I have been unemployed here since August of 2009. Since that month, either daily or every other day I pour out my resume to several hospitals, home health jobs, SNF, LTACS... I have been called for interviews but just to be informed a week later that somebody deserves the position better because of experience. Worse,there's a bunch of new grads out there where hospitals gladly embrace them for employment as Clinical Nurse I.
I am really getting so frustrated and depressed. I have two kids, house to pay, loans...
The nursing schools keep on advertising for promising jobs but seems that there are a lot of new grads having hard time to get jobs as well. That's another story...
I just feel like crying everyday especially when I see my kids but I just try to keep my composure...
Thanks for having time to read this...I hope I will get a call tomorrow for interview...I'm still hoping every minute, every hour though the competition in this profession is getting so wild...God, help me please...have mercy...allow me to work again...
Bombard all the nursing agencies and try to go through them. Apply everywhere and anywhere and think outside the square, ie: health department, doctors offices, home help, community organisations. Do they have training programs at your nursing agencies? Sometimes hospitals will take you on and train you to their standards through an agency. I don't live in the US so my knowledge is limited, but that's how I got my experience initially.
Try not to be too downhearted. Try to spend time with your kids and do some things that are free and relax you, ie: take the kids to the park, feed the ducks; see if there are any free concerts on for kids or go to the library. Get out of the house as much as possible so you don't sit in and mope. Try to go through your household management and see where you can cut back. Shopping at opportunity shops is a fantastic way to save money, and catching public transport is good too (if you have access to it). Can you contact your local social security office to see what discounts you get on transport and health perhaps or food stamps? Also see if ur entitled to discounts on your utility bills.
It's the economy - it sucks right now. I was working at a private hospital, and they cut back staff and I was forced to move. Can you get a job out of state where you commute longer or can fly in and out for work?
Life is hard now, but don't give up. Try to stay positive, and something should turn up :)
ADD: Have you skills in another area just to get working whilst you apply for nursing jobs?
The Pacific NW is a tough sell. There are a lot of nursing schools. Some people I graduated with still don't have jobs. When I graduated I put out well over a hundred resumes. I had accounts with all the hospitals. I ended up getting a critical care residency in Tacoma. Out of the 20 people in my residency program there were only three new grads. The jobs are out here but its still and uphill struggle.
I am a Aug 2010 grad in southern California (Orange County) and still unemployed. After 8 months of not hearing a single thing I landed 3 interviews (All of them were mass interviews, one had more than 300 new grads interviewing)
I was turned down by two of them and the third is most likely not going any further (not returning my calls/emails and its been over a month).
I have largely been ignoring the 500 lb gorilla in the room; I am rapidly approaching the 1 year after graduation mark that renders you ineligible to apply to 99% of new graduate positions out there. Most new grad programs are accepting applications until about April, after that you pretty much have to wait till the end of the year to apply for programs that start in 2012.
Waiting to hear back from a couple more hospitals but if I don't get an offer, I gotta face the music; It's over. Getting hired after August of this year will be a long shot because I am no longer a new grad but an old one.
I tried everything and anything to get hired. Cold calling, dozens of different resumes, networking, the military etc. I have been telling myself it's been bad luck to keep my spirits up but it really isn't. It's a multitude of factors outside of my control and the small things I can control like my resume or interviewing well, largely gets drowned out by the thousands of us looking for work. If it was something I was doing that prevented me from being hired, I could actually sleep at night. I would have only myself to blame but right now I can't point the finger at anyone.
I have to start looking for a new career but I can't yet bring myself to do it yet. I invested so much of my time, money and effort in this. I can't see myself being happy doing anything else knowing that I am settling for a different career because I couldn't find a hospital to give me a chance.
I got dealt a bad hand but I am still holding out that the river card might reverse my fortune.
I hear california is one of the worst places for new grads right now...The nursing students that are at my university are scared to graduate this June because they know how scarce jobs are in Ca. Hope you find something soon.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Maybe there is something on your resume / work history that employers aren't responding to.
The original poster is a new grad who is attempting to find employment in California, which has the most difficult job markets for new nurses in the nation. The nurse with 15 years of critical care experience is going to receive callbacks in a heartbeat, but the new grad with no experience is frequently going to receive no responses because he/she is regarded as too expensive to train.
Anyone who has graduated from nursing school within the past two years has entered a more challenging job market due to the rough economic climate. Nursing is not recession-proof. Remember that.
I graduated in 2009 and have no experience. I applied at about 15 places, had two interviews and didnt get either job. I finally applied in a city four hours from my home. The only hospital I applied at there. I applied on Wednesday two weeks ago. The very next day the nurse recruiter emailed me a personality test and within one hour of the test she called me to come for an interview the next Thursday. I talked to her for about 30 minutes...no hard questions and she referred me to the nurse manager for an interview on Wednesday which was yesterday. She hired me on the spot. I had said it was the last job I was going to apply for. I was so ****** going to the interview. Everything was going wrong the whole morning but it kept working out. When I went to the interview she was having a hard time pulling up my app. I pulled out a resume from my purse. She loved it. When you go to an interview have a resume with you and leave it for her. That online stuff is a bunch of jumbled up stuff that is hard to read.
Also make sure you have a detailed resume that tells everything about you and what you did at your last jobs. I listed all my volunteer work in a paragraph. I listed everything I did at all of my jobs. I put my g.p.a and hesi scores. I also put on my resume that I passed NCLEX on my first attempt. I listed all the departments i did clinicals in and everything I did....inserted iv's, did blood draws, etc. SPELL CHECK the hell out of that resume. PROOF READ it 1000 times. Detail it so much that they wont really have any questions to ask you.
Also a lot of my friends take their resumes to the nursing homes in person and got hired on the stuff. Also you should try going to some of the poorer neighborhoods and applying at clinics, hospitals, ltc, and nursing homes there. A lot of new nurses want to work in the new big pretty hospitals.
I also told the nurse recruiter that I dont have a preference as to where i wanted to work in the hospital. I went to school to be a nurse and help people. I told her to find the one nursing job no one in the hospital wants and give it to me that I would take it, do it, and do well at it.
Trust me I was so fed up that I went into a store before the interview and this guy started talking to me and asked me where I was going. i told him and interview and I really didnt give a F*&K if I got the job or not. He cracked up laughing. I called my sister and told her these hosptials can take their stuck up nurse jobs and stick them up their orifices. I was mad! I was going to even call the interviewer and tell her I wasnt coming. But ten minutes in the interview she told me I had the job. I think sometimes it takes getting to that point. Its just like a relationship or anything you want in life. When you want and want it you dont get it. When you say forget it the show must go on, and you really let it go, that is when you get it.
this job i got is in the ER. It took a total of two weeks for me to get it. A lot of times things you get in life come easy. If you are fighting and fighting for something....let it go...it is not meant for you.
Oh and keep your head up. It will be just a matter of time before these hosptials realize there are not enough experienced nurses willing to quit their jobs to come and work for them. The recruiter said they gave up on experienced nurses, they are now hiring new nurses and just training them.
The original poster is a new grad who is attempting to find employment in California, which has the most difficult job markets for new nurses in the nation. The nurse with 15 years of critical care experience is going to receive callbacks in a heartbeat, but the new grad with no experience is frequently going to receive no responses because he/she is regarded as too expensive to train.
Anyone who has graduated from nursing school within the past two years has entered a more challenging job market due to the rough economic climate. Nursing is not recession-proof. Remember that.
I totally agree, however, a bad employment history and a sloppy resume will get no responses from potential employers
I totally agree, however, a bad employment history and a sloppy resume will get no responses from potential employers
That was kind of my point here. hehe
Rub some salt into the wound please. A perfect resume with medical experience in a hospital with a perfect employment history will ALSO get you NO RESPONSE if you are a NEW NURSE with no RN experience in Southern California right now. There are just to many new grads and the hospital are just UNWILLING to train.
carolmaccas66, BSN, RN
2,212 Posts
Bombard all the nursing agencies and try to go through them. Apply everywhere and anywhere and think outside the square, ie: health department, doctors offices, home help, community organisations. Do they have training programs at your nursing agencies? Sometimes hospitals will take you on and train you to their standards through an agency. I don't live in the US so my knowledge is limited, but that's how I got my experience initially.
Try not to be too downhearted. Try to spend time with your kids and do some things that are free and relax you, ie: take the kids to the park, feed the ducks; see if there are any free concerts on for kids or go to the library. Get out of the house as much as possible so you don't sit in and mope. Try to go through your household management and see where you can cut back. Shopping at opportunity shops is a fantastic way to save money, and catching public transport is good too (if you have access to it). Can you contact your local social security office to see what discounts you get on transport and health perhaps or food stamps? Also see if ur entitled to discounts on your utility bills.
It's the economy - it sucks right now. I was working at a private hospital, and they cut back staff and I was forced to move. Can you get a job out of state where you commute longer or can fly in and out for work?
Life is hard now, but don't give up. Try to stay positive, and something should turn up :)
ADD: Have you skills in another area just to get working whilst you apply for nursing jobs?