Applying for jobs while in last semester of nursing school?

[x28y31]

Hello!

I am currently a future University of OKlahoma College of Nursing BSN graduate, and am planning to move to Colorado to be near my husband! I have a couple of nursing school friends who are already applying to RN jobs, even though they have not had their license, taken the NCLEX, or anything like that yet. I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice about this? Should I go ahead and apply for RN positions and put on my resume that I will be working on getting a Colorado nursing license prior to my start date? Should I try to call the nursing recruiter and start there? I don't want to fall behind in the game, especially since I know the nursing job market in Colorado is no joke and is not an easy playing field! I plan on applying to nurse residencies in Colorado, but I am asking about RN positions. :)

Any advice would be great and very much appreciated!

Thank you so much!

[canigraduate]

I can't tell you about Colorado specifically, but I can tell you that applying before you graduate is a must. I started applying in October and graduated the following December. I had two job offers by the time I graduated and all I had left to do was pass the NCLEX. This was during the awful time when there was almost a nationwide hiring freeze d/t the economic downturn.

I would go on each hospital's job board and put in applications for any RN residency/new grad openings. If there aren't any of those, just apply to whatever open positions you want.

I would follow up with a call to the nurse recruiter at each hospital and ask them what you need to do to be selected as a candidate. They are the gatekeepers, it's important to keep them happy.

If you don't know how to get in touch with the nurse recruiter, a call to the hospital's main number will get you that information.

Best of luck to you!

[Annachu512, BSN, RN]

I graduate in May and I have been applying since earlier in the month. The area hospitals tell our dean to encourage us to apply early. I had an inquiry for my graduate summary within a week. I'm thankful for this considering I see some many others having such a hard time find that allusive first hospital job.