nurse nonrecruiters

[fungez]

Anyone else think that nurse recruiters are useless?

They don't call back. I've learned not to leave voicemails because I know from experience they won't be returned.

If I manage to catch them live, they act put out they have to deal with me. And I've had one...two....lemme think...five different jobs in the last few years and I've yet to get any assistance from a recruiter. I've recently moved, left messages with three different facilities, and NOT ONE called me back. These are for PRN jobs, very low risk for the hospital.

I can remember a time before they invented nurse recruiters and online applications, and it worked better then. You went up the unit with your resume and talked to the manager. Cut out the middleman. When I call a prospective employer and get a receptionist or general HR person, I get my calls returned and questions answered. When I get a recruiter, they are imcompetent and snotty.

Why do they exist? What's their purpose? Delete the job description and make 'em work as a CNA, then they'll at least be helpful.

[meandragonbrett]

Most nurse recruiters impede the hiring process.

[RN1980]

when our hospital was in the hiring mode (seems like light yrs ago) we had a part-time nurse recruiter. she was a former l&d nurse at our hopsital. most of our unit directors thought she did a pretty good job at bringing good qualified nurses for hire to the hospitals attention and kept the directors abreast as of what was out there as far as recruitment. but the biggest problem she had was our hr dept. they were very slow and dragged their feet with the hiring and background clearences. there were many times when a unit director would tell a nurse "we want you" and would advise them hr would contact them for orientation once their clearence was complete. well that would take forever, talkin about 3wks to a month...well by that time the nurse had hired on to another hospital. we have lost several good nurses that way. i personally knew 2 nurses and a resp tech that were top of the line that were lost to other hospitals cuase of this.

[tacobarlass]

I have spoken to five recruiters over the last few months of my job search. Only one wasn't helpful in that she gave me incorrect information regarding pre-screening telephone interviews. The other four were wonderful. One recruiter returned my call only to tell me that they didn't have any positions for new grads right now and that she understood how tough it is right now for us. She was very encouraging even though she couldn't help me. Another was clearly enthusiastic about her facility as she had began her nursing career there. She even talked to me about what to ask in an interview.

I just wanted everyone to know that some recruiters are courteous and DO return calls and reply to emails.

[Work in Progress]

I have decided that the nurse recruiters at several of these hospitals don't actually exist. The put a made up name outside of an empty office, a voicemail that gets deleted once a day and a phony email address that has 7,892,357 unread emails in its inbox. That way no one has to answer any annoying questions from new grads! There is no way they can exsist. I don't know of a single person that got a job using the online application or the nursing recruiter (granted that is completely anecdotal, but a little fishy, methinks).

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

fungez

i was begining to think i was the only one who had this problem!

i applied for so many jobs in one place, when i did follow up phone calls a bit later, one of the recruiters even told me that 'my application was never received' - and i sent it via registered mail to her personally - all that time & money spent on photocopying, paying for postage, etc (about $10 for each application plus postage). she then said i would have to send it all in again - and i had only sent the original about 5-6 days beforehand! i think this recruiter just couldn't be bothered looking for it. and many of them yes, you do have to ring back yourself.

a recruiter just told me today that he receives 50-70 applications per day, & they take a long time to process; he said trying to track down referees was the most time-consuming part of the job. but i agree hr can be useless - everything takes so long, especially on a public holiday here in oz cos everyone goes away early for their long weekends, meanwhile you are constantly checking your mobile wondering why no-one has rung!

one woman told me it would take 6 weeks to process everything, then set up an interview! i told her that is patently ridiculous & i didn't bother applying. do they think we live on bread and water??

i left about 5-6 emails for one person before i had to call him - and he was quite rude into the bargain - he said; 'i'm very busy you know', so i got annoyed and said: 'so you think i'm not busy having to call you, and your time is more precious than mine?' he actually sort of apologised then.

ignoramus!

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

I have decided that the nurse recruiters at several of these hospitals don't actually exist. The put a made up name outside of an empty office, a voicemail that gets deleted once a day and a phony email address that has 7,892,357 unread emails in its inbox. That way no one has to answer any annoying questions from new grads! There is no way they can exsist. I don't know of a single person that got a job using the online application or the nursing recruiter (granted that is completely anecdotal, but a little fishy, methinks).

Ha ha! Maybe there are little munchkins in a locked office gleefully laughing away at us all, and deleting the messages once they come in!

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

I have decided that the nurse recruiters at several of these hospitals don't actually exist. The put a made up name outside of an empty office, a voicemail that gets deleted once a day and a phony email address that has 7,892,357 unread emails in its inbox. That way no one has to answer any annoying questions from new grads! There is no way they can exsist.

I love this post.. I laughed really hard! However this is not true. They actually do exist. The problem is that they get paid to duck and cover when an applicant responds to a post.

[Kitty Hawk, ADN, RN]

While I totally appreciate where you're coming from. (I remember your response to one of my threads about the exact thing!) In my area the one mega hospital, you have to go through them. Actually the one that I just got my job at, she's the recruiter for 2 of the hospitals in the system, she is very nice. Calls back when she says she will, returns calls even on inquiries (back last fall when I asked what the outlook would be)

However I've experienced much of what you way with other recruiters within the same system. Either the app is lost in space and you never hear from them or they'll act like you're putting them out to check on apps *if* you can even reach them.

The hospital tied with the school I grad from, she's "okay". She did try to help, but it was a losing battle as they're not doing well. You could get a job going directly to managers there though, from what I've seen/found out, that's not the case with the hospital system I just got hired into, you have to go through the online apps and HR. The unit directors and managers even route their decisions back through HR to contact you with job offers.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I've had great luck with nurse recruiters at both hospital systems I work for here in the Denver area.

[belgarion]

I think the real purpose of the recruiters is to "protect" the floor managers from having to deal with such pesky matters as who they will have working on their floorand dealing with patients. That way they can be free to attend high prority meetings about such weighty matters as making sure the employees are parking as far from the front door as possible or choosing the color scheme for the semi-annual lobby redo.

[MsCoco]

I agree. Especially here in California, they have been so bombarded by applicants they ignore everyone. I am actually understanding of the fact that they send everyone the same rejection letter, and that they do not have time to call every single person... I would honestly probably do the same.

What I do not understand however, is when members of HR and nurse recruiters have lost that touch of grace or empathy for all the people (fellow nurses) out there who are desperate, have bills to pay, and would like an honest chance at an opportunity with their company.

I recently received a phone call from a nurse recruiter at St. Bernardine Medical Center who called and said in a rude and condescending manner "we are not interested in someone with YOUR profile" basically telling me to quit applying to their hospital. I never even interviewed with them ?!!!, and had received their auto-rejection email. I did not need to receive that phone call, the email was clear enough that they do not hire new grads. Basically she just called to jab the needle a little deeper. There was no empathy. After she went on how they would never consider a new grad such as myself.... I was just shocked and silent, and then responded "that is fine, bye bye". I wish I could have said "Did you call to help me or hurt me?". The answer would have been obvious.

That being said, I have also had contact with pleasant recruiters who have been helpful in the application process and answered questions. Ones that upon giving you the update after interview that they had selected someone else, have been more graceful and understanding. Treating the applicants like they would want to be treated if it was them in these shoes.