What is it REALLY like for new grads right now?

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I'm new to the forum and have been reading up a storm on various threads and now I'm starting to freak out a bit. I have been considering a career change to the medical field for 5 years now. I WISH I would have done it 5 years ago, but I guess at this point it is neither here nor there. I am finishing up my pre reqs now. The earliest I'll be able to apply would be for spring, 2011 admission, but probably not until spring/summer 2012 admission as I will need to take a few extra classes which I've already taken, but they are too old. I'm doing that this spring and summer.

I keep reading in multiple threads how new grads are having a HARD time finding work. I'll be leaving the legal field to pursue this career. I hate my job right now, but my job is currently (I think) stable and I make decent money. I'm changing b/c I can't stand to sit behind a desk all day pushing paper with absolutely no room for advancement. I'm also a single Mom and it is going to be really rough for me to quit my job to go to nursing school when (hopefully) I'm accepted. The thought of being out of work for a year or more as a new grad looking for a job is starting to REALLY freak me out. I could possibly go back to what I do now, but I know this field is even pretty rough and if you don't already have a job, I know lots of paralegals looking for work, so I'm not sure I could easily jump back into it, especially if they knew that I had just graduated from nursing school and was wanting to go in a different career path.

I don't have previous clinical experience, though I have volunteered in hopsitals and worked in an assisted living center over the summer while in college (but that was 10 years ago!) I am trying to get back into the ED volunteering, but there is currently a wait list for volunteers, even!

Leaving Denver isn't an option for me right now. I'm not going to be super picky about where I work. I have goals of working somewhere specific in a specific department, but I am not going to be picky when it comes to getting my foot in the door and getting some experience. I would very much prefer to work in a hospital and really don't want a LTC Facility, but I wouldn't turn it away, just from previous experience, I don't think I'd like a LTC position on a permanent basis.

I woudl really like to know what it is really like for new grads right now in the Denver area and what I can expect my starting hourly rate to be. I'm expecting to have to take a paycut, but I'm not sure how much I should anticipate. I was looking at Denver Health's website. There are lots of RN listings that say no experience required and starting around $24 per hour, but on their main page it says they aren't hiring new grads right now (it looks like it was updated in September)

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Specializes in LTC.

What it's like now and what it will be like three or four years from now are very different. Nobody has a crystal ball that I'm aware of, but my assumption is that within that timeframe jobs will have started to open up again. I live in Oregon (just visiting CO forums b/c that's my native state) and there was a huge freeze for RNs but now in the local paper there are over 200 positions advertised.

Before this awful recession, people would say "Nursing is recession proof." Sadly, we have found that NOTHING has been immune to this particular one. However, by and large, I still feel it will offer more opportunity than other fields. If you feel nursing is a true calling (and that is KEY; otherwise you WILL burn out no matter what kind of money you make), go for it. You'll find work.

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Just a quick comment: don't say that you are considering a change to the medical field. Be sure to emphasize that you are considering changing to the field of nursing. A point you may not appreciate now, but take it from me, it is a buzzword in the realm of academia.

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Thank you! I appreciate your comment! You're right, that probably isn't the best terminology I could use. I have went back and forth on what specific field I wanted to go into for quite awhile, but am feeling more and more that nursing is probably the best fit for me.

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Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.

Most of the graduates from the May 2009 class in my school have jobs. I graduated last month and a couple of those graduates have jobs. If you were looking right now I'd say it's really terrible. There are lots of places hiring RNs but they all have "NO NEW GRADS" or "1+ years experience required" in the ad. I have been looking for months but not a single interview. I cannot afford to be picky so that is not the problem.

OTOH this is hopefully temporary and what it is like to find a job right now means nothing to you 3 or 4 years from now, like the previous poster stated.

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That is true, and I'm hoping ti gets better, I'm just wondering if there will continue to be an influx of graduates in comparison to available jobs. Especially if people aren't finding jobs now, they'll be taking the jobs when they do open up. Is the field just getting flooded in certain areas and there are more available workers than jobs or just general cyclical job availability?

I guess I'm asking as I'll be changing careers from the legal field. I graduated in 2002 and the market was flooded in Denver (this is not the case in every city, but it was/is in Denver) It's just gotten worse and worse. Sicne moving isn't an option for me, I'm just tryint to prepare myself for what I may be up against when I graduate.

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Specializes in LTC.

Well, I'm no expert in demographics, but I think it'll take years and years for nursing to get to the same place where law is (isn't it something like 2-3 lawyers for every job in some markets? Yikes!). My theory is the current downturn is due to nurses having to work more hours and take extra jobs to support non-working spouses.

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Ah, OK. Thanks. I'll admit I don't know much about the job market in nursing and how it works. I know for years it seemed like I was constantly hearing there was a nursing shortage and you could get a sign on bonus and work as much as you wanted. Now, I read on here people can't find jobs and I know my cousin in FL has her shifts cancelled regularly. I am hoping it is just simply the job market cycling and it will get better with time, and people picking up extra job/s shifts to compensate for non-working spouses sounds very likely and possible!

But, yes the job market in the legal field (especially in some areas of the country) is really, really bad. The firm where I'm at now hasn't done any layoffs, but we are slow, really slow right now. I'm having a hard time meeting my billable hour requirements, as is everyone from what I gather. The firm I left 2 years ago laid off 3 attorneys right before I left, last I heard only one of them had found a job. Maybe I'm being more freaked out b/c of where I'm coming from? I do know that reading all the threads about new grads who can't find jobs isn't helping, lol. I must stop that!

Thank you so much, everyone, for your replies!

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Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.

Well there will continue to be an increasing amount of new graduates now that there are more and more nursing programs in the area. With the economy bad more people are out of work and want to go into nursing because it's "stable" and the much touted "shortage." Whether that shortage will materialize or not is hard to predict. I think my advice to prospective students would be to go into nursing because it's something you love and want to do, not because it sounds like a good job.

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Specializes in Med-Surg; ER; ICU/CCU/SHU; PAR.

Hi, Jamie! Just to encourage you, what you are seeing is, indeed, job cycling related to the extreme recession. Nursing has been through this before...I was caught in it as a new grad back in the early/mid-80's! It is complicated by the retirement of baby-boomers, both from bedside nursing and especially from positions in academia (teachers). It's the latter that causes the difficulty getting into nursing schools at this time. It's partly the former that is causing hospitals to request experienced RN's, because it takes a year of working in REAL nursing (school clinical rotations will NOT give you this) for a new grad nurse to become self-sufficient as a bedside nurse. That coupled with an influx of experienced nurses coming out of "retirement" due to spouses out of work allows the hospitals to pick and choose. So it's a complicated time, but if you REALLY want to be a nurse, you'll get there! Just make good and sure it's what you want to do. You think you're miserable behind a desk? Go into nursing for any reason other than that you really want to be a nurse...you'll know misery there, too...maybe worse!

Good luck!

MsLoriRN:nurse:

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Honestly..yes. I live here in the SF bay area. I graduated in May 2009 and passed boards the end of July. From the beginning of August to October I dressed up and pounded the pavement everyday. I went from hospital to hospital talking to hiring managers and unit managers. After I had applied to all those and all the prisons.... I started hitting up SNFs (skilled nursing facilities) Everyday I would go to a different city, walk in dressed up and apply and hand out resumes. I probably applied at 70 SNFs before I started landing jobs. Then everything came in at once. 4 different facilities hired me and I was doing flu shots. I do now have a full time nursing job in a SNF. About 10 of my classmates out of 50 landed hospital jobs ( connections, or previous experience..ER Tech, EMT, LVNs.) Some are working at SNfs like myself and the rest are unemployed or went back to their previous jobs. I don't mean to be a downer but that is the state of the economy right now. Hopefully things will change before you graduate..but even though I am in a SNF with a large patient workload I will not be there forever..SNF experience is better than no experience. good luck.

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Thanks! I've done a lot of soul searching and I'm sure this is what I want to do. Sitting behind a desk and hating it made me start thinking about what I wanted out of life. I've done some volunteering (though I realize is a far cry from the actual job) and I loved being there. I'm trying to find a nurse in CO to do a job shadow, but the only nurse I really know personally here is on a traveling job in NV right now. Once I get back into volunteering I'm hoping to do another job shadow while I'm finishing up my pre reqs.

Thanks for the insight of what's going on with the job situation right now. I hope in a few years it evens itself out. Right now I'm trying to focus on getting excellent grades in my pre reqs and getting into school to begin with (and doing well there) Though admitedly I was starting to worry that even if I got accepted, did well, graduated, that I wouldn't be able to find a job, and I was panicking a bit b/c I'll be quiting my job in the legal field to pursue this career.

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