Wondering why you can't get hired or promoted: Resume + Interview hints!
I've been reviewing resumes 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. Read to learn "Why am I not getting hired?!"
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.
Resume Writing
Resume writing and interview tips for nurses from Univ. of Pennsylvania:
If I called a member of your current staff and asked them to tell me about you, what would they say?
What actions would you take if you came on board?
How do you lead?
What's your secret to getting subordinates to follow you?
How do you motivate employees?
How do you reward employees?
Describe your management philosophy and management style.
Some managers supervise their employees closely, while others use a loose rein. How do you manage?
How have you improved as a manager over the years?
How many people have you fired? how do you go about it?
How would you deal with an employee who broke a policy (ie: late for work)?
How would you deal with an employee who was not open and honest in communication?
It is very hard to attract (critical care, er, or, ob etc.) nurses to this area. What are some strategies you might use to have enough qualified nurses to be sure patients get quality care in the facility?
What single professional event made you most proud to be a manager/leader?
What event made you least proud to be a leader?
In prior positions did you have budgeting responsibilities? If so, what was the size of your operating budget?
Do you know how to figure fte's?
What is your definition of empowerment?
What is your definition of quality assurance (QA), and who should be responsible, for QA?
Tell me about a time when your manager made a decision you disagreed with. What actions did you take and why?
Tell me about a time when you had to handle a disruptive employee. what did you do? what were the results?
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an irate physician, patient, employee etc. how did you handle it and what was the result?
How have you managed to foster a successful team in your past positions?
What methods have you found successful in determining the priorities when you start in a new facility?
What methods do you use to foster open communication with staff and management?
Tell me about a work incident when you were totally honest, despite a potential risk or downside for the honesty.
How did you handle a recent situation where the direction from above was unclear and circumstances were changing?
Describe how you motivated a group of people to do something they did not want to do.
Who is your most effective subordinate and your least effective subordinate?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? What have you done to develop each of these subordinates?
Tell me about some of the people who have become successful as a result of your management. What was your role in their development?
What are the major training and development needs of the people in your department? How did you identify them? What are you doing about them?
Are there any techniques you have found useful in identifying particular subordinates' needs and potentials? Tell me how they worked with a particular person.
What do you do differently than other managers? Why? Examples?
What is the farthest you've had to bend your standards in order to succeed?
What job duties would you like to avoid if at all possible?
Describe a time in which you weighed the pros and cons of a situation and decided not to take action, even though you were under pressure to do so.
All of us have been in situations where we assigned work to other people and they didn't do what we intended. Can you tell me about some of those? What were the circumstances and how did you handle it?
Have you ever had problems in getting your subordinates to accept your ideas or department goals? What approach did you use? How effective was it?
Have you ever needed cooperation from groups that did not report to you? What did you do to gain cooperation? What were the satisfactions and disappointments?
Is there a trait or characteristic about you that you find is frequently misunderstood, that surprises you when you find out that people think that about you?
What 3 things do you hope to accomplish in your first year?
What do you expect of those who report to you? If candidate responds with a one word answer (for example saying, "support" you can probe further by asking the candidate to describe three behaviors that she/he would view as being supportive.
If you had an unfavorable plan (I.e., budget) to implement, what would you do to get the managers' buy in and support?
With the current nursing shortage, what are two solutions you would like to see put in place?
What kind of support do you offer managers, directors and front-line staff, knowing the stress of the nursing shortage and the increasing acuity of our patients?
Tell us about a high level innovative idea/change that you implemented. Was it or was it not successful?
Questions to ask the employer:
What unique challenges has this unit faced over the last year? (I.e. successes, failures, etc.)
What sets this organization apart from it's competitors?
How long is the orientation phase and what can I expect?
Will I work with one preceptor throughout or will I have several different preceptors?
How does the administration view nursing in terms of importance to the hospital?
How much independence do nurses have in being creative problem-solvers?
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?
How does the hospital handle new grads that might be slow in becoming oriented to their new jobs?
How long have you been the manager of this unit and what is your nursing background?
How many nurses have quit and how many hired for this unit in the past 6 months? How long have some of the nurses been working on this unit?
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?
Have you ever had a new grad who didn't seem to work out? How was it handled?
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?
Questions about the following are illegal to ask at a job interview here in the US:
your personal life (married, divorced, children)
family planning
pregnancy
provision for child care
religious preference
club memberships
height
weight
dependents
age (birth date)
ethnic background
maiden name
native language
physical problems
psychiatric problems
spouse's employment and/or earnings
credit rating
home ownership
automobile ownership
Resigning from 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 4-5weeks.
Managers often need 1-3 months notice to be eligible for rehire -- Don't burn your bridges.
Thanks! That gives me hope. I fell in love with the NICU during my preceptorship and cried on the last day because I was so sad it was over. I would love to be able to get into this new grad program and work in the NICU. The only thing I'm worried about is my GPA not meeting their requirements. I had 1 bad semester during my prereqs and it hurt my GPA, so it's not quite up to par for their requirements, but I'm going to apply anyway.
Thanks for the encouragement!
GPA not meeting requirements????? I've never heard of a hospital wanting to know your GPA. Good Lord!!! I thought that once you're an RN that would be it; no more school stuff. Yikes.
GPA not meeting requirements????? I've never heard of a hospital wanting to know your GPA. Good Lord!!! I thought that once you're an RN that would be it; no more school stuff. Yikes.
Yep, I didn't meet their GPA requirements, they never called back or anything. But that's ok. I'm applying at another hospital that has a great new grad program in the NICU, I asked if they had any GPA requirements and they said NOPE, I'm working on my resume and application this week and hopefully can get it sent in by next week. I really hope I get this one.
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.
Nemhain
483 Posts
GPA not meeting requirements????? I've never heard of a hospital wanting to know your GPA. Good Lord!!! I thought that once you're an RN that would be it; no more school stuff. Yikes.