Dust off that resume: Healthcare jobs are booming
By Pat Forbis, CMT
"If you are among the thousands of medical transcriptionists who make job-related transitions each year, this may be a good time to explore new options. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Education and health services are projected to grow faster -- 31.8 percent by 2012 -- and add more jobs than any other industry supersector. About one out of every four new jobs created in the U.S. economy will be in the healthcare and social assistance or private educational services sectors.
Healthcare and social assistance, including private hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, and individual and family services, will grow by 32.4 percent and add 4.4 million new jobs. It is said that employment growth will be driven by increasing demand for healthcare and social assistance because of an aging population and longer life expectancies.
The growing needs of the healthcare documentation professions are apparent, many of which are perfectly suited for the skilled medical transcriptionist. With that in mind, you will need to be certain that your resume gets updated. Even if a change of employment isn’t in your immediate plans, it is a good idea to keep your resume current … just in case.
Not sure about how to sell your talent in today’s market? Help is as close as a Google search. In fact, an entry of “resume writing” on the search line will put more than 29 million opportunities for assistance at your fingertips.
Like almost everything else, writing one’s resume has new rules. Thanks to our fast-paced world, less is more when trying to capture the attention of a potential employer. Keep it to one page, if you want it to stand out from the rest. Today’s prospective employers are not going to invest their limited time to read anything longer than that. Bullets of brief action-driven statements are the best design. Paragraphs of detailed text are likely to be overlooked and are an invitation for the reader to move quickly to the next resume.
There is no longer interest in how you spend leisure time, the name of your elementary school, or long lists of personal friends you know will give you a glowing reference. Here are a few tips about what to do and what not to do.
DO
Place your name by itself at the top of the page
Include all the basic aspects of a resume:
Name and contact information
Career objective
Professional profile (optional)
Employment experience, with name and contact information of a former supervisor
Be grammatically correct
Be truthful, no exaggerating
Keep the design simple
Use action words but avoid repetition
Focus on the objective in all job descriptions and experiences
Proofread, proofread, proofread
DON’T
Lie or exaggerate
Include salary and benefits requirements
Include past salary and benefits information
Share personal information that is not job related
Use cute or complex layouts
Use brightly-colored stationery
Make typographical or grammatical errors
Misspell words
Rely on a spell checker to make your resume write/right/rite/Wright
Please keep in mind that your resume is not complete without a cover letter. The purpose of the cover letter is to introduce you and your resume to the prospective employer, and its importance cannot be overstated.
If your resume is successful, and you are invited to interview for the position you seek, a note of thanks is a must.
And even if you aren’t currently seeking a new job, it’s still a good idea to spend some time updating your resume because it never hurts to be prepared. With healthcare jobs continually on the rise, being prepared just might set you ahead of the pack."
