Networking for Nursing Career Opportunities

Initial networking for a nursing job can be as simple and relatively painless as telling everyone you know that you are looking for nursing jobs.

This "everyone" can include your dentist, your manicurist, your neighbor’s aunt’s uncle, and even strangers on the bus. You can also attend medical job and nursing job fairs, and participate in virtual nursing career fairs, such as those sponsored by Nursing Spectrum.

Your fellow new grads also are a source of potential nursing job leads and much-needed moral support. You can even start a job-hunting club with other members of your graduating class. And as an added bonus, if you keep meeting, this same group of folks can provide support through the first year of work while you adapt to your changed role and try to find your way in the professional world.

The largest online employment websites seem to be in a constant state of flux as they buy each other out, merge and combine. While this can be initially confusing, it’s worth spending some time researching the different nursing websites. These sites are particularly useful if you are looking for a job out of your geographical area because getting a friend who lives in your target area to send you the newspaper classifieds can be a major pain and not all newspapers – believe it or not – post all their classifieds online. Both general employment like Monster.com and nursing-specific job sites (for example AdvanceForNurses.com) can be helpful.

Many of the larger general employment boards do contain some advertisements for nursing jobs. With these sites, often the most frustrating aspect is picking out RN jobs from the many unrelated health-care jobs that for some reason pop up when you use "nurse" or "RN" as a keyword. Sites specific to nursing employment usually are more targeted. Besides carrying numerous classified ads, these sites offer nursing articles, tips, and tools that can help with your search.

Some websites allow you to send your resume directly to an employer when you see their ad. Others allow you to post resumes on their site or provide a link to your own website, which then presumably would have your resume posted on it or contain relevant biographical data. Some sites allow you to post resumes anonymously. If this option is not available, remember that posting your resume always opens up the possibility that your current employer will see it and become aware of your job search sooner than you had planned.