Getting hired with little work experience??

[Mom23kiddos]

Hi Everyone,

I am a nursing student set to graduate in December. I am so excited for that light at the end of the tunnel except for one little thing...job hunting. I am definately ready to work as a nurse and have all my hard work pay off, but I am terrified of finding a job. I have very little work experience due to being a stay at home mother to my young children. It seems that the vast majority of my class either already works at a hospital or has been recently employed in some kind of healthcare field. My question is this; am I at a disadvantage to my potential employers because I decided to stay home and raise my children? I don't have a lengthy resume, and my last job was almost seven years ago (before my first child was born). What can I do to beef up my resume so I look competative to the other applicants?

[N2NRSING]

I am in the same place, loooking forward to the responses for this thread.

[pinkfluffybunny]

I have 5 very long months. They seem to alternate between going by really fast and gong by really slow. I have little experience in healthcare but, I feel confident in my skills and my ability to think on my feet and pick up new skills. I think that it is all in how you present yourself to future employers. My motto is "persistence beats resistance". I also tend to think that in this case take whatever job you can get, don't look at the pay, just do it and get it under your belt. Then once you have that you can start looking around for that one aspect of nursing that you love and go for it. I wish you the best of luck.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

If you have little work experience, your "experience" is everything you have done in nursing school - emphasize that on your resume!

[ShantheRN, BSN, RN]

Network, network, network. Send thank you cards to nurse managers. Ask your preceptor(s) if s/he can give you any leads for anything that will lead to a job. Treat every day of preceptorship as a job interview. Ask family, friends, your mailman, everyone. I tried for over a month to get my current job through the conventional methods. I ran into someone at orientation that knew someone in HR. I called the number, and got a phone interview the next day.

I graduate at the end of January and I've been weaving a web of contacts through the major hospital networks over the past year of clinical. Does it guarantee me a job? Nope, but it puts me one step ahead of the person that didn't do any of that.

[apoppyfield, BSN, RN]

Did you do an extern at the hospital where you did your clinicals. This is a way to get experience, some money, and usually leads to a job.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

You are only a few months from graduating, so work experience is out of the question unless you get a healthcare position within a few weeks.

Did you take leadership positions in school?

Did your receive scholarships or awards?

Can you include your previous work experience on your resume? Can you point to leadership or time management (project managing) in your previous line of work?

There has to be something there to put on your resume; you just have to figure out what it is. If you don't, your resume will look like all the other new grads who have exactly the same credentials: graduated, passed the boards. You must find something that will make you stand out...I'm sure there's something!