Are you thinking it’s time to test the water on a job search? Is your career feeling stagnant and you think it’s time to move to a new organization or even a new branch of nursing?
What can help you with your decision if you’re not ready for a full-fledged job search?
Testing out whether it’s time for a job switch takes some thought and a little bit of work. Here are a few ways nurses can gather information without jumping into a full search.
Sit in on Seminars
Find some seminars or classes that will help you decide if you want to move from emergency nursing to travel nursing or from infusion nursing to cardiac care. Get some experience, talk to a professor or class leader, and chat with others in the room (even in online classes) to get a point of reference in your job change decision.
Become a Visible Networker
Networking isn’t all about finding a new job, but it is about becoming noticed in your profession. And if you have an active and extensive network when you are looking for a job, you’ll have a valuable resource. Find association meetings, nursing groups, or even a few general business groups and regularly attend meetings. Meet new people and offer your help as well.
Go to a Career Fair
Find a healthcare career fair and take some time walking around. Come prepared with resumes just in case you find an excellent opportunity, but make gathering information your primary goal. Investigate what jobs are out there and see how your qualifications measure up.
Gain Skills
Whether you take on more responsibility in your current role or gain skills on a team to learn new skills (volunteering for your town’s emergency response team, for instance), know you need to learn more. Start the process for a new certification or volunteer to learn the new software at work – just make sure your skills are current, cutting-edge, and marketable.
If you decide a career move is your next step, you’ll be ready with a solid understanding of the available opportunities and how your skills will meet the market needs.
Nurses today enjoy excellent career prospects with high job demand and nursing jobs opening up in many specialties. But nursing jobs tend to blossom in regions and if your region isn’t one of them, you might not be feeling a lot of job security.
If your position seems a little perilous, what’s your best plan? Always be prepared. Even if rumors of layoffs and reduced hours are just rumors, the stress they inspire in a staff cannot be understated. If you’re one of those nurses, the daily worry about if you’ll have a job or even enough hours to keep you gainfully employed is exhausting and can negatively impact your job performance.
Throughout your career, the best thing you can ever do is be ready for a job change. And that’s not always because you expect something bad to happen. You could also have an unexpected and fantastic job opportunity arise. In that case, you shouldn’t have to scramble to get your resume and your LinkedIn profile updated while also preparing for an interview panel.
Here’s how to always be ready for a change – expected or not.
1.Update Your Resume, Even If You’re Not Job Hunting
Keeping your resume and your LinkedIn pages updated and current is just smart business practice. You cannot predict what’s going to happen next, so you want to be ready for anything. And if you update everything as you go, you won’t forget a project or a skill that could be important enough to trigger an interview request.
2. Keep Learning
You might have the same job you had 10 years ago, but your skill set is different. With new technology, additional seminars, and on-the-job training, you have learned more. As a nurse, if your skills aren’t constantly refreshed, you’re falling behind. Don’t let that happen. Actively pursue an additional degree, even if it is one class at a time. Go for certifications in your specialty or a specialty you’d like to move into. Being ready for any opportunity increases your chances of success.
3. Network Every Chance You Get
When you’re actively looking for a job, networking will help you. The more networking you do, the more chances you’ll have to find a good match. But even if you aren’t looking, keeping up with others in the industry keeps your name, skills, and capabilities front and center. Someone might ask you to join a committee or to help spearhead a new campaign. Saying yes and working with peers opens up your nursing career.
4. Stay on Your Toes
Don’t get lazy when you aren’t directly working with patients and on patient care. When you’re at work or at an event with people from work, keep your professional attitude. Be someone who can make excellent and authentic small talk with everyone—from the person who delivers the packages to your floor to the CNO—and then do it.
5. Boost Other Nurses
Be the person who champions nurses and helps others understand all the things nurses do. Spread the word about nursing as a career. Enthusiasm is contagious and others will join you. You might not get a job offer, but you’ll get a great reputation as someone who is a positive force in the world of nursing.
So whether you’re wondering about layoffs or happy in your job, there are some things you should do as routine career maintenance. Being prepared helps your career whether you’re just starting out or 40 years in. And if you are worried about a career change, you’ll know you’re ready for anything.
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