Even though the hiring market for healthcare professionals is very strong, there is still a lot of competition for the most lucrative and prestigious jobs in the field. If you are applying for jobs, it’s important to present yourself as the best possible candidate for the position you want even if you are already employed. Here are some tips from Desert Medical Careers to get you started:
1. Skills matter. What specific tasks have you performed at the previous jobs you have held? Healthcare jobs often require a very well-defined skillset. The resume is where you have an opportunity to prove that you have experience with the things which will be needed in the new position. This becomes doubly important if you are applying for jobs online, where the resumes may first be screened by a computer program to look for specific keywords. If you have experience with oncology, make sure to use that and any related words in your resume so that it will make it into the database.
2. Proofreading and formatting matters. It may seem like this is unimportant as they are skills which are not relevant to nursing or caregiver jobs, but make sure that the resume you are sending in to potential employers is free of errors and formatted like a proper resume. If this is not something which you consider yourself to be good at, have a friend examine the document for errors. Don’t let Microsoft Word stand between you and the perfect job!
3. Honesty matters. If you have been out of work or working outside of nursing for a while, don’t try to hide that on your resume. They will still find out if you are interviewed for the position and you may appear dishonest or shady if you put too much effort into obscuring what you have been doing with your time. Instead, be honest about what kind of productive activities you have been doing and how the skills you have learned apply to a job in nursing.
Of course, all of these difficulties are things where the expertise of a recruiter such as Desert Medical Careers could be useful. Contact dmc@desmedcar.com for more information.
