New Grad Moving to California

Your best bet is to look for a new grad RN residency program. However, let me give you a fair warning.

The nursing market in California is very competitive. You are not only competing against new grads but also experienced nurses.

Hospital in Torrance, CA starts their NICU nurses $24.51 (increases with experience).

California does have a lot of jobs for RNs but these jobs are for experienced nurses alone. Most of my classmates (we're 45 in the class), still are looking for a job and out of 45 only 3 (including myself) are working (the two are already working for the hospital prior to their licensing). The 2 classes who graduated above us have the same story.

Unless you have a good source of income, and a house you could crash on, then I suggest to look for an experience closer to home.

First, CA really prefers BSNs...this doesn't mean you can't get hired with a ADN or diploma, but it's a lot harder. Second, there's lots of new grads here but not that many new grad jobs and residencies available, so competition is fierce.

If possible, I would try to hang out in Texas to get at least a year of experience before you come out here.

Agreed. Throughout this forum, you'll find various posts about the dire job situation for new grads in California. Some of them have been looking for a year or more. Also, the CA BON has tightened their rules for both CA nurses and out-of-state RNs. Unless you have at least one year of nursing experience, moving to CA is probably very unwise.

Katanator-

I graduated in December 2011 from Michigan State University (BSN) and moved to CA to be with my BF of 4 yrs. I got on this website just like you to look for "tips" on getting a job here and where to even look. The best "tip" I got and never listened to is Don't bother job searching in CA. There aren't enough opportunities and no matter how great your resume is, without a very very strong connection to nurse manager its next to impossible. If you want to be with your family long term- stay in Texas or wherever else you can find a job for at least a year and then apply.

The past 8 months has been such a frustrating time for me. I was a very competitive in Michigan, and thought I could land something even a nursing home job or home health care position at the least but I was above that. After months of applying to peds jobs I realized I needed to try anything there was, and even still I couldn't get an interview for a nursing home. It's just been this week that I decided to move back to MI to apply to a job where I have an "in" and its also my dream job, just not my dream location. I don't regret trying to make it out here, but its honestly has nothing to do with your talent or drive, its purely connections and luck.

I know this is probably really hard to hear, but I ignored it myself bc I thought I'll prove them wrong, I'll be the 1%. Just take a good job somewhere and then transfer later. You'll be glad you did. Ultimately, we became nurses to help others. Being umemployed for a year after working so hard for a nursing degree just doesn't make sense. Hope this helps.. Take care!