A Brief Talk with Nurse Amanda

Published by Sofia Blanzaco
Reading Time: 6 minutes

If you are a nurse and you still do not know Amanda, then you must read this interview: 

Amanda Guarniere is the founder of The Résumé Rx, The NP Society, and the Nurse Becoming Podcast! 

Whether you are a first-year nursing student or seasoned nurse practitioner, the Nurse Becoming Podcast is your go-to place to hear honest conversations about personal and professional growth through the lens of nursing. 

But not only will you find that beautiful place, but also Amanda offers exclusive advice for nurses to find, land and love their dream jobs. 

Let us get to know Amanda through her words! 

Nurse Amanda– 715 posts
– 29.3K followers

Amanda, NP • Résumé & Career Expert • Speaker she/her/hers
🌟 I help nurses + NPs find, land and love their dream jobs
🖥Résumé Templates
🗝Founder of @npsociety
👩🏻‍⚕️Mom of 3•ER NP
🌈Your dream job awaits!👇
theresumerx.com/click-me

1. We’re glad to have an opportunity to talk with you today. To start, please tell us a little about yourself and what you do to help nurses. 

I help nurses find, land and love their dream jobs. What exactly does that mean? Well, I create educational content all about career related topics: resumes, job searching, interview prep. negotiation, job satisfaction and more because I believe that when nurses are happy and thriving at work that trickle-down effect helps patients and it just helps everybody and it’s incredibly impactful.   

2. What would you recommend to a nurse who is looking for a job? 

My recommendation is to search as a three-legged stool, meaning that if one of the legs is missing or falls short, that stool is going to topple over. So, the three legs of your stool are your resume, your interview, and your job search strategy. Resume and interview are pretty self-explanatory. But the take home here is that I want you to have some sort of strategy about how you are going about finding jobs. Are you going to be networking? Are you going to be applying online? Are you going to be reaching out to places that, you know, you want to work at? Are you going to be contacting your professors or your clinical instructors or preceptors to see if there are opportunities for you? Whatever it is, whatever that strategy is, I want you to have one and use it to guide you along in your job search. 

3. What is the role and importance that leadership has in nursing? 

When we talk about leadership in nursing, there are two different things that we’re talking about. There’s leadership, in terms of actual leadership roles, like management, administration, nurse leader roles like that, but I think what’s important to realize is that as nurses, regardless of what phase of career we are at, we can embody and practice leadership in our everyday roles, regardless of whether we’re at the bedside or in administration, and I think qualities of a good nursing leader in general means that you speak up for marginalized individuals and patients, you do the right thing and encourage others to do the same you advocate for your patients and also for yourself in the workplace and you also take on responsibilities within your workplace as well as within your community to overall do good. 

4. What is one characteristic you believe every nurse leader should possess? 

I believe every nurse leader should have the characteristic of Integrity. That is something that I tried to lead with on a regular basis. And I think that the nurse leader, who is living in integrity and doing the right thing for themselves, for their patients, for their communities. Usually never makes a bad decision. 

5. Do you think it is important to continue studying to build a strong career as a nurse? 

As nurses we have opportunities to never stop learning and whether that is learning on a regular basis inside your work environment or taking on higher education to advance in other clinical ways, I think that education is so valuable and it is our duty to ourselves and our patients in our communities to decide what role education will play in the advancement of our careers. I am a huge proponent of education and accessible education for all who want it and really nursing is there is no better place than nursing to find lots and lots of different career opportunities and educational opportunities for advancement. 

6. We all need to update our resumes! Please, would you give us 4 tips? 

Okay, if it is time for you to update your resume and it probably is, here are four tips that you can Implement pretty easily that I think are common mistakes to avoid. 

  • So, the first thing is to tailor your resume to the job description of the job that you are applying to, and that goes for your resume and also your cover letter. If you are applying for a particular job, take the opportunity to look at your documents and make sure that you are using the right names, the right name of the department, the right speciality, as well as showcasing the strengths and the qualities that you have that are especially qualifying you for this particular role. That is number one, Taylor to the job description.  
  • Number two, make sure every word on your resume earns its spot on the page. And what does that mean? Cut the fluff? Okay. It is so easy to be very wordy and verbose, especially on our resumes, but what we end up doing sometimes is just regurgitating common knowledge. When we reiterate the steps of the nursing process. That is assume people know what you should be able to do. So, use that space wisely and talk about you and your accomplishments, and your visions for your future career. 
  • Number three, spend time making sure that your resume documents are easy to read and easy to scam. The reality is people do not spend a lot of time looking at resumes, it is seconds really. So, you want to make sure that it is easily scannable. And what that means is no big blocks of text and make sure you have headers differentiating the sections.  
  • And the fourth tip is please proofread take some time to put it through spellcheck or have someone else look at it. Go through it with, you know, line by line with a fine-tooth comb and make sure that your resume and cover letter are free from errors. 

7. Finally, we would love to get to know you a little more. What is your favorite place in the world, book, movie, or song? 

My favorite place in the world is Italy. My dad was born there. And when I was a teenager, I had the opportunity to travel there with my family and then later in college. I got to study there for six months as a study abroad student and something about Italy, you know, my cultural ties there but also the way of life of the Italian people, the more relaxed lifestyle is really something that resonates with me. And so, whenever I have the opportunity to travel, Italy is always at the top of my list and it is a true immersive experience, that is just so memorable and has really shaped the way I view not only the world, but particularly my view on career and the importance of work-life integration and, you know, really the meaning of it all. So, I highly recommend a trip to Italy if anyone is looking for places to add to their bucket list. 

Thank you, Amanda, for sharing your knowledge with us! 

If you liked this interview, please follow Amanda on Social Media and get to know her even more! 

Disclaimer: These are the views and opinions of the author, and do not necessarily reflect Nexus University’s official policy. Sources cited were accurate at the time of publication.

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