Why post Travel assignment if job location is not available?

[CHaysRN12]

I am currently seeking a travel assignment in the Daytona beach area. I found a few agencies that had assignments in this area listed on their job searches. After hours of assessments, paperwork, resumes, phone calls, and emails the recruiters at two different companies inform me that they have no availabilities at my preferred location. I feel like it was a waste of time. Why have someone jump through hoops if location was clearly stated from the beginning and no availibities were open? I'm new to the travel nursing scene. Anyone have any suggestions? Is there an agency that is more likely to have a travel assignment in my preferred location?

[NedRN]

For the most part, real travel assignments move too fast to advertise. Plus the onboarding process of getting all your documentation can take long enough that even if it was a real job, it would be gone by the time you sign up with an agency anyway. Job posts you see on job boards are almost universally are only "representative" of jobs that agency has. In other words, completely false. As you now know, they are only there to entice you to sign up with an agency.

Sucks, but that is the way this industry rolls.

As to the assignment you wanted, the chances are that it doesn't exist currently. Rather late in the season to get the job of choice in Florida. The agencies that posted the job most likely have a contract there (it would take some serious chutzpah to post "representative" assignments at a hospital they don't work with), so there really is not a current assignment there. Give it up for now.

Travel companies have their recruitment strategies, and travelers have their own. The one I recommend, especially to new travelers, is to call a dozen or so agencies (learning a lot in the process), and sign up with the best five. The best five are the ones with a recruiter you communicate well with and talks straight with you. That is a lot of work to be sure, but there are some real benefits. It allows for a Plan B should your first choice vanish for any reason in any step of the process, it will give you a very wide range of options as not every agency has the same assignments, and it will allow for a reality check to make sure you receive competitive compensation or quotes and some more negotiating power.

If you must work at a certain hospital, there are some tools you can use. Call them to see if they are needing travelers and find out what agencies they use. You can also look up their jobs on the hospital HR site. Lots of jobs in your specialty probably means open or recurring travel assignments. Some of the larger agencies such as Cross Country and American Mobile post real time assignments on their site. You may not be able to discern from their posting the specific hospitals or pay, but if you sign up, more information is available. You can use that info to find a smaller, perhaps better paying agency at the same hospital.