No Nursing Job in Toronto

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Hello nurses,

I am a licensed nurse in Toronto and have been facing great difficulty with my job hunt. Now, before anyone suggests relocation that is sadly not an option for me at the moment due to personal reasons.

So far I have submitted multiple online applications (at least 5 a day for the past 8 months), have attended a couple of job fairs as well as have completed a few certificates to beef up my resume.

With all that I've only landed one interview and unfortunately did not get the position because there were other candidates with more experience.

I feel almost stuck in a never ending cycle. Need experience to get experience. But I have 0 years of work experience as an RN. Agencies require that you have at least 1 year of acute care experience. Many of the LTC positions I've applied to state similar requirements.

I am just wondering, what else can I do? I really want to practice soon as I fear falling behind. I'm open to all areas of nursing. Also open to casual positions. Please let me know, all input is appreciated, thank you.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Your thread has been moved to our Canadian forum.

Unfortunately, I've heard that Toronto is home to one of the toughest nursing employment markets in Canada. It's been this way for a while.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

How far outside of the GTA are you applying? Relocation may not be an option, but you might need to take the bus or GO train up to an hour, hour and a half outside of where you live.

Not ideal, but people do it for work all the time. Also, apply for everything. Have you spoken with some of your classmates? Maybe they have some ideas.

Unfortunately, Toronto has been one of the toughest markets since 2008. Good luck!

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Yep like Joanna says, move or commute. Toronto has been laying off nurses.

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Get a job at a Residential or Home Care, get experience however you can. Reconnect with your friends or connections at hospitals to get that extra boost. Connections are unfortunately very important in landing a job in nursing nowadays.... You do need to start from somewhere so don't be afraid to do any kind of nursing jobs, apply to everywhere.

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Specializes in General Internal Medicine, ICU.

Know that seniority and union contracts dictate who gets the job and who doesn't. You are competing with internal applicants and nurses already on the Union seniority ladder. An internal applicant will nearly always be picked over an external, and union dictates that nurses with more seniority gets the job. Not to drag you down, but that is what you're contending against.

Also, some openings are created with a candidate in mind...so there's that too.

My advice is:

Apply every where and any where that you can. Apply to any and all positions that you can. Apply to places that are commute distant from Toronto. It's going to sounds redundant but if you absolutely can't move, the best thing to do is just to keep applying to everything that you can.

Good luck!

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I have been applying to Toronto as well as areas up to an hour and half away. Will continue to try applying to any positions I come across as well as networking with classmates and others i know in the profession. Thank you all for the replies!

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Hi Suner! I can definitely relate to your post, I just recently graduated and have been applying everywhere too :( I know that volunteer positions would be helpful too. As well, some of my friends have told me to do professional development courses to keep my skills/resume updated. I know I had a few friends do some courses like IV Therapy, Medication, and CC1 at HCPT college in Toronto - so something to look into! I'm defiantly considering it

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It took me about 4-6 months to get a job. And the only reason I think I got it is because I emailed the nurse manager. Some ppl on this website encoruaged me not to do it and they werent entirely wrong; some managers were annoyed but one hired me.

My advice. Call up every hospital asking for the nurse manager of the job posting you are applying to and send a personal email in. Show how eager you are to want to work there!

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Where I work the nurse manager has nothing to do with hiring. HR does it all.

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Thank you so much for the tips. I have taken a few professional development courses. Will keep on trying ! Good luck to you as well.

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The HR does do the hiring, but the managers if you have connections or appeal to them strongly, can push the HR to process the application or to schedule interviews quickly. This tip I got from spending 1.5 yrs trying to get hired at hospitals in Canada, and is very true in a lot of hospitals here in BC.

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