New grad RN job

[Meink]

Hello nurses,

I recently graduated from nursing school this year and successfully wrote the nclex. Now the job hunting starts, I went to school in a rural area and have moved back to Toronto and I know the job hunting is going to be difficult.

I was wondering how long it took for nurses to get jobs after writing their nclex successfully who moved to an urban area like Toronto from a rural area.

Also if I can get some tips on what helped you nurses to land a job?

Thank you so much

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Your thread has been moved to our Canadian forum.

Unfortunately, I've heard that Toronto has one of the toughest nursing employment markets in Canada. Good luck with your search.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Unfortunately, all the major cities have been saturated with nurses for years. The GTA area facilities will likely instigate a hiring freeze at some of the facilities next year as hospitals struggle to balance their budgets.

Apply for as many temporary and casual lines as you can. It gets you in the door. Also look outside of the GTA and consider relocating. Don't wait for a position to appear.

I have known many people to take 6 months to a year to locate that first job, particularly if you are selective.

If you have contacts from school, utilize them early.

[nurse1990]

It took me from writing NCLEX 4 months and a half. But I did some applying before (25 jobs). In total applied to well over 100 jobs. Only got 1 call back and that was because I found the nurse managers email and wrote to her! I don't think I would have gotten the job without that tbh. There are too many people looking for jobs in GTA, many of my friends turned to LTC, clinic, and agency nursing. I wanted a hospital job.

[loriangel14, RN]

There are a couple of hospitals in Toronto that just had layoffs so expect the job hunt to be slow.