Resume & CV Tips
Land an exciting healthcare career opportunity nationwide.
A winning resume or CV is one of the first steps to landing your next travel
nursing, travel PT, travel OT, or other specialty job assignment, local contract
job, or direct hire (full-time) job. Its purpose is to market yourself and your
healthcare career experience on paper and is your opportunity to sell yourself
as an exceptional nurse, allied health professional, or advanced practice
professional.
Your resume should include only information related to your career goals.
Remember, the purpose of the resume is to display your qualifications and what
you have to offer as a travel nurse, travel physical therapist, travel
occupational therapist or other healthcare professional in order to secure an
interview for medical employment. The interview is the time to discuss the
details.
Here are some tips to writing an exceptional resume - one that will catch the
attention of prospective employers. Don’t hesitate to seek out other resources,
too, such as the internet, your local library, and of course a medical staffing
firm such as Aureus. Your Account Manager is also a key resource. We’re here to
help you land your next healthcare job!
Construct your resume or CV for medical employment in a clear,
concise format.
- Condense your resume to one page, two at the very most.
- Set your margins at approximately 1 to 1.5 inches.
- Avoid small or very large print - use a font size between 10
and 12 point.
- Use a single, conservative font such as Times New Roman or
Arial.
- Keep your type size consistent. Use bold lettering and
italics sparingly, so they do not lose impact.
- Include your name, address, phone number, cell phone number,
and email address at the top of your resume. If you are planning
to move in the near future, state this in your cover letter and
include alternate contact information.
Begin your resume or CV by defining what you have to offer as a
nurse, allied health professional, advanced practice professional,
or physician.
- Make a strong start by summarizing your skills. This
approach provides some opening sizzle and explains what you have
to offer the employer, rather than what the employer can do for
you.
- List your work history or professional experience.
- Start with your current or most recent position and list
your job experience chronologically. Take every opportunity to
emphasize your skills and accomplishments. This is your time to
shine!
- Summarize your education at the end of the resume.
- List your highest degree first, followed by lesser
degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework.
- List any honors you received or honor societies you
belong to.
- If you currently belong to any professional
organizations, include these at the end of your resume, but
only if they are relevant and enhance your profile. If you
held a position in any of these organizations, include the
position title.
- It is not appropriate to include hobbies, personal
information, and political or religious affiliations.
- It is unnecessary to offer "references upon request" as
it is obvious that if you want the job, you will supply
them.
MS Word is widely used and will most likely be readable by the
recipient. If you are using a recent version of MS Word, it's to
your benefit to save it to a lesser version, as your recipient may
not have undergone a recent software upgrade. The Acrobat PDF file
type is a well-received document format as well.
As a general rule in resume formatting, classic fonts such as Times New Roman
and Arial are universal on PCs. Use of designer fonts such as Broadway, Mistral,
and Stencil will run the risk of not being available on the recipient's computer
and will likely be substituted, which may disrupt formatting. Therefore, if
emailing your resume as an attachment, use of Times New Roman or Arial will best
ensure that your resume will look as you intended when read by the recipient.
Use of bullets is a simple way to present your information in a clean,
easy-to-read format versus a large block of text. This is especially true when
detailing your past work experience. Choose the round bullet, as it's universal
to most PCs as opposed to designer fonts such as check marks, arrows or stars.
Do not use tables and graphs as part of your resume. Separate sections with
white space versus dashes and dots.
Don't forget to check the spelling and grammar of your medical employment
resume. Run Spell Check on the document before you print. And, ask at least one
qualified individual to read your finished product for an objective critique.
They should look at the overall content and search for typos and grammatical
errors.