Hi Jude, Thanks for agreeing to chat with me! Can I start out by asking if you are RN or EN, what state you are from and what year you graduated?
Hello EN, QLD this year July 2021 I became registered.
Congratulations! So did you apply for any grad programs?
Yeah with the private hospital only 2 places and it was for mental health which is a 2 year program with 2nd year being masters so not appropriate for me due to only having a 1 year visa and the cost of masters is like $70k 
Oh wow! So what did you do instead?
Working at brand new NGO facility as a detox EN, start on Tuesday.
Amazing! So obviously they know that this will be your first nurse role, do you know what kind of support will be offered?
All the team for the facility starts next week, the clinical staff and we have 7 weeks of training before working shifts.
Oh great! So you will all be in the same boat, learning together! 7 weeks training sound great too!
I know right, lucky. Yeah they know I'm a newbie at nursing I have heaps of experience in mental health and substance support since 2008. So it'll all compliment each other.
How many jobs did you apply to before getting this one? And how did you find the job search process?
It was hard cos of my visa status and most roles want nursing experience apart from aged care and that is too much 
So really they need to shake up the expectations as there will always be a need for nurses and I am willing and trained here paid heaps for that privilege too so it should be easier to get employment.
So really they need to shake up the expectations as there will always be a need for nurses and I am willing and trained here paid heaps for that privilege too so it should be easier to get employment.Is this visa thing difficult to navigate? I know there are all these different types and for our grad program we can only take certain types but it all seems very complicated.
It is ridiculous. Most long term visas are sponsored or permanent independent and require skills assessment and so many hours job experience. Also some visas only open certain times of the year for a short time too, so need to be ready to submit...which requires funds to always be available.
May I ask what made you want to come to Australia particularly? And did you know that the visa thing would be so difficult?
I travelled round eastern Europe in 2016/17 came back to North of England but couldn't settle, applied for job in late 2017 for youth work sponsored and came over to Perth Feb 2018. I had no idea about visas... but I have made it work so far with help here and there from loved ones.
Oh wow what an adventure! So if you had one piece of advice for any students or new grads who are stressing about getting a job what would you tell them?
Breathe, take it one day at a time, if possible get some experience in that area of nursing whilst training, aged care, drug alcohol, and have a plan A, B ,C + as it helps to have a broader perspective.
Thank you so much for sharing 
If you found this post helpful please feel free to join in, share and ask questions over at Nurse Life Australia on Facebook!