Nursing Jobseekers - What NOT to do

Learning how NOT to go about your jobseeking will save you some professional blushes. After all, you don’t want to be remembered as the David Hasslehoff of nursing candidates, do you? Here’s what we implore you NOT to do....

Right nurse job, wrong nursing skills

Just because you like the sound of a job doesn’t mean you can apply. If you apply for a job that you do not have the skills or experience for you’ll only achieve the following:

- swift removal to the recruiter’s Trash bin

- no reply

- knowledge that you’ve wasted someone’s time

- besmirch your otherwise unblemished professional nursing profile!

In short, if you can’t match the requirements of the job please don’t apply. Find a job you can apply to legitimately and save yourself some time.

Shotgun applicants

Job boards like Nurses.co.uk do make it relatively easy to apply for lots of jobs. Gone are the days of personally posting your carefully worded cover letter and CV.

The drawback of this convenience is that it’s created a few lazy but over-optimistic applicants.You know who you are. You apply to tens of jobs in one sitting. Please don’t.

If you want to truly stand a chance of winning a job the fundamental process remains the same: you need to work at your application and plan it.

Don’t take a job application lightly. You should read and re-read the job description, find out about the company, plan your cover letter and ensure the CV you’ll be sending matches the job.

Then, and only then, should you send off your application.

Not really looking for a new nursing job

Everyone hates Mondays. January’s a rotten month. Every now and then we all have a boss we’d like to see the back of. But these are not reasons to apply for a new job.

And yet, people do, the application goes off and the recruiter believes they have an interested nursing candidate. Not so. If you’re not actually looking for a job then don’t apply.

Your protest against Mondays, January or your boss may make you feel temporarily better, but it’s unprofessional and time-wasting.

Stay in touch

Some of us here at Nurses.co.uk have some real, hands-on recruitment experience. So we know it’s a challenging job, as any nursing recruiter will tell you. The reason is that the recruiter is always dealing with that most tricky of all commodities: humans.

And as you know, humans are prone to doing strange things. Like send an application to someone for a nurse job and then not reply to them when they wish to talk to you about it.

Perhaps the most frustrating element of the recruiter’s job is dealing with the un-contactable candidate. These nursing candidates apply for jobs. They take the application seriously. Their CV looks great. Their cover letter indicates genuine interest.

But do they pick up their phone? No. Are they receiving the emails sent to them following their application? Who knows. Do they listen to the voicemail messages left? We can only imagine that they don’t.

So, nursing jobseekers.....If you’re serious about getting a job then take the whole process seriously and professionally.

If you apply to a job you should expect to be contacted about it, and quickly. If you can’t answer your phone, or return voicemail messages or pick up email, then it’s simple - don’t apply for any jobs!