[BJsHope]

Hello, I recently graduated from lvn school and will be taking the Nclex-pn exam on June 9. Before going to nursing school I worked for the same company for 15 years, I started when I was 18. Now that I am going to be looking for a job I feel lost! I am wondering if I should be sending out resumes now or if I should wait until I have my liscence. I also have never been on an interview in my life so I was wondering if someone can tell me what I can expect employers to ask. If anyone has any advice for me I would really appreciate it!

Thanx, SM

[kiyasmom]

First off, congrats on graduation! That is super! Now, I know this thread is old so I hope you are still following it. Anyway, I began my job hunt about three weeks before graduation. I still don't graduate until Tuesday. I went to a couple of the job sites, www.monster.com, www.ajb.com, www.hotjobs.com, www.careerbuilder.com to see what types of jobs were available for the GPN/LPN. Ultimately I wanted a job when I graduated, but I had decided I could wait until after I passed my boards if I had to. I saw a lot of openings and decided I would go ahead and submit my resume, not really expecting too much. Within a week I had at least four call backs. Two of which were just employers telling me they don't hire GPNs but to call back once I was licensed. Anyway, I did interview a couple of places, got a few offers and accepted one of them. I will graduate with a job. Basically all that said, I don't think it matters when you apply because there are a lot of positions out there, and some of the prime ones won't take you without your permanent license. So, in that aspect it may be better to wait. However, you also have to remember that a lot of nurses (LPN, RN, and BSN) are all graduating around the same time. Therefore if you have your eye on a certain department/facility it may be in your best interest to call HR and see how many openings there are, find out whether they hire GPNs, and make your decision to submit an application/resume at that time.

Also, on my interviews I was asked ?s like: 1. What's the biggest challenge you faced, how did you handle it? 2. If you had two CNAs arguing about taking the same day off, what would you do? 3. Tell me your biggest accomplishment/greatest defeat. 4. What are your strengths/weaknesses and how do you think these will play into your nursing leadership style? *I also had to take a med test on one of the interviews but it wasn't really horrible.
Good luck! Keep us posted.