Preparing for Nursing Career Day

Penn Nursing Students and Alumni:

Please be reminded that Nursing Career Day will be held on Friday, December 4, 2009 from Noon - 2:00pm at Hall of Flags in Houston Hall.

Nursing Career Day is designed to create a space for BSN and MSN students and alumni from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing to connect with employers, mostly hospitals and other healthcare related organizations. This event always offers an opportunity to make helpful contacts whether your search for a permanent job or externship/summer job is for the immediate future or a little further out.

To make the most of this event, please carve out some time for the following steps:

Prioritize
• Make sure that you look at the list of participating employers in late November by logging on to Pennlink with your PennKey and clicking on the Nursing Career Day link under Quicklinks or in the Events section. (NOTE: If you have not logged on to Pennlink before, the system will first prompt you to register by filling in a brief profile.)
• Determine beforehand which employers on the list interest you the most (your “must-sees”) in order to plan ahead toward making the most of your time. Some employers have actually listed targeted positions, though you can certainly inquire about areas outside those listed.

Prepare
• Research the “must-see” employers by perusing their websites.
• Try to become familiar with how the nursing area of the facility functions.
• Look for what distinguishes a given hospital/facility and think about how that appeals to you. Most (if not all) health care facility websites have a mission statement/core values of some kind posted.
• Look for news or updates on particular projects/initiatives (perhaps in public/community health or research) related to nursing that the facility is involved in. Make note of those that interest or intrigue you.
• Develop an introduction of yourself (no longer than 1 minute), emphasizing your interests/qualifications as it relates to each of your “must-see” employers. Also, have a thoughtful question or two in mind as well based on your research of the employer. Such a question may help clarify key information or express interest in a particular area/specialty/project.
• Make sure you have plenty of resumes to distribute. Resume samples are available at: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/nursing/NurseSamples.pdf No cover letters are necessary for career fairs.

Present
• Each employer will have sent one or two recruiters who will have materials on their assigned table. Starting with your “must-see” list, visit each employer, introduce yourself (“Good afternoon, my name is…..”) as you shake the recruiter’s hand. Follow up with your remarks, offer your resume, and wrap up (“It was great to meet you, may I take one of your business cards to follow up?”)
• Once you’ve visited all on your “must-see” list, be open to visiting with other employers if time allows. You never know what other opportunities may appeal to you.
• Be sensitive to lines behind you. If there is a long line and your conversation is flowing well, be gracious and offer to come back to the table when it’s less crowded or follow up later. If the table is not crowded, you may be able to engage the recruiter in a longer conversation, but make sure to read the recruiter’s cues in this regard.
• If any conversations stand out to you and reinforce your interest in a given employer, take notes on the back of the business card of the recruiter you spoke with to note highlights of the conversation for follow-up purposes.

After the career fair, make sure you take your notes from your conversations and prepare follow-up correspondence to thank the recruiter for his/her time, recall a highlight of your conversation, and reiterate your interest in the employer.