When applying for jobs as a nursing student it is important to highlight the right information
on your resume. Make sure you showcase your strengths and skills in a professional way.
Your resume and cover letter are your first impression on a potential employer!
Some employers will use a computer program to scan your resume while others take a few
seconds to visually look it over. That is why it is so important that you pay attention
to the formatting of your resume. You want it to look professional and quickly draw the
employer’s attention to the right information. You also want to pay attention to include
keywords in your resume that employers may be looking for. Usually you can get these
out of the job posting.
Essential sections. If you are applying for a nursing position,
either as a new graduate nurse or as a student looking for part time work as unregulated
assistive personnel you will want to include, at minimum the following sections:
1. Your contact information 2. Education
And 3. Relevant experience. Depending on the kind of experience you have you may want to call
this section “relevant nursing experience” or “relevant clinical experience.”
If you are listing placements as experience you should include concise descriptions of
the experiences you had while at that placement. If you simply say “Orthopaedics” how do
you expect an employer to know what you actually learned there?
The content of your resume should be in point form. Remember, the employer only wants to
spend a few seconds looking at it before they are hooked. Wordy resumes are likely to get
tossed in the trash before they are even read.
When you list your content start with a verb. If you aren’t sure what to use do a quick
search for “resume verbs” for some ideas. Before doing that though try to use some nurse
sounding verbs. Encouraged, Empowered, Promoted, Collaborated, Implemented, Developed, … oh
there are so many.
When you are picking verbs try not to use the same one over and over. Mix it up a little.
But don’t get too crazy and use ones that no one has ever heard of.
After you use a verb list what you did and strengthen it by making it clear why the employer
should care. Say why it was important or what you gained from the experience.
Highlighting your Experience. There are two general ways to present your experience.
The first way is the more traditional listing of experiences.
If you have very relevant placements or a lot of placements to list the traditional
way of listing the placement then itemising the experiences underneath works well.
If you have too many placements you may only want to describe your experience at the most
relevant 2 then list the rest.
The second way is to flip it by using the type of experience as the heading then describe
it and have a separate list for the placements on page 2. That way it doesn’t show off
if some of your experience is dated or if a lot comes from the same place.
If you do not have a lot of experience you may find that this presentation makes you
look more qualified.
If you have other work experience you can include a section called “additional experience.”
If you do not have previous experience just omit this section.
You do not need to list all your experience.
The leadership camp you attended when you were six probably isn’t relevant.
Select the most recent and relevant experiences you have to highlight on the resume.
What makes you stand out as a competent professional?
The subject headings you choose should immediately jump out at the reader so choose them wisely!
I will give you some tips in a bit.
Whenever I apply for a new position I shift the sections that I think will be most interesting
to the first page. I also like to add an objective statement to make the resume tailored to the
employer. Take a look at these two resumes I submitted at about the same time to two
different employers.
You will notice the one that is for a clinical position has “nursing experience” listed first.
The entire first page is designed to make me look like an experienced clinical nurse.
The one that is for a teaching position has “teaching experience” listed first.
In this resume the entire first page is designed to make me look like an experienced and qualified
educator. I did that on purpose.
Also, for this resume I had access to the strategic plan of the organization so I incorporated
keywords from their goals and objectives into my objective statement. If you do a little
homework and incorporate the keywords like this it will make you look like the perfect
fit for the position.
Additional headings. When I was a student I chose to include a
list of “professional activities” on my resume. Now, if I had only been to one conference
I would not have made a separate section for professional activities, but since I had done
a few extracurricular professional development activities having a separate section for them
looked good.
Likewise, I listed “professional memberships” on my resume. I was a member of the RNAO but
instead of just listing the RNAO I also listed the interest groups that I was involved in.
Having four legitimate lines on my resume made it look better in my opinion.
Many people like to have a “skills” section where you list additional skills. Again you
want to keep this list relevant. If you have computer skills that is normally a good thing
to list. Any other certificates like CPR can also be included.
Another good section to include is volunteer activities. Again, only include it if you
have some things to list.
References do not need to be listed on your resume. They can be in a separate document.
That way the employer needs to ask you for them. Often employers will ask before they
even look at the resume so I usually include them at the end on a third page anyway, but
it all depends on the job I am applying for. I also like to put a description of what the
reference’s role was so they know how the reference is in a position to comment
on my skills and abilities.
You may want to start out with a resume template, but make sure it is easy to use. You will
want to be able to easily edit it later. Some templates can be difficult to edit. I find
them frustrating! It might just be better to create your own. Just make sure it is clean,
organised and professional looking.
I like to keep a file on my computer called “active resume.” That way, whenever I
need to apply for a job I just update my resume. I like to keep copies of my old resumes too
so before I get started I save the old one.
I also update my CV whenever I have anything to add,
which helps me update my resume whenever I need to.
Your resume only needs to be about one page since most nursing student resumes are about
that long. However, if you have more to say about yourself then include more information
on a second page. I would not go much farther than two pages because most employers only
look at the first page anyway.
Choose what you put on the first page carefully. Take into consideration the formatting and
spacing of your document. I like to make sure that whatever sections are on the same page
are equally spaced. I also try to avoid having sections break across two pages.
If you are handing a hard copy of your resume in or mailing in your resume make sure you
print it on quality paper. Don’t use fancy colours. A nice neutral colour is best.
Yes, scented pink paper will make you stand out, but not in the right way.
Thank you for watching. I hope you found these resume tips helpful. Please let me know if
you need anything else.
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