Nurse who needs HELP!!

[HeatherMc13]

Hello everyone,

I recently graduated nursing school (with a BSN) and will be taking NCLEX in early June (2012). I am looking for a job in Georgia. I am from the Gainesville area but I am willing to move if need be. I have applied and applied for job after job but had no luck. It seems like I am being left in the dust when I hear from others I graduated with who already have multiple offers and jobs. It is very frustrating. It seems as though you can't get a job anymore without either having tons of experience or knowing someone. If anyone is from the Georgia area and knows of any jobs, I could really use the help!!!

Thanks everyone!!!

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

What kind of help are you looking for? It seems like you already know what you need in order to get a job: either experience or connections. Since you don't have experience- you need to use your connection. Speak to your nursing instructors and nurses that you worked with during clinicals. Those friends who have multiple offers? Ask what they did in order to get a job. Who did they talk to? Who do they know? Ask to see their resume and compare it to yours. Since they are working now, ask them to let you know about new opportunities.

Have a professional look over your resume and make suggestions. A good resume can go a long way toward landing you an interview.

A big drawback I see is that you have not taken NCLEX yet, you you aren't licensed. Many places don't want to hire someone without a license because 1. You can't start working right away and 2. There's a chance you won't get licensed and they will have to find another candidate. You'll be more marketable once you have an active license.

You just graduated (I'm assuming earlier this month- which is when most BSN programs ended) so you've been searching for a job for less than a month after graduating, and you're not licensed yet. It's not uncommon that new graduates have to search for jobs for months and even over a year after graduation. It takes most hospitals a few weeks just to respond to applications. You need to be patient.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Many hospitals will not touch your application until you pass the NCLEX. With thousands of unemployed LICENSED nurses, they is little reason to spend much time on applications that haven't even a license in hand.

[HeatherMc13]

Thanks for the advice... I realize that they won't do much with someone without a license in hand. However, a lot of the nursing students are getting jobs either in new grad programs or jobs where like I said they just know someone or already work there. It is just frustrating not knowing if I will have a job in the next few months or not. I am in no way not being patient, I was just asking for some advice from others who have been in my situation before. We have actually been applying for jobs since February since most hospital's new grad programs start interviewing in March and April every year so yes it still hasn't been that long but is frustrating having others already getting jobs.

I also had interviews and phone interviews with some places and didn't get the job with them or received my rejection letter, this just adds to the frustration.

Thanks again for all the advice.