How Employers Read Your Resume - The BTS from the Healthcare Corporates' HR Department
As healthcare professionals, we are so overwhelmed with technical skills, patient engagement, and upskilling that we forget the basics of professional growth—resumes. Though healthcare in India has been severely dominated by word-of-mouth referrals, with healthcare corporates on the rise, recruiters in healthcare prioritize CVs. We have discussed the ins and outs of resume writing in our article, “Writing Your Medical Odyssey: Are Resumes the New Roadmap?’ However, do the employers review CVs thoroughly or do they get jettisoned into a black hole after you submit them? How employers read your resume, becomes more crucial now than ever before. The BTS (behind the scenes) of healthcare HR CV review is a mystery and demands an explanation. Stay with us as we help you unravel this.
What is a Healthcare Recruiter?
A healthcare recruiter is a linchpin of the healthcare ecosystem; one commendable recruitment, and they deliver the best professionals to the healthcare industry. They are the specialists who identify, attract, and hire qualified healthcare professionals, ensuring that the right talent meets the right opportunities in hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare settings.
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They help companies find and retain the top talents in the healthcare industry.
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They guide healthcare professionals to find the right job that aligns with their skills, values, and career goals.
They facilitate the interaction between job seekers, healthcare recruiters, and employers—a critical part of expediting the recruitment process.
Here are a few statistics that offer a sneak peek into the current trends to review CVs in the employment sector.
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How long do employers look at resumes? Recruiters spend 6–8 seconds reviewing a resume, with 40% hiring a candidate based on their LinkedIn profile alone.
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Only 3% of resumes result in an interview, and 63% prefer personalized resumes.
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41% of recruiters look for skills on a resume first, with 88% of hiring managers focusing on hard skills.
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How long do employers typically look at a resume? Less than 5% of recruiters spend more than 1 minute reviewing it on the first viewing.
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Hiring managers spend 67% of their screening time examining a resume's work experience section.
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83% of recruiters are more likely to hire a candidate who has tailored their resume to the job they are applying for.
Though the statistics do not reflect recruiters in healthcare, it might still be important to understand how hiring works.
What Employers Look for on Resumes in Healthcare
Healthcare employers can have a wide range of credentials. The recruitment board can include clinicians, healthcare managers, healthcare entrepreneurs, and HR. A healthcare CV may pass sequentially through the recruiting process or directly reach any one of them.
Keeping the trends and the CVs health employee reviews in mind, here is how the BTS of the review process looks.
Choose accomplishments over roles and responsibilities
Documenting your roles and responsibilities often involves listing daily duties. This can be boring and uninformative. It's essential to detail accomplishments to create a clear picture of the employee's type. They are interested in understanding what you’ve actually achieved. For instance, instead of saying ‘managed the OPD’, say ‘managed an OPD of average 20-30 patients’; a good 10% being new’. Assess your resume and convert at least three bullet points from responsibilities into accomplishments that highlight your contributions.
Get more action using action verbs
Action verbs inject energy and clarity into your resume, making your achievements more compelling. Instead of using passive words like "responsible for," use strong, direct verbs such as "initiated," "developed," "enhanced," or "led." Start every bullet point under your job history with a powerful action verb.
Add stats wherever possible
Numbers provide concrete evidence. Adding statistics shows that you not only understand the key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to your role but also have a proven track record of meeting or exceeding them.
Adding numbers to a healthcare CV is difficult. Go through your resume and identify where you can quantify your achievements.
The summary is your story in a nutshell
Your resume summary is a brief but powerful introduction that should encapsulate your career trajectory, core competencies, and what makes you a standout candidate. Write a summary that is specific, concise, and highlights your most significant achievements and skills. Avoid generic statements like "hardworking healthcare professional" and instead offer something unique about your career path and goals.
Let the experiences be chronological
Listing your experiences in reverse chronological order (most recent first) helps employers quickly see your career progression. This format not only shows your most current and relevant experience upfront but also provides a clear timeline of your career development. It’s especially important in healthcare, where continuous professional growth and recent experience can significantly influence hiring decisions.
Don’t be stingy with soft skills
Clinical skills and hands-on certifications are crucial in healthcare, and so are the soft skills. In healthcare soft skills equal communication, empathy, teamwork, independent decision making, and problem-solving.
Healthcare recruiters are looking for professionals who not only perform tasks but also interact effectively with patients, colleagues, and other stakeholders.
Personalize every application
Employers can easily spot a generic resume. Some end up pulling tasks from the job description into the resume and call it personalization. That’s wrong practice. Hiring managers may already know related job responsibilities, and it doesn't accurately reflect the candidate's accomplishments.
Instead, begin by tailoring the summary section to the job you’re applying for, focusing on how your experience aligns with the employer’s needs.
Recruitment Challenges in Healthcare Industry
The healthcare HR challenges, or commonly faced issues by healthcare recruiters make hiring in healthcare tedious. Some of these include:
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The biggest mistakes job seekers make on their resumes include using too many buzzwords that’s trending.
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Not tailoring it to the specific job
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Too many grammatical errors; 60% of hiring managers find a typo on a resume.
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Using too much jargon
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Not quantifying accomplishments for every experience.
Resumes are the roadmap for the employer on the other side of the table. Best to avoid these known obvious mistakes. A well-structured resume, with clear headings and bullet points, effectively communicates your qualifications, experience, and skills to potential employers.
ANASTOMOS’ Contribution to Healthcare HR CV Review
Anastomos, India's first healthcare provider network, was founded and is run by healthcare professionals. It prioritizes career counseling, upskilling, and mentorship in a streamlined way using the latest trends and technology.
Our founders and managers are healthcare experts who were once eager job seekers before becoming well-known clinicians, healthcare entrepreneurs, and administrators. They are associated with different hiring bodies that recruit healthcare professionals. How employers read your resume, looks easy with insights from within the industry.
With mentorship programs, courses, customized job boards, one-on-one and group career coaching and more, Anastomos offers a handheld approach to hiring in healthcare.
Are you a recruiter in healthcare? Feel free to post jobs with us to reach a niche and targeted group of audience.
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