Perhaps one of your greatest achievements was receiving your license. But as the years go by, you may be questioning your current position. You are not alone. For nurses specifically, a 2017 survey showed that almost half of nurses are ready to make a shift in their careers. However, searching for a new position can feel isolating, scary and overwhelming.

Job seekers often spend hours upon hours searching for job opportunities, tweaking their resumes and applying to job openings without any outside feedback. What you may not realize is, you don't have to go through this process alone. Instead, work with a staffing agency to help guide you through the process, prepare for interviews and land your dream job.

Should You Work with an Agency?

When looking for a new position, you want the job search process to be as painless as possible. Perhaps you’ve questioned whether or not you should work with a recruiter. If you fit into one or more of these categories, working with an agency is the best way to go:

• Those who work in a field with a shortage of talent where there are more open positions than qualified professionals to fill them. This is apparent in nursing in many cities.
• Those who have a significant amount of experience or are specialists in their profession. Working with an agency can help you negotiate better offers due to your expertise and in-demand skill sets.
• Those who work for a company or organization known for having top talent.
• Those who have experience in leadership positions. Many times, organizations will turn to agencies or recruiters to hire top-level managers and executives.

The Benefits of Working with An Agency

When looking to make a career change, working with an agency to find your next position can save you time and frustration by helping you improve your resume, get it in front of the right people, negotiate the best offer, and ultimately make your dream job a reality.

For example, if you apply for a job on a hospital or facility website, you will just be another number, and your resume will get pushed to the side if the employer notices a small misstep or mistake. With an agency, you will have an advocate-- someone to help you with resume tweaking, highlighting your essential qualities, and to be in your corner through the whole process.

Agency representatives can counsel you to highlight your specific and in-demand skills because they have a lot of experience in the industry. They can formulate a tactical strategy to land you the new nursing job of your dreams. Agencies know the market through and through and know which specialties are hot, and can evaluate benefits against other facilities.

An agency will help you:

• Give you access to jobs never advertised online
• Oftentimes, staffing agencies have exclusive access to job postings that you won’t find through traditional job searches. Working with an agency not only expands the possibility of employment opportunities but it also saves you time and energy. Instead of sifting through mediocre job postings, an agency will present you with the top employment opportunities for your skill set and desires, ultimately giving you extra time to prepare for your interviews.
• Work with industry experts
• Recruiters at top agencies are a great resource during a career change as they typically have in-depth knowledge about your specific industry as well as the job market in general. An agency will help you take advantage of your unique skill set by connecting you with the right organizations hiring for your niche position and help you understand the going rate for your skills. Without the help of this critical connection, you could end up regretting your career decision by settling for the wrong company or a weak offer.
• Showcase the skills on your resume
• Placement agencies have seen thousands of industry-specific resume samples. Using this experience, plus understanding each potential employer's specific challenges will not only help the agency prepare the perfect resume for you, but it will also help you apply to the most optimum positions to facilitate your career change.
• Prepare for your interview
• A staffing agency can help healthcare candidates prepare for their interviews by rehearsing standard interview questions and reviewing the way candidates present their skills and experience. They can help you discuss situations where you applied your skills, put challenges you met into a positive light, and share specific patient scenarios or complicated cases that had positive outcomes.
• Provide detailed insight into potential employers
• Agencies typically have unique insight into potential employers that job seekers would not be able to get on their own. Since agencies work regularly with the same organization and even the same hiring managers, they know what they tend to look for in their employees regarding personality, skill sets, etc. Likewise, agency recruiters have an in-depth understanding of the organization's culture and work environment. This unique insight is mutually beneficial for both the job seekers and organization to ensure the best chance of success and good job fit for a long, solid employment relationship.
• Improve based on post-interview feedback
• One of the most frustrating components during job searching is the lack of feedback from employers after you are turned down from a position. However, recruiters often receive key insight from employers as to why you weren't the right fit, which can help you improve your search and interview skills moving forward.
• Help negotiate your job offering
• An agency can help you negotiate the right salary and benefits for your perfect career change. It is important to remember that much of your satisfaction from your position will come, not from an increase in salary, but from other factors you can negotiate. Ultimately your job satisfaction is more important than the particulars of the job offer, but working with an agency can help you negotiate effectively and get the offer you deserve.

Are You Ready for a Career Change?

Our recruiters are healthcare employment experts and are professional career matchmakers who are happy to share any inside scoops with you. So, let General Healthcare Resources help you get started on your career change. Contact us today!