New Grad First Job Question

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Specializes in OB/GYN, L&D, Postpartum Couplet Care.

Hi guys, I'm a new grad and have read along the way how important it is to career plan and to make smart career choices that'll help me to advance in my speciality of interest. Well, with as competitive as the job market is for new grads but also wanting to keep a career plan in mind, would you, as a new grad, accept any job offer in any field or speciality just to get to work and to gain some experience and start paying the bills? Or by doing so will I find myself in a rut and only marketable in that speciality area and still find it difficult to break into the speciality I'm ultimately interested in when I'm no longer a "new grad"?

Would love the opinions and advice from seasoned nurses who have had experience with changing specialities.

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Specializes in ER.

I would accept pretty much any job, as a new grad. I do feel you can be limited by working in a SNF or a clinic, but those are also areas you'll be learning global nursing skills too, just at a lesser or slower rate than in an acute care hospital. JMO.

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my best advice would be to take any job you can get for the moment. if it is in a hospital "all the better". after 1 yr of employment you will no longer be considered a new grad so you can start to apply elsewhere

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What specialty are you interested in? What are your long term goals?

Hi guys, I'm a new grad and have read along the way how important it is to career plan and to make smart career choices that'll help me to advance in my speciality of interest. Well, with as competitive as the job market is for new grads but also wanting to keep a career plan in mind, would you, as a new grad, accept any job offer in any field or speciality just to get to work and to gain some experience and start paying the bills? Or by doing so will I find myself in a rut and only marketable in that speciality area and still find it difficult to break into the speciality I'm ultimately interested in when I'm no longer a "new grad"?

Would love the opinions and advice from seasoned nurses who have had experience with changing specialities.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I am not an expereinced nurse yet, but I would take what you can get. I started out doing flu clinics, then pediatric home health, then a SNF. I am still working in the SNF, but now that I have experience I have been hired in a registry position for a long term care pedatric unit of a large health system. Which I am hoping will start to open some doors for me once I have been there for awhile.

I believe that once you do get experience and that acute care experience options do start to open up into different areas of nursing.

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I'm a new grad RN also in San Diego and several of my classmates have taken hospital jobs in fields that they weren't interested in just because the job market is so tight out here. We were also instructed to take the first offer by our teachers. I'm still looking for work and I also feel like I should take any hospital job just to get my foot in the door. This is a good topic since I'm interested to hear what the seasoned nurses think about the "take your first offer" concept.

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Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.

It's your 1st job, not your last. You make your decisions based on the options open to you. Even experienced nurses sometimes take less than a "dream position," because that is what meets their ST goals.

Right now your goals are to earn some money & gain some experience, which is priceless.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

Gaining experience is better than unemployment. The longer you sit unemployed waiting, the less attractive you'll seem to prospective employers. Everyone had to start somewhere. I have loans, so waiting wasn't an option. I had 3 offers within a month of graduating.

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Specializes in OB/GYN, L&D, Postpartum Couplet Care.
What specialty are you interested in? What are your long term goals?

Thanks for all the great replies everyone. My long term goal is the OR but I know that's unrealistic right out of school. So, in the meantime, I'd really enjoy doing aesthetic nursing, including Botox injections and laser treatments and in time, work into my employer's OR. At that point, I would probably want to stay put or possibly transfer to a hospital OR after I gain some experience, depending on which schedule I'd prefer at that point when my girls are a little older.

That would be my ideal career path, if I had the luxury to choose, but I don't. So, I'm wondering if I should apply to anything and everything available, even if it's something I don't want to do and won't necessarily help me to break into the aesthetic field of nursing or be patient and hope I can find an opening at a cosmetic surgeons office. I'm not in a huge rush to get to work so I don't want to settle and get stuck in a nursing rut I do not enjoy but at the same time, I want to gain some experience in order to shake off this "new grad" cursed label. So hard to know what to do...

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Yes, apply to anything and everything, do as many interviews as you can and worry about what jobs to accept or turn down when/if you get offered them. Best of luck!

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Hi guys, I'm a new grad and have read along the way how important it is to career plan and to make smart career choices that'll help me to advance in my speciality of interest. Well, with as competitive as the job market is for new grads but also wanting to keep a career plan in mind, would you, as a new grad, accept any job offer in any field or speciality just to get to work and to gain some experience and start paying the bills? Or by doing so will I find myself in a rut and only marketable in that speciality area and still find it difficult to break into the speciality I'm ultimately interested in when I'm no longer a "new grad"?

Would love the opinions and advice from seasoned nurses who have had experience with changing specialities.

That's pretty much what I did because I had no choice. There are several nursing schools in my area, so there is a lot of competion for jobs. Plus I had bills to pay, so I took the first job that was offered to me. Not my ideal job, but at least I'm practicing as a nurse and I'm going to make the best of it until I transfer. I'm interested in med surg so I"ll see what happens after at least 6 months of experience.

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I'm wondering the same thing. At this point ive put in 30+ applications, and have been offered a full time position in dialysis. Am I making a mistake by accepting the position?? How will future employers look at dialysis experience when I'm potentially applying to hospital positions in the future?

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