I was having a talk with my cousin yesterday (she's older and MUCH wiser!) and she suggested that I begin applying for nursing jobs NOW, when I mentioned I wanted to start in March. So, this has started my entire search on Allnurses which lead me to MANY threads asking the same thing. So many responses were "Apply 6 months before graduation" or "Nurse recruiters say apply between Nov-Dec".
This has gotten me on the search to find hospitals in my are as well as out-of-state (I have been looking at residency programs, anyway). Since I'm young, she tells me the sky is the limit. I feel like this could give me a leg up on my graduation class. I would absolutely love to have a position before graduation.
My question is, for you all that applied for jobs 4-6 months prior to graduating, would you be willing to list your city and the place that interviewed or hired you way before graduation?
Also, what was the most difficult (if any) thing you encountered by applying so early? Did you get many rejections?
Thanks in advance for your responses I am very interested to hear your responses :)
You are absolutely right. You need to have a plan and goals. Mine have paid off nicely...I graduate in three weeks and have a position secured for after graduation. I applied the first week of October for an internship that starts the last day of January. Last I checked that was a four month time frame and falls in your FOUR TO SIX months that you wanted to hear from.
Best of luck.
Well, that's great for you. Even though it's still not what I was looking for in my original post. I am applying for residency programs and have applied to two already. Since I have ready so many posts about the difficulty in finding nursing employment, I decided that's what I wanted to do. I might get all rejections, but I also might get a job you never know. So I really didn't need you to tell me that I didn't want to hear "honesty" when what I was looking for was EXPERIENCE from people who have done the same thing. best of luck to you in your career.
I graduated last may. Some classmates applied prior to graduation, within the 4-6 month time frame. 1 had of the 60 of us had a job offer prior to graduation. The second one got an offer 2 days after graduating. The rest of us were not hired and most didnt even get interviews prior to having taken and passed the NCLEX.
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
I am not sure how my "experience" is not the experience you were looking fo when it falls into your time frame and I was successful. That makes no sense. However.... I think what you are really looking for is someone who applied to an institution when they were not hiring new grads and were granted a job simply because the applicant was clever enough to apply when there were no openings and nobody else did. In that sense you are right - I definitely would not have that particular experience.
If you have found residency openings hiring for June of 2012 of course you should apply. It would be foolish not to. Your odds of finding work go up astronomically when there is an opening available to be hired into. That's been my "experience".
Best of luck in your career as well and in your last semester.
Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, Flight.
i graduate in May '12 myself and I plan on starting to submit applications mid december since we have december grads and i dont want to get mixed up with them knowing they obviously will have first preference if they have passed NCLEX.
i want to get a jump ahead of my fellow cohorts and apply early. Early bird gets the worm!
Oh yeah and they are starting to open apps for summer residency (july '12) in like 2 days. I will def. be applying to that one too :)
My last piece of advice is you wont know til you ask or try, whats the worst that could happen? :)
I'd be pretty annoyed if I were passed over for a position because they were "holding" a spot for someone who isn't even guaranteed to be licensed. That's just my opinion.
Yeah I know that the poster is a graduate of may I'm saying the months because of how far in advance they were posted in regards to the way until 3 months before graduation.
These internships and new grad programs were intended for the upcoming graduates of December 2011, and not for the grads of May 2012. The students who will be completing school in May of 2012 were certainly welcome to apply to stuff that had opened up in August and September, but I'm sure that most of these early bird applications went into circular bin number 13 (better known as the waste basket).
I responded to this but I'll quote so people know...I know those graduates aren't able to apply but the point I was making is that the internships opened fairly quick in Aug and Sept which is 4 months before graduation...I telling her to apply to those... So just clearing that up
I'm in the NYC metro area but was applying for jobs both in Manhattan and northern NJ. I got no calls from anywhere I applied before graduation except for a hospital I'd had a student externship with. I interviewed a few months prior to graduation but was told I couldn't be hired until after graduation and NCLEX. By the time I graduated and passed NCLEX a few weeks later there were no new grad openings at the facility. IMO it's a waste of time to apply before you graduate and maybe even before you take NCLEX, unless you already have a foot in the door somewhere. Otherwise you'll just be applying everywhere twice (again after NCLEX when you have license info on your resume)
This is the best answer and I agree with this reply 99%. Thanks
I applied prior to gradation at two large local hospital's in the North Western PA area. They met with us in a class and told us to start applying in Dec-Jan. With everywhere else I applied, I simply called the HR department or Nurse Recruiter and asked when she would like to start receiving applications for new graduate positions.
I took a job at a hospital - I applied to it in January, interviewed in Feb. and March (three different interviews), and accepted an interview in April. I started in June.
sj73201, BSN, RN
204 Posts
Well, that's great for you. Even though it's still not what I was looking for in my original post. I am applying for residency programs and have applied to two already. Since I have ready so many posts about the difficulty in finding nursing employment, I decided that's what I wanted to do. I might get all rejections, but I also might get a job you never know. So I really didn't need you to tell me that I didn't want to hear "honesty" when what I was looking for was EXPERIENCE from people who have done the same thing. best of luck to you in your career.