Key Resume Tips for the Health Professional

Working as a health professional is an amazingly rewarding career.  Not only do you get to help individuals physically and emotionally, but you have a chance to work in a stimulating environment.

The great news is that health professionals are in high demand, which means there are a lot of jobs out there waiting for you. But this doesn’t mean you will automatically score any job you apply for.  You still need to create a great resume to get your foot in the door.  Here are some tips to get it done:

Choose Between the Resume and CV

Before you begin developing your resume, it’s important that you know—based on your career—whether you’ll need a traditional reverse-chronological or curriculum vitae (CV).

Deciding which type to use will have a lot to do with your specific career within the health profession.  For instance, if you work as an administrative or IT professional, accountant, manager, or salesperson, you’ll probably want to go with the traditional reverse-chronological resume because it offers employers the easiest way to correlate your abilities with their needs.

But if your career is geared toward medical, academic, or scientific professions within health care, then employers are more likely to look for a CV since it focuses more specifically on your work and educational history, along with speaking engagements, conferences, publications, and more.

Make Sure You Incorporate Keywords

Most health employers accept resumes and CVs the same way as other companies: via the Internet.  One major reason for taking this route is the ease of electronic organization.  But employers also love that they can make use of scanning software that allows them to quickly filter out candidates that they don’t feel are qualified based on the number of keywords that candidates have incorporated into their resumes.

It’s important as a health professional that you incorporate enough keywords into yours to make it pass the filtering process.  Depending on your job, keywords might include caseload, quality initiatives, pharmaceutical drugs, imaging, health conditions, and medical devices.  An effective way to find the words is to look through the job description for words deemed important by the company.

Highlight Your Knowledge of the Field

The health profession is ever-changing, and in order to be considered a viable candidate, you will need to showcase your knowledge of the field and its changes.  For instance, have you kept up with the latest in health care reform—the pieces of the law that have already been implemented and those, like health care exchanges, that are still in the making?

Showcasing this knowledge can let the employer know your work has left you with a wealth of knowledge about the industry and that you’re ready to function within recent changes—as well as any changes to come.

You’re probably excited about obtaining your next position in the health profession.  So make sure you secure that spot by creating a well-written resume that shows your skills fall right in line with the job.

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