The healthcare industry had a major boom in 2020. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it as one of the fastest-growing industries for the 2019 – 2029 period. Also, the job outlook for healthcare managers is projected to grow by 32% during the same time period. That means that there are numerous job opportunities in the market.
Healthcare organizations need managers who go out of the way to improve patient care through rigorous coordination, strategy implementation, and budget management. They are the heart of the business side of the operations.
In your healthcare manager resume, you will have to highlight that you are capable of maintaining relationships with stakeholders and guiding them towards organizational goals. You must also be able to manage budgets and funding flow, and facilitate new policy and technology implementations – all while driving patient care.
That’s a lot to convey. Especially, to get your resume shortlisted for an interview, your resume should catch the attention of the hiring manager within the first 10 seconds.
How do you do that?
By ensuring that your resume’s first impression conveys the strengths outlined above.
But before a hiring manager takes a look at it, your resume goes through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Today, 99% of Fortune 500 companies filter incoming resumes through ATS. ATS collects, organizes, scans, and ranks job applicants according to the recruiters’ requirements.
P.S. If you’d like some inspiration on what a perfectly optimized resume looks like, I’d love to send you my salary-doubling resume cheat sheet that will not only enhance your resume but also improve your chances of doubling your salary offer. Submit your information below to receive it:
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In this article, I will break down the process of writing a healthcare manager resume that is both ATS-compliant and reader-friendly. I will also share a template you can copy and use.
Healthcare Manager Resume Sample
If you’re pressed for time, download the cheat sheet version of this article for my before-and-after sample. I talk about the three most common mistakes healthcare managers make. I also show how I resolved these issues for one client. To protect their privacy, I’ve fictionalized them as “Tony Stark.”
Despite having extensive experience, my client, “Tony Stark,” was struggling with getting interviews.
If you will look at his old resume, you will find that it has multiple issues:
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- The resume is five pages long. It is too long given the initial screening time is a few seconds only.
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- Despite having a lot of words, there is a lack of quantifiable accomplishments in this resume that would prove that they are the best fit for managerial roles.
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- There are red flags in this resume. For example, Tony has highlighted, instead of deemphasizing, his entrepreneurial experience. Secondly, there is an unexplained employment gap in this resume.
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- The career history was not arranged in reverse chronological order. This made it confusing to read. This may also have made this resume ATS-incompatible. This is because most ATS are programmed to read resumes in the traditional, reverse-chronological format.
I resolved the above issues by doing the following:
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- I made the resume more direct by reducing it to two pages.
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- Also, I added headings and quantifiable accomplishments at the start of each bullet in the professional experience.
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- Lastly, I changed the “CEO and Founder” title to “Chief Consultant,” with “Tony’s” consent. Secondly, I clarified employment gaps by explaining that they were pursuing a degree during that time.
Read on to find out how you can revamp your resumes to apply for healthcare manager jobs and get more calls for interviews.
Step 1: Inserting Healthcare Manager Resume Keywords
Let’s first talk about ATS. ATS looks for keywords in your resume, which are short phrases or words that align with your target job. The ATS helps recruiters shorten the screening process by ranking the resumes based on how well they match the job description.
Here’s why this is important for you. Regardless of how perfect you are for a specific job, if your resume doesn’t have relevant keywords, it won’t get read by a person at all. In fact, 75% of resumes aren’t.
Common keywords categories for healthcare manager resume include the following:
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- names of the industry-specific skills
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- required qualifications
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- job titles
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- certifications
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- degree names
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- professional affiliations
Here are some of the top healthcare management skills and keywords. You can copy and paste these into your resume if they match your skillset.
Here are some of the keywords I added to “Tony’s” resume. By adding these to the top, I drew the reader’s attention to these skills, adding more weight to his application.
Step 2: The Best Accomplishments for a Healthcare Manager Resume
Your resume has to go through a recruiter or an HR manager after it has been shortlisted by ATS. To stand out among hundreds of resumes, your resume should be accomplishment-oriented. However, writing a long list of responsibilities is a common big mistake job applicants make regularly.
Adding accomplishments to your resume proves that you go above and beyond your duties to achieve results. It demonstrates that you can bring something extra to the table, which is the most effective way to make your resume stand out.
Take a look at the following example and notice which version seems more impressive.
To add healthcare management accomplishments to your resume experience section, ask yourself the following questions:
By asking yourself the questions above, you also help weave in keywords from step 1 in your resume organically.
If you’re still having a hard time phrasing everything you achieved on your resume, you may want to check out this guide that I wrote on creating strong accomplishments for your resume.
Step 3: Writing a Powerful Career Summary
Resumes are read more carefully towards the beginning while the rest of the document is skimmed. According to my research, readers tend to pay more attention to the first half of the first page. I call that the “visual center” of the resume.
If this section successfully grabs the reader’s attention, then they are more likely to read the rest of your resume instead of just skimming it.
Isn’t that how you hire, too? If a resume sparks your interest in its first impression, you pay more attention to it as compared to the one that doesn’t seem like it was written for the job you have open.
A powerful summary usually includes the following elements:
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- A brief summary statement that immediately tells the reader about the key problems you solve.
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- Your three most significant accomplishments that help prove why you are the best fit for this job. You can refer back to step #2 for this.
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- A list of the key skills you are most proficient in. You can refer back to step #1 for this.
Here are some summary statements that you can copy and paste into your resume’s summary section. Don’t forget to tailor these to your experience and to the job you’re applying for:
Dos and Don’ts of Resume Summary
The most common mistake people make while writing their career summaries is the overuse of self-praising adjectives. Words like “professional,” “dynamic,” and “problem solver” do not prove your skillset. These words are cliché.
Instead, readers want tangible proof of your accomplishments and want to know what value you will add to their organization upon hiring. Instead of using such words, think about what the employer need is by thoroughly reading the company profile and job application and address that need in your career summary.
An important thing to keep in mind while creating a visual center is contact information. Some people throw this necessary information into the header. Unfortunately, most ATS cannot read any information placed in headers and footers. Therefore, contact information, including your phone number, email address, state, zip code, and LinkedIn profile link, should be placed clearly at the top of the resume.
After creating the visual center, read it out loud or have someone else read it. If it is interesting for you, it will be interesting for the recruiter as well.
If you need help with creating a strong summary for your resume, check out this article. In it, I break down my formula for putting together your resume’s summary statement.
Step 4: Using Healthcare Volunteer Experience and Certifications
Projects and volunteer experiences are a great way to cover employment gaps in your resume. You can also polish your healthcare management skills and add weight to your resume by joining healthcare professional associations, such as the following:
Moreover, if you have a gap in your skills set and you want to fill that up, you can consider enrolling in the following highly sought-after professional programs.
Healthcare management is your forte; writing is mine. I consistently survey hundreds of recruiters in the healthcare world to make sure that the advice I pass on to you is up-to-date and relevant.
If you’d like me to give your resume a detailed critique and make sure you’re starting your job search off on the right foot, upload it here.
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