Help! How to stay sane during depressing job-hunt?

JeanettePNP, MSN, RN, NP · Feb 4, 2011

Yeah, same boat here. Worked my %@% off in school for 4 years, graduated top of my class, but so far no luck in the job search. Apparently the skills needed to do well in school and to be a good nurse are not the same skills needed to succeed in the job market.

Stay sane ideas and tips (keep in mind that I don't always follow these myself, and at any given moment I could be balled up in despair as well):

1) DO take off time for yourself once in a while. It's an illusion that getting a job depends on filling out applications or doing job-search related stuff 24/7. Give yourself whatever mental breaks you can and taking your mind completely OFF the job search.

2) DO network with other nurses, employed or not. It helps to keep in contact with classmates who also haven't found work yet so you know it isn't just you. But being in touch with successful job seekers may give you some ideas for options you can try.

3) DO move on as quickly as you can after a rejection. Whether it's a polite email, no response, no offer after an interview -- whatever it is, don't ruminate over it for too long and think what-if. However, if you did make it to the interview stage, DO think about what you said in the interview that possibly wasn't the right response. Maybe you just weren't a good fit for the job, but maybe there were some questions you could have answered differently or better.

4) DO NOT take rejection personally. I have seen people get jobs that really left me flabbergasted because I saw nothing special about them. At this point I do not believe that nurse recruiters have some sort of magic vision that allows them to go through the pile and pick out only the most outstanding candidates for an interview. There is a lot of randomness involved in this process. So don't think that recruiters are sizing you up and finding you wanting. Keep telling yourself that there is absolutely NO reason why a recruiter wouldn't jump at the chance to hire someone as hardworking, smart and capable as yourself. You need to keep believing that you have something unique and special to offer the nursing profession even if it seems that nobody else is seeing that.

5) Try not to lean on other people too much to boost you up. Learn how to do this for yourself. Yes, you may need a little cheerleading now and then from friends or from people on this board, etc. But if you're turning to others too often it may get old and it will seem that you have nothing to say other than whine about your unsuccessful job search. If you keep projecting yourself like a loser people will slowly adjust to seeing you that way too. So do your best to keep the worst to yourself.

6) DO NOT get angry or bitter about other people who got jobs before you who seemed less qualified. It just diminishes you as a person. Hard as it is, try to be happy for the success of others even if you haven't found the right thing yet.

None of the above is directed at you personally. I am not trying to imply that you are an angry, petty, whiny or bitter person or that you're coming across that way. These are just some pointers that I use for myself to keep positive, and as I said, I am not always successful at implementing all of them.

B52-H · Feb 4, 2011

@Jeanette73: Could not agree more and really good advice on how to stay positive. Thank you.

I recently was able to talk candidly with a nurse recruiter from a large hospital. She told me that with so many applications for new grad positions, I am kidding myself if I think she has the time and resources to go through them all. Depending on the number of interviews she can do, she will go through the applications and pick out a handful.

It is easy for her to immediately throw an application out, grammar errors, incomplete resume, unexplained gaps of employment, no cover letter etc. This makes the selection process quick and easy. Make sure your application is perfect and you double check everything.

Realize that the people making these decisions are humans and not perfect. This nurse recruiter was particularly nasty and told me that after being burned by so many new grads leaving after barely a year during the good times, she has no sympathy for the struggles we are going through. Its hard for me to take a rejection personally if I know I have people like her judging my qualifications.

muffins20 · Feb 5, 2011

There's definitely a lot of stress out there. The above poster had a lot of great advice. My dad was laid off and it took him almost 2 years to find another IT manager job. (Even though he had a couple decades of experience, good references, etc, he didn't have a degree or was over qualified.) I guess he stayed sane because he limited his job search to only 4-5 hours a day, found a hobby, and stayed connected to family and friends. Maybe try volunteering to help other people.

mnf4ever · Feb 5, 2011

Thanks for the advice guys. It just gets really frustrating at times and no one (except for ppl on this board) seems to understand how hard it is to find a job nowadays--even for nurses. I am always stuck trying to explain myself when people ask, "Why aren't you working as a nurse yet? Isn't there a nursing shortage?" I know they mean well, but man, it can get tiresome.

@Jeanette73 those are good tips, I will keep them in mind.

B52-H · Feb 5, 2011

It just gets really frustrating at times and no one (except for ppl on this board) seems to understand how hard it is to find a job nowadays--even for nurses. I am always stuck trying to explain myself when people ask, "Why aren't you working as a nurse yet? Isn't there a nursing shortage?" I know they mean well, but man, it can get tiresome.

I know how you feel. It only really gets tiresome for me when I constantly have family members call or email to tell me about all the nursing jobs they found online. None of which I qualify for lol. To let off some steam, I emailed my local congress representative, governor and the CINHC about the situation we are in and that continuing to give huge grants to open nursing schools and keep them open may not be the best allocation of resources.

Catch22Personified · Feb 5, 2011

I know how you feel. It only really gets tiresome for me when I constantly have family members call or email to tell me about all the nursing jobs they found online. None of which I qualify for lol. To let off some steam, I emailed my local congress representative, governor and the CINHC about the situation we are in and that continuing to give huge grants to open nursing schools and keep them open may not be the best allocation of resources.

You don't know how much I get bombarded with emails (haha and your username is B52-H) from family members going OH JOB POSITION HERE! It's really hard to stay positive, I was promised a job by my aunt who is a director at a hospital when I was about to take my boards. Later that summer hospitals nearby closed down causing the positions she intended to give to me to close up.

I'd relocate but I have no money to do so. I'd join the military but the psychiatric community branded me with the word recurrent in my medical records so that's out of the question too.