Help choosing the right 1st job

Nurses Job Hunt

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Hi all! I am a brand new BSN graduate trying to determine which factors are most important when deciding on which hospital to begin my career with. From your experiences, what factors other then salary should be considered? What are the things you wish you factored in before accepting a position? Thanks in advance!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

Salary should be the last thing a new grad considers as he or she will almost always end up at the bottom of the pay scale.

1. Benefits- Health insurance and retirement should be top priority, unless you are married and can get benefits via your spouse.

2. Working conditions- Also just as important as benefits if not more so. Remember, you will be going into work for a great portion of your life. Are you in a supportive environment that encourage teamwork? Are the patient: nurse ratios safe?

3. Specialty- Is it a specialty you like or have interest in? Do you see yourself going to grad school that requires certain experience?

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Honestly, when I graduated there was very little in the way of choice. Full time jobs were few and far between. Part time or casual was all that there was.

Basically, I went for the first place that offered me a job. Not my "dream" but a paycheque to start repaying the student loans and experience to get my life as a nurse started.

It took four years as a casual to find a job that I wanted and had enough seniority to get.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

If you have a choice, rejoice!

Very few new grads have even one job offer, let alone 2 or more from which to choose.

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The main factor for me is the quality of my coworkers and management. Unfortunately, you won't know until you actually start working the job

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Good grief, to all the comments saying "take what you can get and don't even bother considering your work conditions"; this is awful advice. I took the first job I was offered because AllNurses and the like told me it is sooooo hard to get a job and I would be poor and alone and never ever ever gain employment. I ended up taking an awful job. Later I quit. And allnurses told me I would never ever find another job because I quit in less than a year. I am going to be poor and alone. Then I got another job offer; in a rural community health clinic setting. And allnurses told me this is all I will ever get and I should take that job and do it because, you know, there are Absolutely No Jobs out there!

THEN I got a day shift job, 9-5, at a community health clinic setting NEAR HOME. Oh but that is impossible! And I don't plan to stay where I am forever either. I am going to consistently apply to my dream job and take classes to go after medicine or something if my dream job doesn't work out.

If if I had listened to the take what you can advice I would either be miserable in my precious job working 11-7 or I would be living in a very rural area all alone.

That at is my advice. Don't listen to people on the Internet. Don't feel like you have no choice but to take the first thing presented to you. Don't feel so anxious and nervous about getting a job that you end up taking something you KNOW you will hate.

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Some of the answer depends on the environment you wasn't to work in. Another part depends on where you are. If you are iun a largish city that is saturated with new nurses then take the first job you can get because jobs are hard to find. if you are in a more rural area where jobs are a dime a dozen, hold out for what you really want.

Contrary to what Angelica said, the advise on AN is usually very good advise. And in many parts of the country, new grads end up waiting from between 3 months and a year for a job, so don't be picky if you live in an area like that.

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I LIVE IN ONE OF THE MOST COMPETITIVE JOB MARKETS IN THE COUNTRY

IN A "LUSH BIG CITY"

I spent so much time reading about how I was going to be unemployed and poor that I took the worst job possible.

If you have a BSN and are willing to work outside the hospital and don't expect a job instantaneously you WILL find something! And if you have a BSN and are willing to wait 6-8 months you WILL find something EXCELLENT.

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If you anticipate failure and misery it will onlyslow you down. Work outside acute care is easy to get and does NOT make you a failure!

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