0:00:04.5 Professor Walden: Alright, I think I have my shirt on inside out. It’s okay. Don’t worry guys, I’m not flashing you. Alright, gotta zip up there. Hey, Alison, I see you, girl. Alright. Sorry y’all I had to kind of get acclimated here. Sorry for being so last minute or not, it feels last minute, but it’s not really ’cause I kinda warned you guys. Hey, Lisa, I see you guys. Alright.
0:00:47.6 PW: It is a little bit later on in the evening. Don’t worry, I will not take up all of your time, but I absolutely wanted to address the things that we talked about. Hey, Sasha, girl, I see you. Okay, so first and foremost. Hello everyone, it’s Professor Walden here. Most of you guys know me from latrinawaldenexamsolutions.com. That is where most of you know me from. However, I do have some background experience, which if you did not know, let me re-introduce, which I will probably always do, just so people are like, how does she know? So background, before I became an RN and a nurse practitioner, I was an administrator. So numbers, budgets, hiring, firing, reading resumes, policies and procedures, all very comfortable with me, so unlike a lot of other nurses who may not understand that aspect, I truly understand both sides of it. So the business side as I like to call it, and then of course, the nursing side.
0:02:06.9 PW: So business came before nursing, which is why I’m very, very comfortable with that aspect. I kind of wanted to jump in here and talk about those little nuggets that I dropped. So let’s do that. Okay, so first and foremost, I don’t apologize for how I look because I’m at home one, it is 8:19 in the evening, two. Real life. Y’all know I talk about real life. And I just got finished working out, so it was even a blessing and joy that I got that done because I had to talk myself through the whole entire process, so just got finished with the workout, so I’m slightly sweaty, maybe a little bit smelly, but hey, it’s fine this is not a scratch and sniff.
0:02:54.3 PW: Alright, so with that being said, let’s talk about what I posted, okay? I posted saying that I wanted you guys to be aware of… This is no longer just another RN search, it is now different, you have in essence, leveled up when you become a nurse practitioner. Okay. Let me explain that. So you know how us as nurses, there is a nursing shortage everywhere. It really does not matter, we can look left and somebody’s trying to offer us a job. We typically will put in our resume and someone will call us, sometimes within hours, sometimes within days, but either way, someone will call, it’s inevitable.
0:03:50.8 PW: And we get to play the job basically, we get to choose. So it’s like, “I don’t want that job, I’m actually going for this job,” so we get to choose the choices in our hands. Hows and ever when you become a nurse practitioner, you have leveled up, so do not expect those same expectations that when you put in your resume, you are automatically going to get a call. It is the equivalent of looking for a director-like type position. Okay? So you know that takes time. If I’m trying to move up in the company and I am applying for… Or I’m an outsider trying to apply for a director-like position, it’s going to take a good time before they even get around to reviewing resumes and all of that good stuff, and there’s levels to going through it, or you can even…
0:04:53.1 PW: It’s just different. I guess that is my point, it is the equivalent of absolutely leveling up. So think of it as, I have now applied for a director type position, they are not going to call you within a week, within a couple of days, a couple of hours. Out of sight, out of mind. So that is not going to happen. Not that that’s a bad thing. Not that that’s a bad thing.
0:05:22.3 PW: Hold on, real life. My husband’s looking for my daughter’s blanket. No. Sorry. So it’s her meme, she sleeps with this thing, she… It’s been around since she was born, so I had to do that. Alright, anyway, back to the job. So it is different. So it is different, you are not going to get the call right away. The average person looking for a job who is not a nurse is going to allocate about three to six months in order to find a job. That is what you need to be expecting now.
0:06:08.4 PW: Okay, that is what I need you guys to put into your brain. Alright, it’s going to take me at minimum, three to six months, depending on the economy and how things are looking, it may take you six to nine. So it may be longer. Three to six months is in the ideal world, perfect situations, everything’s looking great. The stars have aligned, we have jobs out there who are looking for us, and we are looking for them. I need you guys to understand that three to six months, that’s like in a perfect world. You all know we are in a different situation right now. So, we are in a different situation, so quite frankly, three to six months, it’s probably not how it’s going to work out. Okay? So also understand that because you know I’m all about, eyes wide open, right? Going in, eyes wide open. So three to six months again, that is a perfect world, idealness, stars have aligned, economy is good. Yada yada yada, exactly.
0:07:14.6 PW: Now we have COVID. The economy has shrink. Meaning the GDP has shrink. We are in a recession. Things are looking different. It is going to take you longer, and I want you guys to understand that. Okay? So you may need to hold on to that RN job a little bit longer. Now, with that being said, six to nine, nine to 12, this is going to be your average of looking and finding a job that is just going to be your average now, compounded with everything else that is going on. Okay? So I want you to understand that, it’s not a bad thing you guys. Because remember, the average person who was looking for a director-like position, it typically takes them about three to six months. This is where you guys are. Okay? It’s not a bad thing. You’re just not used to it. This is not something that you are used to, so it feels like, “Why aren’t they calling me?” You guys are taking it personally, remove the emotion out of it. This is business. We are looking for a job. This is business. Take the emotion out of it. You are looking for a job, it’s going to take you a long time, so that, you just accept that, the quicker you accept that, the quicker you can understand that. With that being said, let’s talk about it. We already have… We already accounted for how the economy is going, you are also going to have different variables. I will tell you that I am not a big fan of, the market is saturated. The market is saturated, I will tell you why.
0:09:00.1 PW: I am not a big fan of that because if the market was saturated, you guys would not be seeing job openings. Okay? You guys see 50,000, million job openings, right? You would not see those in a market saturation because people would be literally putting in their resume left and right even before the job even got up there. That’s neither here nor there though. Also, this is another variable that you need to be looking out for, let’s talk about your area, some of you… Now, some of you may be in a market saturation, different pockets do different things, different pockets do different things. Let me repeat that one more time so that you hear me, different areas and different pockets do different things.
0:09:53.5 PW: So with that being said, if you are in a small rural town that does not have a large or multiple large healthcare systems, your probability of finding a position is going to be much less than someone who is, say, in Metro Atlanta, like me. Okay? In Metro Atlanta, we’ve got that many healthcare systems that we can choose from or that we can attempt to apply to, so the odds that I am going to get a job are much better than someone who has… Who is living in a city who has a smaller system. If you have not… If you have not found a position or something, it’s just not looking good, one, look at the other live, let’s talk about the resume ’cause you’ve got to stand out, and then two, also, you may want to look into your area.
0:10:58.2 PW: I know, I know that is not what everyone wants to hear. No one wants to hear, you need to look at your area, no one wants to hear that you may need to move because that might mean I need to uproot my family, who I probably have children and move. No one wants to hear that, especially in a time where the economy is looking quite questionable, I get it, but for some of you, it is a reality. For some of you, you may have to look really, really look at your area. Okay? If I don’t have a plethora of jobs to choose from here, ’cause if I’m living in Podunk Town, North Dakota, I’m living in Podunk Town, North Dakota, then I am not going to have as many opportunities as someone who is living in Los Angeles. So you are going to have to possibly look somewhere else. This is not everybody, the majority of you will be fine, the majority of you, it’s just going to take time, and that is something that you just need to accept and understand, okay? So that is just different for you.
0:12:24.3 PW: Now, alright. We’ve talked about the area ’cause there’s gonna be different things. And just kind of a little bit of a job tip right here, when you are looking at jobs, just remember that everyone is looking at the big systems. Let me say that again, that means everyone is applying to the big system. So for example, here in Atlanta, everybody knows Grady, everybody knows Emory, everybody knows Wellstar. Where do you think new grads apply to first? They’re going to apply to the big systems. Do you think that you are going… What are the odds that if you don’t know someone or you were not already in the system, that you are going to be called for that job. This is where you gotta use your nugget here, you know what I’m saying? This is where you gotta do some critical thinking here, because the odds are that if you’re not in the system or you don’t know somebody and you’re applying to a big system, it’s probably not gonna happen for you.
0:13:32.3 PW: The odds are not in your favor. That’s just a reality of the situation, right? It’s just the reality of it. But you guys don’t forget, there are a lot of different places that utilize nurse practitioners, there are still a lot of what I call mom-and-pop clinics, offices and things like that, you guys forget about that. Okay? Don’t forget about that. Don’t forget about the clinician who owns… He has his own clinic, the doctor who has his own clinic, but maybe has two sites, but he’s not connected to Wellstar or he’s not connected to Grady. That’s who you need to be applying to. We can talk about how to find out who those people are as well, because I have tricks to that. Okay? But that’s who you… You forget about. Are you good at sales? I’m not good at sales. Some people are very great at sales. I have something in my teeth.
0:14:36.5 PW: Some people are really great at sales, I am not. What about pharmaceuticals? You guys forget about that. You all know about insurance. In Atlanta, we have all the major insurance companies, all of them. You forget about that. You don’t just have to be at the clinic, you guys forget about those other options that are out there, alright? Now, I also want to talk to you about when you are searching for a job, the time of year that you are searching for a job. So let’s talk about that because that plays a big role. Remember, former administration here. So let’s talk about the fiscal year, typically the fiscal year is January to December, on average that’s most people’s fiscal year. Sometimes it will end June 31st on rare occasion. Most healthcare systems, January to December. That is the fiscal year. January, we get new budgets, we have done our budgets for the following year in October, that is when we started working on budgets and we put in those numbers. So when January of the new numbers come… I mean January of the new year comes out we are looking at our new budgets, we are looking at our new numbers, and all of a sudden, okay?
0:16:08.9 PW: All of a sudden you’re like, “Why am I not getting hired?” Let’s talk about when you should put in that resume. So this is what is going on in administration’s head. January, New budgets. We’re kind of just getting acclimated to the new year, we’re having all the first of the year meetings, we are reviewing our budget probably about three weeks after the third week into January. The third week into January, we are now, “Alright, let’s start hiring.” We start hiring, really putting out basically our jobs that we need, we start doing that third week-ish of January, and we kind of move through spring, alright, into summer, ’cause that’s kind of where we are now. Right? We’re going into summer. We’re still hiring. Things are still looking great. Alright, we are hitting the 1st of June. Keep in mind, June, July. What’s happening? What’s happening? Schools are out. Typically, folks are going on vacation, this is a weird year because it’s a little bit different, no one’s going anywhere, maybe… I don’t know, people are doing weird things.
0:17:31.9 PW: But on an average, normal year, June, July, we’re starting to go on vacation for the summer, so it kind of slows down. So if you are coming out of school in May, you have graduated, you have passed your exam in June, you’ve got your license and you are applying you should not expect an immediate phone call. Why? Because it’s the summer. People are going on vacation, and especially at those big systems, typically at those big systems, you have to have multiple interviews in order to get the job. When you have multiple interviews, that means you have multiple people that you have to get together.
0:18:16.3 PW: Trying to coordinate everybody together in the summer time when everybody’s trying to go on vacation in a normal year is very difficult. So it slows down. We do not call people as much. So note that, we don’t call people as much. Now, get past June and July, August, typically, school start happening again, people are getting back into their routine. Again, This is a weird year, okay? But school start happening again in August. In September, kind of in the northern states, everybody’s in school by September. We are hiring again. Everybody’s back at work, we are doing our thing. Right? So August, September, October, we are hiring. Come November, about November 1st, that kind of the first, second week of November, guess what starts to happen? We stop calling as much why? Vacation, that’s right. It is now the holidays, so about that second week of November, the holidays hit, okay. So should you expect a call when you are coming out of school in December and you have been putting in resumes since November?
0:19:34.2 PW: Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Think about what’s happening at the corporate level, you should not expect a call. So do not be shocked, again, eyes wide open, right? Do not be shocked again, when you don’t get that call. “Man, I put in my resume back in November. It’s now December 13th, and I still haven’t heard anything. Why is that?” It’s because everybody’s on holiday. Again trying to coordinate everybody, when you’ve got to go through multiple interviews is going to be difficult to do on the holidays. People take off a week for Thanksgiving and then people take off two and three weeks during December, it’s different. Okay?
0:20:17.9 PW: So on an average year, we’re not in an average year. On an average year, you were going to have lows about July, June and July, and you were going to have lows in November and December. And then it all starts over again. Then January rolls around, January first, second week, we are getting acclimated again, new budgets, new teams, that third week hits, we put out our job descriptions…
0:20:45.1 PW: Boom, and we’re hiring. So I say that to say, be mindful that when you guys graduate and by the time that you finish and study and pass your exams, you guys are in a low point, there’s no rush. So if you graduate and walk that stage… What is it like December 10th-ish? If you graduate walk that stage… Take the month, take the month and study. Take… ‘Cause now, with ANCC we can’t test prior to graduation. New nugget, right? We can’t test prior to graduation with ANCC, so that means everybody can just go through their last semester… Relax, relate, release. Go through that last semester, graduate have graduation December 10th, they’re not gonna confer your degree till later on in December, maybe even the 1st of January, go ahead, take your exam, by the time you take your exam and you pass, it’ll probably be about what? The third week of January? Boom, bang, boom. You get your license, you apply to your state after you pass, you get your license number, you are in the perfect spot to start applying to jobs. And then that’s when the clock starts. The clock starts there, and now you can expect three to six months in a normal year, we’re not in a normal year. So now let’s say we can expect six to nine months, okay?
0:22:19.9 PW: And you guys have got to hustle. Go back and look at that other video, if you have not, and when I talked about you guys standing out and doing all that, it is going to be of the utmost importance now. And if you are in Atlanta, it’s going to be of the utmost important now… Importance now, because you are competing with all of the other schools out there, ’cause the more dense your population is, the more competition you have. That’s just what happens. Okay?
0:22:54.6 PW: So keep in mind the school year. So for those of you who graduated in May, let’s talk about your timeframe. You graduated in May, your degree was conferred a couple of weeks later, let’s say… It was conferred June 1st. Okay? So we’re not even in June 1st yet. Your degree is conferred June 1st. You get your ATT to test. You have studied. You’re ready to test immediately, let’s say you do it. You pass. You do that and you pass. It is now, what? Mid to end of June? You’ve got… You apply for your license, it may take a week if from your state to get your license, take a week, get your license, start applying, start applying. Your clock starts when you start applying. Okay. Now, some of you will start applying before you get your actual license number, that’s fine, I don’t have a problem with it, as long as the employer is very clear that, “Yes, I did pass, I am in the process of getting my license, it really doesn’t matter.”
0:24:08.3 PW: Okay. So you can apply before you get your actual license. Perfectly fine, perfectly fine. With that being said, if you do that, that is when your clock starts, but then remember, you may… If you get the job, which is a good thing, if you get a job quickly, ’cause some of you will, remember, some of you will get jobs sooner than that six to nine months, keep in mind, now you’ve got to pass your exam. Now you have the pressure, you’ve got a job waiting on you, so you’ve got to pass your exam, and that’s fine. We’re gonna do it, we’re gonna pass. But your clock starts when you start applying, so it is completely completely up to you when you start that clock. However, I want you to understand, one, it’s going to take you longer. This is not an automatic phone call, again, nothing is wrong with you, nothing is wrong with the employer, you have just leveled up, that is all that has happened.
0:25:16.1 PW: You’ve just leveled up. You are now on that director level. Okay? When you become a provider, you have leveled up, so it’s not gonna be an automatic phone call, it’s going to take time. The normal person, the normal lay person, they… They don’t see anything wrong with it, they know it’s gonna take them three to six months to get a normal job. You are just not used to it. Get used to it. Okay? Get used to it. It is normal, you’re just not… You’ve never experienced this because you’ve been a nurse, and it’s not usually like that, but it’s normal, it’s going to take longer because of the weird world that we are in.
0:26:00.2 PW: So as things start to ramp back down, and keep in mind, I do believe that things will do kind of this motion in our society in the next couple of months, so right now we’re starting to ramp back up, right? But as you have people who are not returning work, you may see the economy go…
0:26:18.2 PW: Not necessarily because of the virus, but just the economy in general, ’cause people may not go back to work, right? Because if you have 30 million people off, the odds are that all 30 million going back to work, ’cause it’s probably not likely. So let’s just say that 15 million go back to work, you’re probably gonna see the economy do that, and that’s irrelevant of the virus. Right? That’s just basic Econ, Econ 101. So you’ll probably see the economy do this, people will start to freak out again, and people will probably start to kind of put a clamp on the jobs, that whole hiring situation that we talked about last time. Again, this is not a normal situation. Okay? We are in a different type of world now. Alright. So your job search is going to take you longer.
0:27:14.4 PW: If it has been longer than a year, and you have not found a position, one, re-evaluate where you are applying to. That’s first. Two, get your resume looked at and pay someone to write it, ’cause if you have not had an interview in a year, you have not gotten any bites at all, re-evaluate who you are applying to, and have some… And pay someone to write your resume. It does not cost $300 and $400 to have someone write your resume, so if you are doing that and you are paying that, it is unnecessary. Okay? Now. With that being said, once you do that, you have someone professionally look at your resume, also connect and use your connections. You guys have the social media of jobs, which is LinkedIn, you all know, you all can connect to people, right? Connect to people for free, and people will actually connect to you, “Hey, I’m just looking for a mentor, you’re in the industry that I wanna be in.”
0:28:26.8 PW: People like to talk to new people like that. Utilize it. I know it sounds scary, we’ll have a whole discussion on networking, it’s a necessary evil. I know it sounds scary and it doesn’t feel comfortable, but you’re gonna have to get used to it, ’cause again, you have leveled up, you are not an RN anymore, you are now a nurse practitioner, you have to search for jobs differently. Once you have some experience, it’s different, when you have experience, it’s different. You can go and you’ll probably get a job a little bit quicker than the person who doesn’t. ‘Cause that whole experience that I talked about, that’s typically for someone who’s looking for their first job, okay? But someone who has experience, once you have a little bit of experience, then you can kind of move on.
0:29:22.6 PW: We’re gonna talk about pay next time, but I’ll just leave you with this little nugget. I don’t even know how to say this. Your job that you choose, the first one is not forever. Can you all read between the lines of what I’m saying here? Okay? No one said that that first job that you choose, you’ve got to stay for forever, you can always accept a job and then keep looking, find another job and… Oh, I don’t know, three months. Sorry, this job isn’t working out. No one is telling you to stay forever, I don’t know where we get this thing that we’ve got to put ourselves at an inconvenience, I never have, and I never will. If I have found another job that works better for me and my family, I have moved on always with grace, always with kindness. But at the end of the day, if it doesn’t work for me and my family, whether that is financially… I’m not really into the financials these days I’m more about my time. So whether that’s financially or my time, then I’m going to move on, you guys, you guys you don’t… You can accept the first job, it’s okay. Okay?
0:30:39.9 PW: And we’re gonna talk about salary and all that kind of… Next time because it’s getting late and it’s… I gotta go eat. It’s husband and wife time. All the kids have gone to bed. So you all understand that. Right? Okay? But were we gonna talk about salary next time. But you guys, you can accept… I don’t know where we get this thing that old older nurse practitioners are like, you guys are driving down the salary. No, you’re not. There is more of us, therefore there is more supply, therefore the demand is less. It is absolutely normal supply and demand, again, basic Econ 101.
0:31:26.7 PW: But most nurse practitioners do not understand that because they don’t have that education on the back end… I mean on the front end, we get it on the back end, we typically go back and get that business, business side. So again, take a deep breath, take a deep breath. Three to six months is ideal in a normal average world, but in this weird COVID world, it’s probably gonna take you six to nine months, be patient with yourself, but keep applying though, you keep doing the work, re-evaluate who you are applying to and make sure your resume is written to stand out and so that you look good. Okay? We’ll talk about the actual application process, and like I said, pay, these are all nuggets that I all know that I’m sharing with you, we will talk about that process separately, but later. Okay?
0:32:27.5 PW: Alright. So kisses, love you guys. Share it with your friends. I know usually when I find out information I’m like, “I can’t tell anybody because then they’ll know the same thing that I know.” I don’t wanna tell anyone. No, I’m kidding. I do do that sometimes. But it’s okay. I won’t try to understand because it’s a different world, three to six months normal ideal world, this is normal to everybody else, just not normal to you. So I promise you, nothing is wrong with you. Okay? Nothing is wrong with you. You’re just now stepping into what everybody else steps into. Okay? Alright guys, it’s been great. We will do this again next week. I promise I will keep sharing them with you, I do not forget it just sometimes it gets a little late and the day runs away from me. Okay? Alright, go back and listen, if you haven’t listened to the beginning part, and I hope that you get all you need, talk to you guys later. Bye.