Tag Archive for 'nursing graduate'

Nursing Interview Tips

Published
by
admin
on December 20, 2010
in Nursing Career
. 0 Comments

i_nurse_female_4Most nursing students are both excited and fearful about their first nursing interviews. After all, the job you get will have a major impact on pretty much every aspect of your life. Your nursing school may help graduates prep for the interview process, but it’s a good idea to seek out other resources so you can be as prepared as possible when the time comes.

First of all, you should congratulate yourself on landing the interview. You will likely have been competing against students from your own and various other nursing schools, not to mention nurses already in the health care industry. Getting the interview means that the employer has already seen something in you that he or she likes.

Preparing for the Interview

Now that you’ve patted yourself on the back, the work needs to begin. Of all the nursing interview tips you’ll come across, one of the very most important is the need to do some research. You want to find out everything you can about the institution where you will interview. Learn about its history, its mission, and its goals for the future. In addition, be sure to familiarize yourself with the specific unit or specialty for which you are interviewing. If you know who will be conducting the nursing interview, you might want to take the time to read up on him or her, as well.

At the Interview

Since the interview will likely involve a series of questions and answers, it is in your best interest to practice those answers in advance. Obviously, you can’t know exactly what questions will come up in your particular nursing interview, but you can find out some of the most commonly asked so you can think through a good response before the question is even posed in a more formal environment.

For example, you will probably be asked why you are interested in that particular job (this would be a good time to point out how your goals and objectives align so nicely with those of the institution), what your previous work experience is (it’s OK if you’re a nursing student who doesn’t have much previous experience—they will know this before they invite you to interview), and what training and qualifications you have. It is also possible that the interviewer will ask you general nursing questions, which your nursing school education will have prepared you to answer.

Another nursing interview tip that many people don’t know is to also prepare a few questions of your own. This is a great way to let them know that you’ve done your research and that you are a motivated nursing student or graduate who wants to know more. Your interest and initiative may just set your nursing interview apart from all the others.

Related Topics:

Nursing School Competition

From Student Nurse to New Grad

Find a Nursing School Near You

Applying for Your First Nursing Job

Published
by
admin
on August 23, 2009
in Nursing Career
. 1 Comment

i_nurse_female_4So, you now have two pieces of paper that officially make you a real nurse instead of a student one – your nursing diploma and your nursing license.  You should be able to don your nursing whites, walk into any hospital and announce – “Here I am, ready to work!”  Right? Wrong.

Even in the face of a sizable impending nursing shortage, being a nurse is still an actual job and all nurses, from new nursing school grads at the top of their class to experienced pros, need to respect the job application process. It’s easy to forget how coveted a nursing career is, especially when you’re dealing with bedpans instead of board rooms.  However, since nursing is on the higher salary end of the career spectrum, job applicants need to treat the search process as any executive applicant would.

This means following all the basic rules of “Career Services 101” and preparing a well thought out cover letter, resume and reference letters.  Here are some tips for putting together a winning job application package.

Resume: As a new grad, you obviously won’t have any RN experience to speak of however you should still emphasize any medical or health care related jobs and/or volunteer work first. If none of that applies, apply your critical analysis skills to your other work experience.

Extract and emphasize the skills and achievements in those positions that parallel your nursing skills. For example, point out the leadership and delegation traits required in your part time college restaurant job. Be creative and above all connect everything to nursing!

Cover Letter: Keep it direct, succinct and well organized according to the standard three paragraph business letter writing structure: introductory paragraph highlighting your major strengths and objectives, middle paragraph expanding on those points, and closing paragraph with the most important point you want the reader to walk away with along with a call to action. Want to try something creative? Include an impressive quote from one of your references in the opening or middle paragraph.

Reference Letters: Following the same prioritizing as on your resume, the best letters will be from medical or health care related employers, next from college professors and last from other employers. Make sure that all the folks you have listed as references are aware of it and can be easily reached by your potential employers.

Hospitals and other clinical facilities move through the process of recruiting quickly and if you unintentionally delay them by listing a reference that is difficult to reach or unreceptive, you could easily lose a job to another applicant.

Do you think I’m exaggerating?  When I was applying for one of my early hospital jobs, someone from human resources called and irritably informed me that they had been unable to reach one of my key references. She told me that if they could not reach her – immediately – I would lose the job opportunity.

I immediately called, paged and finally tracked down that reference and ordered her to sit by her phone and not move. Then, I called the hospital back and said, “Call her now!” In any job market, the most prepared, professional and proactive candidates are most likely to land the job.