Roles and Issues in Advance Practice Nursing

Networking and Job Searching Strategies Video Transcript

Kaitlynn Arvidson: Hey everyone, my name is Kaitlynn Arvidson, and I'm the manager of graduate career planning here at Regis College. I'm here today to discuss networking with you, so I'm gonna share my screen so you can learn more about that. Networking tips for success for nurse practitioners. Types of networking, planned networking, online networking, spontaneous networking, and networking meetings. All great types of networking to become familiar with, because in any situation there's a potential for networking and meeting people in your field, or just meeting people that might know others in your field and connect you to them.

First we'll talk about planned networking, who to network with. Everyone you know is a contact, so this would include an exhaustive list, but most specifically form preceptors, faculty, friends, family, neighbors, alumni, former bosses, career services, and previous coworkers. I always tell students that anyone is a potential network connection, so make sure that you're always discussing what's currently happening in your life. When someone says, Hi, how are you, it's great to say, I'm in my MSN program at Regis through the online program, or on ground, whatever it might be, And I'm looking forward to graduating, whenever that time is. Just to help them understand that you're gonna be looking for an MSN level role in the near future.

You can describe that quickly in terms of what you're looking for, if you feel it's appropriate. Often times, usually when this information is shared, you'll often find people will then say, "Oh, I know someone that's an NP," or, "Where I got to the doctors, it seems like they're always looking for them." You never know where the conversation could lead. It's just nice to be out there meeting people, and talking a little bit about yourself.

Planned networking, tips for success. Start with people you know, build confidence, treat it as you would a job interview. Planned networking has to do with any type of networking you've actually signed up for and plan to attend. That might mean career fairs, that might mean professional organizations, meetings, workshops, something that might happen within your classroom setting. Maybe some networking opportunity because of speakers coming in, and at the end of the session you have something in common, you decide you want to network with the person, learn more about what they do.

There are all these types of networking you can actually plan to do and be prepared for. If you treat every networking session like it's a job interview, and you dress professionally, and you prepare to be there, and you're on time, it can be a rather successful venture for you. Always send thank you notes when you have a prepared session for networking ahead of time, and ask for another contact at the end of the meeting. You can always follow up promptly to thank them for their time.

Before moving ahead, I should always say that planned networking can take the shape of informal informational interviews. An informational interview is an opportunity for you to go ahead and meet someone that is in a similar capacity that you hope to be in once you complete the degree and you're on the job search. Look for someone that you aspire to be, whether that be someone in your specialty, maybe women's health, or PD, or mental health, or geri. Maybe you want to get a sense for who that person is, how they started their career, what made them focus on that particular specialty, how they got the current job they have now, and ask them for some advice. Advice is always a good thing, because people are happy to give it, because they want to think about what they did in order to find the job, and also what they recommend in the future if they were to do it again. This can be really useful to you.

Online networking is important. There's LinkedIn, I'm sure most people are familiar with that by now. But if you're not, it's an online networking tool that's used to expand your contacts. It doesn't replace face-to-face planned networking though, so that's important to know. It's great, because it's a nice platform where you can put a headshot of yourself, little one liner about what you're looking to do, so maybe you want to say something like, you're an MSN candidate, and you're looking to specialize in women's health. Something of that effect. With that, you can also talk about any previous experience you have. Maybe you've working as an RN for a number of years in a particular capacity, so you want to talk briefly about that too in your LinkedIn profile in the summary section.

Also, there are people who have Linked profiles that keep it pretty simple, and they have more or less a live version of their resume. You can add information like that too, and just have your name, a photo of yourself, where you're currently working, your Regis information, and any other interesting professional information you want to put there, professional organizations or presentations at workshops or conferences. Things of that sort. Of course, it never replaces face-to-face planned networking, and there are many other online tools that you can use. But, LinkedIn is one of the most commonly used for professional job searches.

Something you might want to add to your LinkedIn profile network is, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Within LinkedIn there are groups that you can join that highlight particular specializations and industries in particular. There's many for nurse practitioners, so you might want to look for your state, and also what types of professional organizations are offered within the state or region, and join them online. Because, they'll post all sorts of information, like job opportunities, gatherings, workshops, and those can be opportunities to meet, network other people of similar background as well.

Online networking, we spoke about LinkedIn. Very powerful in terms of connections. Your direct connections within LinkedIn are those that you're already connected with, so your trusted friends and colleagues. Those that are two degrees away, as we like to say, are your friends of friends. If you see someone on LinkedIn and you know that they're connected to one of your colleagues at work, but not you, that's considered a second degree connection. Three degrees away, these are users that you can reach through users of a friend, or one of their friends, so definitely pretty far out there, but you can definitely get introduced if you're interested.

It's always good to ask for an introduction if you're interested in connecting with someone and talking further. That connection could come from that direct relationship you have, the friend that is on LinkedIn that you're already connected to, or you can reach out to that person you want to connect with, and you can just ask them if they're interested in connecting. It's always nice to put one line as to why you're interested. I'm interested in learning more about X, Y, Z hospital. I'm graduating with my MSN next month, something of that sort.

Creating your profile, like I mentioned, it's good to have profile headline if you feel it's appropriate. Listing your current job, only if it's related to nursing, and the fact that you're an MSN candidate from Regis. Appropriate photo, education, professional summary statement, specialties, your status, LinkedIn groups, and recommendations. That's always nice to list too.

Establishing your LinkedIn profile. Recommendations can come from your professors, clinical supervisors, former supervisors, or mentors. This is important, because it helps you to gain some sort of, or it helps, I should say, viewers of your profile to gain some confidence in who you are. If you've worked with people in the past that can comment on your work ethic, the type of work you do, or your character as an individual in the workplace, that would be great to get recommendations on your profile. If you don't have any yet, that's fine too. But, anyone you can get to do this for you and write something that's very articulate, and give you, think of it as a reference letter, that would be helpful.

Using your LinkedIn profile to extend your job search. You want to make sure profile is completed 100%, search for people that you know, join groups, and send customized invitations to connect to people who are in those group. Or, you might go ahead and find a job opportunity online under the jobs tab, and you find that it is a good fit for you, and in that particular job description, it then has someone there that's the contact of the organization who's recruiting for the job. You can always reach out to him or her and discuss your interest in the role, see if they'll accept your invitation to join them, and then of course start connecting and talking about your experience, and also your degree from Regis.

You can always search your contacts, so those that you're connected to look in their contact list and just see who they're connected with. If there's someone you want to get introduced to, you can always go to your former colleague that might be your connection, for instance, at Boston Medical Center, and mention that you're looking to connect with them. That person might be, now, a hiring manager at Partners Healthcare, so maybe that's why you want to connect to them. All sorts of ways to go about this. If you need help with it, I'm always willing to help you.

Make sure that in your job search that all your information in your profile that you complete for an employer is complete and accurate. Include the skills and experiences requested and the job listings you're interested in. Try to match any keyword as closely as possible. With that, it's very similar to writing a cover letter and a resume. You want to make sure that you're looking over the job, its qualifications, and also required and preferred qualifications. Because, that will help you decide, what do you need to actually denote in your cover letter and your resume to an employer. What should you talk about, what kind of feedback should you give them, what will they be looking for? Everything they're looking for, for the most part, will be in that job description, so you want to draw a parallel to that in your cover letter, resume, and also online, and the electronic profile that you'll need to complete for every corporation or hospital.

You can have more than one profile. You can have more than one profile for, meaning that depending on the type of job or organization you apply to, you can have more than one profile. But, you don't want to have more than one profile for one organization, because that gets really confusing to the recruiter.

Maximizing the success rate for each strategy, that's really important. You want to make sure that everything that you go into do with the job search, you actually complete as much as you possibly can to get the maximum benefit from that. Research participating companies ahead of time if you're going to a job there. That makes a lot of sense. You'd never want to walk into a room with dozens of employers and wonder then, who should I talk to, what should I ask them? Also you want to be prepared when you talk to an employer with your 30 second commercial, and talking a little bit about your academic experience, your career history, and what you're looking for in a job. That should really only be 30 seconds, and that should come along with two open ended questions that you prepare ahead of time.

Bring copies of your resume, and of course followup and apply to opportunities of interest online, and followup with the recruiter alerting them to this. If you've met someone at a job fair or any type of networking event, it's important to then go back, look on the website of that particular organization. If there's something that looks fitting to you and your experience, certainly, you can reach out to the person you met previously. Whether it be one night ago or a month ago, reminding them of who you are if it's been an extended period of time. Also, alerting them to the fact that you've applied online for a job.

One thing you don't ever want to do is reach out to someone that you've met and say, Oh, I was just wondering what types of jobs you have at your hospital. Can you tell me what I might be a good fit for? You want to show everyone, like in every relationship in life, that you care about them, that you're making their time very effective, and that you know what you want. Therefore, you want to show that you've applied to an actual job posting, and then of course reiterate that to the person that you've connected with and see if they can help you meet the hiring manager, or at least get a phone screen in the interim.

Job search strategies, again, there are many different ways to find a job, including hiring from within and a personal referral is always the most effective. If someone knows of a particular job and they contact you letting you know that, it's a good chance you might be a good fit for that. Definitely, you always want to followup immediately. When I was a recruiter in the past, the worst is when someone new got a job that someone had mentioned to them, but they didn't follow up on it quickly enough. They followed up a week later, and by then the job might have already been gone, or maybe the process had already started, so interviews had happened, so hiring managers didn't really want to backtrack and then take on another candidate, even if you were a referral from someone else. Always make sure you're following up immediately, like within a day if someone goes ahead and refers you to a job posting.

Use a blended approach of networking and the online search for best results. Most critical success factor in the job search is time and effort yield success in the job search process. It's really important to give yourself a lot of time to find the job, because the credentialing process can take a while too, and you want to become very familiar with your state and how long the credentialing process might take, so that's really important to keep in mind. Many students start their job search well before they graduate. This is important too, because it could take months to get an interview to begin with.

But, if you're pretty certain you know where you're gonna be working, maybe you've precepted somewhere, or you're currently an RN an your current organization and they've mentioned that an NP role might be surfacing in the near future. That's definitely something that you can wait a bit more on, because you're so familiar with the organization. But, if you don't have any immediate connections at the moment, you might want to start going out and making some.

Anyone that has questions on this or needs help, I'm more than happy to help you anytime one-on-one. This concludes the job search strategies portion of our career workshop modules. I look forward to joining you at the next one.