Interview with Portland VA/Salary and Parking Question

LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN · Jun 30, 2013

The VA is up on the hill which has OHSU, Shiners, Dornbecker and the VA all with little to no parking! I havent worked up there but have friends that do and they do have an employee parking lot, but they state it is about a mile away from the hospitals. The pay out here for new grads is around $33, but then again the VA I think has a different pay system. I know that I got in at a hospital here with 3 years LTC experience and started at $36

nursestacey62 · Jun 30, 2013

Thanks!

m0lasses · Jun 30, 2013

Hey. I moved here from NC too and found the cost of living high, but reasonable compared to other cities on the West Coast. Public transportation is pretty easy from most anywhere in inner NE or inner SE Portland. The Irvington and Sullivan's Gulch neighborhoods are walking distance to the train, which gets you easily to the bus that goes to the VA and OHSU. These are nicer neighborhoods. Houses are pricey, but you can get decent apartments pretty cheap until you figure out where you like. Check out American Property Management. They have a lot of apartment complexes in inner Portland, are cheap, and have short-term leases. Good luck with your interview. Experienced nurses seem to have no problem getting jobs here. Just a heads up about the VA--I have several friends who work up there and it took months for them to get through the hiring process. Don't get discouraged by that; I hear it is well worth it.

nursestacey62 · Jul 2, 2013

Thanks! I hope the VA doesn't take too long. Phone interview Wednesday. Any idea if their pay scale is different than civilian hospitals? Not sure how much to ask for coming from NC. I was shocked to see that new grads start at $33!

kyle520 · Jul 3, 2013

That is what unions will do for you! :)

m0lasses · Jul 3, 2013

As an experienced nurse, you could probably ask for $35 or so. Are you moving to a new specialty? I think they pay out here is higher because of cost of living. Even in non-unionized facilities, new grads are making $30-$33 an hour.

maxx12 · Jul 3, 2013

I just got hired at the VA as a new grad in May. As a new grad I am currently making about $29/hour so with experience you should be able to make more.

Although parking is a pretty big issue there are some easy fixes. If you are working nights, parking is not a problem at all because everyone is given a parking pass. If you are working days, joining a carpool group is fairly easy. Once you get a job I would keep in contact with the hiring manager about getting that all worked out. HR is a nightmare so my advice is to deal with them as little as possible.

nursestacey62 · Jul 4, 2013

I was told it would take 3-6 months to hear back from HR about whether I even got the job. Was that your experience?

Palmer12 · Jul 8, 2013

The VA has a pay scale based on education and experience. You can find your pay grade range if you go to the VA main website and look under nursing. You can negotiate within your range, but they won't go outside those numbers. Good luck!

nursestacey62 · Jul 10, 2013

The range for the job I applied for is like $51,000 to $91,000. That's a pretty broad range! Does it have anything to do with the cost of living in the area of each VA facility?

Palmer12 · Jul 11, 2013

It looks like you can't access the pay scale chart externally. But, here's a small explanation (with hypothetical numbers) if you have an ADN you'd be grade 1, which has a range 51k-60k. If you have no experience to 1 year you're level 1: range 51k-53k. If you have 1-2 years experience 53-55k, 2-4 years 55-57, etc. If you have a BSN you're grade 2 - range 58-70k. If you're grade 2 level 1 (BSN with no experience) range 58-63, level 2 62-65, etc. So based on your education and years experience you will fall into a grade and level which will have a smaller range that you can negotiate within. Grade is basically based on education, level on years experience. But, experience will push you into higher grades as well. I hope that made sense & helped.