calling managers

[angel4gramma]

I have been asked to call the managers myself. I did this twice and never got the job. So today my recruiter asks me to call the manager but be "stealth" about it. Told her no that I didn't like doing it. Has anybody done this and had a good outcome?

[NedRN]

Yes, I have. It is a case of nothing venture, nothing win. When the hospital has been unresponsive about reaching out for an interview, how else are you going to find out if the assignment is real, delayed, manager is out of town or just too busy?

You can certainly have some unpleasant results but so what? At least you are not wasting time waiting for this assignment to come through. If they get nasty, no matter. Lots of other assignments. I once waited two weeks for an interview and called the manager asking if the assignment was still on. The hospital called my agency and told them the assignment was still open, but not to me because I had called. Pretty childish! Don't want to work for such a manager anyway. In most operating rooms, I see the manager several times a day. I know that is not the case in many units, especially for PM shifts.

[Gary Mendoza]

I've had several travelers tell me they've called hiring managers and got the gig. I agree with everything NedRN said.

[gnovime]

I was just reading an article about that a few days ago:

Ask A Travel Nurse: Cold Calling? - The Gypsy Nurse

Honestly I would feel weird if a recruiter asked me to cold call. I would think that's their job, not mine to make a manager upset or confused why some travel nurse is randomly calling them without any heads up. At the same time I agree with Ned's points but it's still a very awkward situation.

[NedRN]

A cold call this is not. The hospital already has the traveler profile and has failed to interview in a timely fashion.

But I did once do a completely cold call and got extraordinarily lucky. An assignment cancelled and I had already gotten housing. So I called the only other hospital in bicycling distance and they had a nurse going out on OB leave - hadn't even been posted with agencies yet.

A different kind of cold call, I was terminated by Swedish (low census basically) and I walked around the corner on Pill Hill and had a travel job offer 15 minutes later.

[angel4gramma]

How do you call and do it "Stealth"? Most managers don't even answer the phone in my experience. I know they are busy and like I said I have never received

a call back. Ty

[NedRN]

Stealth in that you pretend it was your idea, not the agency's.

[Swellz]

I'm trying to get my own contracts, so I cold-called several managers and got almost exclusively voicemails. One called back, but only to say they didn't have any more positions open! Oh well. The likelihood that you'll get a voicemail takes the stress out of the situation in my opinion. Mind you, I didn't feel that way until I realized all I was getting was voicemails. I was so shocked when I called the last one and got a live person.

[NedRN]

I'd never leave a voice message in that situation. If I did, I might not say I was a traveler. More likely to get a call if the manager thinks you are interested in a staff job.

Normally I would never call a hospital at all unless I have learned they needed a traveler in my specialty.