I'm Losing hope in finding a Job

Nurses Job Hunt

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I graduated in December and passed my boards March 30th. I have been searching for jobs ever since but no one has contacted me. I desperately need work because of my student visa situation. I only have a year for work. I wanted to work and then work on a working visa (but that's another topic so I am not going to get into that). I have applied all over the 5 borough's in NY and Long Island (I live on Long Island). I also applied to Westchester county and they rejected me at st. John;s Riverside. At this point I don't know what to do. The only work experience I have where part time jobs at a store and my college campus. I am young, 22, and went off to nursing after high school so I have no CNA or LPN experience. I tried getting nurse externships in college but those were too selective so they rejected me. And now employers are rejecting me also.

Do You have any tips/tricks I can do or add to my resume? I only put my preceptorship and clinical experience there since I have no work experience. I also put my education, and student work experience (which has nothing to do with nursing). Another thing is that I do not drive so I am very limited :(

I have considered upstate like Albany, Rochester, Binghamtom and Buffalo. Call me crazy but I don't want to go there because I have looked up the crime stats in those areas and to my surprise they seem dangerous. Especially because there are less people it scares me. I am a single 22 year old woman and I do not want to risk my life (I have RN btw). Most people I know went upstate for college but this is different because I will be living by myself. And with no car I don't know how it would work. Especially coming home at night (after a day shift) or early in the morning (after night shift).[/quote

If you are really interested in applying for jobs out of state go for it. Start calling hospitals that you might be interested in and ask to speak to Human Resources. Once you get Human resources on the line ask to speak to a nurse recruiter. Years ago I lived in New Mexico and wanted to move to Texas. I started applying to any and every job I could find where I wanted to live and had no problems getting call backs. The large metro areas are satuturated right now with nurses and I think its going to be tough anywhere to get a job. I do have some suggestions. First, you are single so if I were you I would be willing to work anywhere, even If that means a smaller town, smaller hospital. You will get invaluable experience. I lived in a town of 100,000 people in texas. Much slower pace not so busy hospital and learned so much there !!!. Maybe start looking in cities that have a population of between 500,000 to 1 million. Most cities that size while smaller than NYC are large enough to have good public transportation options. Secondly, you have a NY Nursing license. You can endorse in to any state. Yes you have to apply to that states Board of nursing and their is a cost to that. Find a job first. I have interviewed in a lot of places in my career and moved to different states for a job and not once did any of the people interviewing not give me a job based on the fact that I didn't have nursing license in their state. They just gave me enough time to endorse in before actually starting the job!

I Applied to Albany Medical, Ellis Hospital and St Peters (all in Albany)...Do you think I should call their HR department or nurse recruiter? How should I follow up on this? I have never done this before and so I don't want to seem desperate (even though I am haha).

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If worse comes to worse can you go back to school and extend your visa that way?

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If worse comes to worse can you go back to school and extend your visa that way?

I could but It wont be nursing because I need experience before going to grad school for Nurse Practitioner

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Specializes in Cardiology.

I can't really tell you how long it took for them to get back to me because I already worked at my current employer before I was a nurse- they called me and offered me a nursing position before I ever got a chance to apply (they gave me a scholarship so they knew exactly where I was in regards to my schooling.)

I would stay away from Arbor Hill- and downtown Albany. The neighborhood right around St. Peter's is fine. I'm a country person, so I commute from another county, but I would feel safe walking there during the day. I see a lot of women running in that area at night, too. Albany Med is right down the street from SPH. If you look on Craigslist, you may be able to find other nurses in the area looking for roommates. A lot of my co-workers are young single females living in the area with no problems.

As for Ellis, I wouldn't want to live right in that neighborhood, but that's just me. I do believe there is a pretty decent bus system in both cities, so you should be okay to live a little further out.

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Sorry, crime is everywhere, no matter where you live. I live in Albany now and where I live is a safe area. Would i go walking alone outside at night by myself, no, that would be ridiculous. I wouldn't do that even in the safest of neighborhoods. That being said, I understand your concern, I'm in my 20's as well, have no family anywhere near NY and my closest friends are in Boston. So, I moved here on my own and did some research of my own.

Albany med was one of three offers (the other two offers were not great RN positions but I would have taken them if Albany didn't offer me anything). It's my first nursing job. I have my BSN and like you applied to many hospitals. Many in NYC and Southern California. After being unsuccessful there I expanded my search to include all of NY. When I graduated I got my NY and CA license. After I applied to Albany Med, it took about 3 weeks to hear back from them and another maybe week (tops) to be offered a job. I didn't even have to fly in (I was living in CA) for the interview, just did one over the phone which was great.

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Sorry, crime is everywhere, no matter where you live. I live in Albany now and where I live is a safe area. Would i go walking alone outside at night by myself, no, that would be ridiculous. I wouldn't do that even in the safest of neighborhoods. That being said, I understand your concern, I'm in my 20's as well, have no family anywhere near NY and my closest friends are in Boston. So, I moved here on my own and did some research of my own.

Albany med was one of three offers (the other two offers were not great RN positions but I would have taken them if Albany didn't offer me anything). It's my first nursing job. I have my BSN and like you applied to many hospitals. Many in NYC and Southern California. After being unsuccessful there I expanded my search to include all of NY. When I graduated I got my NY and CA license. After I applied to Albany Med, it took about 3 weeks to hear back from them and another maybe week (tops) to be offered a job. I didn't even have to fly in (I was living in CA) for the interview, just did one over the phone which was great.

What experience do you have? Did you do an internship? Or work as a CNA. I did a preceptorship in school but that was part of clinical rotations. I applied to Albany (3 positions) the first time and I did not get two of them so I called Human Resources and they told me to apply to two more so I did that last week. I never hear from them so now I'm worried...if upstate NY doesn't want me I don't think anyone will. I have absolutely no experience whatsoever :sniff:

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I got my first bachelors from a school in california worked a few years out in california. Then got into bachelor's nursing program on the east coast finished and applied to work all over, from DC to as far north as NH and also in CA. I have no previous PCA, CNA, LNA, LPN, or LVN experience. I had no nurse externship as I did an accelerated program and did not have time to do so. I did have a preceptorship my final semester of nursing school and that was it.

My advice to you is to apply everywhere, out of state, in state, LTCs, SNFs, hospitals, clinics etc. I applied to 150 jobs before something stuck. I can tell you that many of the people that got their jobs at Albany med did their clinical rotations there or were employees there and offered positions once they finished nursing school.

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Specializes in Cardiology.
if upstate NY doesn't want me I don't think anyone will. I have absolutely no experience whatsoever :sniff:

Just a heads up that this statement seems a smidge offensive to this upstate NY nurse who isn't working in upstate NY because I'm unqualified elsewhere. Just saying.

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Just a heads up that this statement seems a smidge offensive to this upstate NY nurse who isn't working in upstate NY because I'm unqualified elsewhere. Just saying.

I didn't mean it to offend you so I apologize. What I meant was that I thought upstate has a lower population so therefore more job availability for RN's...but apparently all of New York is the same

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Specializes in Cardiology.

I didn't mean it to offend you so I apologize. What I meant was that I thought upstate has a lower population so therefore more job availability for RN's...but apparently all of New York is the same

Oh, I didn't actually take it personally, but if I had a thin skin, it would be a different story. We do have lower population, but we also have smaller hospitals and fewer patients to fill them (its all about proportion.) That being said, I think it is much easier to get jobs here because we don't have quite as many schools dumping out large classes of new grads. My program was the biggest in the area and we only graduated about 100 nurses. The only classmate I am sure didn't get a job fairly quickly is one who moved to HI.

Anyway, good luck with your Job Search, and don't underestimate upstate- were pretty awesome.

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Do you know any places upstate that are currently hiring new grads? I am still getting rejected. I also went for an interview at New York Methodist in Brooklyn and got a rejection email. I don't know what to do anymore :dead:

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This thread is supremely depressing. I just passed the NCLEX on June 4 and I have no experience, except for clinical rotations. There are so many nursing programs where I live, so I am very stressed about being able to find a job in my area.

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