New Grad Job Market: A Game of Chance

Someone smart once said: "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." This article talks about the unhealthy trend of newly licensed RNs applying to numerous job postings for months and years without getting a job, and how the importance of education is downplayed in applicant selection process. Maybe there needs to be a change in the healthcare system so that new nurses are given a chance to show their knowledge and skills.

It's no longer about whether you qualify for the job or not, or if you have more education and experience than the next person. Nowadays everyone passes NCLEX, everyone graduates with a 4.0, everyone has CNA experience, and yet still many spent months and even years to land that first job out of nursing school.

I don't think nurse managers and hospital administrators actually know the severity of the unhealthy new grad job market because all of them have given me the same suggestions (I only personally know one and other managers are friends of a friend): Get some CNA experience, Apply to new grad programs and Move to a different state. I have already done the first two and I think I may have to do the last one sooner or later.

Just weeks ago, I thought passing the NCLEX was mission impossible because I could not get my Kaplan Q bank score to be over 57%, but in the end, NCLEX seemed to be a piece of cake. Yes, I spent three hours at the test center but I passed on my first try. The thing is I never had PTSD with standardized tests or writing papers no matter how many times I had to do them and how hard they seemed. SAT, piece of cake. GRE, piece of cake, NCLEX, not exactly a piece of cake but maybe a slice of a cake?

However, I was traumatized multiple times when I applied for jobs.

First time was when I graduated from college with a BS in biology. That was in 2006 and no place would hire me. Eventually after 4 months of hopeless searching and going through some really dark period, my dad made some connections and I moved hundreds of miles away to work as a research assistant in a very cold place where the winter was long and harsh.

Second time was when I graduated from grad school with a public health degree. Still, no places seemed to want me so I moved again miles away to take some low-paying job with a well known national nonprofit organization in a hot desert where 100F was accepted as a comfortable and normal temperature. You would think third times a charm, but I was again denied for an entry level position.

Friends, good friends nonetheless I made at school became competitors and strangers, and they didn't give a damn whether I found a job or not. They stopped talking to me or hanging out with me as soon as they found a job. The more sympathetic ones would say, "you will find it" or "it's not just you." Eventually everyone moved on and moved away.

Yesterday, one of the CNAs whom I used to work with connected me with the HR person of a good nursing home. Hopefully I will get an interview and maybe even a job next week. Sometimes I asked myself why I kept going back to school when obviously what employers wanted was experience. Does two college degrees and one master degree means nothing to employers anymore? Is an intelligent person who published 2 papers in well-known scientific journals, who have volunteered for years, who had CNA experience, clinical research experience, and teaching experience not hireable in this market? Then why on earth do schools charge students a fortune to get a piece of paper, and more students want to carry tens and thousands of student debts so that they can put a B.S.N. after their names?

I chose nursing because I genuinely care about people and interested in healing them and helping them resolve whatever issues they got in their lives. Maybe that's no longer a good reason for why you want to become a nurse. Maybe I should erase that from my cover letter (note to self: don't mention you care about people just list your experience and accomplishment). If I was rejected by as many guys as the number of potential employers who rejected me, I would not want to date anyone anymore. I probably would even quit asking guys out after 3 rejections. And yet, here I am, filling out yet another job application, writing another cover letter, to number X employer (I lost counts on how many jobs I applied)...expecting a different result (maybe I will get lucky and get hired this time). Someone smart once said: "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Maybe I am insane.

P.S. the last quote is from my hero Albert Einstein, who also said, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." I think I am that fish who tries to climb a tree or pollinate a flower and believe I am not good enough.