Does it look bad to a hiring manager to apply for jobs on different floors??

Nurses Job Hunt

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I am a new grad RN trying to get a job at a local hospital. I would take a position on any floor honestly, but does it look bad for me to apply in two vastly different fields like med/surg and psych? Will the manager just think that I am job shopping or that I don't really know what I want?

Hell no. You have to do what you have to do. If this does not go through, you always have a backup or several backups for that matter. I'm sure any manager worth their salt will understand. This is a really tough market for new grads.

Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

Moved to Nursing First Job Hunt Assistance for more response.

I am sure every nursing recruiter is different. However, the ones I have talked to in a job fair a few months back said it does reflect poorly on the applicant if he or she flooded their inbox with applications to ICU, med-surg, L&D, dialysis, clinic, peds etc. They can understand multiple applications to different but interrelated floors such as telemetry and CCU but, according to them, an applicant who just hits every available opening seems confused and desperate. I am sure managers are aware of the desperation but why interview someone who does not seem to have a serious interest in the department?

If nursing departments were chicks in a bar and you were a guy macking on a fine piece of medical-surgical booty, wouldn't med-surg feel a little slighted if she saw you hitting on ICU, med-surg, L&D, dialysis, clinic, peds, the bar stool, the beer tap, the sign on the women's restroom without discrimination?

I exaggerate but you know what I mean.

Again, this is the viewpoint of the few handful of recruiters I talked to. Well, not the bar analogy. That was mine lol

Point well taken! It's just so hard seeing as you never know which floors are desperate for someone and which floors are completely inundated with applications. Not to mention the fact that it takes about a month for your application status to change on the hospital website to let you know that the position was filled...it's so much waiting and wondering:uhoh3:

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