New Graduate Needs help finding a job in Seattle

CCL RN, RN · Jul 7, 2011

Eeks. Well...the job market is terrible for new grads everywhere and Seattle is no exception. New grad jobs are scarce and highly competitive. I would say good luck but it takes more than luck. Will you have a spouse with a job coming with you?

tokmom, BSN, RN · Jul 12, 2011

Just apply is all I can say. Swedish in Issaquah just opened up yesterday. I'm not sure if they have been hiring.

Franciscan has a huge grad program, but I'm not sure if they are hiring. We have some job openings, but we don't do peds.

CCL RN, RN · Jul 12, 2011

Actually-Swedish/Issaquah doesn't open until July 14, and the peds department won't open until Nov.

Keep looking. I've seen new grad jobs posted and removed all in one day. You gotta be quick!

itri4vt · Jul 21, 2011

Speaking from experience, it is tough and frustrating and takes a lot of patience. Today was finally a breakthrough for me - I was offered a residency position at Mary Bridge Children's in Tacoma.

I moved here in March (graduated accelerated BSN in December) from Virginia. I had several interviews over the past few months. The "locals" certainly have an advantage... whether it be because they went to a familiar school, they did their clinicals at certain hospitals, or they worked on a unit as a tech. Internal hires ALWAYS have an advantage. Locals also have the advantage of just plain knowing more people... getting in touch with other nurses, managers, recruiters.. can make a world of difference.

Residencies and new grad positions get probably well over 100 applicants. It is important to make yourself stand out on paper - highlight those strengths! Even as a new grad, find ways that your past work experience relates to nursing. Brag about your clinicals and internship... I wrote the total # of hours on my resume and written that way it seems like a lot! If you have a good GPA, write it! If you did an accelerated program, write it! If you have a BSN, write BSN after your name at the top of your resume and in your signature line on your emails and cover letters.

Bookmark all the hospital job websites and make it a routine part of your day to check every single one every day. Those residencies can be posted for just 1 day and fill up! You can also set up job agents to email you when new ones are posted, but check those to make sure they're working every so often. Save personalized copies of cover letters for each hospital on your computer so you can change the date and the position to make it easy to apply to every new grad opportunity quickly. Don't waste your time applying for any other job that doesn't specifically say "new grad" or "resident" or "residency".

Next, be open to finding an intermediate job. It may take baby steps to reach your ultimate goal of peds nurse in a hospital. I'm currently working with pediatric homecare patients. You can get experience, keep up with some of your nursing skills and make some money and still be looking. I found this job from a posting on Craigslist. Lots of clinics, nursing homes, and home health agencies post on Craigslist. You can apply for jobs on there that don't specify experience. Check with Alliance Nursing, Total Care, and Maxim.

And finally, here is some info about specific hospitals:

Swedish: They are moving to a system of only offering resident RN positions twice a year or so as a big cohort spanning different units (whichever have room to hire new grads). It will be 12 week residency, and the residents won't necessarily have guaranteed jobs afterwards. It's a paid training that will make the residents qualified to apply for staff RN positions on those units. The next one will be in October, look for postings in August. A Swedish manager told me not to try to make contact with the managers. There are too many applicants nowadays, so that tactic is a thing of the past. However, feel free to get in touch with the recruiters! Swedish will do a phone interview with the recruiter usually first, then call you back for an interview with the hiring manager. Be patient... sometimes it takes a month for them to get back to you about the phone interview.

Kindred: They have one hospital I know of, plus some clinics and long-term care facilities. A brand new sub-acute unit in Seattle Northgate opened in April. It's like a nursing home within the hospital. A new unit means staff that actually wants to be there (as opposed to grumbling about their job they've had for 30 years). They are hiring! If you don't see openings online, maybe actually go to the hospital and try to apply in person. The subacute unit is on the bottom floor.

Providence (Everett): I heard they were going to add some resident positions soon. Don't waste your time applying for any other positions than a residency.

Franciscan (South Sound area): You can apply for .8, .9. 1.0 FTE positions. They will consider new grads for those jobs (per the recruiter). I applied to a ton of jobs there and only got a call back once when I was still in Virginia and they didn't want to do a phone interview first. Someone mentioned on this forum this week that the CEO is cracking down on hiring, so... good luck!

Multicare (South Sound area): This is the system I finally got an offer for. Only 1 interview, and the nice thing is the computer will send you an automated email when the recruiter sends your app to the manager for review. It's nice to know where you are in the process.

Eastside hospitals - Overlake, Evergreen. Evergreen was rumored to have a residency posted but it was only for a day I guess because I never saw it. That was about a week ago. Overlake had one posted maybe a month or 2 ago, for several units, and I never got a call back from them about it.

Children's - they will post "new grads welcome to apply" on some positions. I'd only apply to those, most other Children's jobs require 3-5 years of experience

UMW and Harborview - I honestly think they really favor their own grads. They just had a residency posted within the last month, too, so I wouldn't expect another one for awhile. Plus the application online is screwy... lots of open-ended questions.

Virginia Mason and Northwest - Never saw a residency posted in the 4 months I've been here. Or maybe I saw one but only for internal hires.

Valley Medical Center - search for this hospital on the forum. Some not-so-nice things were said about it. I had a terrible interview for a residency here. They advertised it as a "meet and greet" but it was basically a panel interview combined with a group interview of 15 candidates. It was awful and I'm not sure the best way to find the best candidates. oh well.

Well. That was long! But I need to stay awake all night for this home health gig, so I have the time! Good luck!!

Oh! One more thing. If you're interviewing for a job you know isn't your top choice, find a way to fool yourself and your interviewer that it is your top choice. If you can come up with reasons why you chose that hospital, that unit, and that position, and sell that well, then you will shine in your interview.

OhHappyDay · Jul 21, 2011

Hey itri4vt! When do you start your residency with MultiCare? We may be starting at the same time... I got a residency position at TG and I'm so excited to start that I can hardly contain myself!

itri4vt · Jul 21, 2011

August 1! Very quick turnaround time. I feel badly for the scheduler at my current job, since she has a ton of shifts to cover for August.

What unit are you on?

OhHappyDay · Jul 23, 2011

I will be on a stepdown unit - How about you? Where will you be at Mary Bridge? I look forward to meeting you on August 1st!

itri4vt · Jul 23, 2011

I'm on Med/Surg. I got everything taken care of today and ready for orientation on Aug 1. See you there!

jjsrn1 · Jul 30, 2011

Hello Itri4vt! I will also be starting the Mary Bridge residency on Monday. Looking forward to meeting you!

itri4vt · Jul 31, 2011

MPHGirl, that's great! see you there.

ksenka · Apr 25, 2012

Any suggestions on how you all got in to MultiCare residency program? Any tips for applying and interviewing? thank you