Hello beautiful nurses. Welcome back to the High-Performance Nursing Podcast. I hope you are well. It

is a dreary, cold, wet day here in Sydney when I'm recording this podcast. And as a little shook this

morning when I went outside from 26 degrees earlier this week to 12 today. So, you know, I know there's

no sympathy from all of you that live in Tasmania and Victoria, but oh my goodness, it is cold and I've

gotten soft in moving to Australia. It has been a hot minute since I've been here. I've had a few weeks off

of the podcast. Not intentionally, I have just life has just been busy and busy in all the good ways. And I

will tell you more about that another time on the podcast. But today I wanted to talk about what to do

when you don't land your graduate nursing program. I've covered this topic before, but it seems topical

and timely to talk about it again today. Now, whether you're a grad or not, you will learn something in

this episode because there are many lessons in here that you can take, whether you're grounded, whether

you're an early career nurse, a mid-career, or a nurse that's making a pivot in your career. So make sure

you stick around. So the first things first, I've had lots of messages from people that are not landing their

graduate programs in particular this year. It has been very competitive. There have been major cuts to

graduate programs across the country published in the news in the media. So first of all, I want you to

acknowledge that regardless of the outcome, whether you have landed or you haven't landed, your

graduate nursing role or your dream first preference for you've done incredible to get to this point. And

no one and nothing and no arbitrary email from a graduate panel who have never met you before can

determine your future success. I want you to hear that out loud and clear. What the the results that you

have achieved up until this point do not dictate your future success. Now, many of you have been

messaging me and saying, Liam, what do I do? Where do I go? I did not get my first preference. Well, I

did not land a grant. So here are a couple of things that I would be doing if I was you. Now there are 2 to

3 reasons as to why you have not landed your dream graduate nursing role. And I want to make it crystal

clear it is not because you are incapable. It is not because you are unworthy. And it's not because the

panel did not see what value you have to offer. Quite the contrary, actually. Panels, when they're looking

at mass applications and reviewing mass interview responses. They're looking at a couple of different

things, okay? They're looking at your application and they're looking at how much what you put into it.

They're looking at the content. Is it aligned to the organization? Have you tailored a specifically to the

organization's vision and values, or have you sprayed and prayed they're looking at have you very clearly

sold them on why you are the perfect fit for the organization? And they're looking at the value ads that

you have to offer. They're not questioning whether you're valuable. They're questioning whether you've

been able to demonstrate your value to the panel. There is a difference, and it's very, very important to

differentiate that difference. So as they're working through your application, remember they only have

7.4 seconds to make an impression. That's all you have. And so they are sitting with bated breath like

almost waiting for you to be the best application when they open your file on their desktop, or they print

it out and review it. And if you've not made an impression and showed them how valuable you are,

because you are all very valuable to the health system and just infinitely valuable to just being on this

earth, then they are going to move on to the next application. It might sound cutthroat, it might sound

horrific, and it is because guess what? Managers are time poor, and they do not have the time and

resources to spend their hours sifting through hundreds of applicants. And being accommodating. They

just don't have the time. So don't take it personally. Okay? Now as they're moving through your

application, they're looking at professional career summary. They're looking at your CV as a

professionally branded. And what I mean by that is does it stand out? Does it look like everybody else's

template or have you got a little creative. Have you got a little bit, detailed in your application and gone

above and beyond what most people just do, but just download the template and never change it, never

tweak it, and submit bare minimum knowledge and information in that resume. How have you leveraged

and been very clear about your transferable skills? Have you shown them in your education section what

you've positively engaged in in an undergraduate space and also extracurricular outside of nursing? Have

you met all of their key criteria? Have you identified in your undergraduate placements, your growth?

Have you clearly shown them the value of how much you have grown in the last three years? There

should be a very clear trajectory from your first placement to your most recent placement in your résumé

to show the panel what you have achieved, and it should be crystal clear when they look at your third

year placement, that you are at the place where you're meant to be, that you are operating and living and

breathing and acting like a third year. Final students final year final placement student. And if that's not

apparent to them, that's not going to sell you very well. That's not going to show them that you're very

valuable. Okay. Now, as you move down your résumé, other things that they're looking for are things

like, have you demonstrated or do you have experience in healthcare, or do you have transferable skills

and knowledge from other industries that you can clearly articulate and transfer over to nursing, and have

you shown them that? Don't make the panel work hard. The panel do not need to work hard. They are in

a position of power, unfortunately, so they are deciding as to whether or not you move forward. So you

want to present your previous lived experiences, whether that's in an Ein role or using or Uruzgan, or

whether you were a creative fashion designer or whether you are a IT guru. You've got to show them

why those skills are transferable, especially those of you that are second career nurses. And then as you

move down your resume, you're looking at things like your references. Did you make it really easy for

them to contact your references, or did you not list references? Did you make them contact you? If you

make them contact you, they probably won't because they're busy. And there are other people that have

included the references on the résumé. Did you include a massive section that outlined all of these skills

that you have that are relevant to nursing? Or maybe the relevant, but they just do add a lot of value. Did

you list three pages of e-learning modules that they had to cipher through that they're not interested in

looking at? Did you put page numbers on your résumé? Did you put your name on every page? Just

treating it like it's a patient document. These are all really essential things that the panel are looking for

when they're reviewing your application. So they're looking at the aesthetic. They're deciding whether or

not they want to read it based on how it looks aesthetically, because we're humans with the human brain,

and that's what we do. And then they dive into the content, and they want to see that the content is selling

them. On why you're the best fit. You want to make it so easy for them to pick you. Now, if you have not

got through to the interview rounds, this is one of the reasons why you have not got through. It's not

because you're not good enough. It's not because you're not capable. It's not because they don't want you.

It's not because they don't want to hire graduate nurses. Insert here whatever story your brain is offering

you. It is because your application did not sell and communicate the immense value that you have to

offer. Okay, and what's really great about that. Whilst it sucks because you don't have interviews, you

don't have offers. What's great about that is you get to level up your application, you get to work on your

application. It's easily fixable. You know when you know better, you do better. When you know how you

can adapt, tailor and transform that document so that you start landing interviews. This is what I help

people do. Literally, people come to me and say, I'm just not giving interviews. I've applied to over 100

jobs and I'm not getting interviews. Well, what do you think is a problem? And they think they're the

problem, right? Because our brain always wants to make it mean something about us. But guess what?

Sometimes it's not about you, sometimes it's about the document, and it's about the CV, and it's about the

cover and the selection criteria. And it's about tailoring that and getting so good at writing about yourself

that makes a panel. It makes the panel's job so much easier when you know how to write about yourself

and sell yourself in a non sleazy way on paper, without inflating and being overly confident and overly

cocky and all of the things that you're worried about when we do it in that beautiful, sweet spot. That's

when the interviews start coming through. That's when you start getting noticed. That's when you become

visible to the panel. So we want to almost create like a sexy, irresistible CV cover letter selection criteria

that sells and communicate your skill set. If you have not got to the interview stages, that is what's

holding you back. Good news, you can solve for that. Now the second thing, the second reason why

you're not getting a graduate offer or you haven't been offered to graduate program is because of your

interview. Okay? And again, it's not because you can't interview. It's not because you're not good at

interviews. It's because you haven't developed the skill of interviewing yet. Much like our applications

interviews are again, the panel have specific things are looking for, and they're looking for you to show

them and to make their job so easy. I want you to think about the panel being like the voice panel, you

know, the TV show The Voice. And when you think about that, when somebody walks out on the stage

at The Voice, everybody, the panel want them to be incredible. They're not sitting there thinking, I hope

this person can't sing. They're sitting there thinking, oh my goodness, how do we we want the next best

thing. I want to hear the tone, the voice, the range. You can tell that I love singing, I love music, but that's

what they're looking for. Like in the panel you're nursing interview panel are the same. It's less. Sexy. I

guess it's less interesting. It's not. It does not look like the voice. I don't want to go to the interview, but I

want you to think about it through that lens. They mean well and they want you to succeed. They are

waiting for you to show up and deliver. So when we show up and we don't deliver, we make their

decision easy in the wrong way. We make it easy for them to say no to us. And honestly, having sat on

interview panels sometimes that decisions made within the first five to 10s I don't say that to put pressure

on you. I say that for you to be motivated to develop the skill of interviewing, it is a lifelong, valuable

skill that so many people just wing and think that they can just go to an interview ill prepared for 60 to

70,000 plus a year pay rise, and think they will just be handed it because we're in a nursing shortage. It's

just not how it works in this day and age. And given the current climate and the shortages of jobs in the

graduate space, we're seeing more and more people are missing out and they're having to find alternative

pathways. So interview is the second reason. Interviews. The second reason as to why you have not

succeeded. And this is great news, my friend, because it means your application got you to the interview.

So that means your application is selling communicating your skill set. So there's a disconnect between

how you write and how you speak. And again that can be learned. You can teach yourself. You can learn

from someone like myself. You can listen to all of our podcast episodes and learn how to improve, how

to answer and how to respond and how to lead yourself in a nursing interview. So that's the second thing.

In the third thing is a bit of an amalgamation, right? It can be broken down into your mindset. Okay. The

stories that you tell yourself about whether or not you're going to be successful because what you tell

yourself becomes your reality. Have you noticed that what you think, what you perceive, what you repeat

to yourself, becomes the reality that you're faced with? And that's very important to remember. So if

you've spent the last six months telling yourself, I'm terrible at applications, I'm not very good at cover

letters. I don't know how to do selection criteria. Interviews terrify me. I'm so scared. I'm so anxious, I'm

so worried. And you go to the interview and you tell yourself you did a terrible job. You'll be lucky to

land a nursing job because the reality you've created, The story that's been driving all of your actions is a

story of disempowerment. It's a story of I'm not good enough. I'm not capable. I'm not valuable enough.

I'm not worthy enough to land the job of my dreams. And I've told you at the start of this episode, you are

valuable enough. And you do know and you have all of the things. So there's just a disconnect between

your thinking and how you show up. And again, the beautiful thing about this is it's your responsibility.

You can change this. You can step into your power. You can lean into believing in yourself. You can

learn to rewrite those stories. If you are somebody. I joke about this all the time. If you're somebody

that's under 25, your brain is neuroplasticity and you have the ability to change your thinking, to change

your actions and behaviors so fast because your brain is still developing. Right. We know this from the

neuroscience literature. If you're somebody that's over 25, your brain can still do all of those things. I fit

into that category, but you are. It's going to just take more time. It's going to take more repetitions. So

don't give up on yourself. Right. Because, you know, we can all learn to grow and develop and rewrite

the stories that we tell ourselves. Many of you have done that already. Many of you told yourself you

would never be a nurse and yet you're here. And we forget how far we've come, and we forget that we

used to tell myself that story every single day. And now we tell ourselves a story that we can't get the

dream job. Well, let's change that story. We can't get the dream job yet. Or I haven't got the dream job

yet. Because the only way that you fail is if you stop trying. The only way you fail is if you quit. And if

you give up. And we're not quitters around here. If you listen to this podcast, you follow me. We don't

quit or nothing. We might take a break like I've taken for the last two weeks. But we do not quit, my

friends. Okay, so the first part of that, the third thing is mindset. How can you lean into believing in

yourself more? How is it serving you to tell yourself that you're not going to be successful? How is it

serving you to tell yourself that your peers that got the job versus you, that they're better than you? How

is that serving you? It's making you feel like crap, and it's not a good place for you to be my friends. It's

not essential. That's not where success is born, okay? We're in a period of discomfort and we get to

navigate through that and we get to work on the things that maybe we have neglected. Maybe we took for

granted. Totally fine. Everybody does that. Or maybe we've just been unlucky. And that brings me to the

other part of the third. The third reason as to why you've not landed grand. And it's just the system,

period. Full stop, this system. There are so many variables and factors as to why you might not have got a

graduate nursing role, and why make it. Why make that reason? You just think about it. There are so

many other things. Personal bias, right? Maybe they had people already predetermined. Maybe they had

internal candidates that already applied, that we use interests. Maybe they just didn't have enough places.

Maybe on the day the panel members were just like really pissed because they had a bad morning. They

had a cardiac arrest before they had to come in and do a day of interviewing. And like, unfortunately,

they just weren't vibing on that day. Like, there are so many variables. Maybe you introduced bias in

your application because they looked at your name, or they looked at your visa status, or they looked at

your age. We don't know and we will never know, and you will never get that feedback from anybody.

So we don't spend any time there. This is where many of you that are stuck right now that I've kind of

gone into this state of, fear, worry and anxiety, which makes total sense, by the way. You know,

absolutely no shame about that. But many of you are spending so much time here and you're so worried

and you're stressing and you're trying to throw applications out there that are not aligned, that are not

adaptive, they're not tailored, they're not professionally grounded. And you're hearing crickets. But on top

of that, you're telling yourself you're not good enough, you're not capable, you're never going to be

successful. That's optional. Okay, I've told you the three reasons why, and none of them include you not

being good enough. Okay, so scrap that from your brain. Let's erase that. Let's leverage the beautiful

power of neuroplasticity and wipe that out from your brain. It has no no place here because we just keep

going. We keep moving forwards. We keep giving ourselves opportunities. We create opportunities for

high performance nurses. That is what we do. So those are the three reasons why your application needs

tailored, it needs improved, your interview needs improved. And we need to upskill there. Right. So just

think about it like cannulation like when you first start, you know, very good at it. If you haven't done it a

lot, then it's unreasonable for you to think that you'd be good at it, right? That's why we have imposter

syndrome. So if you go into an interview feeling imposter syndrome, well, yeah, because you haven't

done it before. But then add on top of that, you haven't done it before and you haven't prepared and you

haven't skilled yourself in that area. And you do understand how interviews work. You will you will get a

surprise and you will not get the job that you're looking for. Okay, that's the process. We've got to play

the game. I learned this lesson the hard way multiple times during interviews, and that's why I'm so

passionate about sharing it with you. Because we don't need you don't need to go through that. I've gone

through it. Let me save you from going through that. I tell the story all the time. I moved to Australia

and, I took for granted that I can speak English. Now, many of you might actually think, can you believe

me? Sometimes I struggle to get my words out. But I went for my English exam, for my visa and see

words of heart. And when I went to my English exam for my visa, I just assumed that I didn't need to

prepare. Now I paid like $350 for this. I waited like weeks for it. My visa was dependent on it, and

because of my age and a couple of other factors at that point in time, kind of like your GPA and all of the

other things that you put in your application. I needed to get like an eight across the board in reading,

writing, speaking and listening. And I thought, really, how hard can this be? I've got a I've got a degree,

you know, I've studied English more like it's my first language. this is going to be absolutely fine. And I

did not get prepared. And I went in there and I just was winging it. And a very quickly realized in the

actual assessment that there is a strategy to this and that there is a it's a game, right? You have to jump

through the hoops and you have to tick all the boxes, whether it's right or wrong, whether you like to do

that or not, you have to you have to tick all the boxes. And so the first time when I went through it, I

failed. I did not get the eights across the board. In fact, I got like 6.5. And I thought to myself the story

immediately was, oh my God, I can't speak English. Like I was saying to my partner, can I not speak

English? What's going on here? And I am Scottish. So for all of you that are laughing and joking, yes, I

know I am technically not English. but that was a real wake up for me. I was like, don't assume that you

know, especially when it costs you money. And for many of you, you fail to acknowledge that this not

only cost you money, cost you time. Like we're talking three years you've worked hard for three years,

you've given over a thousand of your hours for free, and you're willing. You're willing to sacrifice that

you're willing to sabotage your own success. I'm getting a little bit hard here, but I just want you to hear

it, because this is the motivation you need. You're willing to sabotage your own success by thinking you

don't need to prepare for a job interview. That is the catalyst for your career. This is the thing that propels

you into your nursing career. This is the mechanism, the vehicle in which you make 65 to 70,000 base

salary a year. I know some of you will come for me. You'll say not not at four days a week. It's nuance.

You know what I'm talking about. That is a baseline salary for a full time equivalent. If you work less

than a full time equivalent, that's your choice. Or that's a grad program's choice. But that is what you are

giving up. That is what you're putting on the line. Now. For me, it was a visa to live in this country,

which I loved, you know? And I thought to myself, oh my goodness, I have to get to work. So I went and

took the courses. I had to pay another $350. You better believe I was stressing about that exam. And I

went in and I learned how to do topic sentences and all of the things that I was taught at school. But I just

took for granted. And I learned how to do the reading, the writing, the listening, and how to play the

speaking. Like the speaking. I thought, oh my God, this is going to be easy. And it was, but they were

looking for particular things. And the interview panel are looking for the same. So I say all of that. I

share that story with you, because if you're somebody that thinks I'll be fine, especially if you're

somebody that's never done a clinical interview before your second career nurse. So your coming second,

third, fourth career nurse, you've never done a clinical interview before, or English is your second

language, and you're going into an interview in Australia for the first time. Equip yourself with the tools

and the skills future. You will be so grateful when you land that interview and you get the job that you

put in the time. And I guess what's great about this, so many of you think it's a waste of time. It's only a

waste of time if you don't get the result right, like, and you're going to be spending the time anyway, you

may as well just do the work. And when you learn how to interview and when you learn how to do your

applications, once you've got that life skill no one's taking away from you. You have that for eternity, and

you can rinse and repeat. And that's where people become successful. That's where in their first year they

then apply for the transition and they get their dream transition because they've invested in learning the

skill of applications and interviews, which no one teaches us. And on top of that, the mindset and

learning how to believe in yourself. It's so important as you're coming into the nursing world to learn the

skill of believing in yourself. That is a skill set. It's not woowoo. It's not overconfidence. Too many of

you suffer from tall poppy syndrome in this country. We all do. And we just want to play small. We just

want to sit in our lane. We just want to, you know, coast and just like, kind of be visible but not visible.

But the reality is going to an application and interview process, we want you to be visible. We want you

to be the person that stands out for all the right reasons in a confident way. That is not cocky. There is a

difference. We want you to embody the self empowerment and the self leadership and the self-confidence

that a panel is looking for. They are looking for the easiest hire. My friends. Do not be fooled. They're

looking for the person that ticks all the boxes. That makes their life much easier because they are busting

their ass, working real hard as leaders and managers to lead a team of 20, 30, 40, 50 people with budgets

of 4 to 5 million just per word. So give yourself permission to think about it through that lens. It's such a

great opportunity for you moving forward. And these are the three things that you can solve for. And

they're very easily solvable. Solvable. You don't have to go and do a post-grad. You don't have to go and

do an assign course. You don't have to go and do insert here any course. You have to equip yourself with

the tools and the skills to be able to apply, interview and land that job. And once you have those tools,

you'll be able to do it for the rest of your career. So there are the three things that I want you to focus in

on, and I want you to message me. I want you to tell me if you haven't landed your guide, send me a

message. Let's have a voice note chant on Instagram. At high performance nursing. There is no shame in

not landing a grant for the reasons that I've just mentioned there. Because it's not about you. It's not about

you. Period. It's about the process. It's about the skill of applying, interviewing and believing and

convincing and selling. What so many people fail to acknowledge is that trying to land a new nursing job

is about sales. You're effectively selling yourself to the panel. So unless you've worked in sales your

whole life and you've moved into nursing, you probably find it a pretty unpleasant experience. And on

top of that, nursing graduate nursing processes at this level of your career being very, impersonal was the

word that was used a lot this year. you know, it just starts and it just compounds. So then you're just

speaking to a screen, or you're just speaking to somebody that you're never actually going to work with.

There are so many layers that make it more complex. So why not gift yourself the tools and the skills to

be able to navigate applying, interviewing, and landing your first graduate nursing role? And for those of

you that are here and thinking, well, where to from here, what do I do? Okay. There's a really clear, easy

path trajectory moving forward. First of all, you're going to gather some feedback and you're going to ask

for feedback. And hopefully you get it. If you don't get it, you're going to use your critical thinking.

You're amazing critical thinking skills that you've been developing for three years, and you're going to be

really honest with yourself and you're going to look at your CV, you're going to look at your application,

you're going to reflect back, and you're going to see how far you got. And I taught you today that if you

did not get an interview, your applications, the problem, if you've got an interview but you didn't get the

job, your interviews most likely the problem. That's as simple as it needs to be. No more mind drama, no

more brain drama, no more self-sabotage, no more stories about not being good enough and successful.

Those are the two reasons that I want you to think about. So when you're critically thinking about that,

okay, it was my application. I did not get an interview. How can I uplevel my application? Now, if you're

not already in my nurse growth hub, it is completely free there. It breaks my brain that people aren't on

that page, and because they have to give me an email address that they don't give me an email address

and then they do not line the ground like the price to entry is so low. It's your email address. Give

yourself permission because I send you lots of value and lots of more resources that you can use and

leverage to go and download that free nursing growth hub in their CV template, CV guide, cover letter,

selection criteria, interview notes, interview notes, template, all these downloadable and I've curated all

of the podcast episodes in there for you to be able to go in, and instead of ciphering through 180

episodes, you can go straight to the Graduate nursing episodes and playlist and binge binge everything.

So many people have landed the grad from just bingeing my podcast, which is phenomenal. Amazing. So

that's what you're going to do. You're going to go to the show notes, and you're going to get yourself into

that nice growth hub so that you can get all of the things that you need. Okay. And if you're somebody

that wants more of a 1 to 1 VIP where you work together and I work with you until you land your

graduate nursing role outside of a graduate program, then come and have a chat to me at Instagram High-

Performance nursing. Send me a DM or email me at hello, hello, that's hello! I always feel like you say

hello. Funny hello at Liam. Welcome. So that's Liam Cass. Welcome. Do not sit and wait for an

opportunity. Do not hope and pray that people are coming. If you've been merit listed, come and have a

chat to me. There might be a way to get you off the merit list. there are strategies that we can employ.

Okay, but I can't help you if you do come and have a chat to me. So that is it, my friend for today. If you

did not know undergrads. You're amazing. You're totally capable. There's nothing wrong with you. You

have not wasted the last three years. This is the first of many hurdles that a nursing career will throw at

you. And how you respond in this moment is completely your choice and will determine your success

moving forward. I've given you two ways today that you can get the support that you need. One is free

and one is paid. if you are somebody that wants and you just like to get the results and you need to start

paying off that student debt, and you need to start making money, and you want to work with me one on

one so that I can help you navigate not landing a grad help you apply, interview and land your first

graduate nursing role. Guaranteed. I work with you until you land that job. Send me a message and come

ready to invest in yourself. Come ready to take the action you need to take. Not one person who has

come to me and invested in my programs does not get the results. 100% results I work with you until you

land your job. It is completely risk free, and it's also tax deductible because it's related to your career,

which is fabulous. So, come and follow me and connect with me at High Performance Nursing. If you

know a friend or a colleague or an international nurse that in your cohort or a second career nurse that is

stressing about not getting a job, send them this podcast episode. Share the love. Hopefully they get a

little bit of motivation from this. And if you're listening, thank you for listening. And it's this is the

beginning, okay? It's not the end. It's the beginning. And we can move forward from here and make it

happen. We need you in the system. I know it doesn't feel like it. We will make it happen together.

Connect with me at High-Performance nursing. Until next week. I will be more regular, I promise. I just

needed a little break and I will tell you more about that as I move forward. But, stay safe. Stay forever.

Curious. I love your work. You are amazing. You're incredible, and we need you in the system. I will

chat to you next week. Look after yourself, get yourself in the nurse. Scroll up. The links are in the show

notes.