advice for recent grad with some experience but no hospital job

[estrellaCR, BSN, RN]

HI

I need some advice. I graduated in January 2012 from an Accelerated BSN program. I have been working for 6 months at a pediatric clinic and have 4 years of experience as a child development/direct care associate for children with disabilities. I am also bilingual and I'm certified in pals, nrp, acls, bls. I have volunteered, contacted recruiters by email, walked my resume into HR offices, and even had people that work at hospital where I volunteered took my resume to HR office. But no luck. Out of hundreds of applications, I got 2 interviews for hospital RN jobs which went well however no job resulted from the interviews.

Meanwhile I hear of classmates and people graduating from other schools with no experience at all and nothing on their resume besides 1 day volunteer experiences and the required nursing school clinicals and they are getting called to interview and hired and they only graduated in June. Not saying to be rude to those people just that I'm wondering how they have such good luck.

Any advice? It is frustrating that I have good resume, good references, certifications and some RN experience that employers so much ask for but no hospital gives a chance.

Thank you

[BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN]

I would think that the things you mentioned (certifications and past pediatric experience) would count for something. How is your GPA? Is that something that the potential employers have seen/asked for this far? Did you graduate from a reputable school?

Have you tried Peds home health? Bahada usually has ads for Peds homecare nurses. What about school nursing? Either through the dept of health, or an agency. Also, there are a few Peds snfs (st Mary's, Elizabeth Seaton, blythedale). Now is not the time to be choosy, I'd look into all of these, of you haven't already.

And if you haven't already, make your marketable skills and credentials stand out on your résumé/cover letter.