Where are new grads actually getting hired right now?
Alex counting down to boardsThe question
I test in five weeks and I'm building the list of where I apply the day my license posts. Everything I read says LA, NYC and Boston chew up new grads, and half my cohort is fighting over the same three Texas metros. I can move anywhere, I have nothing tying me down. Which markets actually hired you as a new grad, and which ones swallowed your applications?
The conversation
5 replies- Quinn moving statesRN, 1 year in, moved states in April
The Midwest. Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and nobody in my class would touch any of them. Columbus gave me three interviews in two weeks and two offers inside a month, off rolling reqs with no cohort to wait for. Start the license paperwork the week you pick the state, not the week you get an interview. Mine took weeks to come through and I nearly lost the start date over it.
- Skyler on days nowRN, 2 years in, days now
Pennsylvania hired me as a new grad, so put it on the list. The bigger pattern is that the trap is the city, not the state. The system 40 minutes outside the expensive metro hires the people that metro turns down, and it usually gives you a longer orientation because it needs you to stay. Draw an hour's drive around every metro on your list and apply to everything inside the ring. Your first job isn't your forever job, and the suburban system will teach you more by month 3 than the flagship name would.
- Casey packing for travelRN, 11 months in, first travel contract in September
I'd flip the question. Don't chase the easiest market, chase the unit you want and the 12-month clock. A boring city that puts you in ICU at month one beats a hot city that waitlists you into med surg you didn't pick. My travel contract starts in September because of the unit I started on, not the pay in that zip code. Quinn's fast offers are real, just look hard at what unit the fast offer is for.
- Nursing Mastery
Two mechanics before you build the list. If your home state is a compact state and you hold a compact license, you can work in the other compact states without applying again. That makes those markets much faster to enter. A non-compact state needs its own license by day one, not at application, and endorsement takes weeks. File it before you interview, not after you sign.
- Priya between shiftsRN, 1 year in, ICU
The big metros do hire new grads, they just do it through residency cohorts with fixed start dates. Those applications often open four to nine months before the cohort starts. So an application sent in the wrong month reads to you like a rejection when it was only a wrong month. Get the cohort dates for every system on your list, then aim at the window. That is why I'm in ICU and not still refreshing my inbox.
What would you tell them?
Answer from what you have seen. It posts without your name.
