Question
RESUME: Prepare a professional resume for employment in nursing. For example, refer to your textbook or see those posted on the bulletin board. Your resume
- RESUME:Prepare a professional resume for employment in nursing. For example, refer to your textbook or see those posted on the bulletin board. Your resume should be
- Chronological
- Typed, 9-14 point Times New Roman or similar font
- One page
- Follows the rules of good resume writing
- Be on quality paper (not just plain white typing paperuse a heavier weight)
- Be free of grammar, punctuation or spelling errors
WRITING YOUR CHRONOLOGICAL RESUME
A resume is"a brief account of one's professional or work experience and qualifications"
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/r%C3%A9sum%C3%A9).
In your resume, you are giving a potential employer a snapshot of your education, your employment and other experiences that would be valuable in the job for which you are applying. This is the first step in getting an interview. Your resume should be "user-centered," meaning that your resume is specific to the job for which you are applying. It must be briefresearch suggests that employers spend no more than 20-30 seconds looking at your resume before deciding to put in the "pile" or to mark it for interest.
In most cases, your resume should be limited to one page, should be neat and clean, and free of grammar, spelling or punctuation errors. AChronologicalresume puts the most recent event FIRST. Your resume must be accurate and correctdon't pad your resume to make it look better. Your resume should make an impressiontherefore, use quality paper, not just plain typing paper.
What should your resume include?
- Contact Information: This tells employers who you are and how to get in touch with you. Don't label this section as "contact information," just put the information under your name. It should include:
- Name and credential
- Address
- Phone number (be sure your voicemail doesn't have something offensive)
- Email (email is increasingly becoming a more popular way of contact).
Your name is usually at the very top of your resume and usually is the largest item. It can be in a different font, but don't get carried away with fancy or elaborate stylesit needs to be easily readable.
- Professional Goal or Objectivethe objective should be a short, concise statement that is written specifically for the job you want. The objective statement should tell the potential employer how you will help the organization achieve its goals, rather than focus on what you want from the job.
Bad Example: I am looking for a position that will give me medical surgical experience.
Better example: To obtain an LVN position that will expand my nursing education, skills and knowledge and utilize it to reinforce nursing care of XYZ Hospital.
Better example: As a graduate vocational nurse, with my good interpersonal and communication skills, I will bring enthusiasm and dedication to enhance the nursing on the medical surgical unit.
- Education: in the education section, state your most recent educational experiences or highest degree provide the following:
- Institution name and address where degree granted
- Date of graduation or expected graduation
- Degree or certificate.
- GPA is optional; however, if you do not list it, the employer may assume it was "bad" so most experts recommend listing it UNLESS it is less than a 3.0
The Vocational Nursing Program is a CERTIFICATE program, so you graduate from here with a Certificate in Proficiency in Vocational Nursing, not a degree.
If you have another college degree or certificate, be sure to include it. If this is the only educational experience, be sure to include your high school. Listing high school education is not encouraged for those with college degrees or certificates. The GED may be substituted for the high school education.
FORMAT: Most often this section is in a column format to make it easier to read and to cut down on the space needed. If you are going to use columns for other sections of your resume, you must make them match so that your resume looks nice and is easy to read.
Most often, the institution and address are placed in the left column, the degree or certificate in the center, and the graduation date on the right. Usually, no more than 3 columns are used in a resumethe page just is not big enough for more than that.
- Work Experience: Work is usually listed by company or position with the most recent experience listedfirst.It should include:
- Name and address of the organization
- Dates of employment
- Position title
- Responsibilities
If you have no work experience or if your work experience cannot demonstrate skills that are applicable to the job, you may want to entitle this "Relevant Experience" or "Volunteer Experience"a title that may more accurately describe this section. As a new graduate, you may want to entitle this as "Student Clinical Experiences" and bullet some of the different rotations that you have had, especially if you have not had relevant (nursing) work experience.
"Homemaker" is a relevant job and if this describes your work experience, you should include it. Try to list details of what you accomplished as a homemaker.
Regardless of your work experience, you want to try and highlight anything that can be applicable to this jobskills or experiences that the employer can see as being relevant. Most people find it easier to bullet this section, rather than write a full paragraph (also it helps on the space). Each bulleted item should be written in active voice and grammatically formatted the same.
FORMAT: Most often this is formatted in columns for ease of reading and conservation of space. Usually, the company name and address go in the left column, the job title in the center column (with bullets underneath) and the dates of employment in the right.
If you use columns in any other section, they must be complimentary to this section.
You can also write this section with the company listed in the left column, and then bullets underneath.
- Accomplishments: You can add other sections if space allows that tells the employer a bit more about you, especially if you hold special skills and achievements, or if you have volunteer hoursthings that tell the employer you are valuable. Things you might want to highlight would be if you were bilingual (and in what languagesdon't just assume English/Spanish), special certifications (CPR is not a special certification, it is an expected certification), honors and awards (Perfect Attendance is a good thing to mention).
Do not mention skills that go along with the job descriptionthings like "administer medications" "practice sterile technique" "do dressing changes" "insert foley catheters" are all a part of the LVN's jobthese areexpectations,not "special."
- Most of the time there is not space available to list your references. Instead, most people who wish to list references write at the bottom "References Available on Request" rather than include references.
- Design of your resume: the most important thing to remember is that you want to have an easy to read resume that attractions the employer's attention! Keep in mind that we read from left to right, so the most important information will need to be on the leftthe resume writing should smoothly flow from left to right. We also read from top to bottom, so you want to remember that and not put the most important information at the bottomwhat is most important? How to contact you!
- Fontfont styles can provide emphasis or interest to your resume, but remember to limit it two (2) different types or styles and make sure that both are easily readable. Basically, fonts are in two styles: serif -those with short stems on the ends of the letters, and sans-serifthose without stems (sans means without).
The most common styles are serif stylesthat is what we use (this is a serif style) and it makes the reading flow.San Serif styles make the reading stop.So most of your work should be in a serif style but your headings and titles could be in a sans serif style.
Be consistent in whatever you choose to use. Don't use Arial (a sans serif) for some titles, but not all, while using some Times New Roman (a serif) for one title and most of the body.
- Emphasiscan also be done by the use of bold face, CAPITALS,italics,orunderline.However, these can become visually unappealing to the reader, so do not mix styles or use them too oftenthey can cause the reader to skip over that information. Also, be sure that you have the right information highlighted.
- Remember the rule of thirds and most important information (first, left)
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