I'm a new graduate; I graduated in January and received my license in April. The marketplace around here is pretty tough, but most people from my graduating class have found jobs by now.
I've had a lot of interviews in the area, mostly for ERs, with no job offer yet. I have several years of EMT experience and I most desire to become an ER nurse. This past week I had an interview at a level I trauma center.
My story here: This last hospital I interviewed at, I went in for an initial interview a week prior and then I shadowed the ER for about 7 hours. I met most of the staff that day (about 25-30 nurses as well as staff from other professions) and got along very well with virtually every single one of them. I did everything I could on the unit. My contact on the unit told me that the assistant manager was impressed and she told him that I would probably get the job.
I came back and met with the ER manager for my second interview. She was very excited and did most of the talking; telling me about orientation, the unit and hospital, etc. She asked me a few questions but I mostly had to interject to sell myself to her. At the very end of the 30 minute interview, I asked her if she could see me working out in the position. She said "absolutely," then I listened as she listed five reasons to hire me. She told me to call back in one or two weeks when the three positions were officially open. I asked her if there was anything that could prevent her from hiring me, and she basically stated that if she had three good candidates with experience then she may take them over me. Otherwise it sounded like my chances were pretty good, because she was having trouble getting those with experience in the door.
The next day, I got a call from HR saying that I was no longer being considered as a candidate. It was a very vague statement and she wouldn't go into detail beyond me not having any experience. I wondered if someone had trashed me or something, so I later emailed the HR lady who called me and asked her if she contacted my references, and she hadn't. My references later confirmed to me that they had not been contacted. I also sent a courteous email to the ER director who interviewed me, stating that I was disappointed but did not take the rejection personally, and I asked what I could have improved, and I got no response.
What would make such a ridiculous 180 occur? What I suspect is that somebody above her head must have told her not to hire me, and that it may have been strictly a business decision. Either that or there was some red flag that she thought she found on me; but even then, I can't imagine what that would be. It costs approximately $50k for the hospital to train a new graduate into the ER so it's one of the toughest units to get into as a new graduate, so any doubt in their mind could be enough to prevent me from getting the job.
Frankly I'm tired of being played like this. This is not the first time this has happened to me; where I've had an awesome interview and then got shot down less than 24 hours later. This next week I'm going around to manors from the area to see if it isn't significantly easier to get a job at one of them. I need to get my initial experience and hospitals have been bumming me out.
