New Grad, Can't Get Hired?

[Justineqt]

Hello!

I am a RN-BSN graduate from an accredited school of nursing class of 2016. I moved across the country upon graduation and got licensed in my new state in February 2017 (It took a while due to multiple long issues with the BON).

I graduated with honors and have 1,200 clinical hours and a 300 hour capstone. I have multiple letters of reference, a nice resume, and a nice cover letter. I've had old professors and preceptors look over all of my resumes/papers, and they say everything looks great. I also feel like I do well in social situations, ace all of my interviews (according to the people who interview me?) and generally people take a liking to me.

I have applied to most places within an hour of me, every position, every availability, everything I can find. I'm applying for about ~30 positions a day, and about 50% automatically tell me no. I also always check to see when new positions have opened that I can apply to. I get called in for interviews for a few positions...but not many. Interviews seem to go well, they act very pleased with me and interested in me, tell me they can't wait to see me next, then I get letters that another candidate was hired. Its been four months so far and none of my interviews have come to fruition. I am worried I will have to apply for a license in another state and start searching for jobs elsewhere.

One thing I keep getting is "We're looking for someone with more experience", but my last interview said they preferred New grads. I did two interviews (nurse manager and peer), and shadowed with them. The way they were speaking to me it sounded like they had already decided to hire me. They told me to look for a call from them the following week. Instead I received a letter stating "another application has been chosen...".

Is there anything I can do? Anything I am doing wrong? I feel I am getting so discouraged and stressed. I spend hours prepping for every interview, and the interviews keep going so well but then I don't get hired. I am so excited to start working, even anywhere, I don't care at this point, but every day I check my application statuses and see "another candidate has been chosen".

[Vpabin]

Go to a ltc/subacute facility especially in an area where there are many facilities pulling from the same employee pool. Try the Newton area

[nikipt]

Hello,

I'm a prospective new grad and would appreciate it if you could list the hospitals in DC, Maryland, or Virginia that you recommend working at? Out of curiosity, what is the starting salary for new grads in the area? I would private message you but it seems I dont have enough messages to do so yet.

[mar1ama, BSN]

University of Maryland

John Hopkins

Holy Cross Hospital Silver Spring

Washington Adventist

Medstar Georgetown

Inova Fairfax, Va

As far as pay, the DC hospitals & Holy Cross Hospital pay more for new grads. If you are an ADN, you'll have to sign a contract that you'll get your BSN by a certain timeframe. I hope that this helps. Good luck.

[swanie]

Try Georgia - there's plenty of jobs here. Atlanta and south Georgia, Savannah and surrounding cities have plenty of Nursing Jobs.Your salary will not be as high but the cost of living is definitely cheaper!

[Justineqt]

Hello! To all of the people who suggested putting in resumes in person and doing footwork, I really like that idea and I'd like to start doing it. Question though, do I submit my resumes to the HR section, or to the nurse manager on each unit I want to work at? Or do I submit my resume to the general staff desk? Thanks!

[mar1ama, BSN]

I would try all of the above. This way they'll have a face to attach to the name and resume. Make sure that you mention that you also applied for the desired position on the company's website. Good luck.

[cleback]

Hello! To all of the people who suggested putting in resumes in person and doing footwork, I really like that idea and I'd like to start doing it. Question though, do I submit my resumes to the HR section, or to the nurse manager on each unit I want to work at? Or do I submit my resume to the general staff desk? Thanks!

I'm sure there is more than one way to skin a cat for this but my tactic was to visit HR. Sometimes there would be no where on the webite application to attach a cover letter, so I would schedule a time to bring one in. Otherwise, if there was a place to attach on the online app, I would still ask to bring one is due to concerns that the formatting would not go through or something like that. I'm not that personable, so just going to a unit manager that I didn't know probably would have backfired for me.

[kaygbn7]

Any luck!?

[~Shrek~]

Start applying to some SNFs that have rehab wings. Or, literally anything. Sitting on your butt filling out applications isn't making your resume look any better. Might as well get a "less desirable" job while you are continually looking and applying, then you can at least say "I have this many months experience as an RN".

Personally I disagree. I did this and now I do not have hope for a hospital job. I wish I was patient. Luckily I am content with where I am at now, but I regret not holding out for 6-12 months instead of acting on impulse and rushing into the jobs I took on. I also went through a couple bad job experiences.

[shibaowner, MSN, RN, NP]

You might want to consider other areas. Sometimes the smaller cities have more opportunities. I don't mean the middle of nowhere, but cities of 100,000 people or so often have difficulty recruiting health care professionals. The military is always looking for nurses and you will certainly get great experience and great benefits like loan repayment, paying for future education, etc. Plus with a few years of military experience, you will be a veteran which will help you get jobs in the civilian sector.

Johns Hopkins Bayview is always looking for surgical nurses - they will take new grads in return for a 2 year commitment.

This article is also interesting:

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[emily34812]

I know this is an older thread, but if you're still looking Cooper is very new grad friendly and has a good amount of openings

[ceceNYRN2015]

I graduated from a nursing school in Midwest then moved to NYC. I realized it is all about connections. I applied everywhere and I got accepted from home health ( not hospital). I know everyone who apply get accepted lol they are desperate of finding RNs. I worked my ass off there even though it's is more like babysitter, but I tried to learn anything and try to ask question to my RN educator and learn whatever I can. 5 months later of being hired as home health, my manager at home health told me to give resume, 4 days later I got call for interview and got hired from one of the major hospital in NYC.

from my experience and from what I see in my hospital, it is all about connection. Take any jobs and do best in it. Get closer to nurse manager and educator. Always shows your motivation to learn. Always try to be likable.

I had no connection in medical fields so I needed to build it on my own.

You can do it too!