So after graduating you won't be able to sit for your boards for a good month or two. It takes time for the school to process the paperwork and for everything to get put through.
If you are worried about passing the NCLEX. Don't! You will have plenty of time in the one to two month lag between graduating and when the school processes your paperwork to study. If you are super worried. Just shell out money and take the Kaplan course. If you got in the program and you take the Kaplan course after you will pass with little to no problem. I say that because in order to get in the program you have to be smart. So a smart person doing Kaplan should pass. I am not employed by Kaplan. And if you take the Kaplan course and fail I will not be held responsible or liable. But I think you get the point.
Out of my classmates many people got jobs within one to four months of passing their state boards.
The people who had the hardest time finding a job where those with little to no real work experience. By real work experience I mean people that never worked jobs with a lot of responsibilities. Former school teachers got scooped up fairly quickly. Former health care workers like PCTs etc were grabbed fairly quickly and will likely start at better pay.
If you are a male it is much easier than if you are a female. Males are severely underrepresented in nursing so they will get snatched up relatively easily.
If you leave New York City it will be much easier for you to find a job.
Of all the hospitals hiring, Methodist seems to be the one that absorbed the most Downstate grads. Again if you can volunteer at Methodist I recommend doing it. The two classmates who did their nurse externship at Methodist were hired immediately after passing their boards.
One classmate was hired directly into the ICU at Maimonides Hospital. He was a guy and he made this happen for himself by making connections while in the program.
One classmate was hired directly in the Emergency Room at Woodhull Hospital.
You can also get a job working at a top notch hospital like Presbyterian by starting out working as a PCT. That is a way you can get your foot in the door after graduating.
Some of my classmates at this point are still looking. We are about four and a half months out of school at the time I'm posting this.
I remembered a lot of people being so nervous about the NCLEX and so nervous about finding a job after graduating. Don't be. Instead of worrying, do something while you are still in the program. Like volunteer at a hospital or try to get a job working at a hospital. Or more importantly get an externship. Everyone that I know of that got an externship was eventually hired after they got out of the program
