2012, no longer willing to settle

Nurses Job Hunt

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

This is mainly going to be a vent, so be warned.

I am a 2008 ADN grad, had great grades, and what I thought good prospects for jobs. Afterall I was eligible for rehire with one of the largest healthcare systems in my state. After I graduated it took several months, but I landed what I thought was my dream job as an RN applicant. 4 weeks into orientation, after I had finished the state required preceptorship hours, I was let go for not being a good fit for the unit. Ok, there are lots of other positions I can get one of those....wrong. Ok, I can just expand my Job Search out and apply outside of hospitals as well. By the summer of 2009 I had landed that much needed 1st RN job, as a licensed RN. It didn't work out and now we are stuck back at home with me still unemployed. Tried the "move to where the jobs are" crap and it didn't work, all it did was burn up my husbands little savings; money we could have used now to get us out of my mother's house.

Fast forward to today. I'm in school to finish my BSN in the hopes that this will have the managers actually LOOK at my resume, if they even get them that is. I have noticed something new on the supplimental questions of the employer that I keep firing applications to, now some of the positions ask "have you completed a BSN?" There is no option to say that you are currently in school to gain one, just yes or no which automatically screens your application to the declined list. It used to be I would at least get an interview, now I can't even get a return phone call or even speak to a nurse recruiter.

I am also tired of those who say to apply to EVERY little thing that says RN, any experience is better than none. Yes, and no. Why should I try for a job I know I will hate. The advice to just stick it out for 6 months until you get something better is part of the reason hospitals are leary of hiring inexperienced RN's in the first place, no loyalty. Yeah, I know hospitals aren't loyal to us so why should we be to them, but the look of job hopping is part of why I'm in this mess to begin with.

So I've decided to apply at the two hospital systems I most want to work for. I send applications out every week. I have joined two nursing organizations in order to network and I am attempting to network at school. If this makes me look to some like I really don't want to find a job because I am no longer willing to settle than so be it.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Ok, just some insight- my manager for example who herself has a DNP degree, prefers to hire BSN nurses mainly due to the fact that with the multitude of applications that she sees the nurses are so young. She mentioned one day that the 4 year degree hopefully instills a little bit of maturity needed to do our job, just look at most early to mid 20 somethings facebook page and you will see what I mean. Not that she ignores ADN's, typically though they would be people with experience.

Having said who you describe your own resume- which most nurses at our facility get hired from- they typically fill out a written application late in the process, if I may looks like swiss cheese. 1) 2008 grad who left after 4 weeks in orientation for not a good fit- your words or theirs. 2) 2009 hired and "it didnt work out and left for ??? and when. Now its 4 years later with basically no experience you can describe and your resume is not getting you any calls.

HMMMMMM, the above vs a new grad, I might take my chances with the new grad first. I would fix that resume above all. I for one know where I work needs nurses its just finding those who fit.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.

I think your problem is that you NEED to settle for experience. Just my 2cents.

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

I'll settle for acute care experience even if it's not in the area I would love to work in. That kind of experience I will settle for. Right now I am researching volunteering to keep my skills up, and my being in school does help me stay in the loop as well as the montly association meeting/CE offerings. I do update my resume to add things I'm doing. It's not like I'm sitting at home twiddling my thumbs hoping for something to happen. I might not have the employment history, but I'm showing I am being active in the nursing community regardless.

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WildcatfanRN- I hear you!

I do think that those who did not graduate in 2008 have no idea what we are going through.

I am in the same boat as you. Graduated 2008 and everything dried up. Just like you I moved, and that "did not work out". (As for those who seem to look down on us, many threads on allnurses states that it is normal for new grads to be let go/have to move around their first year to find a place to fit in/that will train them/where they feel comfortable enough to grasp the huge learning curve we go through. I was let go because I could not "get the whole picture and function as an experienced nurse, and had to write everything down". Well hello, evidence based practice states it takes up to a year for a new grad to not be task orientated and feel remotely comfortable.)

So I moved again. Was unable to get into any others hospitals because I had experience from first job! Yet I was not experienced enough to land a staff nurse position because I did not have the experience. Can you imagine? Talk about frustrating. I tried LTC and did not feel safe in such a dangerous place. I volunteered and did everything they all say to do....everything, and I still do everyting each and every time! Every interview I did get into, I was always their second choice, the experienced nurse always got the job. Finally I took a job as a Medical Assistant in a very rural clinic just to get experience! I was there a year and loved the people and patients, but wanted more. More experience as an RN (although they were using me as an RN) and of course I needed payment for what I was worth to pay the bills.

So here I am out looking for a job again. At least I have a year of experience in a clinic setting, but I still have to explain my job hopping and periods of unemployment. I have my story down pretty good and just had an interview with the VA for a clinic job and so hoping I land it. God I hope 2012 is finally my year and somebody can believe in me. I have been working since I was 14 and basically raised myself. I survived a chronic pain condition, put myself through college at 32, while being my own laywer against an abusive spouse and won sole legal and physical custody of my two young children, when all the lawyers said it would never happen in California, alone with zero help. I passed NCLEX in 75 questions and continue to study.

So when somebody tells me I have not worked hard enough or not done enough I ignore them. And I have my BSN!

LIke I have said before, I never expected getting a nursing job to be easy/handed to me, but I did expect to have a freakin chance! If I had to do it all over again, I am not sure I would choose nursing. Very sad and depressing. I sure hope 2012 rocks, because I am not sure what to do if it doesn't.

I hope 2012 is your year too! Message me anytime.

Elprup

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.
WildcatfanRN- I hear you!

I do think that those who did not graduate in 2008 have no idea what we are going through.

I am in the same boat as you. Graduated 2008 and everything dried up. Just like you I moved, and that "did not work out". (As for those who seem to look down on us, many threads on allnurses states that it is normal for new grads to be let go/have to move around their first year to find a place to fit in/that will train them/where they feel comfortable enough to grasp the huge learning curve we go through. I was let go because I could not "get the whole picture and function as an experienced nurse, and had to write everything down". Well hello, evidence based practice states it takes up to a year for a new grad to not be task orientated and feel remotely comfortable.)

So I moved again. Was unable to get into any others hospitals because I had experience from first job! Yet I was not experienced enough to land a staff nurse position because I did not have the experience. Can you imagine? Talk about frustrating. I tried LTC and did not feel safe in such a dangerous place. I volunteered and did everything they all say to do....everything, and I still do everyting each and every time! Every interview I did get into, I was always their second choice, the experienced nurse always got the job. Finally I took a job as a Medical Assistant in a very rural clinic just to get experience! I was there a year and loved the people and patients, but wanted more. More experience as an RN (although they were using me as an RN) and of course I needed payment for what I was worth to pay the bills.

So here I am out looking for a job again. At least I have a year of experience in a clinic setting, but I still have to explain my job hopping and periods of unemployment. I have my story down pretty good and just had an interview with the VA for a clinic job and so hoping I land it. God I hope 2012 is finally my year and somebody can believe in me. I have been working since I was 14 and basically raised myself. I survived a chronic pain condition, put myself through college at 32, while being my own laywer against an abusive spouse and won sole legal and physical custody of my two young children, when all the lawyers said it would never happen in California, alone with zero help. I passed NCLEX in 75 questions and continue to study.

So when somebody tells me I have not worked hard enough or not done enough I ignore them. And I have my BSN!

LIke I have said before, I never expected getting a nursing job to be easy/handed to me, but I did expect to have a freakin chance! If I had to do it all over again, I am not sure I would choose nursing. Very sad and depressing. I sure hope 2012 rocks, because I am not sure what to do if it doesn't.

I hope 2012 is your year too! Message me anytime.

Elprup

Well, wonders never cease. Looks like I may have landed an interview if I read the email I got today right. Time to brush off those interview questions....finally.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

Good luck with the interview, WildcatFanRN! :)

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.
Good luck with the interview, WildcatFanRN! :)

Thanks Meriwhen. It actually looks like I will be having more than one interview. I received a call from the nurse recruiter this afternoon, but missed the call. I did promptly return her call though, now to wait on pins and needles for the weekend :-) Time to also brush off questions to ask during the interview. Though right now I only know one unit I'm interviewing for, the hospital itself I worked at as an LPN. I need to get across the fact that the best time of my working life was for this hospital system and that I had not planned on leaving. Hmmm, how to do that without seeming desperate...I wonder?

Elprup, good luck on your interview. Like you this is years in the making. Perhaps 2012 will be a good year after all.

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

well, no interview yet. i'm still waiting to hear back after my excitement over that email i received. i finally heard back from the recruiter, but was told "you application has been forwarded to the manager, if i hear anything else i will call you". i guess i misunderstood both the email and the message left on my voicemail, i thought i was actually going to get an interview. at least i have yet to get the rejection email, so there is still hope.

elprup, i love the advice to settle for any experience when sub-acute and lower don't count when you then try to get acute care experience. if you have ever tried to find a job after doing the "just get a job for 6 months" thing, and found that it really hurts more than it helps. i have, my lpn history is not very stable. in order to change the perception conveyed by my resume i need to work someplace for longer than 6 months to 1 year, and to do that it needs to be somewhere i can actually do so. kudos to those who can work in a place you absolutely hate and dread waking up to even go into. kudos to those who have the money to pull up and move to "where the jobs are".

i've done everything "they" tell you to do, i've had my resume professionally looked at and looked at by my rn to bsn instructor. i've tried networking. i've yet to try standing in front of the hospital with a sign saying "will work for free", actually i wouldn't do that but you get my drift.

hopefully things will get better when i graduate with my bsn since that seems to be the wanted degree around my neck of the woods. but with my luck, just when i'm graduating they will change to wanting msn's. i really doubt that would happen, but that's how my luck seems to go.

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