Updating your resume? If you’re a contract healthcare worker, you may find yourself wondering about the best way to prepare your resume. You’ve gained a lot of experience through your work, and it’s important to showcase that so you can continue to find rewarding work experiences. Here are a few tips to help you.
Group Your Contract Work
If your contract work has spanned more than a couple of assignments, you may want to consider grouping it on your resume. If your assignments have been through one company, you could list them under the company name. Use a short descriptive paragraph to tie everything together. This will give employers a sense of your experience.
There’s another option, and it can be very useful if your assignments have been through more than one agency. You can group your gigs under a section labeled Contract Experience. This allows you to include all of your contract work in an organized manner so employers can get a sense of what you’ve done.
Use a Skills-Based Resume
Alternatively, you may want to consider a skills-based resume. This type of resume puts your abilities and achievements front and center; it allows you to list your skills and experience prominently, and the employers and other details are secondary. This can be especially helpful if you’ve gained experience that is specialized or otherwise very valuable in the healthcare industry.
It’s important to note that you can customize this type of resume for a particular job. Check the job description, and tailor your resume accordingly. Pick three to four broad skill sets that specifically relate to the job and description, and that you can back up with specific accomplishments or experiences. A different job description may require you to change the order to feature certain other skills more prominently.
Don’t Forget…
Don’t overlook the value of your caseload and the skills and experience you’ve gained from it. If you wish to stay in a similar healthcare field, elaborate on the type of caseload you’ve managed, including the number of patients/clients served and the specific challenges your caseload presented. This allows an employer to quantify some of your experience, and it could give you an advantage when it comes to landing an interview.
Your hard skills, the things you’ve learned through an educational program and on the job, are important, but your soft skills can matter just as much. Soft skills are traits or characteristics that are part of you. They include empathy, communication skills, being a team player, work ethic, flexibility, and more. When you highlight your hard skills, highlight your soft skills, too.
Send Us Your Resume
At 365 Healthcare Staffing Services, we specialize in the recruitment and placement of healthcare professionals in per diem, travel, and permanent assignments in healthcare facilities across the country. If you’re looking for your next assignment, send your resume along; we’d love to see it! If you want to get the process started, call us at 310.436.3650.
