Job Search Anxieties

[0.9%NormalSarah, BSN, RN]

Good morning, All! I have been lurking on this site for years but recently joined and began interacting, what a wonderful community this is! I graduated in December and passed my NCLEX two weeks ago, so I am an impatient RN trying to find a job and just dealing with general anxiety about my new life. ?

I had an interview with a new grad program in MICU with a prestigious and nice hospital last week, and I do think it went well, so I’m really hoping I get that. However, that has been my only real prospect. Most of the hospitals close to me only hire new grads when they run their new grad programs, so not much else going on. I went for a walk-in interview at another place and the recruiter totally tore me apart, wanted to know why I didn’t remember just about every diagnosis I took care of in my senior rotation, why I didn’t know how many clinical hours I spent on each unit, etc. I really felt defeated and was nervous so totally blanked when she asked me if I had researched the hospital system (I had, but lost my mojo during that interview). I was concerned that every interview would be that way, so I went home and went through my care plans to write down every diagnosis and all clinical hours at each place and on each unit, only to get to my ICU interview the next day where the whole panel was super nice and didn’t ask me for any of that! I’m glad I was prepared, though.

I guess I’m just looking for a little commeraderie here. Was it normal for a recruiter or interviewer to ask all of those very in-depth questions about my schooling? She also said the hiring managers would ask questions about meds and procedures, is that common? Also, if I don’t find something soon in acute care, would any of you suggest I go to LTC? I have experience in dialysis and am a caregiver now, so I’ve heard from many nurses I’ve worked with that here in SoCal, if you start in outpatient care or LTC, it can be incredibly difficult to break back into the hospital later on, and I really want to be a bedside critical care nurse so I don’t want to jeopardize my future in nursing in any way.

I had the privilege of doing my senior rotation in ICU and graduated with distinction and honors, but am just so anxious I will still fail at getting a good first job and beginning my career.