With dozens of experienced, well-qualified applicants to choose from, recruiters use resumes to make the first cut. Nurses with well-written resumes secure an interview, while nurses with confusing or absent resumes are ignored. Esta Fox, RN, BSN, who counsels nurses about their careers and develops resumes from her home in Bellmore, New York, advises nurses to step into the shoes of the person who may be doing the hiring. “They need to give thought about who they’re addressing - who they are marketing themselves to - and ask what kind of skills does that person want to see?”

This means framing your accomplishments from the viewpoint of a potential employer and wording your cover letter and resume to showcase those accomplishments. Every resume must include objectives, education, certifications, job history, honors, and professional activities. But, regardless of your resume’s format or length, it must also be clear, concise, and complete.

Be clear

Clarity begins with a statement of your objectives. “Be definitive and clear about what position you want to be a candidate for ,” says Candice Mullen, RN, BSN, human resources consultant at the Cooper Health System, in Camden, New Jersey. “I don’t want to guess.” If you are applying to a number of agencies for the same kind of position, your resume can refer to the category of position. But your cover letter must specify the job title used by that employer.

Managers expect a resume to identify at a glance the candidate’s relevant experience and accomplishments. If they need to search for the information, the resume is ignored. Avoid using meaningless phrases that fail to differentiate you from other candidates. Everyone delivers “high-quality patient care.” Ask yourself what are your individual contributions to the design, delivery, or quality of care.

You should avoid jargon. “Some of the resumes I see look like job descriptions pulled from dusty old policy and procedure manuals, instead of focusing on their personal skills,” says Fox. Make your cover letter and resume readable. One manager interviewed for this article described a resume that was ignored because the accompanying cover letter contained words that sent her to the dictionary. Another manager complained that a candidate spent too much space in her resume describing the successes of her former employers, rather than highlighting her contributions to that success.

Fox advises nurses to consider describing their accomplishments in dollar terms. “In a time of extreme pressure to be cost effective, nurses don’t see things in terms of money. They almost see it as inappropriate to turn a profit. Of course quality is important, but employers want people who contribute to cost-effective, quality care as well.”

Be concise

For resumes, shorter is almost always better. Mullen warns applicants: “Don’t tell me in six pages what you can say in two. No one has time. Make your resume and cover letter to the point, and the rest can be raised in an interview.”

Each statement within a resume should also be concise. “Besides the background and job history section, I look for the applicant’s ability to write,” says a department manager at a large pharmaceutical company. “If there are typos or convoluted and overly long sentences, the resume is ignored.”

The solution may be to use bullet points of short statements rather than a paragraph or block design. White space makes your resume more readable. If at a distance your resume looks like a page from a book, then you have too much text and not enough white space.

Be complete

Managers want the resume to summarize the candidate’s entire career at a glance, without unexplained gaps. If there are gaps in your career due to child rearing, military service, or even drug rehabilitation, be honest. “A gap is always questionable,” says John Lavery, professional recruiter for Allegheny University Hospitals in East Falls, Pennsylvania. “Explain gaps in the cover letter.”

Lavery also finds that some newly graduated nurses intentionally provide incomplete resumes in the false hope that it will improve their chances for an interview. “Some new nurses will leave off their graduation date on their resume. That’s a mistake. Don’t present yourself in ways that could ultimately be considered misleading.”

Put your latest position first. If you summarize blocks of time from the early part of your career, make sure the summary is understandable and bring a complete list to the interview. A complete resume also means a complete package of cover letter and resume. Do your homework and address the cover letter to the right person with the correct spelling, credentials, and title. Lavery wants to see a “strong, creative four-paragraph cover letter.” After the interview, send a brief, but businesslike thank-you letter highlighting at least one positive aspect of the interview, agency, or the position.

Jeffrey Zurlinden, RN, MS, ACRN, is a frequent contributor to Nursing Spectrum.