Your Big Sister’s Guide to Landing Your First Nursing Job After NYU

• Nursing career fairs and networking events
  • Every spring semester, NYU’s Wasserman Center for Career Development and NYU Meyers Student Affairs and Academic Advising partner to host a nursing career fair. There, you can meet with recruiters who are hiring for jobs in nursing. Employers that are usually featured include Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York-Presbyterian, NYU Langone Health, Weill Cornell Medicine, and more. While this event is primarily for nursing students in their senior year, anyone is welcome to attend!
  • Many of our nursing clubs and organizations also host résumé clinics and “Meet the Manager” events throughout the school year. These give you even more opportunities to receive specific résumé feedback and practice networking with nurse leaders and recruiters from hospitals across the city.
• Alumni connections
  • Our Meyers Alumni Association regularly hosts events like “Ask a Nurse Anything” and “Specialty Night.” Here, you can speak with NYU alumni who have already gone through the job-hunting process. You’ll hear about their experiences working in different specialties and have the opportunity to ask questions about everything from interviews to transitioning into life as a new graduate nurse.
• Clinical placements throughout New York City
  • If you like the unit where you have clinicals, ask for the unit manager’s contact information. Then, email them after you graduate, mentioning that you enjoyed your clinical time there!

As helpful as career fairs, networking events, and résumé workshops can be, I quickly realized that one of the most valuable (and often underrated) opportunities for nursing students is a nurse externship. If you haven’t heard of one before, a nurse externship is typically a structured summer program where students work closely with registered nurses in a hospital setting.

Unlike your clinicals for Meyers, externships allow you to spend consistent time on one unit, build relationships with your nurse preceptors, and gain a better understanding of what day-to-day nursing actually looks like. Many major hospitals in New York City, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, NYU Langone Health, and Mount Sinai, offer these programs. Applications often open as early as the late fall or early spring of your junior year.

Beyond the experience itself, externships can significantly reduce the stress that comes with job hunting during senior year. I cannot emphasize enough how impactful these programs can be, as many hospitals often use externships to identify future nurses. What’s more, students who perform well may even receive return offers for post-graduate positions. Even if they do not, the experience and connections are invaluable. So, I would strongly encourage every nursing student to apply if given the opportunity.

During the summer before my senior year, I completed a nurse externship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Going into the experience, I just hoped to learn as much as possible and become more comfortable in the hospital setting. Instead, I gained confidence and a clearer understanding of the kind of nurse I wanted to become. While I did learn so much about communicating with patients and navigating the realities of bedside nursing, I was also able to build meaningful relationships with nurses and leadership on my unit.

Because of that experience, I was fortunate enough to receive an offer to begin working as a Clinical Nurse I after graduation. Having that opportunity before entering my final year of nursing school relieved so much stress during senior year. Additionally, it allowed me to focus more on learning and enjoying my final months at NYU. Honestly, it completely changed the way I approached both nursing school and the job-hunting process. I cannot emphasize enough how beneficial nursing externships can be for students.

Nursing school teaches you how to care for patients, but senior year in particular teaches you how to believe in yourself as a future nurse. There will be interviews that make you nervous, applications that test your patience, and moments where you question yourself and wonder if this is the right path for you. That uncertainty is completely normal. It is also part of the growth that gets you to where you are meant to be.

One day, you will walk into the hospital not as a student nurse, but as an RN, ready to care for patients of your own. Then, you will realize that everything you felt along the way helped shape you into the nurse you have become.