Recruiters & managers & new grads... Oh my?

[NewlyANurse]

Hey everyone,

I've been so grateful for all the new grad questions and advice that is all over AllNurses now. I graduated in May and passed the NCLEX in July, but I'm still jobless. I live in MA, but I was originally planning on moving to Florida so I got a FL RN license.... Now those plans seem to be falling through, so I'm looking around here again. At least in the Boston area I have some "inside contacts" at the hospitals, which seem to be what you need nowadays.

I talked to the nurse who precepted me during my final semester's preceptorship in Boston, and she said that she'd heard there would be new grad openings in the fall on the unit where we had worked (she has transferred since then). I'm waiting to hear back from her to see if she has a name I could contact about that. In the meantime, I found the name of a nurse recruiter who deals with new grads for the hospital. I also have the name of the nurse manager from that unit. I met her once at the start of my preceptorship, but because I worked almost all nights and she came in later in the day, I never really got to network much with her while I was in school.

My question is-- should I contact the recruiter first, or go straight to the nurse manager? I don't want to step on any toes regarding the hiring process, but I also want to make sure the manager realizes that I already have 6 months experience as a student on her floor.

Working on this unit would be my DREAM, and if I'd known they were going to hire new grads, I probably would have never considered Florida in the first place.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

I would call all of them. The question is, what do you say?

When I was making contacts after I got my license, I would write a short script, practice it, then read it as naturally as possible on the phone whether I got voicemail or a live person.

How about something like this: "Hello, my name is _____, and I am a May graduate of _____. During my last clinical rotation, I spent XXX hours on the ____ unit. I am very interested in obtaining a job on the unit. As soon as new grad positions are posted for your hospital, I will be applying. In the meantime, I will be sending you a copy of my resume by email. Again, my name is _____, and you can contact me at ______. Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you."

Less than 30 seconds...that's it.

You might want to personalize it slightly for each person, and you should ask permission to email the resume if you get a live person. If you don't have the emails for these people, of course you need to nix that from your script if you get voicemail. In the email, you should reiterate what you said on the phone using "per my voicemail" or "per our conversation."

You have NOTHING to lose by doing this...just keep that in mind so you don't get cold feet.

ETA:

An added incentive to not get cold feet: I did just what I said above at the hospital where I did my last clinical rotation, and guess where I work now?

[NewlyANurse]

Thank you so much for your thoughts! It's comforting to know that someone else was able to get a job by doing all this.

I think I will try to contact as many people as I can about this. My former preceptor got back to me and said that it might be best to go through the recruiter because the nurse manager has said that she has too many former students contacting her, and there's nothing she can do without the recruiter's involvement. I don't want to further harrass her... I have a phone number for the recruiter and an email address for the manager, so maybe I'll call tomorrow and then see if I can email the recruiter my resume, and CC the manager?

I also did a high school internship at the hospital way back when, so I'm going to contact the woman who ran that and see if she can help me out with the networking. I want this so badly, but after all the rejection I've been facing for the past few months I'm afraid to get too optimistic.

[NewlyANurse]

Just an update-- I sucked it up and contacted whoever I could, had my resume and contact information forwarded to the nurse recruiter, and she got in touch with me right away! Interview next week. I'm crossing my fingers so hard they'll probably turn blue.

Thanks again for the advice, and for reminding me not to get cold feet!

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

YAY! I'm so happy for you! You grabbed the opportunity and ran with it. Way to go!

ETA: Keep us posted on the interview, k?

[KattyRN]

dudette10,

Thanks SO much for posting your "script". People always say to just call human resources but I always wonder what I'm gonna say when I call. I'm gonna tweak it a little and try it whenever I call HR. Thanks so much!