent grads from my school said the same thing when they were interviewing at a job fair. I am assuming they have x number of spots and their GPA will be one of the determining factors too. Makes perfect sense to me although I may not totally agree with it. ?
As a manager I tried to use GPAs as a major factor in my hiring decisions for new grads-------our nurse recruiters had a fit and said that I couldn't.
Nursing is a second career for me. Previously I was an accountant and I will tell you grade point averages and even the school from which you graduated determined whether or not there was even an interview granted, let alone a job offer.
Now of course I realize that GPAs don't tell the whole story. Students who didn't have to work, for example had a huge advantage over those who did. And good grades do not necessarily translate to common sense. And then there are interpersonel skills. (lolol...Yes, even accountants needed those).
But my argument remained: Absent an employment history, what is the best single indicator that the applicant learned the material/was serious about their studies and future career, etc etc.......my answer was good grades from a good program.
This is not true. I was hired outside of school as a student nurse at a level one trauma facility in Neurotrauma. I worked there, earning my way through nursing school caring for patients with an RN signing off on my work.
As many posters before me,I was just saying that if you dont specify that this experience was as a student nurse, it could make you look bad and not trustworthy, which is not the case. The whole hiring process is 50% hard qualifications and 50% gut and intuition about a candidate.
Hi, just wanted to add a comment. Where I used to work, whenver I called HR about a job opening to ask who the manager is, they refuse to tell me, even if I was an employee. The only way to find out was by word of mouth, asking the nurses who go to the different campuses such as IV team nurses, etc. In general, from my experience, the last thing you want to do is to involve HR in anything!
Sad to say, but the reason HR wont be specific about job openings is that there is a plan in place to terminate someone who doesnt yet know it.
llg, thank you so much for this post!! I am working on a resume to get into a NICU at a children's hospital for a position in their new grad NICU program. I did a 144-hour preceptorship just a couple months ago for my practicum, in a NICU. I am planning on putting this experience in my resume. If I understand you correctly, it would be good to include this in my resume, but I don't need to include all my other clinical experiences ... correct?
Thanks so much for all the info, it is greatly appreciated!
Hmm, we were told to list our clinical experience on our resume, and only put jobs down if they were relevant to nursing. Do employers want to know that I worked childcare from 1997-2000 and then at Albertson's in the deli for 2 months then got laid off? It's all confusing. And I think my resume is good, and being a new grad I interviewed for a clinic position, sent a thank you letter and got a letter saying they hired someone more qualified. And I just graduated in may. So what good was my resume? And I settled now as a new grad for a job in LTC where I'd rather not work until I find a position where I DO want to work...and they didn't interview me, they told me about the job, gave me a tour of the facility, explained wages and benefits, and said "You have the job if you want it." Is that professional?
Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN
12,126 Posts
Mine wanted to know. That affected whether i got the job or not.