ATTN: bay area RN new grads.. Were you able to land a new grad job?

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I recently just passed my boards and am finding it is VERY hard to land a job as a new grad at a hospital. I know you dont necessarily have to enter a new grad program but a lot of hospitals i have tried applying at say you must be in a new grad. Are you all getting the same treatment? Kind of ironic.

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My friend, who graduate from a community college in May 2007, finally landed a job with Kaiser starting Jan 2008. Her patience finally paid off.

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dang your friend is lucky.. im actually waiting on kaiser as well. should find out in a few days now

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New grads, are you guys finding luck on getting interviews? What about placement agencies? I see so many job postings on Kaiser's website and other websites for nurses.

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getting an interview is a little hard as well. you have to be persistant here in the bay now. A lot of hospitals i am finding out ONLY have VERY few positions available for new grad programs. And most major hospitals like KAISER will only take new grads in to NEW grad programs... you cant start off as lvl 1 staff. For instance. i applied at JOHN muir WC. DID my preceptorship there. got the interview. Still didnt get picked. They only had 4-5 openings for the new grad program out of 30 interviewies they screened. ironic how a lot of the bay hospitals are fully staffed now. I havent really tried a placement agency. you should be going to the source and talking to nurse managers and recruiters of each hospital. Keeping my fingers crossed for kaiser though

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SO i juss found out i was hired.... got into kaiser oakland. 200 applicants....60 interviewees...14 spots.. good luck to u all.. juss keep TRYING!

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SO i juss found out i was hired.... got into kaiser oakland. 200 applicants....60 interviewees...14 spots.. good luck to u all.. juss keep TRYING!

Those numbers are kinda discouraging =X. I am moving to either san jose/ santa clara area or san francisco area, depending on where I can find a job. Is the san jose area as difficult for a new grad to find work?

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yeah i found a lot of hospitals in the eastbay didnt have a lot of positions. i DOnt really know a lot about the san jose area.. best idea would be to call every hospital in the area you are looking for and speak directly to the nurse recruiters...good luck

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Many of the facilities in the Bay Area only offer new grad programs two to three times per year and the next one will not be until the summer. Most have their programs full for the big start next month.

Add into it the number that have attended school in the Bay Area and you will see that it makes it harder to secure a job in this area. There is a large number of schools in this area, and therefore a larger number of grads. Most positions will go to new grads that worked at the facility while they were a student so that the managers are familiar with them.

I would not move to the area unless you have a job already lined up. As a nurse with experience, then that is an entire different matter and you can start all year long, but as a new grad, you are going to need a new grad orientation.

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Specializes in NICU.

I graduated December 21st. I'm taking Kaplan now and plan to test in February. I'm not in a rush since I've been looking/researching jobs since last June and still haven't even gotten an interview. Half of my class have already gotten positions but they are almost all in Telemetry. I'm hoping for NICU or L&D or anything in those general areas but every position I apply for has 1)already been filled or 2)never existed in the first place and was posted by mistake!!! That's happened 3 times! I'm almost ready to take a job in a SNF just to pay the bills until an acute position comes along. I was told for years that when I graduated I'd be beating the recruiters off with sticks but that couldn't be farther from the truth! I live in the Santa Cruz area and have applied in 5 counties!!!! It took me 10 years with multiple set-backs to get this far and I'm starting to wonder if it was worth it! Sorry about the rant, it's just been a very emotional reality check!:o

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I think the "problem" is that CA has increased salaries to such a level that it is attracting a large number of people to pursue nursing, and thereby reducing any shortages. Trust me, if you lived in another part of the country, you would have job offers out the wazoo. I'm not a nurse yet but that does scare me as well--to give up so many years of taking classes, etc...and then having a hard time finding a job. It's one of the reasons why i want to go into nursing--to not have to deal with that.

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I completed my BSN in August, passed the NCLEX in September, all the while applying for jobs. I didn't have my first interview until November, and that was only because I knew the nurse manager..I had 4 interviews before I finally got an offer, in mid-January. I got hired at Kaiser in the San jose area, where I live and went to school. I had never done a clinical at a Kaiser, so I had no experience with the managers. Basically what I'm saying is, it takes forever to get a call back after you put in applications and jobs are few and far between in the bay right now. I was applying as far south as Watsonville, as far north as SF and Oakland and as far east as Sac and the central valley. I even had a phone interview in WA, I was soo desperate to find a job.

Have patients, search as big an area as you can, apply to everything! It will happen, and when it does, the pay is great, but sheesh it took soo long!

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