Managing New Graduate Expectations About Dream Jobs

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

The other day, I listened to a financial podcast interview with a mom who had questions about how to best financially guide her new graduate nurse daughter. Like many other new graduates, her student loan debt exceeded $50,000. Her mother said she should pay it down quickly because she had just found her “dream job” in a hospital. The term “dream job” brought to mind a discussion that I recently had with a nurse manager. We were talking about new graduate resignations while still in residency programs. She relayed the following story.

I hired eight new graduates for our ICU last spring. Three of them resigned in the first six months of their practice. I was especially taken back by one of the resignations because the nurse was smart and doing well in the unit. Out of the blue, she comes into my office and tells me that she is resigning. I think she could tell I was shocked, and I asked her why. Well, she said, this is not my dream job after all. The work is much harder than I expected and not as much fun. I can’t see myself being here very long, so I may as well leave now. What did you expect from this job that we have not given you – I asked her. She was unsure but said she needed to continue looking for her dream job.

I thought a great deal about this conversation with the critical care manager. It led me to reflect on my first nursing interview more than four decades ago. It was with a nursing director at the Miami VA Medical Center. The director made it clear to me that the work would be challenging. She told me I would learn how to be a team leader and organize care for up to 30 patients. Most of my team members would be LPNs and Nursing Assistants who were decades older than me. She advised me that I needed to prove that I was a leader worth following. My schedule would be 8-hour dayshift tours with rotations to both evenings and nights. I was guaranteed one weekend off a month – no more than that. Schedules were posted six weeks in advance, and I should not plan to ask for any changes. The unit was 60 beds, and we had 20 medical interns and residents assigned to manage the patients. They write orders all day long, she told me. Suddenly, she shifted the conversation to what I would enjoy about the job. You will love working with the veterans, she told me, and you will love your head nurse – she is the best we have in this hospital.

I left the interview thinking she certainly did not try to sell me on the job (more like trying to scare me away), but I still took it. She was right about everything. The work was hard, and the unit was sometimes very chaotic. Rotating shifts were difficult. But she was especially right about the veteran patients (I loved them from the start) and my head nurse (every new nurse should be as lucky as I was). There was no buyer’s remorse – the director had managed my expectations about the job almost to the point of being brutally honest.

I am not necessarily recommending this approach, but I think there is something to be said for level setting expectations during the interview. This may be especially true for Generation Z nurses who sometimes use the Instagram perfect lens to look at their situation. Workforce researchers point out that many Gen Zers never worked in high school or college so their first professional job may be their first job. The situation has become even more complicated with COVID when so much nursing education has happened remotely. Chris Tuff, the author of the Millennial Whisperer, recommends that leaders talk about the reality that in every job, there will be 70% of the work you love and 30% of the work that you won’t. This reduces the expectation of the “perfect dream job.” Some additional topics that I advise managers to discuss during the interview include the following:

The timeline for full professional socialization is one year, and all new graduates experience reality shock, so expect it.
The experience of the nursing workforce during COVID – grace, and gratitude will go a long way when working with others right now.
Nursing work is the hardest work you will ever love, but working 12 hours is hard, especially first.
Expect professional feedback about what you should start doing, stop doing, and continue doing – this is how you will grow.
The process for scheduling and time-off requests.
Current staffing challenges on the unit and what you are doing about them.
If you have travelers on your unit – provide a perspective about travel assignments.
What to expect regarding career development coaching and opportunities.
Staff wellbeing programs – areas new graduates should think about with their resilience and wellbeing.
Sometimes we may find a specialty we choose is not a good fit with our strengths – what to do if that happens.

You can probably think of many more to add to the list. The point is that the more transparent we can be at the beginning, the less disillusioned a new graduate might become when things get hard (which they will). Managing expectations can be an essential way to promote resilience and reduce disappointment.

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