121: Graduate Resume Mistakes You Are Probably Making - Grad Nurse Success Series
Graduate Resume Mistakes You Are Probably Making - Grad Nurse Success Series
One common mistake is creating task-oriented resumes, listing activities without emphasizing achievements. While this approach might work for some AI-based applications, it falls short when competing for highly sought-after nursing positions. To make your application shine, we need to transform tasks into achievements that effectively communicate your skillset and make you an ideal candidate.
As the competition for nursing programs and jobs intensifies, it becomes crucial to showcase your uniqueness and stand out from the crowd. Many generic, vague, and cookie-cutter resumes end up in the rejection pile within seconds. In this episode, we will be discussing an essential aspect of your application: achievements and tasks in your resume.
So, let's explore the power of your documents and how to transform them into incredible applications that land you your dream job.
Key takeaways:
01:36 - Importance of a unique resume
03:20 - Coaching and discovering the uniqueness
04:31 - Importance of well-crafted documents
05:27 - Achievements and tasks in the application process
07:23 - Professional work experience and clinical placements
11:02 - Elevating tasks into achievements
14:05 - Progressing through the career in reverse chronological order
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This transcript was automatically generated using Descript.***
Well, hello there. Welcome back to the Graduate Nurse Success Series. Very happy that you're here today. Today we're talking about achievements and tasks in your application, specifically in your resume. And the reason I wanted to talk about this is cause I know so many of you right now are applying for those programs, P M C V, your South Wales Health, and oh my goodness, who else A C T Health is opening in June amongst a few others.
And you are gonna be writing you applications and. If you're not in the G C P, why aren't you in there? Come and join us. Let this be the catalyst to come and let us do this work for you, cuz you will get your application. Chabad. Is that a word? Zaza Shabad glamorized and transformed within 24 to 48 hours of joining us.
And you will have it back in your inbox and you'll be like, wow, is that me? I must say, yes, it's you, but I want you to offer those of you that are going DIY. A little sneak peek into one of the main [00:01:00] things, the main reasons why your resume will go into the no pile, and this is where we spend a lot of time in the G clp really helping you identify what makes you unique.
Cuz here's the truth, you could totally submit that a i n application that you use to land yourself a job. You could totally use that portfolio resume that Uni University made you do. For your final year assignment, and you might have some lack. But what I've learned having sound on panels and what I've seen, is that it's so competitive that generic, vague, ambiguous, non-unique, non-specific cookie cutter resume cover letter selection criteria is very quickly shipped straight into the no pile very quickly, like less than 7.4 seconds quickly.
So I just want you to hear me loud and clear. Do not underestimate the power of your documents, [00:02:00] your applications. Your applications are what lands you the job. If your applications are not incredible, and by incredible I mean they don't sell your skillset, they don't tell me why you are so unique that I need to hire you and what you have to offer that separates you out from the rest of the pack.
You're probably not gonna move through the next stage. So we spend a lot of time in the G C P really getting to know people, understanding what makes them unique, and then converting that into writing. It's actually one of my super skills. It's something that I'm very, very good at, is being able to see somebody's experience, whether you've got a lot of experience, and whether you have no experience or limited experience, and then translating that into an incredible offer.
For the industry. Trust me when I say this, we had somebody last week in coaching say, oh my God, Liam, I'm starting to stress out because I just really don't feel like I'm unique. I really don't feel like I have got this unique essence and how am I gonna stand out in the application [00:03:00] process. So we did a bit of coaching and I asked a couple of questions.
We very quickly identified how unique this individual is and how she couldn't see what it was that was holding her back. She has got great transferable skills from her previous lived career, life, and life and work experience. She was totally underestimating their transferability into the industry. She was not seeing all of the things that transfer over beautifully that are gonna make her nursing job much easier.
And she wasn't seeing why her dreams and her goals were so unique to her that that in itself communicated in the right way, is going to one, give her confidence, two, help her apply, and three, landed the interview. Because your application is what gets you to the interview. They've never met you, they've never seen you.
The first time they ever meet you is your CV cover letter selection criteria. Just want you to think about that. If your CV cover [00:04:00] letter selection criteria is not up to scratch and it's some Microsoft Word template that you've used for years, or it's some, or maybe even a Canva template, I don't love Canva templates cuz it can be very messy.
They're very limited. In, in the sense that they don't allow you to, well, they do, but they're just very limited in the sense that they're The design is not great. Okay, so we have a whole suite of templates that we use to really help you sell and communicate your skillset that we can apply across your CV cover letter selection criteria so that you are guaranteed an interview.
Everybody in our G C O P this year so far has progressed through to the next stages. That speaks volumes. There are people that are not in the G C P that haven't, how do I know? Because I see them in the Facebook group saying, I didn't get through to this place. What's our grads? I've got through. So if you want the competitive edge, if you want to guarantee yourself this dream job, it's in the G C P.
Now, why are achievements and tasks important and [00:05:00] why did I go on that little run? Because achievements and tasks make up, well, achievements make up the most. Of your application itself. So they are the biggest part of your cv. And what do I mean by achievements? When we think about the structure of a really high converting interview, landing graduate resume, it is, it can, it's compiled of a couple of things.
Okay? It's compiled of a really great headline and banner along the top with all your key information. Then an amazing, very unique professional summary that just hooks them in, that tells your story in such a compelling way that's not boring and generic, and I'm great at this, and I deliver damage.
Patient-centered care, and I love evidence-based practice, all of that yawn, no one wants to read it. They will not read it. They will skim over it and they will throw you into the note pile. We've gotta draw out the essence of you. The next section should be your c, your education and your professional certificates.
Now, big mistake here is lots of people then spend half a page telling us [00:06:00] about all these mandatory trainings that they've done, that the hospital's gonna make you do again anyway, and you lose half a page of space. That half a page of space is what you need to sell yourself through your achievements now.
That's up to you what you include in there, but I would avoid all the things like blood safe and all of that. They're all repeatable. You have to do them all again. When you join your employer, they will make you do them again. Only include things in there that are really relevant that show your uniqueness, your diversity.
Everybody has to do that program, so it's not a benefit that you've done it. And then the next section is your professional work experience or your clinical placement experience. Now, little top tip here. Many of you will list your clinical placement experience and you'll just list it. You'll put it in a table and you'll just list it and that's it.
And that's the depth of it. That is a no note unless they ask for that specifically. Do not do that. We can list it in a table, but then we need to break down below it what you achieved in each one. Okay? And [00:07:00] similarly with your work experience, some of you will have years of work experience. Be very particular about what you want to include.
Some of you will have over 10 years of experience and I would never go back further than 10 years unless it's really relevant to the job. Like for example, if you'd been a nurse in the past and you think that that's valuable and it was over 10 years ago and you're coming back to retrain, I would add it.
We've had some people that have been like radiation oncologists and things in the past that have come back and they've retrained as nurses, so are pharmacists. And I think that that's a unique advantage, right? You've done it before. You understand what you're coming into. You're coming in for a second round.
Like that's pretty, that's worth mentioning. I think so think about what your work experience looks like there. But within your professional and your clinical placement experiences and those, those roles, as you break down these roles in reverse chronological order from the most recent to the oldest, you're gonna start telling them what you achieved in each role.
And not only just what you [00:08:00] achieved, but what you achieved in that role that's relevant and pertinent to the job that you're applying for, right? What you achieved that allows you to demonstrate how incredible you are and more you're perfect for the job. Now, this is where people make the mistake of listing tasks versus achievements.
Now, like I said earlier, this is what we do in the G L P. Every application that we receive. As soon as you join, the first thing you do is you send us your applications and take a big, deep sigh of relief when you do that. Often what we see when we receive them is we see a resume that's pretty skeleton, which is fine.
Pretty skeleton, and then we go into your achievements and they're very task orientated. For example, administered medications, full stop, delivered ADL care. Full stop. Performed. Ha. Hand hygiene, like, you know, adhered to infection at control. Aseptic technique. They're not sentences, they're just statements and phrases and tasks.
[00:09:00] And that might be okay for like an AI n application. But in saying that, AI and applications can be pretty hard, but I am very competitive for this level. For your first job, for a 70 grand, 65 k a year pay rise, it ain't gonna cut it. They will throw it straight into the no pile. So we've gotta transform those tasks into achievements.
And what I mean by an achievement, an achievement is something that really sells and communicates your skillset. The biggest reason why people come and join G L P is to learn how to sell their skillset in a way that is not. Cringey and yucky and like, I'm amazing. I'm amazing. That's not what we do. We help you see that you are incredible and it, through that development of your achievements we're then able to build your self confidence so that when you've done that in your cv, your cover outta your selection criteria, you're confident and you've raised your confidence levels, and then you've go to interview and you can just then perform and you can just deliver.
What they [00:10:00] need to hear. But most of you that do this on your own will submit task focused. Then you'll go to the interview and you'll give a task focused interview response, which is not what they want to hear. Okay? So what is an achievement? It's that portrayal of what you've done, but in a really well considered way.
So if we take medication administration, for example, and we turn that from a task into an achievement. How do we do that? I have an achievement formula that we use in the G C P to do this now. Ang, myself and Ang my nursing career coach buddy, we work with you to do this uniquely, right? And we will do this for you and give you heaps of ideas.
And then we'll draw out further from you what it is that you you want to include as your achievements. But we'll give you a starting point. But for those of you that are think are planning to do this on your own, then you want to think about, okay, the task was medication administration. Turning this into achievement.
Would send something like this, [00:11:00] demonstrated ability to safely administer medications during medication rounds, administering PO IV IM and subcut injections in accordance with the local policy. You could add more to that and you could say demonstrated ability to yada, yada, yada in an acknowledgement of the national standards for safety and quality and healthcare standard for medication safety.
So notice the difference. Administered medications. And then what we've done is we've dressed it up, we've elevated it, and we've used our achievement formula, and we've then turned that into something that just really, truly portrays the skillset. And not only just looks like a task, but you then show them that you understand the rationale behind it.
Right. You're administering medications safely. You're showing them the, the evidence of like the different types of medications that you're administering, and then you're tying it into policy cuz you know that it's governed by policy and then you're even linking it [00:12:00] into the national standards because they.
They govern the whole country, and that's what you use as evidence-based practice to deliver safe care to your patients. So the panel, when they read that versus a task, they're thinking, oh, they're like risk averse and they're really thinking about safety and they follow process and procedure versus just administer medication.
I mean, there are aged care AIGs in the UK that deliver medications. There are people that people do it at home, right? A layperson can administer medications. We need to show them why you are an RN or why you are an Ian and how we can transfer that. That belief into the panel that you're perfect for the job, right?
So I want you to think about it. When you look at your resume, are you task focused or are you achievement focused? What shifts could you make in your application to take it from task focused to achievement focused? Now, what we don't wanna do is replicate those achievements and duplicate them so that every placement is the same.
Now, I know sometimes you'll think, oh, well each [00:13:00] placement was the same, Liam. Well, yeah, but you have to find different things. So if you started off in aged care, Pick a couple of achievements. What were the foundational things that you think you learned there that you achieved that are gonna be so important for this job?
Usually it's like foundational nursing care. You know, ADL care, you know, nutrition elimination, you know, all of these things. Holistic care management, partnering with consumers. Really start thinking about the language of the industry. This is what sets our grads apart. They use the language that these panels are speaking.
These panels aren't graduates. These panels are senior nurses that have got years of experience. They know the whole system. We have to speak the language that they're speaking, okay, we've gotta get up to the level. And then from there as you move up through your career in reverse chronological order, and you start at the bottom and work your way up the next placement, maybe it was mental health, maybe you developed therapeutic communication skills in particular, improving your use of the ISPO handover tool.
Right. And then maybe the next achievement is [00:14:00] that you, you know, built therapeutic rapport with patients demonstrating your ability to actively listen and then the next placement was in icu. So you deepened your an, an anatomy and physiology skills and experience in applying theory to practice. Right.
Notice how that's different to like, Learn ABGs or understood the chemical process in, you know, the blood or whatever, like understood blood work. It's just yawn. They're not gonna pay attention to it. Okay? So as you move through that CV and you look at your achievements in both your work and your clinical experiences, think about how you can.
Elevate them. Show your diversity of your skillset cuz you do have it and tailor it to the job that you're applying for. If you're going for icu, it has to have flavor of icu. If you're going for palliative care, it has to have palliative care flavor. And as you do that, The panel will look at it and they'll already see straight away before they've even met you on that first glance, [00:15:00] that you are a really solid fit for the program that you're applying for.
Okay, so today I covered a lot, but we predominantly covered achievements and tasks. If you are somebody that is applying for graduate programs, Come and join us in the G C P. We will do this with you, okay? 95% we will do it for you. And then we need to pick your brains and really help you elevate the uniqueness of your application to make sure that you are looking incredible on paper.
Remember, first impressions count and it's what lands you, the interview. Your applications need to be impeccable to land you the interview. Okay? So if that is you, come and join us. We are closing mid-month for New South Wales, a c t. And PM cv. Why? Because we've gotta be able to deliver and make sure that you guys get everything that you need.
We've got a whole group of grads in there that we're already supporting. So if you're coming to join us, come and join us now. Take the action. We've got lots of payment plan options available, and within 24 to 48 hours, you're gonna have everything that you need done. [00:16:00] No joke. It's too good to be true. I know.
Come and join us if you've if you've got value from this and you think that that's gonna be a good fit for you. Now, if you're somebody that thinks, Liam, this is gonna stress me out and I can't afford, and all of the things. I invite you to not camp. Okay? And I mean that with love and kindness. I don't want you to put yourself under pressure, but if you're somebody that wants the support, that wants to guarantee themselves a job that can commit to themselves and can see this as an investment in their future of their career, cuz you get lifetime access and a guaranteed job in all of the things that you'll need for every career shift after this, including your transition to practice, come and join us and we'd love to have you there.
Until next time, I will see you next week in the Grand Nurse Success Series.
