Applied for jobs for 3 months!!

JMomBaby · Feb 20, 2012

Actually, that sound fairly normal for this economy. It's not that you're doing anything "wrong" necessarily, it just means that the job market is fairly cold. You could try applying to more diverse locations, like your local government website (often has a lot of positions for prison nurses and sometimes public health nurses), doctor's offices, nursing homes, etc. You could also try going over your resume and making sure it is very polished, go over your cover letter, etc., but if you've done all that already ... in all likelihood, you're not doing anything wrong, it's the econmy.

kgivens7 · Feb 20, 2012

I would almost agree with you but one of my local hospitals has 15 RN positions. I don't understand why they aren't calling.

Biffbradford · Feb 20, 2012

Hospitals are VERY picky now on who they hire. It's nothing against you, just the nature of the beast. Keep applying everywhere. Don't apply to the same job twice, but certainly apply to new postings from the same org. It took me 10 applications to the same place I worked before, before I finally was re-discovered, and hired.

Leonardo Del Toro, RN · Feb 22, 2012

I have been for 16 months.

metroAngel · Feb 23, 2012

I understand your situation.I don't know what state you are located.

But for me, I graduated 2008, & i do not have any hospital experience. I just got my license last December 2012.

I applied to a lot of hospitals here in Texas ( I couldn't even count how many applications I did) but I only got 2 interviews as well.

What I did is, i took the BLS just this month (since I do not have it yet) ..In that BLS class, I talked to several nurses, & they told me that in their hospital, you have to know the nurse manager or at least somebody in that hospital who can forward your name to their nursing managers. {That's when I realized why i am not getting any calls from that hospital,even if they have lots of job postings for RN's---because I do not know anybody there.. }

Just do not give up..

VanessaRn89 · Feb 23, 2012

I feel the same way! I was received my license at the beginning of the month and I do realize that during this time its very slow. Its very true about knowing someone inside and I do, but unfortunately those hiring are very picky. I have a very limited employment history so I know that does not help at all. I will continue to apply until I receive an opportunity.

Meanwhile, I will be starting my BSN soon since I cannot do anything else about jobs I can increase my chances by working towards my BSN hopefully that gives me the edge I need. I had not consider working in a prison..huh I visited a facility while in nursing school and was a bit scare lol-I will look into it though.

Keep looking and do not give up hope!

KTeacher2Nursing · Mar 9, 2012

I would say, think outside of the box and do not limit yourself to just the hospital. I graduated from a Practical Nurse program in January 2012, have yet to take the NCLEX, and the only healthcare experience that I have is working as a Home Health Aide PRN maybe 12 hours a month, but have been offered two positions: one as a Correctional Nurse and the other as a Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse this week as a Graduate Practical Nurse. Both positions are part time 24-32 hours weekly/12 or 8 hour shifts respectfully. When I started appling for positions in January I was only going after Full-time positions preferably days. So I started applying to other places besides LTC's for non-traditional positions. Make sure you have a dynamite Cover Letter that gives them a reason to look at your resume and talk to people. I have an interview next week for a position based on someone passing my resume and cover letter along to a facility that would hire GPN's. Part-time, PRN, no benefits positions are not ideal but if you prove yourself you can roll it into a Full-time, benefited position. I have two nurse friends that started out as PRN LPN and RN and are now full time employees after about 6 months. Keep your head up something will come up. It may not be the one you want but something is better than nothing in this economy.

kids · Mar 9, 2012

I would almost agree with you but one of my local hospitals has 15 RN positions. I don't understand why they aren't calling.

They may not be calling because they are getting 100 or more applications for each position, half of them from experienced nurses. It's a sucktastic time to be a new grad or minimally experienced nurse looking for a job.

Becca_Anne · Mar 12, 2012

It took me 11 mo to get my job and I was just hired. I only had 3 interviews in that entire time span and I applied to 100's of jobs all over the country. The job I got was 15 min from my house at a clinic. I knew a friend of a friend who worked there. Honestly I think that really made a big difference in getting my application to catch their attention.

tokyoROSE, BSN, RN · Mar 12, 2012

Please read this post, it helped me land several interviews and I am now waiting for an official offer(s). I went from being hopeless about the job market to I-can't-stop-smiling-because-I-cannot-believe-I-landed-4-interviews-in-one-day.

https://allnurses.com/success-stories-nursing/i-got-job-532817.html

NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN · Mar 13, 2012

I haven't had one interview for a hospital job. The recruiters all keep saying the same thing. They receive over 300 applications nationwide for 1-2 positions. Thank God I have a job in long term care right now. I can't imagine not even having this!