Interview Q

I'm on my first assignment and no that is not how it should work. My advice is to continue to ask questions to the agencies you've chosen and make sure to ask that they will not send your packet out to hospitals without you knowing. You want to make sure of this because you don't want to send your packet to the same job with two different companies.

The recruiter may have been confused about who he was talking to. When you spend 8 hours a day on the phone talking/texting/emailing/facebooking to 50 different travelers...

But this a useful teaching moment. Unless you really have developed a trusting relationship with a recruiter over a lengthy relationship, you probably want to tell all your recruiters not to submit your profile unless you authorize them to submit you to a specific facility - especially this recruiter who may already be doing it without your permission. Some recruiters will submit without your permission for a couple of good reasons from their perspective. One is they know you are more likely to commit if some hospital calls you and wants you to work for them. Kind of like the boys that ask you out have a much better chance with you than the ones who don't. Second is that the first agency to submit a profile "owns" that traveler for that facility. Too late to have a recruiter you like better who pays more submit you - it won't go anywhere. In fact some hospitals will now refuse to consider a traveler at all if they get the same traveler profile from more than one agency. Too messy to decide, and there are lots of travelers (typically).

The more usual way for best results is when you find out about an assignment you might like to have, you will check with your other recruiters if they have it too and see what their compensation package might be. Then you ask the best overall to submit you. Of course, agencies hate this, at least the ones who first told you about an interesting assignment. That is why they are often cagey about naming the hospital and often even the city until they trust you.

So it might feel kind of yucky to do this and it is. But just like with other large decisions, like buying a car, careful shopping can have a big impact on your finances and job satisfaction. It is a useful tool until you learn what agencies/recruiters consistently offer you more, or the value of adding a new agency. Then it won't be so important. Absolute pay is not the only consideration of course. It might be worth a couple bucks an hour to go with a trusted and proven agency/recruiter.

Thanks!!!