Monday, April 30, 2012

Me? You want me?

It took months of polishing up my resume and getting all sorts of extra certifications, but I finally started getting some calls about job interviews in March. It was a huge difference from last fall, when I got one measly interview and then ended up not getting the job anyway, because I wasn't experienced enough.

Between March 23rd and April 10th, I applied to 151 positions at 17 different hospitals. It didn't matter if the positions were temporary or part-time. I applied for everything listed after January 1, 2012 that I felt that I could actually do. For instance, dialysis scares me, because I have practically no experience in it. If I learned to do it step by step, I'm sure I could, but I'm not going to apply to a dialysis unit and pretend that I can do it from the very beginning. Also, no OR, because I've never had much interest in surgery.

I went to 4 interviews in 3 weeks. I started feeling slightly discouraged when I didn't hear back from them when they said I would. Meanwhile, I booked 3 more interviews. I finally heard back from Sunnybrook 3 weeks after the interview and they offered me a position (my first choice!). I also got offers from 2 more places, which I have now declined.

Words can't express how relieved I am. I start my new job in June and I plan to stay at my current job in a casual position.


Lessons learned:

1) Get certifications in everything.
I was a community nurse. There was no reason for me to get certified in anything beyond BCLS, but I knew that I wanted to get into a hospital eventually. Hospital people LOVE it if you get certified in things before they hire you and have to pay for it themselves. Right now, I have my ACLS and PALS. I'm also registered to start Coronary Care 1 in a couple of days.
If I hadn't gotten the job at Sunnybrook, I would have signed up for NRP, ENPC, Coronary Care 2, lactation course, fetal monitoring, etc. etc. I might still sign up for those things, because why the hell not? If you have the money and the time, sign up for the courses and get them done.

2) Don't believe the timelines that interviewers give you.
Sunnybrook told me I would hear back in 2 weeks. It took 3.
The first interviewer at Brampton told me 1 week. It took 2 and a half.
The second interviewer at Brampton told me a couple of days. It took 1 hour.

3) Store up the most interesting stories from your past internships and jobs and spin them like crazy.
Most nursing stories aren't that interesting to laypeople, but people involved in healthcare love them. They love hearing about frustrating/disgusting/insane situations. Show them how coolly you dealt with equipment malfunctions and difficult family members.

4) Read over your old nursing essays and use key phrases from them.
I once used the line, "helping people help themselves" during an interview and scared myself. I thought, "Oh god, no one's gonna take that hokey line seriously", but guess what? They loved it. I am now realizing that all those tedious essays were to help us prepare for job interviews, because no one talks like that outside of those situations. Yeah, I just said that. It's a matter of memorizing the McGill Model of Nursing and incorporating it into every other sentence that you utter. Bite back your laughter and say it.

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