Hello to my wonderful ReNursing nurses!

When life throws you lemons….well, you know the rest! I know it’s been waaaay too long since I’ve updated the site with fresh content. The end of 2014 and beginning of 2015 threw me many curveballs (or lemons shall we say.)- getting acclimated to my role as a Nurse Practitioner, having a major unexpected surgery (no worries, I’m fully recovered now!), and going through the home-selling AND home-buying process among other things I won’t bore you with!

I have to admit I was feeling down about my situation(s) and let ReNursing fall to the wayside, BUT my loyal readers provided sooo much support during that time that you don’t even realize.

At one point, I even thought about “retiring” ReNursing, but I can’t. You see, I still get email, see the comments left on my blog, and even have sales of my book even though I haven’t been as active as I should have been lately. That shows me that you’re serious about changing your life as a nurse and want something better for yourself- whether or not you want to switch specialties within nursing or start your own nursing business.

You guys rock! And I appreciate you!

I want to share how to revamp your resume for maximal results if you are in the market for a new job. This post is adapted from one I wrote for Minority Nurse some time ago, but believe it’s just as important for my readers here at ReNursing as it is for my readers there.

If you haven’t checked out the Minority Nurse blog you should do so! This post is part of a 2 part series, so stay tuned for the next installment!

When one applies to a new job they usually submit a resume. As an applicant, you want to put your best foot forward. What may have worked for you 5 years ago may not work for the competitive job market now. A resume revamp is in order if you plan on changing specialties, the content is outdated, or you are a recent graduate.

My recent job search for a new Family Nurse Practitioner position prompted the need for a resume revamp. As a nurse with over 13 years of experience my resume was nearly 4 pages long and it didn’t embody all the qualities recruiters look for in an applicant.

What qualities do recruiters look for in a resume?

Four key aspects:

• Concise: Keep it to 1-page; 2 if you have extensive experience. Obviously my old resume wasn’t concise. I’m surprised I’ve gotten so much attention in the past with a resume that long. We’ll see how much of a response I get from a 1-page resume.

• Clear: Make sure your resume format isn’t cluttered and hard for a recruiter to read. If it is, it will surely be tossed in the trash no matter how qualified you are for the job. Also be on the look out for poor grammar and typos. This is another reason good applicants get overlooked for a job.

Consistent: Keep abbreviations contained within your resume consistent and make sure they are universally understood. Keep all fonts within the resume the same and no smaller than 11 point for easy readability.

• Keywords: Many resumes submitted online go through a scanner, weeding those out that don’t have specific keywords for the position. This means your resume gets lost in cyber world before any human could lay eyes on it. Keyword examples for a nursing resume include: Registered Nurse (RN); healthcare; intensive care; admit; medication administration.

Use these tips to revamp your resume for maximal results…your new career! Stay tuned for the next installment reviewing the most common resume mistakes people make.

#MinorityNurse #Resume #Lemons