Best route to ICU for new grad with no healthcare experience

[CamperNurse, ADN, RN]

Hey there experienced ICU nurses!

I am a new ADN grad in a major city with a large magnet push trying hard to get my first nursing job. I want to be in an ICU (I loved my clinical rotations there in nursing school) and was wondering what a good first job stepping stone is to make that goal happen. I am open to anything really (except medsurg...see below) and am not put off by the prospect of being challenged and having a sharp learning curve. I am applying to ICU positions, but I don't think that will pan out for me at this time. 

A little more about me:

I am currently working on my BSN in an online RN-BSN program and foresee myself going on to get my MSN in the next 5 years. Very longterm, I do think I would like to teach. I also have an unrelated Bachelor's degree.

Nursing was a career change for me and I have no experience in health care or other relevant hospital work. I do have a long background in customer service and leadership roles (the leadership roles were more on the informal side/ low level but still came with official responsibility).

I would very much love and prefer to get a nurse residency. But, with the magnet status of most of the hospitals in my city, the extremely limited number of residency positions, and COVID thrown into the mix, it doesn't seem like a very attainable thing for an ADN.

I did very well in nursing school and am doing very well in my BSN program.

I hate... HATE medsurg. Those were the WORST rotations of my clinical experience both in the flow of the units and adversarial work environments (the only nurse bullying I observed/experienced in nursing school was on medsurg floors)

 

Thanks in advance for any input you all may have!

[MaxAttack, BSN, RN]

I was the same way coming out of school - anything but med/surg. I found that many hospitals in my area have new grad programs. Get your resume on point and apply to every job you can find that sounds like they might accept new grads. I started just walking in HR departments with applications after a while and that's how I got my first job - new grad program then straight into ICU. It was a smaller community hospital but once I had a couple years I was able to go anywhere.