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.
This thread has been very helpful to me, but since I am actively looking for a new position, I have a few questions. I have a resume, but I consider it very run of the mill. I have only worked LTC and the ones I have worked in, did little more than glance at my resume.
I KNOW I do a lot in a day and wear many different hats, but I have trouble getting it down on paper.
Also, I want to apply for a totally different type of nursing. How do I get them to look at my resume without experience?
Wow. I had no idea nurses would do that. I wrote mine with important points of what I had done and achieved at each job. I tried to make it stand out. I have gotten alot of positive responses. When I write a cover letter I stick to my experience.
I'll be graduating this May and am having a very difficult time finding a job. Granted, I'm narrowing my search to large teaching hospitals, because I want to spend the next several years learning as much as I can while I am rather young, so that I am not struggling with the learning curve once I have a family. However it seems like Chicago hospitals are just completely overwhelmed with new graduate applications. I've been on two interviews, but I keep hearing things like "we are interviewing about 200 people for 40 positions" or "we are interviewing 25 people for 2 positions." It also seems like there are a million jobs out there for experienced nurses, but very very few for new grad nurses. My interviews have gone well, and I have a ton of experience out in the suburbs and am involved in all kinds of leadership at my school, but still, no job offers yet. I'm looking for some encouragement here, as I'm feeling rather discouraged after what has turned into months of job hunting.
I was wondering what the typical length of a nurse's resume should be?
Thanks
The TYPICAL length of a resume, no matter the profession, is two pages, although I have seen them go from 1-3 depending upon the person. I've seen well thought out one page resumes from people with 20+ years of experience to very nice three page resumes from college graduates.
The real page length rule is: it depends.
A resume is an introduction for the interviewer as to your general skills and employment history. Period. It was never meant to be your life story. This is why you are called into an actual interview, where the interviewer will "flesh out" the rest of your emploment history and skill set.
From where I've been sitting the last 25 years, Karen, this art died of an internal hemorrhage.
Kids these days can't fill out the basic job application...most can't even spell resume, much less follow the rules and format.
Mike
Excuse me? I'm guessing that the person posting this statement doesn't know much about what it takes to get in to nursing school or to get through nursing school these days. After all, technologies have advanced in every medical field out there in the last 25 years, and today's nursing students have been extensively educated with knowledge that did not even exist 25 years ago. The sheer volume of knowledge that nursing students today must absorb about every single field of nursing is outrageous and constantly growing at exorbitant rates. With NCLEX continuing to raise their standards for what it takes to become a nurse, insisting that today's new grads have a strong grasp of all of these new technologies in every field of nursing (knowledge that most current nurses do not know of), the new grad nurses that are starting jobs this year and in the past few years are many of the best educated new graduate nurses to ever hit the job market.
On top of this fact, the extensive competition to get in to nursing school is also ensuring that only the best and the brightest actually become nurses. I know in my graduating class, approximately 60% of my fellow students and I already have at least a Bachelor's degree in another field, and some are even lawyers and engineers coming back to begin new careers. Furthermore, today students must take the NLN Nursing Entrance Exam (similar to the ACT or SAT), and their scores determine their eligibility for the program. In my program, the students who make it in to our program typically score in the 80th percentile (nationally) or above.
So clearly, the new graduate nurses hitting today's job market are some of this generation's best and brightest. They are far more educated in both most fields of nursing and many fields outside of nursing than most nurses of the previous generation were. So to state that today's new graduate nurses, or "kids" as you call them, cannot even fill out a simple job application is grossly inappropriate. A more accurate statement might be that many nurses from older generations cannot understand how to work a computer well enough to fill out the electronic job applications that most hospitals require now.
Today's new graduate nurses are extremely bright and well educated. They have the education, and now they are looking for the experience. We hope that nurses of previous generations will welcome us into the profession and orient us well so that we can continue the tradition of delivering quality nursing care.
This is a job board to help new graduate nurses get hired in what is becoming an increasingly competitive job market. While there are countless openings in the job market for experienced nurses, the number of openings for new graduates is extremely limited, and these new graduates are simply trying to get the experience so that they can become adept and experienced nurses.
I was wondering what the typical length of a nurse's resume should be?
Thanks
I have been told several times that as a new graduate nurse, your resume should only be one page because you do not yet have the extensive experience in the field to warrant a two page resume.
Excuse me? I'm guessing that the person posting this statement doesn't know much about what it takes to get in to nursing school or to get through nursing school these days.
You are right. I don't know "know much about what it takes to get in to nursing school or to get through nursing school these days."
This person does, however, have 20-plus years in Human Resources. If you are NOT familiar with this field, WE do the hiring. :trout:
sunflrz321 said:
So to state that today's new graduate nurses, or "kids" as you call them, cannot even fill out a simple job application is grossly inappropriate.
I was speaking from the standpoint of a generation of "kids" applying to ALL fields, not simply your field. And there have been MANY articles and studies to back up this assertion.
Since my daughter is 25 years old, and the majority of new nurses are still within that age range, I am more than comfortable using this term. The fact that the nursing field is attracting more and more older students does nothing to nullify the fact that they are still a minority.
And, to repeat myself, I was speaking of ALL the professional fields, NOT simply the Nursing fields.
sunflrz321 said:
A more accurate statement might be that many nurses from older generations cannot understand how to work a computer well enough to fill out the electronic job applications that most hospitals require now.
A generalization. There are many "older generations" that know their way around a computer as well as you and I.
The topic at hand is resume tips. Please stay on topic. Sometimes we have to agree to disagree.
I find the the "kids these days........." generationalization a bit offputting myself. As boomers we heard this practically daily from our parents generation and it's interesting that we are turning around doing the same thing. However, this topic serves no purpose in helping Graduate Nurses with resume tips. Thanks so much.
The topic at hand is resume tips. Please stay on topic. Sometimes we have to agree to disagree.
I find the the "kids these days........." generationalization a bit offputting myself. As boomers we heard this practically daily from our parents generation and it's interesting that we are turning around doing the same thing. However, this topic serves no purpose in helping Graduate Nurses with resume tips. Thanks so much.
Schmoo1022
520 Posts
This thread has been very helpful to me, but since I am actively looking for a new position, I have a few questions. I have a resume, but I consider it very run of the mill. I have only worked LTC and the ones I have worked in, did little more than glance at my resume.
I KNOW I do a lot in a day and wear many different hats, but I have trouble getting it down on paper.
Also, I want to apply for a totally different type of nursing. How do I get them to look at my resume without experience?
Thanks!