Broke and unemployed

Specialties NP

Published

I am in the same sinking boat as so many other recent NP grads. No one will hire me without experience and I cannot get experience unless someone will hire me. I went through my savings to get this degree and now cannot find a job. I am taking every locus tenens job offered and taking clinical instructor positions though I wanted to to primary care. It is extremely disappointing and disheartening. I am going to lose my house and my children cannot go to college. My grades were good, I passed the boards on the first try and I spend several hours per day trying to find a job. Where are these residency programs anyway? I am about to give up

Indeed.com is a great website that you can post a resume to and employers contact you. Also a ton of local and national listings. Good luck- keep your head up.

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Specializes in Internal Medicine.

Not to discredit the OP, but there have been a few of these doom and gloom "my NP degree got me nowhere and I'm paid less than an RN posts" by new accounts with only a single post in just the last couple of days. Some come from different accounts with the same IP address.

I realize some folks really struggle to land a job, or the right job, but NP jobs are out there. I live in Texas and am 2 months from graduating and have received several offers, most of them better than my already pretty maxed out RN salary. If you live in an area with a lot of supply and not a lot of demand, it's going to be tough no matter what you do.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Military

It is not easy to get into the military as a nurse corps officer, assuming that an applicant is qualified it usually still takes at least 12-18 months to get in the military from the time you first see a recruiter.

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To better chances of finding employment, perhaps relocating may be the best option to gain experience. It's not forever and you'll get your foot in the door. ;) good luck!

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Specializes in ER.

Where in Texas are these supposed new grad jobs ?? Because I am in Houston and can't find a new grad fnp job, every body is asking for acute care np. Luckily I have a job that pays me the same if not more as an NP I would been broke too. Tell me where the np texas jobs are and I will be there...

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Specializes in Internal Medicine.

El Paso. Lubbock. San Antonio. Dallas. Personally I am in El Paso. I've been offered several jobs here and elsewhere in Texas. My closest friend in my program landed a great job in San Antonio. 2 classmates in Houston got great jobs working with primary care physicians.

Did you have a lot of experience as an RN before going to school? It's been my experience that my connections with physicians as an RN have helped me land jobs desirable by any NP let alone new grads.

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Specializes in ER.

Riburn I have been a nurse for 12 years...7 years in ER and 5 in STICU. I actually went to school in Lubbock but jobs in houston is shut! Like I stated earlier there are tons on Acute Care but no primary care jobs!

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OP, how long has it been since graduation? It is definitely a scary position to be in. I am a Spring '14 grad but have found that most of my graduating class (60+), myself included, have found jobs since graduation in the Midwest area by this point. My advice would be to work as an RN, preferably in a large hospital system, where you can network to your advantage with providers and bid on internal NP positions as time passes. I also would look up every contact in every health system I had ever known throughout my career (including your past preceptors and instructors) and let them know you are hunting for a job, in case someone is aware of something that has not been opened or posted to the public. Additionally, if your NP program offered any type of career services through the college, I would contact them also.

Good luck to you!

Cardiac

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I get at least 5 postcards WEEKLY for Texas NP jobs in the DFW area. The THR system and Baylor system seem to be the most rapidly expanding companies hiring NPs. There are plenty of Texas jobs out there. I just got an email for a recruiter for the new clinics in Wal-Mart (I know, I know! But if you are eager to start and want to just get some experience...) with $15K sign on for the Tyler/Palestine, etc. area.

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Specializes in Home Health, Podiatry, Neurology, Case Mgmt.

BlueDevil where are you located at?

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Wow that is hard to believe - I graduated this year. I had 4 interviews and 2 offers before I passed by board. At least 2 x week I get a call or email wanting to talk about a position. Look at your CV and resume ( make them look good)- include information about the type of patients you saw during clinical. Post on websites such as Indeed and Zip recruiter. Join your local NP organization, volunteer at a free clinic.

Most of all be prepared for your interview. Bring a folder with you with at minimum 3 letters of reference, another list of references that can be contacted, licenses, transcript, ACLS, BLS and whatever else shows you are ready to go to work.

Prepare yourself, know what type of patient's the practice sees and speak to your knowledge of this type of pt. Be prepared to talk about your philosophy of care.

Don't be a head bobber or dear in the head lights. Ask them questions too. I have some below:

What kind of person does well here?

What are the challenges of this position?

Is this a new position or a replacement position?

What type of mentoring is provided?

Is this an employee position or contracted position?

What are the opportunities for advancement?

Look around and note the mood of the facility.

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Specializes in ER.

#Dshowers great tips for job interviews..the problem though is this thread is not about resume presentations and interview etiquette. As I would like to say colloquially "she ain't getting no jobs" to even make it to an interview to utilize your nicely laid out interview pointers. Your tips are great for some one who is having job offers left and right and having interview problems. Another thing we forget when we come to this forum is that this is a national forum and we tend to give advise base on where we live without taking other variables into consideration such as geographical locations , specialties, rural areas, PA dense areas among others. Let's not be quick to come out and assume our colleagues are doing something wrong that's why they are not getting jobs. Every situation is different, here in the Houston area acute care jobs are more available in the metro area than places like East Texas or West Texas. And almost every ad is asking for bilingual NPs, am originally from a tiny little town in South Carolina and don't speak a lick of Spanish or Arabic . So let's be a bit sensitive and considerate when responding to others on this forum..JABS not cool:no:

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