Application submitted and ...nothing?

[gabulldawg]

How long did it take to acquire your first travel position?

I've had all my paperwork submitted since mid July and my recruiter has submitted me to multiple vacancies. Have not heard from any facilities.

What gives??

[ChrisMMS]

Not a nurse so my answers are going to be from the perspective of a recruiter.

1) Depending on how much experience you have it can take a variable amount of time to secure your first contract because hospitals do harp on the travel experience being a big factor of who they decide to hire. If you are a fairly "new" nurse with less then 5 years of experience it may impact the time.

2) Depends on how many submissions the facility has. If the job is very popular and has a plethora of candidates it may take a long time for the hiring manager to look at all the submissions before they get back to anyone.

3) Some facilities are just going to be slow and take forever to reach out to a nurse even if they are interested.

4) Bill Rate. If your recruiter is bidding too high or too low it may be a red flag to a facility and that could cause some hesitation in reaching out to you.

5) Profile. The way the profile is set up and how the information is presented goes a long way with many facilities/vendors. If your recruiter/agency is newer and doesn't present your information in the best light possible it may hinder the amount of calls/interviews you are receiving.

6) Agency/Recruiter. If the company you are working for is a smaller company which does not have a lot of experience with vendors/facilities it will be harder for them to get their foot in the door because there are going to be facilities/vendors who play favorites, but there is also a tier system that is involved.

7) Bait/Switch. Very common in the travel industry to have recruiters lie and make up a job to get all the information from a nurse to try and sell them on other positions that they were not originally interested in.

8) Account Manager/Followup. It's important for your agency/recruiter to have their account manager reach out to each facility periodically to follow up and keep your name fresh on their minds.

9) Calling Facility Directly. This is a 50/50 sometimes it can work out well and sometimes it can work out terribly. You can call the facility directly and mention that you are interested in traveling and have a submission through company ABC. I've seen it go both ways of getting a nurse a placement quickly, but also getting a nurse kicked out of the submission pool.

It's hard to say what is exactly taking so long since there are so many variables in play and without your profile and the jobs in front of us it's hard to analyze everything. I will say that if you are open to assignments and fairly flexible waiting a month for a travel assignment is pretty long to not hear back from anyone. I would reach out to your recruiter and express your concern to see what they say.

[NedRN]

If you are being at all picky about location and pay, stop it! Listen to what ChrisMMS is saying about travelers with completed assignments getting picked first. It's true! Here is some inside information, for the most part, an assignment pays the exact same hourly bill rate for all - why would a manager pick you over someone with more experienced with proven travel experience on top?

If you want to be a traveler and go to great locations, you need a successful completed first assignment on your work history. That is your first priority. That doesn't mean accepting any assignment though to get your foot in the door. There are assignments that experienced travelers won't do because they are horrible, even if high paying. First you need a good recruiter who recognizes this is a good plan - which also means a recruiter who you communicate well with and trust. Call bunches of agencies and find several recruiters who meets that criteria and work with them.

Some agencies can be bottom feeders and sign up anyone, toss your profile to lots of hospitals and hope something sticks and you scrape by for at least a month, or will do an assignment with them in the future. Without knowing anything about your specialty or experience, you may not be a good candidate at all. Or the single agency (is that really wise?) you have signed up with or your specific recruiter sucks. Not much way for us to know. But a good recruiter will be up front about your chances, and what individual facilities might be like to work with. Heard anything like that from this agency?

[SICUMURSE1]

Personally, follow up with your recruiter, Ive had to be on top of them for various things, unfortunately bigger agencies just focus on $$$ so make sure you are taken care of first

[Delia37, MSN]

All good advice; also don't place all your eggs in one basket...consider applying to other agencies.

[fayegordon]

I'm writing an article about travel nurses, and would like to interview some about the nomadic life, why they chose it, its benefits and disadvantages. Please contact me at [email protected] to arrange an interview. Many thanks.