New Graduate Nurse Job Search

[Rockysanz]

Hello! I graduated with my BSN less than a month ago (in May) and have been on the search for jobs with very little luck. I am taking my NCLEX next month(mid June) so I do not have my license yet. My absolute dream is to work in the NICU or even pediatrics. I've been applying since March. I applied for two nurse residency programs at first, and had one interview for one of the programs but did not get the job, since then I have applied for a few other residency programs (a few days ago) and have yet to hear from them. Besides that I have applied for every single pediatric, NICU, nursery, mother-baby, and labor and delivery opening in the area but get turned down through email within a day. I am wondering if this is because I have not gotten my license yet. Should I reapply for all of these jobs once I actually get my license? Should I give up on my dream and try to get experience in medsurge :/? Should I wait to see if I get a response from the other nurse residency programs? Should I try and find more nurse residency programs to apply for? Please help me I'm feeling very discouraged 

[nursingstudent327, BSN, RN]

Hi! I definitely relate to you right now and I am very frustrated with the competitiveness of the new grad residencies. I just graduated in May out of state and moved back home to California and have had no luck with new grad residencies. I am still waiting for my ATT and hoping to take the NCLEX end of June or beginning of July. I have been rejected from 2 new grad residencies so far as well and have yet to hear back from the other 4 I applied to in the past month. If I do not get into a new grad residency this fall my plan is to possibly work at a sub-acute facility for 6 months or so and reapply for the new grad residency Winter cohorts because we are still considered "new grads" when we don't have 1 year of experience. Good luck on your NCLEX! 

[Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP]

Yes, a lot of the rejection is more than likely due to not having passed NCLEX yet.  Of course, it could always be other things such as your résumé.  Even though residencies realize there are many new graduates applying who are waiting to test, it just always seems they like to pick the people who are ready to go and have license in hand.

Think of it as if you were in their shoes.  Let's say you have two candidates where everything is equal with the exception that one of them has a license and the other does not.  If you need to finalize your cohort soon, you really cannot take a chance on waiting for somebody to pass a test because, what if they don't pass?  Of course, there are always places who are willing to wait on people, but why wait when you have somebody who has all the qualifications plus their RN license.

Certainly, I would say still apply because you just never know. But I have a feeling you're going to have better luck once you pass NCLEX .

Good luck to you