NEED HELP, Send my resume two-three weeks ago!

[nurseo]

hello,

i recently passed my nclex exam. i fax or email my resume and cover letter to different medical centers in nyc about 2-3 weeks ago and haven't heard a thing. i have reviewed my resume and cover letter for mistakes but can't find a thing.

i am not sure if there is something i can do. i am not sure if i should be calling them to show my interest or if this is a no-no in nursing. i know it's a no-no in other fields.

please give me advice.

thank you

[llg, PhD, RN]

Call them. Ask about the status of your application. Ask to confirm whether or not they received your resume. Ask if there is some other way you should be submitting your application (e.g. online application process at their website).

It can't hurt to show a polite interest.

[agoodusername]

I'd call for sure. Also, did you submit online? Most applications are all through the internet...

[Wren]

Consider putting on your best suit, printing out your resume and showing up in person to the Human Resource Department. Be as polite as possible and ask if it is possible to schedule an appointment with a nurse recruiter. You may very well get the cold shoulder and be told, "we'll call you", etc. but this has worked for me on more than one occasion. I have twice been invited in to interview that very day and later offered positions. I have also been completely brushed off by the receptionist so you never know! If you have the time though, you can spend a day making the rounds of all of the hospitals you think you might want to work for. All you need is to get in to see a recruiter in one of them.

Another plan of attack is attend any "open house" events or career fairs in your area. Be professionally dressed, don't drag your husband or children with you and have tons of perfect resumes with you to hand out. It is much much easier to impress folks in person so anything you can do to get an audience is worth trying. Good luck!

[anonymurse]

It's estimated that 19 out of 20 resumes never get read. Paper overload is a reality of any organization. If you're a clerk and you have (a) a resume in your hand (b) someone planted in front of your counter, are you going to process that resume and ignore the visitor, or drop the resume onto your ever-growing stack and attend to the visitor? I dropped off a paper app in person. A week later, I came back and the desk clerk looked in the computer and said since she couldn't find my name, it must have been lost. She told me to enter a quick app into a computer right there in the office, then went and got the mgr responsible for coordinating interviews in my area of interest. The mgr gave me a date and time for an interview on the spot. So from my experience, I would not waste a resume by mailing or faxing it. I would take it to the hospital in person, and re-visit in person if I didn't get a call in a reasonable length of time. If you have a choice between being a face or a piece of paper, be a face.

[chanceny]

I agree with the above responses. I applied to a bunch of hospitals in NYC a few months ago, and they seem to be swamped with applicants this year! My friends and I really had it rough this year, even though we were coming from a really good school. You really should go in person to make sure your resume gets bumped to the top of the pile. Also, since it's NYC, you could try expanding your search to include the smaller hospitals and/or the boroughs since the big ones (Sinai, Cornell) don't seem to be hiring as much as last year. Hope this helps!