Older new grad- need help to find 1st job

iceprincess492 · Jun 4, 2011

Good Luck!!!! it's a difficult market right now but just keep trying :)

joanna73, BSN, RN · Jun 4, 2011

Hi :) Aside from your clinicals, I would also include 1 or 2 relevant jobs you've held, and play up some of your transferable skills. What areas would you like to work?

resilientnurse · Jun 4, 2011

Dear 567 SeaOtter,

Good luck with finding your first job. Something will defintely come along. Your post reminded me of a friend I worked with. She was an older woman, fifty-something, who recently finished nursing school and went to work in a hospital, Med/Surg, I believe. We had such a good time laughing when I asked how she was treated as a new grad by the other nurses. She said that no one tried intimidated her. On the contrary, all the nurses treated her with the utmost respect and often deferred to her judgement because they all assumed that she had at least 30 years of nursing experience under her belt. She also said that patients were least likely to "pull that crap" with her. She said that after six months on the job, she was practically running the place. I think only she and the DON knew that she was a new grad.

She eventually left bedside care, got a MSN and is now a nursing professor. I write this to stress, that while securing your first job may feel like a hurdle now, your maturity may prove to be your greatest asset yet. Good luck to you again.

hgorrondona · Jun 5, 2011

Hey,

Congrats on finishing. I am 51, and finished my RN last December. I started my first RN job 4 weeks ago in outpatient endoscopy. I knew at my age I didn't want to take on floor nursing. It took me four months and lots of job applications to get the job, but i got it. Don't loose heart, and don't underestimate what we older women bring to the table. I have been very well received on my unit, and treated with lots of respect and encouragement. One thing about our age, is that in our stage of life we can be very flexible...whereas mothers with young children cannot.

Good luck!

567 SeaOtter · Jun 5, 2011

I love med-surg & want to do floor nursing. Am I crazy? I want to do it before I get too much older & less able. Thank you for the encouragement - I need it right now!

hgorrondona · Jun 5, 2011

I say go for whatever you're interested in. I worked on Med/surg many years ago as an LPN, and hated it. Of course we had 9 patients at night back then. If you find a job and don't like it, you don't have to stay. Get some experience to put on your resume and then look for something else. You have to land that first job to get you started, though. I would apply (and did) to every job I had any interest at all in....and some that I didn't. Hang in there. I would also meet with nurse recuiters in person if possible.

AnneS · Jun 5, 2011

I got my first RN job at 50 and work on a busy med surg floor. I love it and I would say I am in better shape then 50% of the nurses here already (knock on wood). Take care of yourself, stay strong with exercise and eating right. From day 1 I felt welcomed and I always felt I could keep up. Sure I am tired at the end of a 12 hour shift, but so is everyone else. You can do it.

gettingbsn2msn, MSN, RN · Jun 5, 2011

You will be fine. I also am an older nurse. I got a job and worked on a busy med surg floor for the past 3 years. I am now in grad school. My first year is done and I am entering the 2nd year.

I will have to work until I fall over anyway due to the cost of everything.

If you have any questions please ask--I have been there, done that!

newlife09 · Oct 5, 2011

I also am 55 and just finished and graduated with my BSN and passed the NCLEX last week! My elation and joy after a week has quickly plummeted to depression. I keep wondering if I have made a huge mistake. I keep hearing how difficult it is to land that first RN job, and now I can say, I understand that completely. Every job I have applied for, filling out those online applications that take forever, and writing that perfect cover letter, have all been rejected. In fact, it happens so fast I wonder if the positions truly exist.

I always thought that my age, maturity, life experiences in dealing with the public (I was an office manager for a school for 20 years) would be an advantage, but now I am not so sure. I feel out of the loop, out of my league, and I keep wondering, what in the world could I have been thinking!!

People ask me what am I interested in. At this point, that does not matter, I just need to be employed as the student loans were a debt I never would have assumed had I really known it would have been this difficult 3 years later to find employment to at least pay them off.

I guess what I am asking, is when should I truly be discouraged, and begin to look for employment in a different field.

resilientnurse · Oct 5, 2011

When should you give up!? Honey, look at how far you have come! You had the foresight and wherewithal to change careers by completing a BSN and passed your NCLEX. This is an amazing accomplishment! I do not know how long you have been licensed, but how dare you let some unsuccessful employment applications take your joy away.

I must've commented on this thread some time ago and this is why I got an email notification of your posting. I was not going to respond because I get discouraged by people feeling sorry for themselves. However, it is a normal part of life and I definitely understand your frustration. But you should know that even 20-something new graduates are having a hard time finding jobs. I just interviewed for a Med/Surg position and the Clinical Nurse Manager told me that she receives upwards of 70-80 applications per positing, mostly from new grads, and what she does is sorts through them for the RNs with experience and this is a hospital whose posting reads that they will consider new graduates.

I just wanted to offer you something to think about while on your journey . . .

I knew when I first started at my local community college way back in the day that I wanted to be a nurse. However, my mother advised against it and I being young and highly influential following her advice. The longing to be a nurse never went away although I got a BA in a social science. While enrolled though I would periodically check with the School of Nursing to inquire about transferring, as well as other second-degree programs. Life went on. At one point in time I was living in Honduras. I saw a sign in my "pueblo" advertising a new nursing school and I enrolled--the only "gringo" there. We had no books, she just wrote on the blackboard and we had to copy what she wrote in our little notebooks. I could hardly fit in the desk. The nursing school doubled as an elementary school and all the other students there were very small, except me. I paid my dirt cheap tuition in cash and tried to keep up, but I realized that this degree or certificate, whatever it was to be, would not be worth the paper it was printed on when I got back to the States.

Just so happen I met a guy, fell in love with him quickly and followed him to Puerto Rico (a US territory). I had never heard of the place before then. There I enrolled in nursing school, US accredited. I loved nursing school and made the program an accelerated second-degree BSN program all by myself because I was taking a lot of credits each trimester. I finished my BSN in 15-months (I had all the general education credits because of my BA).

After having rushed through the program, persevered, and graduating with Honors (Did I mention that I was studying for a Master's degree simultaneously at a neighboring University?), I was unable to practice as a nurse for two years because I did not have enough money to pay off my outstanding tuition bill. The school would not release my transcript to my State Board of Nursing and I could not sit for my NCLEX. So, I traveled and worked **** jobs along the way until I could pay it off. I failed the NCLEX the first time, got discouraged (like you are now) and put off taking it for a long while. I passed on the second attempt and have been working ever since.

When I was in community college I worked as a temp patient care attendant on the midnight shift at a local hospital. It was during that period in my life that I decided that I wanted to be a nurse. I just now got hired at the same hospital yesterday.

You keep applying, filling out those horrible online applications (I know), trying to talk to nurse recruiters (they really are the gatekeepers) to distinguish yourself from the piles and piles of resumes they receive, but more so than anything . . . never let no one steal your joy, not even yourself. It's hard. Lord, I know it is . . . but you are a nurse, job or no job, start believing it. It's going to work out for you. In the meantime, I will be sending you lots and lots of positive energy.

poopprincess · Oct 5, 2011

Hugs sent your way! Good luck and be persistent.