A Day In the Life of a New Grad

hey guys, just keep pushing it. it took me 9 long months after passing my nclex to land a job.

There are no jobs. It was a strategy by the hospitals years in the making. Flood the market with nurses, which brings down salaries and they can treat you like crap (there's 100 just like you in line outside the door waiting for your job if you don't like it). Basic economics - Supply and demand. They flooded the market for over 10 years. Good luck finding a job.

Keep your heads up, new grads. As a new grad myself, I FINALLY got my first job offer yesterday and have been applying for 5 long months...I know there are people who have waited longer, but still 5 months was enough to make me lose my confidence until yesterday. Thank goodness. I will be working in an Emergency Dept. It will come for you too, so just keep on it and keep trying!

Glad you found a job. Good luck with it - you're going to need all the luck you can get.

let the new grad congregation say Amen! and Amen again!

Keep plugging away!

It took me over 6 months post license to get a job - and this was in "non recession boom economy" times!

Don't give up!

LOVE IT!!!!

This post describes my life right now to a tee. It is crazy. I never realized I would have so much trouble finding a job. I just moved to florida and none of the hospitals in the tampa area are hiring new grads. It is really frustrating. I have even asked them if I could work as a CNA while I was waiting 6-8 weeks for a nursing position to open up for me. Nothing. One nurse manager even said that if I am licensed as a RN I should work as that and not a CNA. Well, if there are no openings for a RN a cna would be better than nothing right? I even have a lot of good references from nurses that work at area hospitals. The only thing that has worked for me so far is to just open the phone book and start calling places like nursing homes or rehab hospitals and ask them if they have any positions open for new nurses. I only go to letter C and I already found 3 places that were hiring and would let meet with a DON when I applied. A lot more promising response than any of the other places I applied at. So I would recommend to other new grads to just open the phone book and start calling nursing homes in your area and see what you get. I was pleasantly surprised with the results that I found. Usually you have to go there and fill out an application since they are usually smaller facilities and don't have a website to apply at. Good luck job hunting everyone!

Sorry to hear about your struggle, but it is no surprise. The hospitals flooded the market with the "need nurses" theory in order to keep costs down and treat the staff however they like.

For a while they did hire new grads, often to push out higher paid nurses - 2 for the price of 1. However, it is too dangerous to have an entire force of new grads (or they would). However, the lack of jobs will continue to get worse as the supply of nurses is greater than the demand. Again - equals lower pay and worse working conditions. You were had and you should be angry - you could have gotten a degree in something else.

The word has to get out, but who can convince the public? They tend to believe the "good" hospitals.

Take care.

WOW, i did not think it is so hard to find a job. I just graduated from a BSN school, and have not passed my board yet.

I just started applying just to see how the market was out there. Most position were looking for experienced nurses, but i applied any way for two positions. in less than two weeks, got called back for interviews and was offered a job that i accepted. The condition: pass my board before i start.

But then, i am getting married and have to relocate to another state; which means i'll have to let go of this new job.

After reading these posts, i am now so scared of going out there and start looking for another job.

But what i can say is, still try to apply even for those positions that require experience and you can used clinical experience as some of your patient care experience.

And thanks again for this wonderfull article...