Experience vs. No Experience

I'm not a hiring manager, but IMO, I'd hire the candidate with any nursing experience over one without any nursing experience. The only exception is if the no-experience candidate had some extraordinary talent to bring to the table...and if she had had such a talent, she'd have been picked up by now. It's a competitive market, and 4.0s no longer secure the job on their own. Ask me how I know.

Your friend runs the risk of becoming an old new grad, and that's a very bad spot to be in. Most new grad programs won't accept applicants that have been out of school for more than 12 months, so after a year old new grads are out of that race. Meanwhile, they also have to compete against recent new grads whose skills are fresher and whose faces are more familiar to hospital staff d/t recent clinicals. Whereas they will look at her and wonder what she's done--if anything--to keep her skills and knowledge up. I hope for her sake that she has been doing something.

But it's her career, her decision. You've done all you could, but the only career you can control is your own. Perhaps she needs to figure it out on her own.

And IMO, her turning down that orthopedic job was a foolish decision. Most nurses do NOT start out in the dream specialty, but eventually make their way there. She should have taken it, put in her year or two, and used that time to gain experience, make networking connections, and work her way over to peds...plus she would have been an internal candidate, which while doesn't guarantee the job, does help a lot.

Best of luck to her.

Well, the jury is out on whether ACLS/PALS is a help or a waste. It does show motivation and can help you get noticed, but like the 4.0, ACLS/PALS isn't going to get you the job all on its own. Also know this from experience as well :)

And considering that most employers will pay for you to achieve/maintain these certifications, you would be shelling out money that you (probably) didn't have to.

The way I see it, if you have the extra funds to take one or both classes, taking them can't hurt you. Otherwise, don't stress over it.

I predict that your friend is going to be sorry she turned down the internship. In today's market you just can't hold out for that dream job or you will find yourself unemployed. Employers will not look down on any kind of nursing experience.

It looks like she is a pretty inactive person who thinks she is entitled to have the dream job offer because she was a good student, and taking some classes and certifications are waste. Good grades has no value compared to experience.

I WAS that foolish new grad who once thought that because I had the academic pedigree that job offers would fall at my feet the minute I applied...though keep in mind I graduated just as the job market tanked, so many of us were still living in denial. And I didn't get a single thing, not even at what was considered the lousiest hospital in town that I thought would jump at me. I was lucky to get a phone interview, which never panned out into anything more.

However, I learned my lesson very fast. Within a month, I had revamped my attitude and job hunting strategy. Within three months, I had a job.

And I wasn't foolish enough to turn down a job offer just because it wasn't in my desired specialty. I did decline one thing, but that was because with the hours offered, the fact that people there rarely left on time, and commuting, my child would have been in childcare 16 hours a day. And I didn't have any help at home at the time.

Yes, the saying about horses and water definitely comes to mind with her.

Hopefully YOU have found something for yourself :)