Austin, TX

ijuanabhappy, ASN, RN · May 30, 2009

I have lived in Austin most of my life. I recently moved to the Dallas area within the last couple of years. Austin is great. I worked at Seton Medical Center in a clerical position for five years. The hospitals there are Seton, St. Davids, and Brackenridge is the county hospital. I'm sure they are all hiring nurses. Maybe you could look them up online and see. Back in 2005 when I was still living there, I always noticed ads for nurses in the hospitals and quite a few in the dr's offices. Sorry I can't be of more help on the current situation. They also have MHMR offices (Dept of Mental Health and Mental Retardation). And yes, Austin is very dog friendly. It is a laid-back groovy town!

3dogs1cat · May 30, 2009

Thank you for the info! I am hoping there are jobs available! Starting to apply for travel and contract agencies at the moment.

abbabask · Jun 20, 2009

Austin rocks and is very family/dog friendly! I am an RN at Brackenridge Hospital (a magnet member of the Seton hospital system, and now a Level I Trauma Center!) and I LOVE it there. I think you'd be very happy if Austin is your choice of relocation :)

AvenueQT · Jul 24, 2009

Hi abbabask,

I was just wondering what OB/GYN office hired you on as a new grad because a lot of postings I see usually want 1-2 years experience.

jen777 · Aug 11, 2009

Here's a link to some:

Austin Nursing Jobs

Texas Nursing Jobs

abbabask · Aug 11, 2009

AvenueQT - I got hired with OBGyn Group of Austin (previously DesRosier & Wernecke Assoc.), and they are one of the only places I know of that is open to hiring new grads. I think I mainly got the position because I had been a longtime patient of theirs and knew their nursing manager, and they knew I had a special interest in women's health. Otherwise, I think it would have been very difficult to find an office job as a new grad.

HOWEVER, I will say, office nursing is VERY different from hospital, and although it is more laid back, there is very little training (one week for me as opposed to 4 months at the hospital) and I felt extremely unprepared to be managing a doctor's patients the way office nurses do because they expected me to know a lot more than I did. I also felt like I was not getting very good learning experience and time management skills that I am getting at Brack now. I think later on, I'd love to go back to an office, and when I do, I'll kick ass at it because I'm so much more well rounded as a nurse after this year of doing hospital nursing experience. Just a tip for ya :)

txredheadnurse, BSN, RN · Aug 12, 2009

Native born Austinite here. You will not have any particular problem finding a nursing position as a RN or a LVN (LPN) in Austin so long as you have at least a couple years of experience under your belt.

In terms of tech/game work for your husband....well that is not so rosy right now. My husband is in a tech related field and has been laid off 3 times in little over 2 years. It really depends on the specifics of your husbands tech background, skills and experiences. Project managers with a certificate and good computer programming or IT skills are doing very well right now, civil and electrical engineers are also thriving. The gaming industry locally has been hit rather hard by the closure of one of the bigger companies. Bottom line I would strongly suggest your husband begin his job search now.

Austin has a motto: keeping Austin weird lol. That is because we are an unusual bunch down here. Dogs, kitties, kids, alternative lifestylers, artists, old hippies, passionate folks of all kinds find a haven here. It is hotter than Hades 4-6 months out of the year, weather changes on a dime, more cars and roads than you can imagine and still tucked away here and there bits of the hill country I remember from my childhood. Yeah, I love Austin.

GrayMatter · Aug 12, 2009

I'm also a native of Austin! This little cowtown has changed a lot the last 20 years, but it's a wonderful place to live. I have two shelties and along with our kids we take our doggies everywhere (including to casual restaurants like P.Terry's where doggies are welcome!) Even to Home Depot where we can't walk down a single aisle without getting stopped for someone to pet the dogs or for our doggies to sniff other dogs so yes it's doggie friendly here!

Nursing is a 2nd career for me and hopefully I'll get accepted into school next spring, so I can't speak on the job situation. My husband works in the tech industry and has survived a multitude of layoffs with the closest yet this past spring, so the tech industry has taken a pretty good punch- lots of my neighbors have lost their jobs and on my small street we just had 4 houses for sale this past month.

Anyway, welcome to the city it's a great casual place!

txredheadnurse, BSN, RN · Aug 12, 2009

Waves a big fellow native Austinite howdy to Gray Matter.

GrayMatter · Aug 12, 2009

Hi txredheadnurse!!

I am hoping to start ACC spring 2010....BIG career change for me and hoping I handle it all with kids and family life. I start an intro to nursing class this month as a pre-req for nursing school- very excited but nervous as well LOL....