How did you find a job as a new grad?

umcRN, BSN, RN · Oct 13, 2011

It's finny, people as me this all the time. No secret here, I have my BSN, worked as a CNA for about 6 months prior to graduation and I applied, applied, applied. I realize many people are doing just that and still having a difficult time but that's the only advice I really have. I applied to jobs from Massachusetts where I lived, to California and everywhere in between. I eventually relocated about 8 hours away for my current position. Keep at it and good luck!

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Oct 13, 2011

I'd like to hear from those who have actually gotten RN jobs in Hospitals.

Hello.

Did you have BSN?

No.

previous medical experience?

Yes. Two years as a CNA and Therapy Rehab Tech at a gawd-awful nursing home. A year as a Home Health/Hospice Aide for a hospital, and 4 months as a CNA on a hospital Med Surg Trauma floor.

Did you have a good contact at the hospital that hired you?

I had one Med Surg clinical, an ICU preceptorship, and a Summer Internship at the hospital I now work at.

any unique tactics you used to find your job?

Yes. A 4.0 all the way through school and I worked my tail off and excelled at every single job I took.

how long did it take?

I passed the boards in early June and was offered a New Grad Residency RN position 3 days later. Note: It was my only interview and the only hospital I got any response from at all. The hospital I worked as an aide at hasn't hired any new grad RNs in two years and isn't planning on starting anytime soon.

Any pearls of wisdom are greatly appreciated by all on this board who are struggling to find that first RN job...

If you have already graduated, expand your search to LTC, home health and get any RN job you can. If you are still in school or considering starting school: Get experience in health care!!!

Also, do as well as you possibly can in school and at clinical sites. You will get noticed.

Good luck!

DizzyLizzyNurse · Oct 14, 2011

Borrowing from MN-Nurse:

Did you have BSN?

No.

previous medical experience?

Yes. 7 years as an LPN, 2.5 as a CNA.

Did you have a good contact at the hospital that hired you?

Kind of. The nurse recruiter had interviewed me 5 years before for an LPN job that they ended up giving to a nurse with hospital experience. Then she interviewed me my last semester because there was a job open that I was interested in and had applied to as a student. She recognized my name (unusual last name) and informally interviewed me. She told me to come back after I was licensed. I still "only" got a subacute/rehab job, not hospital like I wanted, but after applying to 200 something jobs in various hospitals up to 100 miles away she was the one who ended up hiring me. AND I interviewed for a PT job and she told me something was going to come up FT (wasn't on the job site yet) and it was mine if I wanted it. So be nice to everyone and don't assume if you didn't get hired by someone you won't face them again looking for a job. :lol2:

any unique tactics you used to find your job?

I made sure to mention that I worked FT and went to school FT. I said I didn't have the highest GPA ever (they wanted it to be listed) but I had tenacity and was willing to work very hard for what was important to me. Learn the fine art of taking a negative and making it positive. I also made many phone calls because in this day and age of applying for jobs online it's very difficult to be anything more than a piece of paper (resume) and stick out in someone's mind. I applied to anything. I don't want subacute/rehab but in the long run I've started working and in a year I can transfer anywhere I want to in this company's 5 major hospitals.

how long did it take?

I graduated in December. Due to difficulties with the NY BON and NYCLEX repeatedly losing my paperwork and making mistakes :devil: I didn't take my boards until July. That is when I seriously started looking for a job. My LTC didn't have any openings for me so I had to leave. I got hired in September. So it took me 9 months after graduation even with my LPN and CNA experience to get hired.

Any pearls of wisdom are greatly appreciated by all on this board who are struggling to find that first RN job...

*If you have already graduated, expand your search to LTC, home health and get any RN job you can. If you are still in school or considering starting school: Get experience in health care!!!

Also, do as well as you possibly can in school and at clinical sites. You will get noticed.* - This is pretty much what I was going to say.

Good luck!

dudette10, MSN, RN · Oct 14, 2011

BSN, no previous medical experience. Got a few interviews and two job offers within two months of graduation.

Treated clinicals like job interviews and networked like crazy. Used presentation opportunities at clinical sites to make an impression. Wrote down everyone's name, position, etc. Made phone calls and sent emails to these contacts to let them know I had graduated, passed NCLEX, and was interested in their facilities. Had a school counselor do a mock interview with me and review my resume.

It can be done. Just doing online applications won't cut it for most folks.

SweetheartRN · Oct 14, 2011

I'm one of those who is having a tough time finding a job in this economy. I have a BSN, I live in CA, no prior medical experience but I'm coming from the tech field. I did my preceptorship at Stanford Hospital, have looked for jobs ALL over CA, Nevada, and Arizona. Almost 2 years after graduation, NO job.
I'd like to hear from those who have actually gotten RN jobs in Hospitals. Did you have BSN? previous medical experience? as a CNA, respiratory therapist? Did you have a good contact at the hospital that hired you? any unique tactics you used to find your job? how long did it take? Any pearls of wisdom are greatly appreciated by all on this board who are struggling to find that first RN job...
Thank you!

No I do not have a BSN and no near future plans of obtaining one.

Yes I've been a medical transcriptionist (in highschool), registrar/secretary, nursing asst. and LPN before getting my RN.

No I did not have any contact with the hospital that hired me. Strangely enough the hospital I had been working at for 6 years would not hire/promote me.(Epic Fail)

Not for the initial job. I first got hired at a peds clinic. Well actually I FIRST got hired at a peds home health company. I graduated Dec. 2010 and three days before Christmas passed boards. By Feb. 2011 still no prospects. I had began applying in Oct. before graduation. Anyway home health was not a good decision because I felt that I needed wayyy more autonomy before being on my own in someones home but they were the only ones to give me a shot. I still had this job while I got the job for the peds clinic. I must say that having a job while looking for another one is so much more effective than not having one at all. I feel that by my just getting the peds home health job helped me land the peds clinic job. Crazy I know. I only had that job for maybe three months?

Anyway the peds clinic is apart of a bigger hospital system which is a plus because of being able to transfer into the hospital. To get that job I think my peds nursing asst. and LPN experience helped me there as well. At the nursing orientation for the peds clinic job I ran into a classmate there who was being hired to work for a renal med surge job in the hospital who said she'd put in a good word for me with her nurse manager ...4 months later I got the job on the med surge floor.

I guess I'm not your traditional "new grad" being that I had a few months of RN experience and 1 1/2 yrs of LPN experience plus just having worked in a hospital setting in other roles to draw from before I got the hospital job. I think all this helped me.

My advice is to jump around a little. And NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK while you're doing it. You may have to steer from your original plan of going straight to the hospital like most new grads want to. Thats understandable but nowadays its just not working that way. If you can get on at a doc's office, clinic, nursing home, rehab hospital, skilled nursing facility, LTAC, anything....it gives you SOMETHING to work with, especially if you take a position somewhere where you see an opportunity to move up from there....like I did from the clinic to the floor. BTW I still work at the clinic too because I love kiddos and ended up liking it alot.

I hope this helps.

Calabria, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2011

I'm one of those who is having a tough time finding a job in this economy. I have a BSN, I live in CA, no prior medical experience but I'm coming from the tech field. I did my preceptorship at Stanford Hospital, have looked for jobs ALL over CA, Nevada, and Arizona. Almost 2 years after graduation, NO job.
I'd like to hear from those who have actually gotten RN jobs in Hospitals. Did you have BSN? previous medical experience? as a CNA, respiratory therapist? Did you have a good contact at the hospital that hired you? any unique tactics you used to find your job? how long did it take? Any pearls of wisdom are greatly appreciated by all on this board who are struggling to find that first RN job...
Thank you!

I'm a second degree student, so I have a BSN, and another BS (which is relevant to health care). I had some volunteer medical experience in a clinic and in a hospital, and I volunteered with children with special needs. I was hired onto an OB floor right out of graduation, and started working two months after I graduated.

I did network like crazy at the hospital where I was hired, though... I did my OB clinical, and my internship in OB. Of note, I did my senior research project on an OB-related topic as well because I couldn't see myself working in another specialty. I brought the paper that I wrote for it to my interview and shared it with my interviewing manager (who oversaw my internship). I knew that competition for the spot was going to be fierce, even though I had networked well, and I wanted to be able to show that I truly had a vested interest in the unit and the job. I made it a point to ask if there was a committee dedicated to research for nursing, which I think played out well since I actually brought my work with me to show her. My manager told me that she appreciated how passionate and excited I was to be interviewing for the job.

StephieRN_1216 · Oct 14, 2011

It's so crazy to me when I read of new grads having this issue in other states. I guess I just never knew this was such an issue... TWO YEARS?!??! That's insane. Pack up your fam and come to Oklahoma or Texas! lol. I know here ALL of the hospitals hire new RNs, it's not even a big deal at all. They have 8-10 week orientations, and even programs to pay for your nursing school by signing 1 or 2 year contracts if you want.

Kinda scares me to leave here if there's such a nursing abundance elsewhere...

allnurses Guide · Oct 14, 2011

I will graduate with my ASN in December and today got my second job offer for after graduation. I have had three interviews and was offered the job for two of them (ICU stepdown and 23 Hour obs unit). 12 week internship, full time with benefits etc. I was not excited about 23 obs but am very excited about ICU stepdown. I have two other job interviews lined up at other area hospitals that I am likely going to cancel now that I have decided to accept a position.

I worked an externship during nursing school at the hospital that these two offers came in from. I made sure to treat the entire externship like one long job interview. I took on leadership positions during school, kept my GPA up and applied applied applied as positions for internships posted. I also have many connections in the medical community from working in healthcare as an office worker/medical transcriptionist for many years. I tend to leave places in a good way and maintain contacts/relationships. This has benefited me greatly and I have enjoyed a very exciting, smooth process with getting interviews due to the personal recommendations I have gotten.

I feel very fortunate. All of these positions had over 400-600 applicants and the manager on the floor I have worked my externship on said today he is fielding an overwhelming number of calls from people nearly begging just for a chance to interview. It sounds heartbreaking. I can't speak for Oklahoma, but there are new grads in Texas from last December still looking for work. Texas is pretty saturated and my situation is, frankly, very unusual. I am super excited and grateful to graduate with something already lined up, happy that I have had the wisdom to maintain good relationships with past employers and coworkers and thankful I started hitting the pavement early to find something for after graduation in December. I am lucky to have connections, but keeping those alive and really good was no accident. It paid off for me big time.

Reader007 · Oct 14, 2011

If any new student reads this, GET A TECH job while still in school. This will give you the BEST chance of being hired.

My wife is a new RN and did the above, plus I had some cards made here... http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/studio3.aspx?pf_id=088&combo=68923.80.23.101364%7c101364%7c137%7c0&uei=117438&icparts=yes&ag=true&combo_id=112855&referer=http%3a%2f%2fwww.vistaprint.com%2fsearch%2fnursing.aspx%3frt%3d1&rd=2

when she STARTED nursing school.

This isn't the same card, so do some looking around...BUT...they were $20-30, and they stand out.

Hand them out to EVERYONE. Swmbo's had her graduation date and stated "Looking for an entry level position while in school". It STANDS out, and that's what you need.

Good luck.

MissDardenRN · Oct 14, 2011

I recently graduated with my ASN. A lot of my friends passed NCLEX sometime this past summer and already have jobs. It also depends on the area. We have a naval hospital, children's hospital, heart hospital, and at least 5 other hospitals to choose from in my area. That doesn't even touch on home health, outpatient, private offices, etc. I guess I am just fortunate to live in an area with so many options.

ANNIENURSEANGEL · Oct 14, 2011

Have you tried looking at rural hospitals. Nevada has quite a few. I am from one. Mount grant general hosptial, in hawthorne, nevada. We hire new grads. Its a small hospital, but it is not overwhelming, like a big hospital can be. Mount grant is a great place to sharpen your skills, in the event that you want to go to a bigger hospital later on. That seems to be a pattern with the new grads. They get their year in, then go to another hospital. Think about a rural hospital.