New grad RN in Denver - no job after 3 months of looking

[westfall520]

Just wondering if any of you experienced RNs have job hunting advice for landing your first RN job. I feel like I am sending applications into a black hole since I never hear back about most of them. The responses I do get all say the same, "we don't hire RNs without a year of experience". I am getting so sad/frustrated...how exactly am I ever to get experience if no one will hire me? Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Lizzie21]

The next new grad class at St. Joe's is in March. I don't know about the other hospitals. If they don't do one in March then for sure in June at all three.

[Satori77, ADN]

Don't give up! My neighbor went to nursing school, and all he wanted to do was ER nursing. Three years later, he is finally there. BUT, he had to do over a year at a nursing home (the only place that would hire him out of school), then about a year at an Urgent Care facility. He kept checking, sending resumes, applying, and networking. And it paid off.

[Sweetlo]

Most of the May 2014 graduates from University of Colorado have all found jobs. I worked as a CNA for a year my last year and got hired on immediately as an RN.

[scaredsilly, BSN, RN]

I passed NCLEX in June and I got black hole syndrome as well. Very frustrating to see the application marked "not under consideration" within seconds of hitting submit. Humans never even see the applications!!

I walked my resume into a nurse manager a week or so ago, got an interview and found out today that I got my dream job.

Sweetio, I would be interested to hear how your entire class got jobs so quickly. Almost all of my classmates are still unemployed.

[mountaingirl12]

scaredsilly- Where did you go to school? I'm happy to hear that you got your dream job!!

[scaredsilly, BSN, RN]

NavyGirl, I went to Regis.

[Sweetlo]

Most were working as CNA's or in other hospital jobs while they were in school. That really is the key to getting your foot in the door and networking with the nurse managers. I have classmates that got jobs on both coasts, and in other parts of Colorado, - at Children's, Rose, Denver Health, Swedish, St. Anthony's, Porter, Aurora Health, Kaiser, Parker, Castle Rock, Littleton, LTC and home health positions.

[Devi84]

Hey! Send some unemployed RNs over to Professional Pediatric Home care. They hired me with less than a year exp. I'm a CU-new grad. These are Children's Hospital pediatric cases that nurses are assigned to. Many vent-/trach-dependent cases. There are night and weekend shift differentials.

[cmh918]

I'm experiencing that now... moved here so I don't have the hospital connections I did in nursing school. Was going to PM you but I can't in my profile (guess I haven't posted enough).

I was always told not to approach NM, and that it was improper etiquette.. clearly that wasn't the same for you. Any suggestions?

[scaredsilly, BSN, RN]

cmh918, Not sure who you were asking that question to, so I will answer it lol

We were told in school not to approach an NM as well. Well, some of my classmates passed NCLEX as early as the end of May and by July when many more of us had passed, NO ONE had a hospital job in the Denver area except those who had worked somewhere as a CNA and were offered an RN position where they worked before they even passed.. A couple of them got discouraged and moved to north Dakota and salt lake, one to Tennessee, and a few went to work in nursing homes, but no one had a hospital job.

Then one of them decided to be bold and take her resume into a NM. She got hired and posted about her experience on facebook, and before you know it, about 25 of us did the same thing and got hired. Many of us were told by the NM that they were surprised that the online process wouldn't allow the applications to be forwarded (we all filled them out, then saw "not under consideration" in application status within seconds). HR doesn't seem to have a good idea of what the NMs want and the NMs don't know what HR is doing to screen applicants apparently.

My classmates have been hired at healthone, centura, Denver health, Childrens, and Exempla...every one of them carried their resumes into the NMs. What do you have to lose? You most likely won't get hired if you don't do it!

[klone, MSN, RN]

I have to say, after my own experiences, as well as those you just posted about, I hate HR.

[cmh918]

I posted this question in my other thread.... but I'll post it here too. I moved here because thats where my fiancés job is. I can move elsewhere without him, but I'm limited there (if that helps). Since I am new to the area, how do I go about approaching the NM for hospitals and units I've never even been to?