~by Ryan Bucci ~

Those individuals in the job search environment know just how competitive it can be to secure a job in the healthcare industry, let alone an interview. The job search process can be difficult to navigate.

There are so many factors that come into play when it comes to potentially securing a hospital or healthcare job interview. The healthcare industry requires applicants to have additional credentials to ensure they can provide the most efficient and effective care.

Those additional requirements make it even harder for applicants to be considered for the job, and the level of competition rises between job seekers.

This means that job seekers need to do everything they can to stand out among their competitors. The good news, is that there are a few easy tricks to implement to stand out more in your healthcare job search, and they only take a little bit of time.

This means that healthcare job seekers can remove some of the worry and uncertainty they experience when they question whether or not they are doing all they can to stand out as the most qualified candidate.

By implementing these tricks, healthcare job seekers can rest assured knowing that they are doing all they can to improve their job search prospects.

1)  Check Out The Employer 

One of the things that individual job seekers fail to do is review the employer or the job posting thoroughly to ensure that they understand what is expected in the day to day responsibilities of the role.

In addition, job seekers often don’t evaluate the employer to truly determine whether or not the employer or healthcare facility is truly a place they’d like to work for the foreseeable future.

This is a critical mistake that job seekers make, as additional research can help determine whether or not you add some critical information to your job application or cover letter to help separate yourself from other candidates.

Typically job seekers will quickly peruse the job application and then determine whether or not they want to work in that role at the employer. Unfortunately one of the key problems with this is that there might be some key details that you missed.

For instance you might have missed some key requirements before you apply, and with the advent of one-click apply methods on large sites like ZipRecruiter or Indeed, you could be applying too quickly.

When you apply too quickly and you don’t meet all the requirements that the employer is seeking, then you are essentially wasting your time and automatically disqualifying yourself from future consideration for the job.

One way to avoid wasting your time and automatically disqualifying yourself from future consideration is to make sure that you review the job posting and make sure that you include critical details in your job application, resume, and cover letter.

By truly reviewing the job application, and a little bit more info about the employer before submitting your application you can craft a tailored application that reflects what they are seeking, and ensure that your application highlights how your previous experience matches that.

In doing so, you can ensure that you separate yourself from other candidates who don’t include those details. This also means that you can stand out from those candidates who are using a generic resume for every job they apply to.

2) Tailor Your Resume

As we briefly mentioned in the last trick, one great way of separating yourself from other candidates and improving your healthcare job search is to tailor your resume.

Essentially, this means that you remove all of the unnecessary information from your resume, and ensure that it closely reflects your experience, skills, and background.

This is one of the easiest things that you can do to improve your healthcare job search, and only takes a little bit of time.

Many job seekers believe that they should have a generic and broad resume so they can apply to a number of jobs. The problem with this philosophy, is that job seekers are missing a key opportunity to market themselves and their skills for the position.

By taking a little bit of time to tailor your resume you can separate yourself from those candidates who are including irrelevant skills.

For instance, if the job application details specify that they want someone well versed in healthcare specific skills, the last thing you should be including on your resume is irrelevant skills like “Adobe Photoshop”.

When you do this, it makes it seem as if you don’t have any relevant skills to include that are more closely aligned with the healthcare industry.

This is where the critical research and review you conducted on the healthcare employer and job application comes into play.

You can use the critical research and review you conducted to stand out on your application, resume, and cover letter for the job application.

For instance, if you are applying to a Certified Nursing Assistant role, and your research on the job application and employer showcased that they are looking for a CNA who has extra credentials for their role – then you should make sure that you include those credentials on your resume.

If you crafted a generic resume, then it’d be easy to see why you aren’t being considered because you failed to include there specific extras and instead included things that weren’t relevant for the position.

By crafting a tailored resume, you can separate yourself from those candidates who don’t align well with the position.

3) Improve Your Cover Letter

Another easy trick that you can use to separate yourself from other candidates is to improve your cover letter that you are using with each job you apply to. If you’re not using a cover letter with your job applications and resume, then you need to.

A cover letter is a key opportunity to once again market your skills, experience, and background to the individual reviewing your job application.

The cover letter is a great opportunity for you to highlight more about why you would like for each individual position you apply to. Most individuals, like with their resume, will only craft a cover letter that they can use for every job they apply to. When those job seekers use a generic cover letter, they just substitute some of the position titles or healthcare employer.

A cover letter shouldn’t be generic, it should be unique – like the job posting.

The best way to improve your cover letter is to mention things that are directly from the job posting. For instance, if the job posting mentions something along the lines of, “We are looking for someone that has demonstrated achievement in the healthcare sector.”, your cover letter should contain some of the same wording and how that you have demonstrated achievement in healthcare.

When you conduct a thorough review of the job posting, you can craft your cover letter around points similar to that. You can mention things like, “I have demonstrated achievement in the healthcare industry over the last seven years as a Certified Nursing Assistant.”

In doing so, you can separate yourself from those candidates who use a generic cover letter that simply expresses a desire to work for the employer – without specific details that truly highlight what should separate you from other candidates and be considered the best candidate.

This means that those individuals who tailor their cover letter can help separate themselves from other candidates who are using a generic cover letter for all the positions they apply to.

4) Use Healthcare Niche Sites

Another easy trick to use when applying for jobs is to use sources that you hadn’t considered before. One of these sources is niche job sites or job boards. As we mentioned earlier, large job sites are increasingly incorporating easy apply methods, tpically with one button clicks.

This means that there are an increasing number of spam applications from individuals applying for jobs, without truly reading the job description, or thoroughly researching the healthcare employer.

This means that human resource managers are increasingly having to deal with spam applications. To counteract this, companies are switching to more cost effective and reliable measures to post their healthcare jobs.

One such niche job site for is HospitalCareers. HospitalCareers is the leading recruitment platform for healthcare job seekers with over 25,000 healthcare jobs, career advice, and career insights.

On healthcare niche job sites, healthcare recruiters and hiring managers can reduce the amount of spam applications they receive and directly source qualified healthcare candidates.

From a job seeker’s perspective, they don’t have to worry about getting buried underneath spam applications, and improve their consideration prospects with less competition.

This means that you can easily improve your healthcare job prospects with this easy to implement trick, and truly stand out as the most qualified candidate.

Conclusion

In an increasingly difficult job search environment, job seekers need to do all they can to stand out from the competition. Luckily, with a few easy to implement tricks, job seekers can drastically improve their healthcare job search and stand out as the most qualified candidate.

About the Author:
Ryan Bucci  is a Content Strategist with HospitalCareers. HospitalCareers is the leading recruitment for healthcare jobs  with over 25,000+ healthcare jobs, career advice, and career insights.