My 1st New Grad Nursing Interview

[kristyly1023]

i am a new grad rn. after applying for nursing job for months, i finally received an email from one of the hospitals i applied for informed me that the recruiter wanted to set up for a phone interview with me. i was so excited and nervous at the same time. however, i managed to do okay during the interview, answering all the tricky questions which i was not adequately prepared for. in the end, she scheduled me for an in-person interview with the unit manager on the floor that i applied for. that was a big yayy for me!! finally i got an interview!!. i forgot to mention that it is the hospital that i did my clinical rotation that was a plus for me. the nurse recruiter said that it is good because it could take less time to orient me on the floor since i am familiar with it.

so today i had a face-to-face with the unit manager, there were only her and i, there was no panel interview that i've heard others have talked about. it made me less nervous. she asked me some common questions just about 4 of them like why do you want to be a nurse? what are you career goals? how do you handle conflict with a co-worker? then she started to tell me about the staff on the floor, they are very supportive, about how they schedule the staff, they do rotations during major holidays ect.; and that i will need to get my oncology certification within a couple months after because all the staff need to give chemo. anyways, toward the end she asked me if i have any questions and i had about 4 questions written down in my portfolio and started to ask her one by one.

i think my answers were okay, i was a just little nervous but i was able to manage it she even made a comment on one of my answers " good for you"

before i left i asked her how long does it take to hear from her? she said that she has a lot of interview to go through before she can make the decision but don't think about anything now. (i don't know what she meant by that though). and it would take about 10 days until recruiter can contact me.

do you think that i have a high chance of getting hired for this residency position? because i put a lot of time and effort in this interview. i prepared answers for many questions and she only asked a couple of them? the more questions are better or the less is better? i know quality is what matters but do you think that she might not be interested in my answers that was why she didn't ask more questions. because i know other have at least 8 including clinical scenario questions.

i am really hoping that i can get a job here on this floor because oncology is my passion and it is the reason why i went into nursing and i already explained to the nurse manager about my passion and i think she had a good impression of what i said.

i am just keeping my finger crossed and wait and wait

thank you

[AKAnurse4]

I believe that you have this job! I felt your passion when I read this! Stay positive!!!!! Send a hand written thank you card tomorrow ASAP! and don't forget to call and follow up! GOOD LUCK!

[kristyly1023]

Thank you for your reassurance. Yes, I will try to stay positive about this resident position. I have a question though, after the job interview, Do you think hould I handwrite a formal thank you letter or a thank you card for the interviewer? Which one is most commonly used and worked?

I know that we are living in a world of technology but I don't think I wanna write a thank you letter and send it via email. To me, sending letter by email is too convenient and it seems like you don't put much effort in it.

Thanks for the replies guys!!:heartbeat

[AKAnurse4]

I send a thank you card like one from Hallmark that says a simple thankyou on the front and then i put whatever note in the inside. No don't ever send an email like you said it looks like you didn't put anything thought in to it