Nursing Career Plan for Seniors
Nursing Career Plan for Seniors is a Villanova Career Center resource that helps senior nursing students prepare for the full-time job search. The guide walks students through assessing their career goals, preparing application materials, building a professional network, applying for nursing roles, preparing for interviews, and using Villanova career resources throughout the process.
Step 1: Assess your goals and options
Students are encouraged to explore and research their career interests before applying. This includes thinking about:
- Units of interest such as med/surg, critical care, pediatrics, or labor and delivery
- What they most enjoyed from clinical rotations, externships, and past experiences
- Geographic locations or work environments they do or do not want to work in
- Specific hospitals or healthcare systems they would like to target
- Culture fit with a hospital or healthcare system’s mission, values, and goals
- Advice from professionals, faculty, and clinical instructors
Step 2: Prepare your materials and build your network
Students should update their resume, learn how to write an effective cover letter, and tailor application materials for each role. The guide also recommends establishing a Credentials File with the Career Center to organize letters of recommendation in one central location.
Students are encouraged to build a professional network through:
- Informational interviews with alumni, family, friends, faculty, clinical instructors, past employers, and healthcare professionals
- In-person and virtual employer or alumni events
- Villanova Nursing Career Fair
- LEAD and Society events such as the SNAP Convention
- Employer information sessions, coffee chats, and information tables
- NovaNetwork
- Career Center appointments with a Career Development Counselor or Nursing Industry Advisor
Step 3: Put your plan into action
The guide encourages students to customize their application materials and apply for positions that match their interests. Common entry-level nursing job titles include:
- New Grad RN
- Nurse Residency Program
Application timelines vary for full-time nursing roles. Some organizations have two to three hiring cohorts based on graduation date, while others recruit on a rolling basis. Students are encouraged not to wait for job postings and to contact potential employers directly about current or upcoming opportunities.
The guide also explains that students may hear advice to choose a specialty unit right away, such as Pediatrics or Labor and Delivery, but recruiters and nurse managers often recommend starting in a more generalized unit, such as Med-Surg or General Medicine. Generalized units can provide transferable experience, a strong nursing foundation, and more entry-level opportunities. Students should pursue areas they are passionate about while staying open-minded.
Interview preparation
The guide notes that first-round interviews for full-time nursing opportunities may include a pre-recorded interview component, where students record themselves answering questions and submit responses to a hospital or healthcare system. Big Interview is recommended as a useful tool for practicing virtual, pre-recorded, and in-person interviews.
Top resources to search and apply include:
- Hospital and healthcare system websites
- LiquidCompass
- Handshake
- Career Connections Nursing and Healthcare channel
- NovaNetwork
- Credentials
- Big Interview
- Career Center appointments
- Drop-in hours
Students can use this guide to stay organized during the senior-year nursing job search and take practical steps toward full-time nursing roles, including New Grad RN positions and Nurse Residency Programs.
