How long did it take you to land your first job?

Nurses Job Hunt

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Hello fellow nurses! New BSN grad here, who has been applying for hospital, LTC and home health jobs like mad since passing NCLEX in early June.

Some of the hospitals warn online that it can take as long as 90 days to get an offer. Other potential employers have told me they want to get background check results.

So, I am wondering how long it took you to land your first job. How long did you wait before applying elsewhere? Did they let you know they were interested right away?

New graduate nurse. took boards july 19, had two interviews in the same week on august 7 and august 8, hired into icu on wednesday august 14 a week later. I start my fellowship Thursday and nursing orientation august 26! So approximately 4 weeks from boards to hire date. Mind you i worked as a tech for a year and a half in that same hospital!

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I've been applying since I graduated in May. Passed NCLEX in June. BSN and hospital volunteer experience. New Jersey is tough right now :( I wish that I had worked as a tech instead of focusing on my gpa

God, same here. Biggest mistake I ever made was not working and just focusing on school. What a dumbass I am.

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Specializes in CMSRN.

I graduated in May, passed NCLEX in June and have been searching since March. I had my first interview Monday (8/12), had the offer the same day and received an official offer letter in the mail Thursday (8/15). It's part-time to start but I'm excited to get my foot in the door. I start Monday (8/19) and can't wait!

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Don't be too hard on yourself. I just worked prn like once a week!! I couldn't do anymore than that and I made sure my boss knew!!!!!!

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God, same here. Biggest mistake I ever made was not working and just focusing on school. What a dumbass I am.

Don't worry, I worked full time the entire time I was in school and it didn't get me any offers!!!

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I just graduated 8/17 and I've applied to over 20 jobs since early July. No offers and I graduated with honors. I think it depends a lot on what part of the country you live in. Students who graduated from my school in April are working as techs and waiting. Those who graduated a year ago tell me it was much different then.

I would take any offer, because working and keeping up skills is better than doing nothing.

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I graduated May 4th, took boards on July 22nd, and accepted a job offer the day after I found out that I passed boards. But, I had a phone interview for that position in June, so it took a while to get a job offer. I start on August 26th and can't wait!!

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Congratulations to everyone, I passed nclex in march and so far no job yet.

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I graduated with my bsn in 2011. Worked as a CNA for 2 years while in school. They promised me a job...they lied. I wanted L&D so badly that I applied to and stalked every nurse recruiter in the tristate area for a L&D job. That didn't pan out too well. Never even got an interview for L&D. At that point I started to branch out a little more and try other specialties. (Med Surg is NOT for me so don't listen when people tell you that you HAVE to do med Surg first---I never did) back to job hunt. It was my job to find a job. Literally worked 9-5 on the computer putting in applications and calling and following up on every single one. I worked so hard that, even though I was on vacation, I went out at midnight to find a cyber cafe to apply for a job I heard about. Anyway, I finally got lucky and got an interview at 2 different places. Both on the same day..go figure. I got both jobs. One at a doctors office as his nurse and one at a hospital in the OR. I took the OR. Have been there for 2 years and I LOVE it. I did get my L&D job in between there and went per diem at the OR, but the L&D job didn't work out as much as I loved the work, it was a toxic environment. I'm still in the OR and I just got another full time job working with teenage moms and their babies. I am so excited. Anyway, point of the story is...work hard. Make getting a job, your job. Dedicate yourself to it. Call every nurse recruiter a week later after you apply and follow up on your applications. Sell yourself. Don't be too picky, but also don't take anything you know you will hate, you didn't work so hard for your nursing degree to be miserable. Sorry for the Long post. Lol good luck everyone!!!! Happy job hunting! Oh I never answered the question. It took me 3 months to get my first job. :)

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Specializes in School nursing.

Depends on where you live. I passed my NCLEX at the end on January and was working as a substitute school nurse the next month. Of course, I did not want to work at the hospitals (even though everyone told me that I had to work med surg first), so I waited for school nurse postings and landed a full-time position in April, started officially working in May. Now I'm about to start the next school year and I love my job!

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God, same here. Biggest mistake I ever made was not working and just focusing on school. What a dumbass I am.

I think you are being too hard on yourself. You did the best you could with what you knew at the time. I too did not work as a tech during school; instead, I worked my previous freelance gig (which paid more than twice as much)--I have less debt because of that and am happy for it.

Grades are important, esp if you want to get into grad school. One classmate of mine babysat all throughout school and she just got a job (we graduated in May 2013), so it's not all grim and bleak out there.

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I graduated in May of 2012, took my boards in July. I didn't get a job until March of 2013. The only reason why I got this job is 'cause a family friend of mine owns a home care agency and desperately needed nurses. It depends where you live. Here on Long Island, most of the people I graduated with are either still not employed as an RN or they moved upstate.

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