The advantages of taking a "travel" assignment can look very appealing; a great pay package with a tax-free component, your expenses to travel to the job are mostly paid for, your state license cost is reimbursed, you get to experience a new area of the country, meet new people and build your resume.
However, in this post, I want to talk about the down sides of working as a "travel therapist". As a recruiter, I am vicariously traveling with you and experiencing some of the pitfalls with you. For those of you who think it will be adventuresome and exotic, you aren't entirely wrong. However, below is a list of things I have seen in "traveling gone wrong":
* You travel across country for an assignment only to have the client cancel your contract with only a 30 day notice.
* You leave for your 500 mile+ trip before you have your state license in hand and can't start making money (or get reimbursed for travel expenses) until your state license is issued.
* You arrive to what looked like a luxury apartment complex on line only to find that it is run down, has plumbing issues, the neighbors play loud music all night and your car is vandalized on your second night there.
* You take a school contract and discover that your caseload has 30 more students on it than you were told about in your phone interview.
* Your co-workers treat you as if you are an intrusion and your promised caseload is suddenly switched on you and you feel like "this just isn't what you signed up for".
Is there a solution to any or all of these issues? Sometimes, yes. Your first step is to make your recruiter aware that there is a problem. Don't try to muddle through it until you are so frustrated that you just want to walk out. We can take steps to assist you by contacting the client, or finding another place for you to live or sometimes just helping you walk through steps that can help you fix it on your own.
Not everything has a solution, though, and you should be mindful that there are places that don't appreciate that you are there to be an extra hand and to help ease their load. Contractors often aren't afforded the same treatment as someone who is a permanent employee who has made a long term commitment to the client. They expect to have preference over someone who "just drops in for a while". So, when you are told that you are losing part of your caseload to take on one that a permanent employee doesn't want, you are expected to be flexible and "roll with the punches". Also remember that you are often making more money than that permanent employee.
So, having said all that, I find that most travelers are happy with their assignment, but it takes a certain type of flexibility and a personality that can make a switch if needed and can "hit the ground running".
