Jobs for new grads

OldDude · Dec 11, 2014

Move to Texas.

WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN · Dec 11, 2014

Depends on what state you are in. Many new grads have had to move, but new grads ARE getting jobs. Just not as much in CA, congested metropolitan areas (northeast cities come to mind...).

What state are you looking for work in? Are you networking where you work as an EMT? Have you talked to former clinical instructors or preceptors?

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Dec 11, 2014

FOUR years of regularly pounding the proverbial pavement, and nothing?

Have you tried all the nursing homes, outpatient clinics, medical practices, anything and everything that hires within a 2 hour drive of your home? Have you gone to online job posting sites, typed a variety of keywords to pull up anything remotely related within your State? And....what State are you in? Metro area, or rural?

Vinster · Dec 11, 2014

Do you strike a Director of Nursing as someone likely to kill a patient or panic when someone codes? This is still blue collar work and the interviewer wants to see if you're a competent individual. Practice interviewing. Why did you choose nursing? What is your greatest fault? They actually do ask you that stuff. Can you wow them? Why should they spend $60,000 training you? Will the recruiter get heat from his manager if you don't pan out? They need to know you are a risk worth taking. You need to solve the recruiter's problem. He has a staff and budget problem. Can you be his/her solution?

Some states need you more for sure and moving is one option.

Otherwise:

1. Find a scary place to work: Places that need nurses and hire new grads in a region that generally doesn't often have a need are needing to hire new grads because they scare off the nurses with experience. So find a scary place like a nursing home. Just hang on, listen to the other nurses for help, make friends with them and try to absorb all you can while you're trying to get out of there.

2. Or a really mismanaged place like a correctional facility where people leave because its so crappy to work there.

3. Or a place that has nearly no risk of killing someone like a methadone clinic, where you only do one thing.

Then you interview at a better place and you are more desirable because you are already employed.

I got chatty with a CPR trainer who is also a recruiter. I'm working already and have gotten no leads from him but that's a good way to get a little face time with someone who can place you. Once, I walked into a satellite location of a private doctor's office, asked one of the nurses at the nursing station who in HR at the main facility do I need to see about a job. Then I went to the lead office into HR and asked for him. I got an interview, even though it was not a walk-in kind of place. The recruiter said my initiative was cool.

Some places are contacting your old nursing school with job leads. Ask whoever you need to ask if you can get forwarded those leads. When you get one, go to interview the next day, before your classmates do.

BSNbeauty, BSN, RN · Dec 11, 2014

Wow, four years. Either you come off really weird in your interviews or you really have not been applying any and every where. Four years is a LONG time to not have a job. Where do you live and are you wiling to relocate ?

zzbxdo · Dec 12, 2014

4 years? And that's how you start a post? Almost didn't want to move on to the second sentence. You work in healthcare but can't network? 4 years in,you probably can't even pass the nclex so that refresher might help. Time to have someone else edit your resume and move out of town in all honesty, go where the money is at. Sorry it took you that long to figure that out.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Dec 12, 2014

A refresher course will give you current clinical time and the opportunity to network. Go for it!

RunBabyRN · Dec 13, 2014

A refresher course couldn't hurt, especially being out of the game for that long.

What kinds of jobs have you been applying to?

Don't be scared to apply- if you don't apply, the answer is always NO.

Have you made any connections as an EMT? I know we used to see EMTs in the ED or in med/surg all the time, and we got to know them. Have you met any nurses that might vouch for you? Have you considered getting an ER tech job to make connections?

Connections make all the difference, but so does applying to all kinds of jobs, even out of the box. I do home infusions, something you might be able to do with your EMT experience and RN license. Interviewers LOVE this job, and I get asked a lot of questions about it.

Bezoars · Dec 13, 2014

You need to move.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Dec 25, 2014

How am I supposed to get a job? I am out of school almost 4 years.

Welcome to Allnurses.com, and happy holidays!

What have you been doing the past four years? Even though you have your BSN degree, do you have your RN license? Are you an IEN (internationally educated nurse)? I had to ask because I saw no mention that you had passed ever NCLEX or gotten licensed.

I've listed some tips below. They are obviously more effective for a new grad who has been licensed for less than a year, but you can find utility in them if you put in the effort.

1. Be willing to commute. Do not be too picky. Beggars cannot be choosers.

2. Network and make friends with people who matter. 70 percent of all job openings are never advertised, so form friendships with those who work in the healthcare sector so they can put in a good word for you. Your employment applications will magically move to the top of the stack when you have a friend on the inside of the particular organization who vouches for you.

3. Be willing and ready to accept employment outside the hospital. Walk into every nursing home, SNF, assisted living, hospice, home health company, private duty company, and public health center within a 50 mile radius of your home. Apply in person during business hours (Mon thru Fri from 9am to 5pm) while dressed professionally. This might lead to an on-the-spot interview.

4. Lastly, relocate out of state if at all possible. You didn't attend nursing school to work as an EMT. I am almost assured you would already have a job if you were in other states that needed you, although I am unsure if your inability to find a nursing job is related to extreme pickiness or inability to get licensed. Your original post does not contain enough information.

I'll emphasize that I'm astonished at the number of people who claim to be unable to find nursing jobs, insist that they want to work, act entitled to a job in a specific city, and refuse to budge to improve their lot in life.

Good luck to you.

Tenebrae, BSN, RN · Dec 25, 2014

I agree with others

Be prepared to move for work

Also, be prepared to take something to get the experience. It may mean doing a year in a rest home/hospital however it will stand you in good steed for other opportunities