Our Last Semester columnist, Chelsea, has shared her life with us as she navigated the last few months of nursing school. She shared lots of highs—her time at the NSNA Convention in Texas and the joy and pride she took in developing a nursing philosophy, to pick just two examples. This time, though, she shares a low. Chelsea recently flew to Maryland for her first real job interview and recently found out she didn’t get chosen for the position. Here are her thoughts.
Here I am, an eager, willing, and enthusiastic college graduate who is ready to put my heart and soul into any position that will hire me.
A few weeks ago, I traveled for an interview with such high hopes of gaining the experience of my first job. It truly was like a fairy tale. They told me it would be about seven to 10 days before I would hear anything. Two weeks passed and still, I had heard nothing. Finally, I got up the nerve to call the nurse manager just to check on the status of my application and the interview process. She told me that it might be another week or two. At that moment, I think I subconsciously knew this position was not going to be offered to me.
It wasn’t.
What a heartbreaking experience to have someone tell you they are not going to offer you a position. When I read that letter, I couldn’t help but to cry. Anyone would. It made me feel like all the hard work, time, and effort I had put into my nursing career just wasn’t good enough. It took me a couple of days to stop being so angry and to realize that this was just a slight bump on my way to finding my first—and right—job. I didn’t love that floor and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to move, so I guess they made up my mind for me. Someone wise always tells me that “Whatever is meant to be, will be,” and after this incident, it really seems as though he is right.
So I decided to take the bad and turn it into something productive. I began studying like a mad woman, hours and hours in the library doing hundreds of questions. I figured that I can’t dwell on the fact that they were missing out on what I had to offer; I had to make the best of every situation that gets thrown at me.
Nobody wants to be rejected, but I think, with this rejection, I have learned that not every opportunity is a perfect fit. I am still waiting for a job and it is so frustrating. I would love to have the security of that behind me now, but I’m doing my best and I am following up with the places that I applied and I’m just being me. I have to take it one day at a time and focus on passing my NCLEX. So, that’s what I’m doing. I set my date and now I have a goal to work toward.
Whatever is meant to be, will be. Words to live by. Maybe because this one hospital didn’t want me, another will now have to opportunity to have my desire and passion for nursing at their institute.
Editor’s note: Chelsea, our “Last Semester” columnist, recently graduated from a small, liberal arts college 20 miles outside of Boston. Her column appears weekly, exclusively on StressedOutNurses.com. Write to her at editor@stressedoutnurses.com.
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