Getting to the interview stage is possibly the toughest part of the job application process… for Nursing & Midwifery final year students applying via GradConnect it will be your address to the selection criteria that’ll get you there.
The Curtin Careers & Employment Centre (CCEC) offers a range of services and resources to help get your job application docs to a professional standard and get you closer to the job you want.
Here are our top tips and resources for nursing students:
- Use STAR and SAO to help structure your responses. Look back over your clinical placements and brainstorm a range of situations where you have demonstrated each criterion in the application form. Then, choose your strongest example and work up your answers by using the STAR approach. See pages 10 and 11 of the Selection Criteria Workbook for more information and check out Courtney Trenorden’s advice for successful response examples.
- Make sure you don’t make these common errors that will see your GradConnect application forms being rejected:
- Spelling/grammatical errors
- Not answering the questions
- Not providing succinct responses i.e. going off on a tangent
- Not using the STAR approach to properly structure your answers
- Producing answers which are significantly below the 250 word limit
- Not including sufficient relevant evidence.
- No resume required? You don’t need to submit a resume with your GradConnect application but many hospitals will ask you to bring a resume with you to interview so you’ll need to prepare a strong resume that doesn’t let you down at the interview stage. You will definitely need one to apply for Level I RN positions e.g. via http://jobs.wa.gov.au They also provide some great information for applicants, as does the Curtin Careers & Employment Centre: See the Faculty of Health Sciences section of our Resume workbook 2015 and complete the Resume module via Curtin Challenge.
Want more personalised advice? Submit your resume via CareerHub or Drop In at Level 2, Building 303 on Bentley Campus Monday – Friday 8.45am – 5pm (no appointment necessary). (Eligible to all Curtin students at no charge)
