How to Make Your Nursing Resume Relevant in 2015
How to Make Your Nursing Resume Relevant in 2015 - Travel Nurse Source Blog

How to Make Your Nursing Resume Relevant in 2015

Rate this post

The new year is almost here! It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since we were all worrying about Y2K and hoarding bottled water. As we all strive to think of our new year resolutions, there’s one you may not think to add to the list. All nurses should be resolving to revamp their resumes for the modern age. Even in one of the most traditional fields of work, there’s always competition and a need to keep relevant in the job market. Why not use the new year as the time to modernize your resume?

How to Make Your Nursing Resume Relevant in 2015

Add a splash of color.

Traditionally, resumes all were in black and white. Boring used to be the ticket to a “safe” resume. However, with competition being fierce these days, employers expect more than just typical in their potential hires. It only costs a few dollars to print your resume in color and it adds a world of difference.  It brings eyes to your talents and shows a creative spirit that sets yourself apart from many others. However, despite the advantages to adding color to your resume, it must be done tastefully. You don’t want it to turn tacky. Stick to one color theme and the less like a bowl of fruity pebbles, the better.

Include a photo.

Picture this: your resume with a photo! Along with the concept of adding color to your resume, you should be adding a head shot of yourself, too. A small and professional picture of yourself is a good way to make yourself more personable. Be careful to use a tasteful photo and keep it small. Sure, a registered nurse is not a model, but having a photo makes your credentials on paper matched to a real person. The sense of “human” adds a benefit to your resume.

Share your LinkedIn.

RNs are expected to be more than caregivers; they need to be tech-savvy these days, too. Let’s face it, software has replaced the paper and pen. I’m always an advocate for boasting a great LinkedIn page, because they are basically like a resume on steroids. If your LinkedIn is full of recommendations from former colleagues or employers as well as showing your endorsements, experience, and personality; an employer will be impressed. Share a link your page and employers will get a side of your talents that you can’t get from your resume alone.

Keep it short and sweet.

A lot of us have it drilled in our heads still from college to cram as much as we can onto our resume. But, more important than filling our resumes to the brim is to embrace the space. Show off your skills and expertise, but format it in a concise and easy to digest format. Brevity is a blessing for employers who basically just want you to get to the point. The more wordy your resume is, the less anyone is going to want to read it.

Convert it to a PDF.

A lot of nursing jobs get applied to online these days. Travel nurse jobs, for example, are solely applied to digitally. Since most of use Word to create our resumes, take a moment to convert your file to PDF format. The reason for this is because it will be the best quality when it reaches the screen of the employer. Sometimes there’s strange conversion issues so the safest way to get all your things read as you designed it, is to make it in a format that won’t get changed.

Write an awesome description.

In real life conversations, we don’t just scream out first, “I attended So & So University Class of whenever and worked here these years and look at all my skills.” We start it off with an introduction. You should consider adding a brief introductory statement about you. Again, doing this adds personality to your resume which is great to any potential employer. Creativity lands interviews.

After your nursing resume is flawless, browse travel nurse jobs and find your perfect job.

Author: Travel Nurse Source

Share This Post On

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *