How do nurse recruiters pick which applicants to contact for interview?

[ala080283]

Hi all,

I had applied to hundreds of positions from more than ten hospitals but never heard from any of them. I am just wondering if any of you may know how do nurse recruiters pick their candidates. I had experience from my first Nursing Jobs but I didn't get interview from that job. It was a small hospital and I just got hired right away. But currently, i am moving back and looking for a position near the bay area, but it's so difficult. I had given up a couple times but keep telling myself I have to try again harder. I had revised my resume and cover letter a lot of time, but there's still no good news. Another thing that I did was, I called the HR but never be able to speak with the nurse recruiter. Another time I went to see the nurse recruiter personally bringing my resume, but it's unsuccessful also..If this continues I think I will have to give up nursing...

[movingforward12]

Hi, I am not a nurse recruiter but I can give you my perspective on this question. First dont give up on looking for a job. There are a lot of Nursing Jobs out there, so the question is what specialty of nursing are you looking to work in. Also another question to ask yourself is can you be flexible with the area you work in and also the schedule. I believe some areas of nursing are more in demand, meaning that more nurses want to work in those particular areas. If you dont have experience in that particular area, the nurse recruiter might not consider you. They might not want to invest money into training you.

I put my application in last week and I received a call Monday asking me when I would like to interview. Im actually having it tomorrow so that is why I came on this site. I believe the reason why they want me to interview is because I have several years experience in the unit I am applying for. Also, I think the way your resume and cover letter is written can make a difference. I had it done by a professional resume writer which I think made a difference for me. I also included detailed discription of some of my skills to show them that I have experience working in such a unit.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

In every organization that I know of, the hiring manager is actually the person who determines which candidates to interview based on recommendations from HR/recruitment. HR & the recruiter are responsible for comparing applications to the stated job qualifications & making sure that only qualified candidates are recommended for interviews. In some organizations, HR/recruitment will help the hiring manager to schedule interviews for the selected candidates, but Hiring managers always have the final decision.

[LynnLRN]

At my facility (part of very large system) HR controls whether you ever reach the nurse manager. If you do not pass the HR interview (which is basic stuff) then you definitely wont go on to the next level.

[*4!#6]

At many facilities I have spoken with, the recruitment/HR staff decide which candidates to send to nurse managers. Nurse managers then select who they want to interview. However, nurse managers can also "ask" for certain candidates to be sent to them for an interview if HR did not originally select them from the pool of applicants. That is why "who you know" is important, because out of thousands of applicants, HR may not select you. However a nurse manager always has the final decision, so they can pull you from the applicant pool even if you were not picked by HR.

One strategy I used was to identify recruiters at organizations and contact them. I spoke with the recruiters about their expectations, the application, and information to help me get selected. They were surprisingly very nice and informative (not scary as I originally thought). I have also attempted to contact nurse managers directly, without much success (expect for the nurse managers I know personally).

[panpan]

So really... I would skip HR and talk to the nurse managers directly. Call the Hospital you want to work at, and ask for the floor you are interested in, then ask the receptionist for nurse manager's email. Then shot them an email with your resume/coverletter attached. That way you can just bypass HR completely. The nurse manager might re-direct you back to HR, however they will usually forward the email. At least this way... the nurse recruiter will pay more attention to your resume b/c it was forwarded by the nurse manager. More possibility for an interview.

[Aongroup1990, CNA]

So it's best to go directly to the nurse manager if you can get their contact info.. i think recruiters be on ******** if you ask me...sometimes they do.. .and sometimes they may not forward your cv/resume

[tinybbynurse]

I personally think HR / recruiters can go too much by the book when selecting candidates to pass on to the NM. If you don't get selected the first time around, I believe persistence is the key. If they keep seeing your name pop up, they will see that you're serious about the position you applied for. Who knows, maybe HR will even just automatically forward you go the NM along with the other selected applicants just because you're persistent.