40 // Resume vs. CV: Which One Will Land You the Nursing Job Interview?

In this episode, Bonnie Meadows dives deep into the essential tools you need to stand out as an experienced nurse in today's competitive job market: resumes, CVs, and portfolios. 

Whether pursuing a graduate degree, transitioning into an advanced practice role, or aiming for leadership, understanding how to leverage these documents can make all the difference in your career progression. 

Bonnie shares high-level resume tips, explains the differences between these documents, and offers practical advice to help you confidently make your next move.

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Having a really sound. Clear concise resume. It's really important for. Your job search and you know that this is not something that is new. However, what I have found in my coaching is that. We have the resume. And all of our jobs on there. But we're not clear. We're not concise. And the resume is not tailored to the actual job you are searching for. Today. I'd like to walk you through. Resumes CVS portfolios. I've mentioned all of those things. And so I'm packing that into, what I hope to be a short episode. To refine. What you should be looking for and give you actionable tips that you can apply today. To your resume CV portfolio, whatever you decide to develop. It is very important for you to put a lot of emphasis and work into this piece of your job search. Especially if this job is really a. I really believe I've got to nail this for my next approach. Usually that feeling comes from nurses who already have. A master's degree, a doctorate degree, and they are trying to level up and truly advance into another role. They've gained so many skills. Their knowledge base has grown. And their impact has grown a little bit. But they now see what they can do. Beyond where they are. And want to go further. This episode will give you. Some tips on how to. Grab the attention of. The job search tools. Or do wrap the attention of HR or the manager. To pull in. That opportunity for you to get a call for an interview. Are you feeling stuck in your current clinical environment? Do you want to make a change in your nursing career but not sure what to do next? Exhausted, burnt out, and maybe even ready for different leadership? I'm Bonnie Meadows, a Board Certified Nurse. Clinical Nurse Specialist, Influential Leader, Career Coach, and Well Being Coach. Being in the nursing and healthcare profession since 2004, I have felt stuck and unsure about what was next for me. I wanted to be fulfilled in my purpose, to have a voice at the table. And to be a resource for others, I kept telling myself I wanted more, but didn't have the direction I needed until I found clarity and career growth strategies for experienced nurses like me. In this podcast, you will find. Simple tactical steps that allow you to gain the clarity you need, solutions for how to grow even without supportive leadership, and guidelines for setting boundaries at work so that you can grow purposefully in your career as a nurse with a graduate degree who makes a huge impact in the profession. So get ready to trade your scrubs for yoga pants. Pop in those earbuds and let's chat. I've done my fair share of peer interviews. Not necessarily managerial interviews, mainly peer interviews for different positions. I've done a lot of coaching to either prep for an interview, like someone who has already gotten the call or either I am helping them to prepare their resume. So that they can get more calls for jobs. Because what you want to do is make it easier. You want to make your resume speak for you. And yes, people will see what's on your resume and have more questions, but it'd be nice if they had your resume. And they saw some of your accomplishments and then. That would allow them to ask questions. To say, tell me a little bit more about this now you're operating in a space of, okay. Now I can talk about how I shine. And I can go a little bit deeper. Versus giving way more context or, um, having them to dig, to pull information. And no, you don't want everything on your resume, but in this episode, I want to explain differences between resumes, CVS, and portfolios. And then provide high-level resume tips. Specific to experienced nurses. As you work to advance through your career, This can be useful. When you are. Pursuing a graduate degree because of course they're going to want to see your resume or CV. If you, um, have that depending on what you've done, because you can have a bachelor's degree and have a CV. And I will tell you how. It will also prepare you as a nurse who has a master's degree or a doctorate degree. Really help to advance your career. And to make resumes and CVS stand out. To be able to get those calls. For interviews. That's usually the biggest block. Like I'm not even getting a call for an interview. Outside of networking that you do, it's twofold. You need the resume and you need the networking. The networking can work for you. But if you're trying to step into a whole new industry and you don't really know a lot of people in that area, that industry, that hospital, whatever the case may be. The now you are relying on your resume to speak for you and you want it to do the heavy lift for you. So you can get that call for the interview that way you can go into more detail about the work you have accomplished. To show how you can contribute. To that particular environment and add value so let's get into it. Let's start with the resume. Clear definition. A concise document. Summarizing work experience skills and education. Some of us. Also have on there. Our certifications. We have. Our, associations. They have our volunteer work on resumes. Those things that you can add on there. But it's most often use for job applications in clinical settings, of course management roles and leadership positions. The length of the resume is the shortest of all three of these. It should be no more than two pages if your resume and. Really, they would like one. Most people would like one, however we know. If you've been in nursing for over 10 years. I'd say over 15. It's hard to keep your resume down to one page. So two pages max, because I know for me, it's hard to keep my resume to. One page. Next is your CV. It's a detailed document that includes your full academic background, publications, research and teaching experiences. On your CV is where you want to list all of the presentations that you've done. All of the posts, all of the. Education workshops that you've done. From presentations, I mean, poster presentations. Podium presentations, for our education. Or teaching experiences you might want to put all of the classes that you've taught, regardless of whether you were an educator or not. Some of us, we were not necessarily an educator roles, but we had an area that, or a, We had an area that we championed or we had different skills. Devices that we were a clinical champion for. Those times you did presentations, it could have been, teaching about a particular skill. So those are the things that you need to put on a CV. That's where that whole academic experience comes in. Also any publications that you've done, whether it be a blog, not like a regular blog, like. AACN they do a lot of blog writings. They allow nurses to write blogs for AACN. The content has to be good. If it's from a reputable nursing association, Whatever is on their web website as a blog. That's, that's a writing, that's a publication that you have, or an editorial to a journal. Those types of writings you can add to your resume, any type of publication writing research you've done. Even projects that may not yet be disseminated, but you've gotten results with those projects. You can add those to a CV. And then of course, awards associations membership, board leadership. Volunteer work it's most commonly used when you are. In an academic setting. So you are looking to pursue. A role in academia, in nursing, a nursing faculty role. That's where it's most commonly used. Can be most commonly used even in the clinical setting, but for higher level, advanced jobs in nursing. In this day and age, they want to see that the leadership is engaged and professional development and presenting. And so. CV is very important for those roles. If you're pursuing a nurse scientist role or I'm sure like a nurse ethicists role. And those type of research roles, CV is very important they want to see how you've engaged in research even if you have a PhD, I'm pretty sure that even with that. Your best, you're better off to have a CV. PhD DNP when you're going into those doctorate prepared roles and you're applying for those roles and yes, those roles are popping up more and more. Or if you're going into an advanced practice role like a director it's more of a lead role versus a, you're always in clinical, but you're more so preparing for an advanced practice leadership role. Then a CV is good because they want to know how you as a leader are going to help to advance. The APRN. They are putting you there, putting under you. They're they're asking you to leave. And also when you are. When you are applying for fellowships and doctoral programs. CV is especially useful. The length of the CV can be very long. I've seen one, that was about 10 pages these persons had several, documents, manuscripts that they were either a part of the research, or they were our brighter of the research. So it can be pretty much, it can be multiple pages depending on the depth of your career history. And that's why a lot of nurses, use a CV, I've done presentations. And Now have some publications under my belt, because my career history is lengthy. There are a lot of things that I have accomplished. And presentations that I've done. I use a CV. And it's not a plethora of things. But they're starting to build up. That is what I use instead of a resume. Portfolio. We don't use this word much. In our areas of nursing, but a nursing portfolio. Can be a game changer for you in the interview process. It's not necessarily something that you need to use. I head of time. Like you don't need to submit a portfolio unless they ask for it, when you are submitting for the actual job, you go ahead and submit a cover letter and then your resume and or CV. The portfolio. Is what changes the game when you get in the interview? Because the portfolio. Shows that person you're interviewing with the actual work you did. Some of us we have with, when we do a poster presentation, we'll have the paper version of that poster, presentation to hand out to others. That's what you would put in a portfolio. Or you have manuscripts that you've written. That's what you would put in a portfolio. It's a collection showcasing skills, accomplishments, and professional growth. Use it in interviews to demonstrate clinical competencies, project work and leadership outcomes. Examples, of projects case studies, certifications letters of recommendation and personal statements any education that you've taught. Again, like I said, projects, so that pretty much just sums up what you should include in a portfolio. To me, it's something that helps you to stand out, especially if the leader says, oh, that we've, we've got a lot of applicants we need to get through dah, dah, dah. Or we have a lot of applicants. We need to get through a lot of interviews. We need to do. Then maybe when sending a thank you letter after you've done the interview. You've gotten the call. You have gone on the interview or either before the interview. You can say, and you, you know, you have received information from an interview panel or information about who's going to be on the interview panel. Have your portfolio ready to send out to that group. It's important to know when to send out a resume versus a portfolio. Versus a CV, especially when you're transitioning from the bedside. To an advanced practice role academia or leadership. I usually keep a OneNote document. Like for my role when I was a CNS. We helped to level each other up and decided to do a portfolio every year for our competency. We were the competency givers. We were the validators. So it was just kinda like, well, what w what do we do for our competency? And, there was a small group of us who just decided, oh, well, we'll just do a portfolio for our, yearly. Accomplishments. So if you are someone who has a master's degree, or a doctorate degree and. You're trying to figure out a way to, Show your accomplishments on a yearly basis. A one note or Evernote is a great way to do that. Especially if you have Microsoft office tools, one note is a great way to just capture. All of that information in one place. And. Share it with your leadership. I'll try to figure out how to do that with Google suite. I'm pretty sure Google has something you can use. And of course, the resume, can be used for any. Job, unless the job has asked for a CV. Usually a job is asking for a resume or a CV. Don't go low when they have asked you to go high. A CV is higher than a resume. They're not the same. Resume as a way more concise. And it is like tailor fit to the job that you are applying for. As CV allows more room for your career history. So it doesn't have to be concise and it doesn't necessarily have to be tailored. To the actual job that you are looking for. You can tweak it. I would advise you to tweak it, honestly. But. It is more robust. All right. So today we broke down the difference between the resume, CV and the portfolio. And talked about just some important tips on how to tailor your resume. As you work towards growing your nursing career. However, you can speak for yourself. Make sure that this is Work of your career growth and that you are applying networking to this. You're talking to people, having conversations. With people in those areas. You're also looking into those professional organizations, those governing bodies. Of that particular work in which you want to go if you need help with that, I can help you find those people too. And if you want to get feedback on your resume to prepare for those positions, you might be interested in. Be sure to sign up for my ambitious nurse insider's list, as I will be sharing an offer to help, take your resume to the next level. And. If needed prepare you for your next interview. You want to make sure that you are reflecting your hard work? And your accomplishments it can be hard to talk about ourselves. But let the paper do the talking for you, even if an elevator pitch is hard, um, networking with others is hard many times when you start to write these things out. That has confidence builder. So you've got to stay on top of writing these things out and keeping them front of mind of what you've accomplished. So that you can easily speak to those things in the right settings. Thank you for taking the time today. To get things right. And set yourself up for success. And I'll talk to you next time. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with another nurse who may be unsure of where to go next in their career or maybe need some career clarity? Also, please leave a quick review for the show on Apple podcast. It brings me so much joy and so much encouragement to know this podcast is helping you. Now go get the career you want and not the one you settle for. And I'll meet you back here next Thursday for another episode. See you soon!