Cath Lab Digest - October 2007 - (Page 30)

30 YOUR PATH TO SUCCESS: CAREER ADVICE OCTOBER 2007 Searching for a Cardiovascular Position? Tips for Creating a ‘Stand-Out’ Resume Jessica Bricker, Search Coordinator, Corazon, Inc. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania average employer spends only 10 seconds looking at your resume, often looking for a reason NOT to interview you. Below are two examples of career experience summaries for applicants for a cath lab director position. The job required cardiac catheterization experience, management experience, and knowledge of implementing new strategies, polices, and procedures. Just by looking at these career summaries, which person would you want to hire? Example #1: Extensive experience and achievement in the following areas: Operations assessment and process implementation utilizing best practice standards; business development; fiscal accountability; strategic planning; and community outreach. A t Corazon, we receive hundreds of resumes every year for cardiologists, surgeons, cath lab directors or managers, cardiovascular administrators, clinical/business consultants, and other heart and vascular-related positions. But, only a small percentage of these are ever taken into consideration by us and/or our clients. How important is the impression you make with your resume? What elements can cause a resume to ‘stand out’ among the rest? In this month’s column, we will address these and other questions about making sure the first impression you have on a potential employer is the best it can be. Regardless of the extent of your professional and educational background, your career is nonetheless summed up in words on a page. A resume should be a summary of your professional and personal experiences — education, clinical expertise, employment milestones, skills and interests within the workplace. Overall, your resume is a paper introduction to potential employers — one that hopefully interests them in interviewing you face-to-face. While this will be the only contact you have with the potential employer early in the search process, statistics show that the of interviews. Why? The relevant experience and detailed summary statement in Example #2 was placed at the top of the resume, catching the reader’s attention. The individual also used the right keywords within the bullet points, making this resume stand out. More and more, employers depend on a list of pre-selected keywords to narrow the pool of candidates to interview. With growth in cardiovascular programs nationwide, there are increasing numbers of positions becoming available at all levels within the specialty, and hospitals are no doubt inundated with resumes from job-seekers. Thus, with today’s sophisticated technology, employers have increasingly relied on digitizing resumes, placing them in keywordsearchable databases, and then using software to search those databases for those specific keywords that relate to current job vacancies. Some important key words to consider using on your resume when searching for a position within heart and vascular services (if relevant to you) include: person would likely be passed over in favor of the candidate in Example #2, who used a more detailed and relevant description in the career summary. From my experience as a frontline reviewer of incoming resumes, here are 10 of the most common resume mistakes I see day-to-day, and proven tips and advice for how to avoid them. 1. Overall Appearance: Are there any typos, or grammatical or spelling errors? Always use the spell check feature on your computer, or ask a friend to review your resume before submitting it. This is critical, because these types of avoidable errors reveal something about your attention to detail and/or your written and verbal communication skills. 2. Resume Length: The best resumes are usually no more than two pages in length, with critical information summarized in the top third of the first page. 3. Honesty: Don’t falsify dates or titles on your resume to hide that you’ve been unemployed, switched jobs frequently or held low-level positions. If a prospective employer conducts a background check and discovers that you lied, you can be sure that you won’t be a candidate for the job you are applying for, or any other job with that company in the future. 4. Current Experience: While it is certainly acceptable to have a two-page resume, don’t list every single job you’ve ever had. Personnel managers are most interested in your experience from the last 10 years, so focus on your most recent career experiences and those most relevant to the open position. 5. Resume Format: If you are seeking a job with responsibilities not within your current scope of employment, do not use the chronological format for your resume. By using a functional or skills-oriented Example #2: • Over 15 years experience in the healthcare professions with strong experience in invasive, non-invasive cardiology, respiratory therapy, pulmonary functions testing, pulmonary rehabilitation, electrophysiology, and open heart surgery perfusion services, instructing. • Extensive knowledge related to budgets, strategic planning, business plan development, patient care, physician relationships, and marketing. • Five years experience within cardiology product line management. Was responsible for the planning, implementing, organizing, and evaluating that cardiovascular service line within the hospital. For this position, the person in Example #2 would almost certainly move forward in the search, whereas the person in Example #1 would likely not even qualify for the first round Experience Organizing Cardiovascular Planning Knowledge Cardiology Physician Relationships Evaluating Heart Budget Implementing Vascular Development Non-Invasive/Invasive Management Some of these keywords were also used in Example #1, but there was no mention of “Cardiology” or “Cardiovascular,” which are among the most important keywords both Corazon and our clients look for. Since the candidate in Example #1 focused more on general job experience rather than on detailing clinical and operational experience as it relates to the open position, this http://www.corazoninc.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cath Lab Digest - October 2007

Saints Medical Center Fibromuscular Dysplasia in Children and Adolescents Cerebral Vascular Accident Following a Pulmonary Embolism: Search for the Hidden Patent Foramen Ovale Contents Clinical Editor’s Corner Meetings Calendar CEU Education Center Radiation Tracking in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab Letter to the Editor Carotid Stenting: An update Release from Stent-jail: Beneficial Snow-Plowing? Patient Management Guidelines Searching for a Cardiovascular Position? Tips for Creating a ‘Stand-Out’ Resume Long-Term Implications of Short-Term Closure Decisions – The Evolution to Vascular Access Management and the Boomerang Catalyst System The Ten-Minute Interview with… Angie Bowles, RN, CCRN CMS Issues Final FY 2008 IPPS Rule ACVP• Membership Page Experience with a New Workhorse Guidewire Ask the Clinical Instructor: Q&A for Those New to Cath Lab A Glimpse of the Future of Clinical Education: Boston Scientific’s SimSuite Bus Visits Carnegie Institute 2007 Educational Fair Held at the Washington Hospital Center Research Update: Original Contribution Abstracts from The Journal of Invasive Cardiology What Do You Think? A Virtual Cath Lab Viewer (VCL): The Development of an Online 3D C-arm Simulator and Coronary Anatomy Viewer Clinical & Industry News Cost-Effectiveness of the Radial versus Femoral Artery Approach to Diagnostic Cardiac Catheterization

Cath Lab Digest - October 2007

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