I am not going to be popular with this thread, but here goes...I have seen quite a few posts about the older workers that are new grads thinking they deserve a job more because they had a previous career. Many times, these former careers are NOT healthcare related, so it does not help with their nursing career at all. My question to the older workers who are new grads is why do you feel like you deserve jobs over the younger new grads?
I feel like if anything, the older workers seem more entitled than younger workers. When you get a second career, you are starting at ground zero. So, let the opinions fly.
wooh, listen. I am asking those people to tell me (and everyone in the thread) what skills specifically they bring. Everyone keeps saying they bring skills from a former career and I am asking specifically what they bring and how it applies. That's it. That is what the whole thread is about. I also said earlier (as Lady better articulated) that it would be nice to have some stories on how it was an easy transition to nursing and whether or not you felt you were starting from ground zero. Was a huge learning curve?
This idea for the thread came from the poster (Scott with the numbers) that said his former career should count for something in getting a job. He said he was 50. He is up against all kinds of little 20 something year olds. I am basically asking, what does it count for? What do you tell an interviewer that you bring from the former career that you said should count for something?
The people with the former careers managing people--do you feel like it would be hard to go from managing people to being managed, if you got a staff floor nurse position? I mean, I know you are over the CNA, but you usually do have a charge and clinical leader/NM.
Ground zero for me means pretty much starting from scratch. Nursing is a different animal. Most jobs really are not on your feet all day, running like a chicken with the head cut off, running codes, etc. Nursing involves pretty much a little of everything--you have to know drugs (like pharmacy people), do assessments, sometimes case management (like Social Workers), etc.
I personally focus on giving holistic care-- for me, with public health it's physical health x sexual health x mental health to form a huge picture. Hospital, assuming M/S, I do consider mental health. Like I said in other threads, people with psych conditions do not loss their minds when they become physically ill and psych patients do not lose their bodies when they become mentally ill. So, that's what I use as my contributory what makes me special/what do I bring to the table.
I told someone in PM, the reason why I knew I would not be popular had nothing to do with purposely making people mad. The reason I put that statement in the original post is because for whatever reason on AN, just about everything is taken the wrong way and threads get so sidetracked and people always, without fail, get their feathers ruffled. I have no clue why it happens, it just does. Other than capitalizing a word (NOT) to emphasize something and underlining and bolding something (very blessed), I didn't use any exclamation points nor did I capitalize anything else other than the one word to think I was yelling or had a tone. I think it is how a lot of people read it.
All I was looking for in this thread was how/why/what the second career people bring, mainly non healthcare. I think finally people understand what I was asking.
I don't consider myself particularly old, but I did work for 5 years in a career completely unrelated to nursing, at a law firm, before going back to school to become a nurse. I don't necessarily think that having non-nursing experience should entitle a person to a nursing job, but all experience should be considered when hiring a candidate. Interpersonal skills, communication skills, time management skills, etc. are all incredibly useful skills for nursing that can come from having another job.
All new nurses basically start from the ground up when it comes to nursing skills like assessments, handling codes, and other areas that are specific to nursing, so the big question, in my mind, would be whether or not the second career nurse is able to bring something to table that makes her or him standout from the rest.
OP, you appear intelligent enough to boil your situation down to the basics: you are a new nurse with zero nursing experience, in a state-mandated monitoring program, in a tough economy.
These are the basic reasons you are not yet employed. You can spend your time waxing eloquent (or not so eloquent) about various supposed injustices of the world, including that employers may indeed have a preference for new employees who have life experience over those who do not ... but it doesn't change a thing.
You face an uphill battle. Again ... you appear intelligent enough to be able to have figured that out. With time, dedication to your task, a presentation of yourself to employers that is different from the petulance you have demonstrated in this thread, and a little luck ... you will eventually find an employer willing to take a chance on you. If you make the most of that opportunity, it should eventually get to be much smoother sailing for you.
"My question to the older workers who are new grads is why do you feel like you deserve jobs over the younger new grads? I feel like if anything, the older workers seem more entitled than younger workers."
When people around you are acting and behaving as though they are more deserving it's got to be painful. Perhaps it's a bluff. Older workers are just as often seen as more expensive (insurance and pension) with less energy, more family obligations, and too many opinions. Perhaps the management forum would have some real-life insight :)
We're not all starting at ground zero. Many of us have many years of documented professional work experience, along with references built over time.
Many of us have worked in critical processes and even life-death situations as opposed to flipping burgers or cleaning grease traps.
I'd choose a 30-something with experience bringing through multi-million dollar production runs or making split-second shoot/no-shoot decisions - or even having raised a brood from birth to school-age - than someone whose work history includes nothing more meaningful than asking, "Do you want to supersize that?"
Fast food experience is actually amazing practice at interacting directly with people, the same types of people one encounters everyday as a nurse. Don't discount a solid background in customer service as meaningless.
First, I must admit that I have not read all of the responses to this post. So if I repeat something that has already been said. I apologize.
I am, in fact, one of those older new grads (well I was a new grad four years ago).
I had worked for many years in a healthcare related area, not with patients. I had taken care of sick parents, in-laws, friends, etc.. I wish that would have scored me some points, but it didn't.
When I graduated, I did not feel that I was more entitled to a job than my classmates that were 20 years younger than me. I felt I needed a job more than some of my classmates who were still living at home with their parents. But that didnt make me a better candidate than any of them. All of the nurses that I went to school with are wonderful, caring, intelligent people whose patients are fortunate. When we graduated, the market was quite slow. Because we were "fellows" (put through school by the hospital), we owed the hospital 3 years of full time employment. We had to go through cattle call like interviews with panels of RN managers from different hospitals and departments.
When I got my first nursing job, I was quite busy concentrating on learning to be a good nurse. I did bring with me some skills from my 'previous' life, like critical thinking and communication skills. This made some things easier, but not everything. Now that I have some experience, I am able to bring other skills to the table when needed.
I guess now I have to go back and read more responses to learn what reasons for entitlement have been posted.
To the OP, hang in there, take the good advice that you have received in this thread and run with it. Be kind to yourself, learn all you can and don't dwell on what other people are doing. If someone else got a job that you applied for, they were probably a better fit. You will find your niche.
as an older new grad (I'm 39) I have no sense of entitlement to a job....but here are the skills I bring to the table
13 years of customer service experience (I worked in a call center for 13 years) - that speaks of longevity
Management skills - I was an assistant supervisor on the call floor and also helped my mother manage and run her restaurant from the time I was 17 - again longevity and the ability to handle myself around other people -
escalated situations - I've dealt with being threatened, having to ask people to leave my restaurant, telling people "no" - I feel that has built confidence (and I've seen it with my orientation class I'm with - I'm not afraid to walk into a room, introduce myself to a patient and dive right into whatever their needs are)
I've been an aide for over a year - while its minimal healthcare experience, it also builds confidence
I do have a family, mortgage and car payments - I'm not moving on after a year of experience, and I'm also rooted in the community - while not a skill it IS a small advantage that I'm not going to move on to a big Level I hospital after a year.
While the actual physical "skills" of rolling patients, starting IV's and giving safe medications are not listed above, I feel that these are the intangibles that you can't be taught in school...
Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.
When interviewing candidates "older" workers often have a track record of reliability and effectiveness that is very appealing. Even if it wasn't health care related. Younger workers can be more of a crap shoot. May work out well or may be immature and/or unreliable.
wish_me_luck, BSN, RN
1,110 Posts
you quoted me and said that shouldn't be brought up in an interview anyway.