Advice for new grad job offers

Hi everyone,

I'm a new grad living in Dallas and have several offers on the table. While I'm thankful, I'm having trouble deciding which to take. None of them are in the areas I really want to work in. Mostly adult Med-Surg. My passion is in peds. I really don't have an interest in general Med-Surg.

The closest offer I have is a child/adolescent psych position at a mental health facility. It's not a major hospital. My question is - would taking this job give me a little extra experience to hopefully land a peds job elsewhere? I am interested in psych. I loved my psych clinical. However, I don't know that I want to do it forever. I'd really love to work at a peds orthopedic hospital here locally, which is my dream job, essentially. Although I'd love to work in peds in any capacity. Since psych is different, would taking this offer help me or hurt me in the longrun?

Does anyone have experience working in pediatric psych? What is it truly like? I've read a few threads but see mixed feelings.

I hope that as you read my question, you'll understand that I'm not trying to be too picky, but I want to make the best decision and gain the right kind of experience for my ultimate goal of working in a peds hospital.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and advice!
What facility is the position at? The only experience I had was at the state hospital in the adolescent unit. If I lived closer, I would of applied for that position asap and prayed to get it. I loved it!!! BUT - it's just so different from a medsurg peds setting and medsurg in general. The hard thing will be getting BACK into the MS world when switching from psych.

Oh and I'm in the Dallas area as well

So you would recommend not doing the psych first?

When I graduated there were NO new grad jobs. I took what I could get, which was adult med/surg. It ended up not being that bad and after a year I could basically go where I wanted. I went to L/D, but that year of med/surg really helps when I'm looking at other jobs. I am now extremely glad that I did it because it opens a lot of doors for me. Your first job is not always your dream job but if you want a career in PEDs, I think some psych experience would really help, and look good. I kinda miss it haha. Good luck and congrats!!!