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Resume Tips

Resume Preparation

Writing a resume that clearly identifies and communicates your professional skills is essential. If an employer has difficulty understanding what you can bring to the organisation, your chances of securing an interview may be compromised.

Here is a guideline to creating a strong and effective resume.

Contact Information/Header

Name, Address, Email Address, Telephone Number

Highlights of Qualifications

In three to five sentences or bullet points, tell the employer:

• who you are
• what you have done
• what you want to do (your objective)
• In other words, 3 to 5 of your strongest selling features. Include personality attributes and other information that is relevant to employer.

Related Work Experience

List job title, company name and location (city and province/state) in reverse chronological order (list dates as years and months). Be sure to indicate things like the size of the hospital/clinic and the number of beds in the unit in which you worked or the number of patients you treated daily.

Skills and accomplishments (using bullet format) - give a brief description of duties performed and/or their results, beginning each bullet item with a past tense action verb (e.g. Organised, performed, assessed). List skills that relate specifically to the job you accomplished - types of patients treated, procedures performed, equipment used, assessments, etc.

Only include work experience related to your healthcare career. Recent graduates, please be sure to include the type of clinical placements performed, hours/weeks spent in each placement, and any particular accomplishments within each placement.

Include gaps in employment, eg. Maternity leave etc.

Education

List most recent post secondary education first. There is no need to list schooling prior to secondary education. Professional Development/Continuing Education Courses, seminars and training you have received related to your profession, including date of completion.

• Professional Associations
• Memberships/Licenses Held
• Community Involvement

List any volunteer work and/or organisations you belong to which show outside interest.

References

Place on a separate sheet relevant details of approved work references from immediate supervisors or managers. Details should include referee's name, title whilst at relevant reference employment, place of employment, relationship to yourself (eg Manager), company address and most appropriate phone number (not mobile) where they can be reached.

General Information

Be specific when describing your duties, and have someone else read your resume to double check for spelling and grammatical errors.