Fustrated New Grad

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I just want to vent because I am extremely frustrated. I graduated in sept 2010 got my License in feb 2011 missed most of new grad programs at that time therefore decided to apply to the summer session. I was lucky enough to land one interview with cedars but no offer. I have kept trying to apply to many job postings and about 90% of them required at least 1 year experience. I am to the point of going crazy. Can someone, anyone tell me what do I need to do to get a job. I applied in person, went to small hospitals no luck. I went to long beach memorial and was told immediately that they did not hired new grads. As Im writing this at this moment I get a knot in my throat because if I had been a careless student with no extracurricular activities or no volunteer jobs maybe I would think I deserve this but that is not the case. I graduated with honors, I did all the things I thought I was supposed to do but here I am jobless losing hope because I can't seem to find a job not even wiping butts... I never thought finding a job as a new grad would be this difficult... I keep thinking maybe is my resume or my cover letter but i had those revised by my former school staff... At the end I think I did waited to long to take my NCLEX and that just put me behind. I put my family first and this is what i get (was taking care of my newborn right after graduating I guess wrong move too).... well that is all just thought of venting here.... GOOD LUCK TO ALL THOSE NEW NURSES WHO ARE LOOKING FOR JOBS NOW...

Specializes in OR.

Well, it sounds like you are all doing what you need to. It is pretty bad in some areas, depending on where you live. I know in some places like California they are letting new 2-year grads go immediately into the BSN programs because the jobs are so scarce. Pretty crazy!

I live in Florida and I'm hoping with the large elderly population here, jobs won't be as much of an issue. I do know that hospital jobs are hard to come by these days no matter where you live, unless you already have experience. At least, that is what I hear. Good luck to everyone!!

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I was watching CNN the other day and they listed out the top 10 career opportunities right now.

1. Retail

2. Commercial Truck Driver

3. Nurses (Associates)

I thought that was pretty funny saying to myself yeah, if u have experience! You would imagine that a Bachelors would knock off the experience part like some other job postings.

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In the same boat as well. I feel like the ADN Degree I received would more useful as toilet paper. I graduated in May 2011. I have been applying for jobs since April. I have received zero calls for interviews. I have received many 'Sorry position filled" and "Did not meet minimum qualifications" replies via email. I didn't even take the NCLEX (I passed) until last week because I could not afford to plunk down the almost $500 it took with all the necessary fees. I feel mislead by the crappy University I attended and specifically by the Nursing Department @ said school. Had I known in 2009 before committing to the program that 5 months after graduation I would be jobless still - I would have not put myself in further debt and the agonizing pain of Nursing School. I am 40 yrs old and a single mom. I work in an office in a very low paying job. I had always dreamed of being a nurse. I wanted to better myself so that I could give my child a better life - to show her the importance of advancing yourself educationally wise. WTH was I thinking when I decided to be a Nurse - this has been the biggest mistake I have made. I sacrificed time with my child for this crap. This field has been over glorified and dangled, and poured down too many peoples throats. There are too many new grads. My nursing program does not give a dang if you find a job - they just want you to pass the NCLEX. Do you know why???? Job security for them....they need bodies in their program. My institution of higher learning (bahaha crap school) if 5 people fail the NCLEX they are in trouble with the BON. They only care that we pass the NCLEX and as soon as we do - it is bye bye sucker - we got what we needed from you! If it wasn't for us dreamers out their wanting to be a nurse - they would not have a job. They recruit people who do not need to be a nurse to plump their program and holy crap some of these people actually make it through and even pass the NCLEX. Nobody wants new grads because so many schools are putting out undesirable nurses. New grads are liabilities waiting to happen! They do not want to have to take the time or spend the $$ it takes to train a new grad anymore. Those of us that actually went to school to be a nurse because we want to help are screwed because too many are going to school to be a nurse for the money only. That is why they want nurses with experience - in hopes of weeding out the garbage and we all suffer. What really sucks for those of us right now wanting & needing a job so we can get that "experience" so that we can actually help people - when and if this economy gets better & people start hiring - we have forgotten a ton of what we learned in school and we are even more undesirable. I am sick of people asking me "Did you find a job yet???" I want to kick them between the legs and scream NOOOOO! I feel mislead and duped!!!! Walmart here I come!!!!!

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

MisLead, don't give up -- many places probably didn't even consider your application because you hadn't taken the NCLEX. And now you have! That might make a difference. Good luck!

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Btw I would like to share with all of you that I was finally offer a position. Mayb afer 4 different interviews I was finally able to master the interview proccess.

I wish you all the best and if I can do it I'm certain u guys will too. Don't give up and dont let anyone bring u down especially when they have no clue of what us new RN's go through...

usRNs, congrats on finding a job! I remember you from the TMMC thread, so it is nice to see you found something. Where will you be working. Enjoy the next adventure now that you can finally leave the job search behind you!

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Hello All,

I am not a nurse yet, actually I am on a stand-by list to start nursing school in Jan 2012. I read through this forum all the time and it just baffles me that there is all this hype about there being a nursing shortage, and yet so many nurses are graduating and can't find a job. When I analyze the situation it doesn't make any sense. I wonder if the reason why hospitals are not hiring new grads is because they are not prepared, or if it is just simply because of the economy. If the reason is because of the latter, then why are there always postings on hospital websites for open nursing positions. You would think that if there are so many postings on those websites that they would jump at the opportunity to hire someone. On the other hand, I have family members and friends that always mention how new grads are not prepared. A constant thing that I hear from them is that the schools don't seem to prepare students well, and the curriculum seems to be "watered down", which is causing nursing students, and new grads to have a sense of entitlement even though they are not prepared to handle the real world of nursing. Nurses on the units don't want to invest in training new grads, because of their own work load. Nursing now doesn't seem to be the same as nursing years ago. The nurse to patient ratio has gone up and is stressing many nurses out. I understand where they are coming from, because the turnover is high for new grads because they can't handle the reality of the nursing world. I hate that this is the case, and hate to wonder if one day I will be in this same position. I really feel bad for all of you that have invested so much time... neglected your friends and families to accomplish this goal, and can't find a job. I wonder if this is something I should reconsider myself, but I deep down feel that nursing is something that I need to do. I really care about people and want to be able to help others. Also, some long term goals that I have require me to be a nurse. If there was something that you could think of that might have made it easier for you to get a job when you graduated, what would it be? Would working as a tech help? Volunteering? Joining associations? I wish you all the best of luck with your job search.

Also, like someone posted earlier, I really think the media needs to know the real situation about "job security" as a nurse. Good luck to you all, and I feel your frustration!

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As many of you have already stated the market sucks here in California, and the schools just keep pumping us out!! It's disgraceful. I graduated in May 2010 with a BSN at the top of my class and was scheduled to take my NCLEX in July. My father was diagnosed with terminal CA and I decided to take the time to take care of him with my family. Besides who can concentrate on NCLEX material with that happening?? He passed away and I rescheduled for September. Two weeks before my test I broke my arm!! This definitely put a damper on any nursing aspirations. I perservered and took the test in November and passed (they checked to make sure I wasn't bringing in any contraband in my arm brace). I had begun to look for work but nursing with a healing dominant hand/arm break, impossible. I got a job working in a homeless shelter on a unit that housed people without shelter who were newly released from the hospital. Great experience, lots of psycho-social, and I was essentially passing meds because we kept them all under lock and key, but still I couldn't "practice" nursing in this setting. I began volunteering at a homeless medical clinic, did health fairs and beefed up my resume with activies and work that were relevant and doable with an injury. By Spring of 2011 I got medical clearance and felt that I was ready to start applying, a year after my graduation!!! Some hospitals literally would not consider me at all because of the length of time from graduation but the ones that would I applied to. By the way I'm talking about the San Diego CA market. UCSD had 20 new grad jobs for Spring 2011 and the recruiter told me they had 2800 applicants!!!! His best advice was to go out of state or get work in a long term acute. Moving out of state if I didn't have children would be an option but it's just not right now and long term acutes don't hire without experience. I began working per diem for a home health agency under my license which was/is great money but so little experience and no benefits or guarantee of a pay check. They only sent me out on 'easy' assignments and rightly so with my zero experience. Finally I gave up the game in SD and started applying in the Imperial Valley and landed a job in El Centro. So, now I commute an hour and 40 minutes to work in a small rural hospital's med/surg unit. The job is tough, the pressure is intense not having the resources of a big city hospital, and being away from my family and commuting makes it all the tougher, plus med surg is not what I got into nursing to do but I feel I have no choice.

Like everyone else I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place but I am grateful to have the job I do. What I wonder is what is the health care industry is going to do when all the baby boomers retire?? They say that's part of the problem, that the nurses who were about to retire didn't after the market crashed and they lost their retirement money. The reality is they have to train us to be the future of nursing NOW or there will be a serious shortage of experienced, competent nurses to take care of our aging and ever sicker population!!! The hospitals need to look at their budgets and reallocate their funds for new grad programs, the nursing schools need to start being honest and stop pumping out so many nurses, and the media needs to stop perpetuating the farce that nursing is one of the best industries to get jobs in currently!!

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Last year about this same time was a published report/findings from the CINHC dated 10-6-2010.

This survey was a snapshot of the hiring dilemma new RN graduates are facing in California and its findings are a resource for nurse leaders seeking creative ways to employ recently graduated nurses. The sample accurately reflects the demographics of new graduates from the annual BRN school survey and their regional distribution.

It also mirrors the response of a survey of employers of nurses conducted by CINHC and the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC) in 2009, which indicated that 40% of new graduates may not able to find jobs in California hospitals because of a lack of available positions. The employer survey also indicated that non-acute health facilities had positions available for nurses, but did not have the resources to hire and train new graduates.

That being said, having this very tough economy we're faced with only makes the nursing job market going further down the tubes, 4 out of 10 applicants will not get a nursing job anywhere. I spoke with a recruiter at a recent job fair up in the Bay Area, she said that there's only an estimated 3-4% or less that get hired in as a new grad in CA. There's no known stats yet on what percentage of the applicants were ADN's or BSN's, but mentioned BSN's do get the higher marks to get accepted, but that some ADN's are taken in the mix. The study was done with BSN candidates, not ADN's, so you can imagine the even hardship of the ADN's, which the recruiter told me, she strongly thinks that segment is in worse shape in terms of the hiring process. Mind you, this study was reflected upon CA hospitals and not LTC, nursing homes, etc.

I am in my 2nd year BSN studies and hope the job market is a different world by the time I get out. Hope one day, it will be back to where there was openings at many places and hospitals are begging for new people.

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BennyRNCA

I take it you are in an RN to BSN program (I'm assuming based on your username)? Since you may already have experience as an RN you shouldn't have trouble getting a job when you are done with school.

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Hi, RNsas...actually, no, I'm not an RN yet, there was a similar name I wanted to use but was taken and couldn't think of a better moniker, lol.

Yes, I do hope it's a more friendly job environment by then. I mean, look at how things have changed in just the last few years or so, from nurses getting bonuses for signing up to deciding on which offers to accept, that's what I remembered from friends who were in that great position a few years before I was interested in a nursing career.

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