If you’re a recent healthcare graduate or even someone who has been working in the sector for many years, having a decent resume is crucial when you’re ready to start applying for new jobs. Yet, many people don’t pay enough attention to the quality of this document and do themselves a disservice as a result.
To ensure you give yourself the best possible chance of being hired for your dream job, read on for some top ways to improve your CV today.
Use a Smart Layout and Style
The first key is to use a practical layout. It needs to be one that recruiters can scan through, picking up pertinent points ASAP. HR personnel, business owners, and managers who employ staff members often read through dozens or even hundreds of resumes daily. As a result, they don’t have time to read every word carefully. Instead, they’re looking to see who checks off most of the things they’re looking for and then will read those documents more closely.
This means you want to break up the text on your document with plenty of headings and subheadings. Bullet points and other demarcations help too. Plus, keep paragraphs short and leave enough white space on every page of your CV so it doesn’t look overwhelming.
You also want to choose a clear, commonly used font that’s easy for people to read. For instance, Arial, Times New Roman, and Calibri work well. Don’t make the font too small, either, as you don’t want anyone to have to squint to try and read what you’ve typed. When it comes to the layout and style, steer clear of using too much color or adding graphics or other gimmicks that can come across as unprofessional.
Incorporate Specific Examples, Quantifications, and Other Details
Another tip for improving your resume is to ensure you incorporate enough specific examples of your achievements and training over the years. Tailor each CV to the job you’re applying for each time, including quantifiable factors that will help you stand out from your competition.
Read the position advertisement multiple times to get a good feel for what recruiters are looking for in top candidates, and tweak your document accordingly. Don’t forget to add at least some of the keywords listed in the ad, as this can help you stay in the running if recruiters use specialized software to sort through and pare down applications.
For example, if you’re applying for an administrative role in a doctor’s office, hospital, or another type of clinic, the role may involve medical billing and coding work. If so, you’ll want to mention the types of software programs you’re trained in. You might mention details from your past roles, such as if you managed to reduce the time spent on completing coding tasks each month by a certain percentage or that you took a practice from being three months behind on inputting medical data to being up to date.
Look for numbers and percentages and other particular information to show the results you achieved during your career and how you helped your employers complete more goals. This will have much more impact than simply saying you know how to do certain activities.
It’s also wise to research the company you’re planning to apply to and find out what you can about its history, the people running the organization, its corporate culture, potential future pathways and opportunities, and more. After that, see if you can use the information you’ve gathered to tailor your resume appropriately. This can help show recruiters that you truly want the job and have the right personality and traits to fit into the team and help everyone achieve success.
Take the Time to Spot Errors
Lastly, send your CV until you’ve carefully proofread it. Be on the lookout for errors such as typos, spelling and grammatical problems, missing words, the wrong choice of words, and so on. It pays to ask a friend or family member with an eye for detail to go over the document for you, too, as they’re likely to spot problems that you may not. It’s a good idea to get people to note any layout inconsistencies, as well as spacing and font-based ones.
Once you’ve done these things, it’s time to send your resume off and hope for the best. Knowing that you’ve created the best CV possible, though, should help you rest easier while waiting to hear back about your application.
