Any new grads having major employment problems?

Nurses Job Hunt

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I graduated in May 2012 with an ADN. I moved from Illinois to Texas for better job prospects. I've applied for 50 jobs and have heard nothing. Plus, I'm applying to other minimum wage jobs just to have an income. I keep getting the "overqualified" speech, and can't land a minimum wage job. I'm about to lose my mind. Anybody else having these employment issues?

Specializes in geriatrics.

There is definitely a nursing shortage, but employers are most concerned with cost savings, so most facilities are leaving positions unfilled. Nurses work short everywhere, and things won't improve for probably another 5-6 years at least. No money to train new grads, either. Continue networking and applying for jobs. Polish your resume and cover letters. You will find a job eventually.

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Those who dont have jobs, are you volunteering? Join your local disaster relief group, call elementary schools and volunteer to teach nutrition/hygiene classes (those school nurses are spread thin! Help em out! Teach the kinders handwashing!), volunteer to be first aid for AYSO in your area...you will find SOMETHING eventually!

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I think too many new grads with majors (not just in nursing) depend way to much on their degree being some sort of magic wand that will land them a job. Far more important is having an "in" somewhere by having worked there as a CNA or something first. Or having an "in" in the form of knowing someone in HR. So you have a nursing license. So what? So does everyone else applying for the job. Not trying to be harsh, but as long as unemployed new grads think along the lines of "I have a RN license, therefore I should have a job" they will likely continue to be unemployed.

^This

I graduated from an ADN program in May. All of the local hospitals in NJ said they are not hiring new grads unless they have their BSN. And even with a BSN, you aren't guaranteed employment if you lack experience. If you are currently in nursing school you should definitely focus on getting a job as a CNA in a hospital.

My class graduated with 38 students, and only 4 of us have jobs in hospitals. 3 of them got their job because they started out as a tech in the hospital they are working for. I worked as a tech for 3 years, but I left that job before I started nursing school so I didn't have an 'in' so to speak. The hospital I used to work for will only hire BSN's now, so I had to look elsewhere.

I targeted 5 hospitals total, and went after this one that I really enjoyed being at during my clinical rotation there. I found out who the hiring manager was and harassed her to death. I was polite of course, but definitely persistent. I told her that why I wanted to work for her hospital and that I would be the most motivated employee she ever had. It's important to demonstrate poise and confidence when you are talking to these people and let them know that you are the right person for the job. It wouldn't even hurt to be a little bold and say something like "So I see you have an RN position posted for the E.R. When can I come in for an interview?" You need to call and bug them until they flat out tell you 'no' and to stop calling, or until they offer you an interview. Let's be real here...what do you have to lose?

I know job hunting can be frustrating...but it doesn't have to be. Don't just throw 50 applications out there and expect to get a call back. You need to follow up, and more importantly, you need to be ASSERTIVE. I'm not saying you should be rude....just know your strengths and use them to your advantage. Being persistent is important because getting a nursing job is usually about luck and timing. If all of the sudden there are 3 positions that need to be filled and you call that day, the hiring manager might tell you to come on in.

Good Luck!

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volunteering don't pay the bills. Am just saying:sorry:

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volunteering don't pay the bills. Am just saying:sorry:

Neither does being unemployed and non-competitive during your search ;)

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Specializes in OB/GYN/Neonatal/Office/Geriatric.

All the media keeps saying is "nursing shortage" and for-profit schools trumping nursing as THE recession-proof career. Of course you feel a little defeated. It burns me up that there is so much misinformation out there about the nonexistent nursing shortage. You will need to keep trying. It took me a year to find a job and I am not a new grad. If you feel nursing is your calling, then you just have to keep going. Networking--get the word out to everyone you know that you are looking for an RN position. Make sure your resume kicks butt. Joining ANA and local chapter didn't get me a job but it did help me keep my passion about nursing going. Eventually you will be in the right place at the right time. Don't give up!

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volunteering don't pay the bills. Am just saying:sorry:
No, but it helps you network and makes your application stand out, which can help you get a job, which WILL pay the bills. My volunteer experience as well as my active membership in a professional nursing organization were cited as things that made me look like a real go-getter and good potential employee by the folks who ended up hiring me.
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Maybe this belongs in a different thread, but I'm convinced there isn't so much a suplus of nurses as there is a shifting of *where* the Nursing Jobs are. Jobs are heavily shifting away from the traditional hospital setting that everyone wants and moving to subacute, LTC and home care. And since these areas are, to say the least, viewed by many new grads as "lesser" jobs, it creates a skewed view that there are too many nurses.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Jobs are heavily shifting away from the traditional hospital setting that everyone wants and moving to subacute, LTC and home care. And since these areas are, to say the least, viewed by many new grads as "lesser" jobs, it creates a skewed view that there are too many nurses.
Yes. Many, if not most, new grads are chasing after the exalted job at their local acute care hospital. The cold, hard reality is that hospital length of stays are decreasing, patient census has slowly been dropping, and many acute procedures have been shifted to settings outside the hospital.

LTC, rehab, home health, private duty, and subacute are the waves of the future because these settings provide more cost-effective care than inpatient acute care hospitals. Therefore, we have an ever-increasing pool of new nurses chasing after fewer and fewer hospital jobs.

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Oh, you are so right (teenytinybabyRN). SNF and LTC and home care do have revolving doors of employment opportunities. Too bad nursing school doesn't reveal this little secret until students find out that not everyone is going to get a hospital job.

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Here's an interesting-ish article from the Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2017720619_nurses11.html

It's a concise article, and if you read well, you'll discover part of the problem lies in what I call "nurse mills"...colleges that have received millions in taxpayer $$ through Federal and State funding to expand programs, begin programs and increase enrollment.

WorkSource (unemployment) is geared to shuttle displaced workers into "high demand" careers.

WorkSource can now pat itself on the back for a job well done in alleviating the nursing "shortage."

This has provided a glut of nurses on the market making it an employer's market. Supply and demand, supply and demand-- remains as true today as it ever did.

In my area, new grads and those with 1-3 years experience are flying in the door, and displacing nurses who have put in eight or more years are booted to the curb. Why keep the expensive, tenured nurses when you have a cheaper "food source" beating down your doors?

I feel for new grads but not too much so. One of you has my job right now (I was laid off with a "thank you for your excellent service" letter) and I'm in the position of potentially losing everything I've worked for because the market here is incredibly tight.

A few years ago I interviewed in a remote, mountain town. I was offered a paltry wage because...that tiny town had been given a grant to have a local extension program from that state's university, for a nurse factory. To think, a town of 15,000 year round residents, was given a "college" for nursing. They now have a steady supply of cheap labor.

And shall we talk about insourcing??? Dirty little secret, that.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
No, but it helps you network and makes your application stand out, which can help you get a job, which WILL pay the bills. My volunteer experience as well as my active membership in a professional nursing organization were cited as things that made me look like a real go-getter and good potential employee by the folks who ended up hiring me.

I can vouch for that. Volunteering while hunting for that new grad job opened interview doors, and I was told more than once by NMs that they were impressed that I was out doing something instead of doing nothing.

And just as importantly, I felt good about myself and what I was doing.

Volunteering doesn't pay the bills--that is technically accurate. It can pay off in other ways though.

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