"Just keep applying..."

Nurses Job Hunt

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That's what I've been told over and over. I became a licensed RN a year ago to this day, and getting a job let alone finding a place willing to train a new grad has been really rough! Much worse than I ever thought it would be! All I have been able to find are LTC and SNF positions. The next is worse than the last. I have been rejected by the huge hospital system 12x now... I have done up and re-done my resume. Dressed up and gone to HR in person when their POC application program kept crashing ("keep trying!!") ... Asked what I can do to improve my chances of even getting an interview (nada, just "keep trying!!")... Does it seem like there is anything else *I* can actively do ? Some ideas as to what is wrong?

I'm sorry to hear :( Besides going in to HR, have you tried to contact the Nurse Managers directly?

Good Luck to you.

Specializes in MedSurg, PACU, Maternal/Child Health.

So for the past year you have rejected the LTC and SNFs that offered you job? Not a good idea! Hospitals are more likely to hire someone with any RN experience than no experience. Be open to alternate settings. I started at a clinic and was later hired by a hospital. All I did was apply online. You have to keep trying as most places will only accept online apps. Don't go to HR or to the nurse managers without invitation as this will get these people annoyed at you and even blacklisted. Also most places will not let u on to speak to HR and NM without an appointment. Make sure your resume has good spelling and grammar , a standard font and no borders. Fancy font and borders can often make resumes unreadable by the computer scanning system.

That said, what u may be doing wrong is not accepting jobs willing to hire u as a new grad. Any experience is better than none and a paycheck is better than being broke.

Just to clarify, I do have a job. Some people say that the specialty is no good (LTC), but I still work it because hey, it's a job. I enjoy it to an extent, and yes I want a paycheck, but I also know that I wanna move on to acute care asap. Do I need to try the local LTAC facilities before even hoping that a hospital will hire me? There's a Kindred near me, but I heard they're dangerous !

Check out this an link https://allnurses.com/nursing-job-search/how-i-got-689384.html... You need connections as well, reach out to your former professors/instructors and ask them for help and if they know any nurse managers that you can contact directly. I had the same problem, although I graduated only 2 months ago. Now I have 2 offers. You have to stalk (be persistent) recruiters/nurse managers. At one of the hospitals, they received 1200 applications for new grad program. I called the recruiter and emailed him several times. They will either like you or not, but it sure beats sending out applications into the black hole and not ever knowing if they looked at your info or not. For as many responses I got, I also got rejections. But at this point the rejection should not bother you. The day I read the article above, I said to myself, I know I have a banging cover, resume and recommendations (as they have been professionally reviewed and received praise about how well written), so I'm going to get my info in their face and go from there. 1 offer came from being persistent with recruiter and the other offer came from help of former professor who gave me a nurse manager's name. I called the hospital, asked to be transferred to "such and such", she picked up her line, I introduced myself, who gave me her info, why I called her and convinced her to consider me. Now, this just gets your foot in the door. I still had panel interview with tough behavioral questions.

Oh wow. I got one letter of recommendation from my last clinical instructor. She was very nice about the whole thing, but it was specifically for a new grad residency program and stated so on the letter. Didn't get picked for that program. I appreciate your suggestions, and will say that I can be assertive, but I'm not aggressive. It comple goes against my nature and I don't think I can call recruiters more than once.

Try LTAC. I worked at a Kindred for a year as a new grad. It was definitely challenging but a good experience and I developed a great skill set working there because the patients can be very diverse. I left after a year but to be honest I kind of miss it.

Now that I have a full year of experience, most of my applications actually get noticed. I've had a couple of interviews in hospitals for med-surg positions - one I didn't get, the other is still up in the air. But rehabs, SNFs, LTC really seem to want me. One LTC actually wants to train me as a supervisor because I have a lot of experience with doing admissions at Kindred. I think hospital jobs are just really hard to come by. Some of the nurses I worked with at Kindred went on to ICU positions, so if you really want to work in a hospital, I think LTAC would get you closer to that. Just be prepared to be very busy!

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