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You’ve worked your tail off in nursing school, and now it’s finally time to make money. But first: the job search!
It all starts with an effective and thorough new nurse resume — one that’s easy to scan and quick to call out your top successes. A 2012 study from The Ladders found that recruiters spend an average of six seconds looking at each resume. Six seconds. That means you need to make your resume stand out and showcase all the experiences and skills you’ve acquired as a nursing student.
To help with the process, we went straight to Roy Munk, president and founder of Global Healthcare Services. His company is a national recruiting firm that specializes in placing nurses and other medical professionals in hospitals, so he knows a thing or two about what hiring managers are looking for. Here are some of his insider tips and tricks for creating the ideal resume to help you land your first nursing job.
And don’t forget to also check out our article on how to create the perfect nursing student cover letter, too!
Your resume must be neat and organized, it must showcase your professional and educational accomplishments, and it should show off a little personality to help set you aside from the competition.
Consider this list a guide for the section structure of your resume:
If you have room at the bottom or in a sidebar, consider adding a quote or two from performance reviews or from professors.
Now, what exactly do you put in these sections? You likely have plenty of credentials and experience to list on your resume. It can seem overwhelming to list it all out. Start by mapping your time as a student, highlighting the experience most relevant to the job for which you’re applying. Let’s break down the categories above.
The Contact Information section should be in a visible spot at the top of your resume so a prospective employer can easily contact you for an interview. Remember: If your resume is longer than one page, your contact info should be at the top of every page.
Include these details in your Contact Information section:
Think of the Professional Summary section as your highlight reel. Go ahead and boast about yourself! This is where you want to include two to four short, descriptive sentences about your education and qualifications. Use adjectives (e.g, diligent, hard-working), facts (e.g., test scores, GPA), and anything that will sell you as the best candidate for the job.
Here are some tips for your Professional Summary section:
The format for the Education section should be short and simple. Your education should include the name of the school you’re graduating from and the institution’s city and state, followed by the degree major (and minor, if applicable), as well as your dates of attendance.
Tips for listing your education include:
After your Education section, the next chunk of information you should have are any licenses and certifications you’ve earned.
Clinical experience is different from your professional experience, as it is specifically referring to what you were graded on in school. Throughout clinicals, you may have been exposed to a variety of units, such as working as an OBGYN or in the emergency room.
Here’s what to include in the Clinical Experience section:
This section should include all your relevant, professional nursing experience, starting with the most recent. You’re graduating from nursing school, so this is where you should include all your nursing internships, part-time nursing jobs, research projects, and other applicable experience (including unpaid opportunities). Do not include jobs that are unrelated to the nursing profession, such as working at the school bookstore or as a server at a restaurant.
Other tips to keep in mind for your Professional Experience section include:
This section is optional, as you may not have any relevant volunteer or community service experience to include. If you are tight on space, keep your volunteer and community experience short.
Other tips for the Volunteer or Community Service Experience section to keep in mind:
This section goes at the bottom of your resume. Your awards, grades, activities, and recognitions can separate you from other new grads. Focus first on what you did during college and nursing school, and be sure to include organization memberships.
Here is what to include in Awards, Honors, and Professional Organizations:
Once you’ve put all the different sections together, you have a finished nursing student resume! Here’s an example of what that should look like:
Your resume is now complete, showcasing your strengths and skills in the nursing industry. Before you submit your resume to nursing jobs, use this checklist to give it one final read-through to make sure it’s perfect:
Image courtesy of iStock.com/Brothers91
Last updated on Jul 24, 2024.
Originally published on Sep 27, 2018.
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