Went to Job Fair! Total waste of time

SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN · Apr 25, 2009

yesterday, i went to a job fair and it was a total waste of time. i only wished that the vendors that bothered to show up, took resumes. i am not feeling good being a graduate nurse. i was told that the hospitals would be lining up in may for graduate nurses. now all i heard is that they are looking for experienced nurses. now im worried a little bit. i hope the economy turn real soon. i dont have a plan b.

wow, they are not even taking resumes any more? they used to at least "fake the funk" and take resumes they have no intension of looking at later on..... now they won't bother unless you have experience? employers are so bold!! i wonder if they think they will not need new grads any time soon?

in any case, i have some advice. try to hunt down your former instructors and ask them about openings. also join the local nursing organization because many times hiring managers are a part of those organizations. be sure to show up to meetings well dressed and with resumes in hand. these are the times one needs to be assertive and think outside the box. hr is not the way to get a job at this time. you must go through hiring managers. gl! :up:

amjowens · Apr 25, 2009

Personally, a job fair would be one of the last ways I'd look for a job these days. If there were a lot of openings I'd think differently, but employers have the upper hand now, and don't really NEED job fairs. Maybe I'd attend to see who is there, and that way I'd know that place probably has a huge stack of resumes already, so not to waste my time with HR.

nminodob · May 5, 2009

I had the same experience when I went to 2 of my schools job fairs - wished I had never gone! However, got a chance to see a few friends from nursing school again..

chilly2008 · May 6, 2009

I went to Job fair too just to collect free pens , pads and brochures. There was this booth of certain hospital where resumes were being collected like trash newspapers. They were throwing resumes behind their back on big piles without even looking at them.I think job fairs are just fake marketing tool and even if one gets job its mostly thru previous contacts etc.

After spending so much money on private nursing schools and having good GPA , Still new graduates are struggling to get jobs. its big shame for our country :angryfire

caliotter3 · May 6, 2009

If they are not going to at least go through the motions of collecting resumes, I don't see the point in bothering to be at a job fair. Waste of everyone's time and effort.

Heloisea3 · May 6, 2009

I went to a job fair back in March, and several of the nurse recruiters from the various hospitals were very blunt about not having any openings. They would say they didn't have any openings or that they only had one or two openings for new grads. I started applying back in February and was finally offered a job back in March. Most of my classmates who have jobs were hired between December and the end of March. The students who started looking and applying later are having a lot of trouble finding positions. It seems like the majority of hospitals around here have filled their GN/nursing internship positions already. I don't know of any still hiring at this point. Maybe there are some in Dallas, but not around Ft. Worth. I don't know why some hospitals are even bothering to go to the job fairs if they know they don't have any open positions availabe. I know this is frustrating for those people that go.