New Graduate looking for a job!

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Hi everyone :-)

I am a new graduate, passed the CRNE :-) but I'm finding it difficult to find a job. I live in Ontario and have applied numerous places but am getting no call backs? A lot of my classmates seem to have found jobs already, how are the other new graduates finding the job hunt? Another question i have is when I do apply for jobs it asks whether "you are registered with the college of nurses of Ontario" I have not sent in my application yet because I'm waiting for my police check however I did pass the CRNE should I say no? because technically i am not yet registered but I feel that if i say no then they may not even take a look at my application for the registered nurse position (Sorry if i am babbling :p). Anyways I would appreciate any responses :-) Thank you!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN

102 Articles; 27,612 Posts

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Hi, there. Your post has been moved to the Nursing in Canada forum with the goal of attracting responses from nurses who live and work where you live. Good luck to you!

CaffeinePOstat

72 Posts

Starlane, you wrote a post that could pass off as my own story. I'm in the same boat as you. I just sent in my application this week and I had the same thought about whether or not to indicate "Registered with the CNO".

At this moment, I am taking a second look at my resume and considering changing the format of my resume when sending them online. Some employers/HR may use a tracking database where they scan your resume and see if you have "key" terms they are looking for in your resume. PDF files might be the hardest to scan. From online sources, they say Word doc vs. docx is more universal to use. If it a copy and paste site, they prefer it to be copied from a .txt document (aka no special formatting)

My friends have encouraged me to take a hard copy of my resume and walk in to speak to managers but I do not feel comfortable doing that at the moment, as I see the managers being busy and it's a hospital unit...but they have told me this has worked for some folks. I would feel more comfortable if it was a manager that a friend works for and could say they don't mind meeting in person.

loriangel14, RN

6,931 Posts

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

If you have passed the CRNE I would say you are registered.

CaffeinePOstat

72 Posts

I was leaning more towards saying Registered with the College; because if you are in the process of registering (about to send in forms/sent forms, waiting for it to be processed), by the time an employer may call you for an interview, there is a chance you will already be registered with the College. You do not want to miss an opportunity when applying over a small detail. Most organizations may ask for proof of being in the process of registering if you are not currently registered, which is passing the CRNE as a step.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist

NotReady4PrimeTime, RN

5 Articles; 7,358 Posts

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Passing the CRNE doesn't automatically confer registration. The paperwork still has to be filed and the fee paid.

joanna73, BSN, RN

4,767 Posts

Specializes in geriatrics.

Not only that, but depending on how you answered questions on your registration application, the College may decide to review your documents and hold registration until they are satisfied.

Tell them you've passed the CRNE and registration is pending in your cover letter, but don't indicate you're registered until it's official.

CaffeinePOstat

72 Posts

The letter we received that informed us we passed the CRNE mentioned we are not officially allowed to use the title of RN until the application and fees are processed.

You will know you are finally registered from receiving an email the College sends, and also by searching for your name on Find A Nurse if you're with CNO. Later on, we will be sent official papers also indicating we are registered (I.e. Given a registration #/ID).

So I would do what the previous posts mentioned, if possible, tell the employer you are eligible to become registered and in the process of doing so. When it comes to a drop-down menu on an online application with only yes or no to the question "are you registered with the College?", I do wish they had an option of "eligible of registration" to be considered.

starlane

48 Posts

Starlane, you wrote a post that could pass off as my own story. I'm in the same boat as you. I just sent in my application this week and I had the same thought about whether or not to indicate "Registered with the CNO".

At this moment, I am taking a second look at my resume and considering changing the format of my resume when sending them online. Some employers/HR may use a tracking database where they scan your resume and see if you have "key" terms they are looking for in your resume. PDF files might be the hardest to scan. From online sources, they say Word doc vs. docx is more universal to use. If it a copy and paste site, they prefer it to be copied from a .txt document (aka no special formatting)

My friends have encouraged me to take a hard copy of my resume and walk in to speak to managers but I do not feel comfortable doing that at the moment, as I see the managers being busy and it's a hospital unit...but they have told me this has worked for some folks. I would feel more comfortable if it was a manager that a friend works for and could say they don't mind meeting in person.

Hi, thanks for the reply! yeh that is what I'm worried about I feel that there is a basic questionnaire that only gives you a few options as a response and if that response is not favourable the system will put your application to the side-but I'm not really sure 100% how it works

NextGenRPN

34 Posts

finding it difficult to find a job? are you only applying to particular places that you want, or are you applying to everywhere just so you can get your foot in the door and experience? . it was the same situation with my graduating class, people would always complain about not being able to get a job when they have only been applying to a select few places their "dream job" so to speak. the harsh truth is unless you had something lined up while finishing prgrad then your going to have to not be picky and work at anywhere that will hire you. as for the aplication on my resume when i passed the cpnre i put " successfully completed CPNRE awaiting registration from the CNO" in your cover letter mention you are waiting for your registration, it took 3 weeks for me do all my orientation and paper work before i could start and my registration came just in time. get some people to look at your resume, design it more towards a nursing job, managers arnt going to care that you sold fries at a chip truck during the summer. highlight clinical experiences ect if you didn't work as a psw during school or something like that, a little trick i use when emailing resemes is i email them them during closing hours late at night so when hr comes in the morning hopefully my email was thy last they had. when applying in person always ask to speak to managers directly or get their ext numbers so you can follow up in a few days. i hope you can take something from this post and good luck on the job hunt!....apply to a staffing agency , horrible job for new grads, but if you can handle it then it will be great for resume experience and will leave no time gaps, while you search for your dream job, when i graduated i worked for a staffing agency for 6 months then landed a job at a hospital in a forensic mental health setting! you get what you put in so work your but off and it will pay off!

starlane

48 Posts

Hi there, so far i have applied to numerous hospitals/various positions. The only areas where I have not applied are homecare/long term care, but otherwise I feel that I am being flexible. I have applied to probably 6-7 hospitals, which is pretty much the limit otherwise i would have to travel an extremely long time and pretty much to every position posted on the hospital websites. My resume is mostly focused on nursing, just with one point listing my "selling fries" type of job :p but i have worked there for 7 years so i also feel that that is important ? (maybe not)...Thank you for the response, your tip about emailing during closing hours is a good one! :) sorry if this is a dumb question, but what do you mean by staffing agency, is it home care?

UNB_RN

6 Posts

If you are limiting yourself to 6-7 hospitals you have to be really lucky to get in. It is pretty hard for new graduates to land a hospital job unless they did preceptorship there. Try to get in touch with your preceptor and apply for positions there. Other thing you can do is to personally go to those hospitals or try to get email of nursing managers and send your resumes directly to them. If that doesn't work I guess your only option is to apply for homecare/long term care. I have got one casual in each of those to get some experience till I land something in hospital. I prefer homecare over LTC since I don't have to care for 80 clients at a time. Your choice - Do you want to keep applying to same hospitals for 6 months in the hope of a response or use that time to take up some experience.

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