This is a qualitative study on the satisfaction of nursing graduates from Rio de Janeiro State University (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) entering the working world. This study identifies and analyzes the graduates' perception of their practice and experience in the working world. The study is part of the institutional evaluative process subsequent to the curricular reform and implementation of the political-pedagogical project, based on the Critical Theory of Education. The twelve subjects graduated between the years 2000 and 2005. Interviews were applied, and using thematic content analysis two empirical categories emerged: the pleasure from work and the suffering from work. It is concluded that the new curriculum has produced the expected outcomes. The graduates have been performing practices specific to nurses and have proven to be critical and reflexive in their self-evaluations. There is a need for continuing evaluations that would permit to identify the advancement demands of the working market and the associated readjustments in the curricular proposals.