Hi all,

I recently graduated in May with an ADN and I have been looking for work for nearly 4 months now in the Boston area and I am feeling VERY discouraged. I may have an opportunity to work in ortho at a rehab, but I have had my heart set on med surg in acute care since my first clinical rotation. I have sent out countless resumes, filled out a million online applications, checked job boards repeatedly, networked, followed-up, etc and I have not even got a call back for an interview. I have expanded my search to community hospitals and still nothing. At this point, do I just go wherever I am offered a job, or do I hold out for what I really want to do? I am so afraid that if I take a job in LTC or rehab that I will be missing out on the broad learning experience a new grad can get in a more acute care setting. I have worked so hard to get though school and I am so eager and excited about nursing as a career. I just don't know if I should settle on the first thing that comes my way. Any advice or words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated!

SJ

Sleepy Jane,

The problem is in the HR Department and not you! For all of the talk of nursing shortages I hear this over and over again that resumes get submitted and no one follows up or they follow up 2 months later.

So here is a couple a thoughts for you.....

1) Go to the first recruitment or career fair that you can find in your area. They may be advertised in the newspaper or you can definitely find them in the "throwaway" nursing journals. You are a new nurse so you may not be on the various mailing lists but check out a couple of these websites and subscribe (they are free). http://www.nurse.com/ or http://www.nursing.advanceweb.com/Main.aspx

They will mail and/or email you info and you will find a career fair near you soon. You can also call the local hospitals in the HR dept and ask if they have any nursing recruitment events coming up soon.

2) Once you find a career fair, show up dressed as professionally as you can with many copies of your resume and talk to the recruiters in person. Be sure and get business cards and call them back personally if you don't hear back in a week or so.

3) Try to identify if there are any professional meetings that you can attend in your area where you can network. For instance, you can join the Academy for Medical Surgical Nurses.... http://www.medsurgnurse.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AMSNMain.woa

and then attend local chapter meetings. Networking is a terrific way to find a job.

So all of this might take a little time. If you must go to work quickly...I'd go ahead and try rehab...who knows, you might love it. But if you don't and six months down the road you are able to swing a medical surgical job...you can always leave.

Sorry this is so lengthy but I feel sure that you will be able to work in the area that is attractive to you. Good luck!!

Just an Idea

I'm just a student, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt.

We just learned how to write an resume and cover letter and there are specific ways to format and items to put in to be more attractive to a potential employer. At our school we have a career services office that will review your resume and cover letters and help you improve them. You may have already done this. This is just what I immediately thought of probably because we just did this in class.

Good Luck to you!:)

There's also the problem of the new grad bottleneck... most hospitals can only hire so many new grads at a time because they need more support. Often new grad programs will run only twice a year so if you missed the most recent one, it might be another several months before they look at hiring new grads again.

Definitely follow up on any applications by calling a few days later to make sure they received it and again after a week to check if it's been reviewed. HR departments are infamous for not following up on applications. It's even better if you can make contact directly with a floor manager. Ask at HR if you can speak with a floor manager or find out who the various floor managers are and contact them directly (with a brief polite phone call for instance).

If money is an issue and you can't wait several months to land the job you want, go ahead and take what you can, but keep persisting at getting hired to med-surg. I think that strategy is reasonable and not irresponsible as long as you're not making a habit of changing jobs every few months just for a few extra cents or the like.

All have provided good information, especially the comments regarding HR. I am a DON for a small hospital in the south and frequently have the same issues. When I actually get to hire a nurse it is usually someone that has found a way to contact myself or the nurse manager of a specific unit. Sometimes in this business its not what you know, but who you know! Try to send a resume directlythe nurse manager or call if possible, they will have more at stake than HR. Please do not give up your search.

I agree with robr Rn. See if you can contact the nurse manager. I had contacted the HR department at one hospital and never heard back. Then I got the name and contact info for the nurse manager, and sent her a resume. She was VERY receptive, and now I have a job. I don't know what is up with the HR people. I had problems with several HR departments...even when they were running ads for new grads!!!

I also had a lot of the same problems as you are describing, the only people who would call me were those offering jobs that I was not interested in. What I finally started doing is calling the nurse managers of floors I was interested in, immediately I received two calls back asking me to come in for interviews. I was offered jobs after both of the interviews :) Do you know any nurses in the units that you would like to work in? If so ask them to put in a good word for you!! Call the hospital and ask to be connected to the nurse manager of the unit you are interested in. I was connected to a voicemail box every time I called, so what I would say is "Hi, my name is Christie (and last name) I got your name from (for me this was my cousin who told me about the nurse manager). I am a recent graduate of MedCentral College of Nursing and I am very interested in your unit. I have heard a lot of good things about your unit and I would love a chance to talk with you! Please call me at (my phone number).

When you go to an interview make sure you are dressed very nicely and go with a folder that contains a list of questions you have prepared to ask them, a copy of your nursing license and resume, and any other things you need. My nurse manager told me that one of the reasons why she was so impressed with me was because I seemed genuinely interested in working for her because I asked so many detailed questions. I guess she even mentioned some of the questions I asked in one of the staff meetings! I would be happy to try to find my list of questions for you if you would like them.

Congrats on becoming a new rn. you are so where i wish i were, right now, so please dont become discouraged. just take it slow and you should take the 1st job that comes to you, just so that you can have some type of experience(maybe it wont be the type you want, but it will be useful) and while you are working just kep filling out applications and following up as you have been for the job you really want/ wish you the best!!!:balloons:

Congrats on becoming a new rn. you are so where i wish i were, right now, so please dont become discouraged. just take it slow and you should take the 1st job that comes to you, just so that you can have some type of experience(maybe it wont be the type you want, but it will be useful) and while you are working just kep filling out applications and following up as you have been for the job you really want/ wish you the best!!!:balloons:

I disagree! Don't take just any job, go for the one you want! If you keep trying, you will get the job you want :) It took me several months to finally find my job!

Your posting concerns me, I just graduated as well. I've just started looking for a job in the Boston area and was hoping to find a new grad program for the fall.

I graduated with an ADN as well, and hope this doesn't limit me.

Has any of the advice helped thus far?

My best to you- Alison

Let me give you a little hint. HR departments are NOT where the jobs are - the are on the M/S units.

Quit fooling around with the bureaucrats in HR and find the Unit Directors - THEY are the ones with the jobs.