Input How to get Hired

Get some letters of recommendation from your teachers or past employers. It helped me a little bit but it makes you stand out. After applying go to the HR department and drop it off personally and say you've applied but had to drop this off in addition to your resume.

Put any awards and such in your resume.

If you have a hard time and after a while you dont get anywhere you can consider taking some certification courses, like basic EKG or ACLS, again it makes you stand out. I would recommend basic EKG though because lots of units use tele.

And as always you have to have a good cover letter, even though lots of places dont even read it, you gotta have it.

Bottom line, gotta be creative. Lots of people are out there trying for the same job and if everyone looks the same they just pull the 1st one out of the box.

Thank you. I will try that. I have the thought the longest time about getting certified with those other skills that might help me stand out from the crowd.

A lot of people will flame me for this but I recommend this:

1.) do a google and find all the local home health agencies, hospitals, nursing homes, etc in your area.

Put together a spreadsheet of the HR contacts in there.

2.) Send a resume, cover letter, credentials, and copy of any reference letters to all of the above.

3.) Sit back and wait for interviews.

I had 4 jobs waiting for me when I was done with RN school by doing this. Some people feel it's wasteful and looks badly, but in this job market you have to do everything you can to stand out.

I also have a very colorful and eye catching resume as well.

YMMV.

I got my resume professionally done through workforce so it was free. The agent did a wonderful job on it and it looked amazing when I printed it out on ivory resume paper. I also got nice looking ivory resume folders to put the resume in and every interview I went to the manager commented on how nice and pretty it looks (more than once). I got offers from both hospitals!

I've been a nurse for two years and my qualifications were probably the same with most people who applied for the job I got. I honestly believe what got me hired above other people was my presentation and openness. I wore a suit and when answering questions I let the interviewers know if i didn't know a scenario, I would seek assitance from more experienced nurses and the charge nurse.