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Old 05-22-2013, 10:56 PM   #16  
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Scarlett is right on the mark!! I'm an RN and you should really listen to what Scarlett is saying.

Saying that CNA isn't for you, just sounds like you have no intention of ever actually going near a patient. This will make you out of touch with what you intend to manage someday. Let me say you will get passed over for the application with the person that was willing to get their feet wet at the bottom. Scarlett is also right about the job market, and you and probably a dozen more new grads that want to walk right into a high paying job without doing any hard work (CNA, kitchen whatever) will not compete with the person that took that $8-10 dollar an hour job to get their foot in the door with a large corperation. You need to start building networks, and that's how to do it.
Please if you take one thing from my post, its never utter those workds out loud to anyone: "CNA really isnt my thing"! Good lord woman you are going in to be in administration where the very foundation of healthcare is the hands on. That kind of statement will get you a poor reputation, quickly. They would rather hire the CNA or nurse that went back to school for administration, than the girl that doesn't want to do anything that is beneath her. I'm not saying that's what you meant, but that is how is sounds and how it will be taken in the field.

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Old 05-23-2013, 01:16 AM   #17  
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T I know this may sound silly, but my goal was to find a job that would pay upper 40's-50k/year out of college with a Bachelors and hopefully make more with a Masters. Is that too unrealistic? LOL.
This is REALLY ambitious.

I have my Master's in Healthcare Admin. My first job after I had my Master's, I made around $40k and that was with experience. I now make good money, but that's with 15+ years experience. I work at a Med School, and for me to continue to advance I MUST have my Master's.

What do you want to do? In what I'm seeing in the healthcare admin (non-clinical) world, a Master's is almost necessary to continue to advance. Consider an MBA with healthcare subspecialty. That way, you can be employable outside of healthcare.

As far as taking time off, I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea. I took a year off after my Bachelor's to decide what I REALLY wanted to do, and fell into healthcare administration.
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Old 05-23-2013, 01:26 AM   #18  
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Scarlett is right on the mark!! I'm an RN and you should really listen to what Scarlett is saying.

Saying that CNA isn't for you, just sounds like you have no intention of ever actually going near a patient. This will make you out of touch with what you intend to manage someday. Let me say you will get passed over for the application with the person that was willing to get their feet wet at the bottom. Scarlett is also right about the job market, and you and probably a dozen more new grads that want to walk right into a high paying job without doing any hard work (CNA, kitchen whatever) will not compete with the person that took that $8-10 dollar an hour job to get their foot in the door with a large corperation. You need to start building networks, and that's how to do it.
Please if you take one thing from my post, its never utter those workds out loud to anyone: "CNA really isnt my thing"! Good lord woman you are going in to be in administration where the very foundation of healthcare is the hands on. That kind of statement will get you a poor reputation, quickly. They would rather hire the CNA or nurse that went back to school for administration, than the girl that doesn't want to do anything that is beneath her. I'm not saying that's what you meant, but that is how is sounds and how it will be taken in the field.
Wow! I have flashbacks! After I got my Bachelors in Dietetics, I worked in a hospital as a cook making $7/hr! After about 6 months of that, I decided it was time to get my Master's. I worked my way through my Master's degree with the majority of time as a food service supervisor in a Psych hospital. I learned so much during that time. It definitely made me more compassionate towards patients even though in my current position I have little interaction with patients.

I do think that a Master's is necessary for advancement in the administrative portion of healthcare. I see it daily. I don't necessarily agree, but it's become the way things are.
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Old 05-23-2013, 04:09 AM   #19  
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Thank you! Being a CNA isn't really my thing so I'll keep on looking! I have a mentor who's an administrator for a pretty well-known nursing home facility, do you think it's rude to ask her for employment opportunities? I just don't want to push my luck - I'm lucky she even agreed to be my mentor! And that's also one of the reasons why I think I'm just gonna push for my Masters - I feel like more doors will open for me. Do you have any other advice for people with this degree? I know I have to work my way up, but I'm afraid of getting stuck in the same position. I know this may sound silly, but my goal was to find a job that would pay upper 40's-50k/year out of college with a Bachelors and hopefully make more with a Masters. Is that too unrealistic? LOL.
Well I don't know about healthcare but I'll say the areas where you'd make $40-$50k+ out of college would probably be computer/engineering related. There has also been studies showing that Masters don't provide more income for most fields. If your goal is a masters purely for money, then skip it for now. And again, there are fields that a Masters will actually hurt you career wise if you have no relevant experience.
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Old 05-23-2013, 11:46 AM   #20  
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You need a master's degree to do a lot these days. Many positions in a variety of fields are starting to require them. A lot of jobs that never used to require a master's degree now do. You REALLY REALLY should plan on completing one.

I know this is tough to hear but unfortunately this is the world we live in. It takes spending most of your 20s going to grad school or paying your dues in underemployment to get anything resembling a decent job. I could tell stories, I know a lot of people in a variety of fields that had to so this. The hard work is worth it though. Maybe 5-10 years ago you could realistically land an entry level position right out of college, but not now. I remember going to college in 2006 and being jealous of friends that would get flown out to interview for positons in San Francisco, NYC ect and have the company pay for their hotel and everything. That pretty much doesn’t happen anymore.

I had similar expectations right out of college. I had 2 degrees from an upper tier public university. I thought I would at least be able to land something in the $30,000 - $35,000 range….nope. I interviewed for all these positions that I didn’t know I had no chance at. It was 7-8 months of serious looking and the rejection was unbearable, I wanted it so badly. At least now you will at know what to realistically expect post graduation. If you get REALLY lucky you may land a very low tier office position in a large hospital in the $10-12 range, but that would take some serious serious luck.

I still stand by the idea that being a CNA is the fastest realistic path to where you want to go. At our facility CNAs start around $15 an hour which is a lot more than you will make doing anything else. There are very few college grads making that kind of money right out. You’ll get min wage in the kitchen and $8.50-$9 an hour doing anything else. There are several college graduates working these positions in my facility. CNAs also have the most flexible hours. You could easily work 2 days a week and choose the days you want. If you completed a master’s degree while working 2 days a week as a CNA you would be in great shape to land the job you want. This would also provide more interaction with the administration than hiding in the kitchen or other positions.

It’s not all changing diapers and taking people to the bathroom. Several residents can toilet themselves or just need help being put on the toilet (and can do everything else themselves). You’ll get over the ickyness quickly. You also get to put them to bed, help with their meals and take them down to activities. It is very rewarding work. Being an aide that the residents and staff like would go a lot farther towards getting what you want than working other jobs in the facility. It would also pay the most. If you did this 2 days a week while taking out stafford loans to complete a master’s degree you would be in great shape to land a full benefits management position at age 24-25 which is VERY good in this economy. I wont have the job I want until age 28 and there were people in my masters program who wont finish everything until their 30s.

Also it isn’t just recent grads that expect to be “handed” a good job. I know several adults that think employers should care that they have a general degree and haven’t worked in 5 years. IMO adults are much less willing to put in the work to land a good job, but this is just a personal observation.

----Please remember my original point to focus on finishing your senior year and worry about this stuff later. One thing at a time!!!!

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Old 05-23-2013, 05:01 PM   #21  
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I was toying with going for my masters right away but decided against it, only because:

A) My degree was in engineering and I knew that I'd get a well paying job right away.

B) I was married and my husband had a job that paid well enough for the both us to survive on for a little while.

I decided that I was too burned out and kept putting off grad school. I am glad that I did that because I realized that a masters in engineering would have been a waste of time & money for me. I will probably do an MBA sometime down the line when I hit a dead-end in my career.
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Old 05-23-2013, 10:08 PM   #22  
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Actually the job market is pretty good for graduates in engineering/comp sci and the average to start is 50k+ to start. Our minimum at our company is 59k for software developers.

I know this because we're laying off older, more expensive workers and hiring college grads :/

Anyhoo,
In my opinion, the most economical way to get through schooling is to get a 2 year technical/health degree if that's something you're interested in (programming, radiology, etc) Something with hard SKILLS.
Many companies that end up hiring you will pay for your continued education through bachelors and even masters.

You really can never go wrong with an MBA either if you seriously can't decide what grad degree to pick.
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Old 05-24-2013, 03:15 AM   #23  
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Scarlett is right on the mark!! I'm an RN and you should really listen to what Scarlett is saying.

Saying that CNA isn't for you, just sounds like you have no intention of ever actually going near a patient. This will make you out of touch with what you intend to manage someday. Let me say you will get passed over for the application with the person that was willing to get their feet wet at the bottom. Scarlett is also right about the job market, and you and probably a dozen more new grads that want to walk right into a high paying job without doing any hard work (CNA, kitchen whatever) will not compete with the person that took that $8-10 dollar an hour job to get their foot in the door with a large corperation. You need to start building networks, and that's how to do it.
Please if you take one thing from my post, its never utter those workds out loud to anyone: "CNA really isnt my thing"! Good lord woman you are going in to be in administration where the very foundation of healthcare is the hands on. That kind of statement will get you a poor reputation, quickly. They would rather hire the CNA or nurse that went back to school for administration, than the girl that doesn't want to do anything that is beneath her. I'm not saying that's what you meant, but that is how is sounds and how it will be taken in the field.
LOL that's not what I meant at all! I'm not gonna lie, doing CNA work terrifies me. I have a friend who used to be a CNA and she told me all the horror stories of it. I just don't think I can handle it, not that it's beneath me. I'm more suited to do paperwork and it's also the number one reason why I changed my major from Biology and being on the pre-med track. I get queasy about things very easily. I know with this major, I have to work my way up the ladder, that's why I'm trying to get my foot in the door somewhere and get a job right now.
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Old 05-24-2013, 03:46 AM   #24  
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I work in healthcare at a nursing home with Genesis which is one of the largest healthcare organizations in the country. They own a couple hundred nursing homes in many different states. I just finished my master's degree (in a healthcare related field) and completed it while working at my current job. Anyway when your in a large organization you can apply to positions at different locations, for example our current admissions director just took the same position at a larger facility which was closer to her house. She saw the position posted and applied. There are other examples of people moving up through the organization and on to other facilities. This way if you work at another job and let it be known to the administrator what your goals are they may consider you as positions open up (if they like you). This avoids the getting stuck problem.

I would DEFINITELY ask her for employment opportunities, but do it very nicely.

IMO the master’s will be of little value to you without any sort of meaningful experience. Nobody is going to want to hire someone for a management level positon without any experience working in healthcare. There are just certain quirks to it (ie working with nurses, surving state inspections, etc) that you need to experience in order to be taken seriously. Therefore it would be best to work at least part time in healthcare in some capacity while completing the degree.

$40 – 50K is WAY WAY WAY too ambitious for a undergraduate degree with no experience. There are very few college graduates making that kind of money right out of college period, forget about in healthcare. Honestly in your situation you would be lucky to get $10 an hour with benefits. I hate to sound harsh but it is not an employees market (especially for recent grads). There was an office manager position that opened up at our facility and they got a TON of applications for it (I don’t know exactly how many). The woman who ended up with the job had a a lot of experience, she had worked for 10+ years for genesis at another facility in a similar position then stopped working for a few years to have children. I would fill out an application at every facility in driving distance from your house (preferably with a larger organization), explain that you are trying to get healthcare experience and work as a receptionist/in the kitchen/or whatever if you have to until something opens up. There are a handful of younger (ie under 30) people in front office type positions at our facility ie benefits, staffing, etc. If you were in they system and everyone liked you and something like that opened up they would probably give you the job. There is more turnover than you would think in these positions because people continually move up and move on.
Thank you for your advice! I will definitely start looking around more and apply everywhere. I know A LOT of kids in my major who think they'll be handed a job once they get their Bachelor's and I used to be one of them until I started looking for employment opportunities within the healthcare field. I remember when we had a speaker come to our club and that man REALLY gave us a more realistic look in terms of employment after graduation if we didn't have experience and I could tell many kids were shocked and scared about being in a position of having to fight over a $10/hr job with a peer. I too am afraid to be in that position, and that's why I promised myself to fully invest this last year and do everything within my capability to gain the much needed experience. A more realistic goal would probably to be earning around 50-60k by the time I'm 25. I'm looking to get into Life Care Center of America as they have a two year training program for 'Administrators in Training' and the requirement is pretty basic - a Bachelor's degree in some specific majors i.e. health service admin. I REALLY want to get into this program after I get my Bachelors but I also want to go for a Masters because I know fully well that I will be needing the Masters one day and I don't think I'd have the desire to go back to school after I take too long of a break. But I don't know... I guess I'll see what happens! And again, being a CNA sounds great, but I just KNOW I'm not suited for it (I don't think it's beneath me I promise, heck, I used to work at a nail salon and scrubbed feet for a living), I just think something along of being a receptionist would be more suitable for me. I don't know though, if I still can't find work within a month or two, I will have to force myself out of my comfort zone and consider the idea. Thank you again for all of your advice! A lot of kids don't get this reality check in college and they suffer a lot more down the road once they can't find a job post graduation, I'm just kinda glad it hit me a bit earlier so I can prepare myself for the worst.
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Old 05-24-2013, 06:45 AM   #25  
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I never thought I'd go to grad school either but I did, part time and work paid for it. I didn't go because I needed to go or thought it'd advance my career, I went because I wanted to. So I know it sounds crazy but part time grad school while working is doable so don't think if you don't do it now, you'll never do it.
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