In this episode, our National Director of Recruitment Services explains how the travel therapy hiring process works, offers helpful phone interview tips and what happens when you accept the job.
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Peter: Welcome to a whole new episode of the Travel Therapy Insider. This is Peter Clayton and we’re back in Wilton, Connecticut today with Heather Markelz who is the national director of recruiting for Onward Healthcare. In the first episode of Travel Therapy Insider, we discussed how the therapy assignment works and what a candidate needs to do to get started including the application process and today, Heather is going to talk us through the hiring process.
Heather, I’ve decided to pursue a career as a travel therapist. I’ve filled out my online application. What happens next?
Heather: Well, first off congratulations on deciding to pursue that because you’re in for quite an exciting adventure with Onward Healthcare and first off, a recruiter is going to call you to discuss all the – your location preferences. We do work in all 50 states. Your salary requirements and basically find out exactly what you’re looking for and then the recruiter will search based on the preferences and things that you’ve let the recruiter know and we will either call you, e-mail you with all the open positions and you pick and choose out of the positions that we present to you which ones you decide to interview with.
Peter: What if I’m really picky and if I don’t like any of the options you’ve presented to me?
Heather: Well then, we’ll work with you on that and of course, go back to the drawing board to find out something that will fit. Keep in mind positions do open up really on a day-to-day basis too. We also have a client development team that we basically have five full-time representatives here who will go and look for additional areas, additional opportunities and will just be really dedicated to finding something that suits your needs.
Peter: Once I’ve selected some options, what happens next?
Heather: Your recruiter will schedule a phone interview with the hiring manager and more often than not, will be the director of rehab who would be actually your direct supervisor at that facility and usually, it’s only about 15 minutes, a half an hour, which is really nice because you don’t have to actually go in person and spend all this time interviewing, taking time out of your day. Really just the 15-30 minutes to ask questions, get a feel for the facility that’s hiring and it gives you the opportunity to ask those questions and feel it out, see if it’s going to be a good fit. After you have that phone conversation, then basically you’d get back in touch with your recruiter to kind of rehash the conversation and discuss, see if it’s something that you feel good about and then discuss from there.
Peter: Can you share with us some tips for the phone interview, which is really a different kind of an interview than a face-to-face and in this particular situation, this is the interview and you’ve got to make a great first impression.
Heather: Yeah, you definitely do, so it’s important to really just be prepared, be in an area that is quiet, but one thing I really want to stress with the interview process is it’s not something to be really nervous about because it’s quick, it’s really more of informal phone conversation and once a facility has chosen to do that interview process with you, I’d say probably about 80-90% of the time, you’re going to get that position, because quite frankly you’re a licensed therapist, you’re a candidate that’s in demand for the position that is available. So the one thing I really stress is don’t be nervous about the process and you’re really utilizing that just to get more options on the table. To be in that quiet area, have your résumé in front of you to talk about your skill set and your previous experience. But you know what, even if you don’t have that previous experience, we do work with new graduates. So it’s really not something to be nervous about like I was saying but it’s your opportunity to ask the questions that are important to you and in return, that interviewer will ask questions that they want to know about you.
I think the most important advice that I can give is if an interviewer asks a question that you are not as familiar with and it’s maybe not part of your skill set but it’s something that you’re interested in learning, the most important thing to do is tell that interviewer that, “Hey, you know what? With the right training, it’s something that I would be very comfortable doing and performing,” as a lot of people use the travel therapy process and experience to build their résumé, get into other settings that maybe they haven’t practiced in previously so it’s important to keep that in mind and just be honest, to be yourself and really find out if it’s something that you personally would be interested in adding to your career.
Peter: You know, the fact of the matter is Heather, if you are doing this phone interview you’ve been vetted by Onward Healthcare. You have been presented to this company by Onward Healthcare and they’ve said, “Yeah, this is somebody we’re interested in and we think they qualify for this job,” so you’re sort of halfway there, right?
Heather: Right, exactly. Once you have those phone conversations take place with the managers, they pretty much made up in their mind, hey you know, based on this person’s availability to start, based on having a license for the state that you’re looking to go to, the hardest part is actually already over. So at that point it’s just being comfortable and talking to that manager because at that point in time, we have a really high percentage of our travel therapists who are offered the position after the phone conversation has taken place.
Peter: What happens after the phone interview and how long does it take usually for someone to get back in touch with you?
Heather: Well, often after that phone interview – well, quite frankly even at the conclusion of that phone interview, a lot of times the director of rehab, that hiring manager will even offer the job right on the spot, so sometimes you will know as soon as at the conclusion of that phone conversation. But regardless after you’ve wrapped that up, you get in contact with your recruiter and your recruiter will then contact the company that you interviewed with to find out how it went on there end. Sometimes as soon as in a half hour or an hour even we’ll know if they want to present the job offer to you but I’d say generally speaking, it’s not going to take more than a day or so at the longest period of time, a week but usually it doesn’t even take that long to make that decision to bring you on board. The main reason for that is keep in mind the whole reason why most facilities are looking for a travel therapist is they need a therapist and they need someone soon to start at their facility for them. So it’s more of a matter of okay, if you’re interviewing, you’re talking to that manager, the expectation is you’re able to start within a week, two weeks, three weeks. In other words, pretty soon after you have that phone interview. So the idea is these facilities aren’t taking a couple of weeks to get back to you because they want you to be working by then. The idea is honestly the communication and the process is pretty quick from there on out as they feel it’s a very, very important to secure their staff and go from there.
Peter: Am I obligated to accept this offer if I get it and I decide for whatever reason that it’s not a good fit for me?
Heather: Well, you know what? I think that’s one of the best things about the therapy travel program and the interview process is you can interview with as many facilities as you would so choose without any obligation to do travel therapy or work with Onward Healthcare and you know what? I say it’s always better to have more job offers on the table to choose from than less or none at all even for that matter, so why not use Travel Therapy Onward Healthcare as an opportunity to get those 15-minute phone conversations underway and essentially that’s all that’s required to then have those job offers presented to you, so if you decide not to accept anything, then of course, there’s no obligation, no harm, no foul, so it’s really the choice 100% up to you.
Peter: What happens if I decline, will you help me try to find some other travel therapy assignment?
Heather: Absolutely, so if you decline, say “Hey, you know what? This isn’t the position for me.” Well, chances are at that point in time, you’ve been submitted into other positions too that you wanted to check out and see what you’re interested in, I mean on any given day, Onward Healthcare has at least 2,000 open jobs nationwide. Sometimes that’s as high as 3,000 nationwide, so we’re talking – there are multiple, multiple positions available for you to choose from, so if you choose to decline the offers that are presented to you, then by all means, we’re focused and dedicated on you looking at other opportunities and then really deciding on the job that’s the best match for you.
Peter: Let’s end this interview on a happy, positive note. Let’s say I’ve decided to accept the position, now what happens?
Heather: Well, first we celebrate and congratulate you and get excited about you starting your travel therapy career which is just something so exciting and we’re just so proud to work with all of our travel therapist who are enjoying this experience but once you decide, “Hey, this is the job for me.” We will go ahead and send you a contract and only then would you be signing anything saying that yes, I’m going to move forward which again I think is a very important part of the process. It’s not like you’re signing anything upfront prior to doing this whole interview process and really deciding on that position that’s best for you, so we’ll get you an agreement that goes over the details of your assignment, your pay, the dates that you’re going to be there and then the rest of our departments will begin working with you to get your compliance information underway, to give you your housing information as we do provide a fully furnished free one-bedroom apartment with all your utilities included and then at that point, then I’ll get you on your merry way to start your new job.
Peter: Great. Heather, thanks for joining us again on the Travel Therapy Insider and be sure to tune in next time when we’re going to be talking about acing the interview.
Thank you for tuning in to Travel Therapy Career Cast. For more information on beginning an exciting career as a travel therapist, you should visit Onward Healthcare at www.OnwardHealthcare.com or call 1-800-278-0332 to speak with one of our experienced recruiters.
You should also follow Onward Healthcare on Twitter at Twitter.com/OnwardHealth and fan them on Facebook at Facebook.com/TravelNursing.
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