Summer/Fall jobs and "dancing in the Twilight Zone"

Many of you are asking about work for the upcoming school year and for the summer. This time of year is a recruiter's "Twilight Zone".  The schools are working on budgets, waiting to see who will turn in a resignation and who will return next year, trying to find district hires and trying like the dickens not to use a contract service!  We see this happen every year; and typically, if you are already working in a school system and are interested in returning as a contractor, you will usually be asked to return, but they won't commit until nearer to the end of the school year, and sometimes not even until close to the start of the new year.

New grads are especially anxious and, unfortunately, the story for you is similar to the one above.  We do get, and already have, some positions for the upcoming school year, but limitations for your placement will also add the need for a supervisor if you are an SLP, so sometimes our first orders will be for SLP/ccc.  New grad OT's don't have the issue of a required supervisor, but are usually more comfortable in a situation where there is team  with which to collaborate.  Most of the positions that are already in for schools are either in very large districts that can anticipate their upcoming needs or in those "out of the way" locations that always have trouble finding help. 

I addressed the "SLP grads looking for work in a medical setting" issue and how difficult that can be through a contract service in: http://specialeddishin.blogspot.com/2011/01/speech-language-pathology-as-career.html

For those of you who ARE interested in a medical setting, I need to let you know how that "dance" works.  Most skilled nursing facilities, hospitals and clinics submit their needs to several contract services (and by "several" I mean over 100...really), and whichever service finds the "right fit" first wins!  Most of these facilities do not want to consider a candidate any more than a month away from their start date.  So, if your last day of work is mid-June, they will not want to see your resume until mid-May.  An "already licensed in that state" status would put you ahead of the line.

Summer work is rare for SLP's...maybe a little more abundant for OT's. Your flexibility in settings, locations and times opens more windows of opportunity than someone who is available for only 6 weeks, only in an outpatient setting and only 10 miles from their home....;-}!  And, think about it; the SLP's working in schools are all cut loose about the same time looking for summer work.  Make sense?  And then, of course, if you're interested in moving to another state for a position, licensure is always an issue.  We'll help you with that if we can, and as always, will reimburse you for that expense if you take a placement through our service in that state.

I hope this wasn't all-bad-news-all-the-time, but just want to give you an honest view from what I see from my side of the desk!  Anyway, feel free to call me (866-874-7390) with your requests, concerns or questions and I will address them as well as I am able.

Hope you are all looking forward to the end of the school year or your upcoming graduation and that it isn't too crazy for you!

Mysteries of online job postings

I'm sure all of you have spotted a job from a contract service that would be just perfect for you.  However, when you call the recruiter, the job is no longer available.  There are several reasons why this happens over and over again to all of you. 

First of all, the world of contract jobs moves at the speed of light.  Most facilities (both schools and medical settings) send their open jobs to (literally) hundreds of staffing services.  It is a game of first come (with the most qualified candidate) first serve.  Sometimes, by the time we receive your resume and contact your references, the job has been filled.  The more prepared you are to move quickly, the better your chances of snatching that job you've seen.

Another reason is that contract services are often considered as a last ditch solution.  We may have a call from a facility, go to work posting the job on line, make 80-100 calls a day for a week to find someone for the position only to find out that the facility had someone walk through their door and take the position.  AND......they never told us that the job was no longer available!  So, we often share your frustration.

The third reason (and it's not one that I am proud to put in print), but there are recruiters (through the magic of computer data bases) who NEVER take off a job posting once they've gone through the effort to post it; they just keep re-posting it with no regard to whether that job is open or not.  There is a recruiter in my
office who has over 1,000 jobs posted, and I bet only 5 of them are current.

Advice......call and find a recruiter who will be honest with you and tell you the truth about current jobs.  Now, having said that, it doesn't mean that we can't get on the phone and be proactive in finding you a position in the location/setting that you are most wanting.  I think that is the plan for those who keep the same postings on line FOREVER! 

Feel free to contact me and I will tell you what is current or if an area is a poor market for us or if your qualifications don't quite meet what our clients look for in a candidate.  And, I hope that my honestly moves you forward to your dream job, or a spot that will eventually lead you to that ideal situation.

NOTICE: Error on last post "Rules of Conduct, etc."

My apologies to Jennifer whose post I borrowed in my blog over this past weekend.  She is Jennifer Chelenyak, not Jennifer Knepper.  So much for thinking that I can be clear-headed on an early Saturday morning!  ;-}

Rules of conduct/courtesy for recruiters and candidates

I belong to the network Linked in and must admit that I don't participate in the site very often. However, the following two posts caught my eye, and I thought it worthy of posting with permission from both authors. It deals with follow up and follow through, something all recruiters struggle with on a daily basis. I've mentioned in a previous post how many people we deal with each week (we are required to make between 40-75 outbound calls daily) and how a great candidate can easily get lost in the mix.

On the flip side, all of you job seekers also talk to countless recruiters every day/week and I'm sure it's easy to lose track of who is with which recruiting service and who is seriously working behind the scenes on your behalf. You find numerous job postings on line and surely can't keep track of which company posted that job or even if the job is still around. (I'll make that a subject in a future post.)

So, here are notes from both sides of the fence:

Declining a position when you have multiple opportunities - Don't just disappear!  Jennifer Knepper

Nothing aggravates a recruiter more than working with a candidate for several weeks - screening, submittal, and multiple interviews - and then getting to the offer stage, and the candidate just disappears.

If you are working with a recruiter, we understand that you have multiple opportunities that you are pursuing. We understand that sometimes, an offer you receive might be better that what we or our client can provide. We get that you need to do what is best for you. What we don't get is why, when we are so late in the game, you would suddenly disappear. You avoid phone calls, don't respond to e-mails; when you have been responsive at every other stage of the process.

If you're going to decline an opportunity, that happens. However, at least have the courtesy to let your recruiter know that you are no longer interested. We have put a lot of time and effort in to get you this opportunity, many times, behind the scenes work that you may not be aware of. It only takes a few seconds to let us know that something else has come up. And, you never know when you might find yourself out of work again - it is never a good idea to burn bridges.

Then, this response appeared, and I thought it fitting and a worthy reminder to remind all of us that it does work both ways.



Christopher Knepper • It bears mentioning that the same applies to the recruiter. Once a candidate has applied for a position, they deserve to be kept up to date. So, to paraphrase your own post...

Nothing aggravates a candidate more than working with a recruiter for several weeks - screening, submittal, and multiple interviews - and then getting close to the offer stage, and the recruiter just disappears.

If you are working with a candidate, we understand that you have multiple candidates with whom you are working. We understand that sometimes, another candidate might be better for a given position. We get that you need to do what is best for you and your client. What we don't get is why, when we are so late in the game, you would suddenly disappear. You avoid phone calls, don't respond to e-mails; when you have been responsive at every other stage of the process.

If we are declined for an opportunity, that happens. However, at least have the courtesy to let your candidate know that they no longer in contention. We have put a lot of time and effort in to get to this opportunity, many times, behind the scenes work that you may not be aware of. It only takes a few seconds to let us know that someone else has taken the position.

Courtesy is a two way street

Struggling with Apraxia by Tori

I have decided that, on occasion, I will ask someone who is much more of an expert in the field of special needs than I am.  My manager and his wife, Tori,  are struggling with their youngest child's diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia.  So she agreed to write the following piece for me:

 

Speech Therapy - It Doesn’t Stop When You Leave the SLP’s Office

The Kaufman cards flash before his wide, blue-green eyes that peer out from his long eyelashes. Miss Kelly, the love of this little man’s life, is down at his level, demonstrating perfect sounds and pulling out all of the skills in her bag of tricks that she uses to help children speak. She is trained in the PROMPT technique and touches his mouth, neck, back, and chest in ways that can make the words fly out like magic, which makes a mother, like myself, get teary in an instant. She uses hand gestures that help him say the sound on the end and whispers “p” and “t” words.

My son, Jake, is three years and five months old and was diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech the day before his third birthday. Two days a week, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, he sees an apraxia specialist for 30 minute sessions.

After two months of intensive therapy, his mouth is cooperating more and the sounds are getting easier to pronounce. But, it is still hard for him. His eyes still tell me, ‘Mama, this is hard. No matter how many times I practice these words, no matter how hard I try, it’s still hard to say the words that are screaming in my head. And why, why, could I say this word perfectly yesterday, but today it’s no where to be found?’

When it’s time to leave, Jake gives Miss Kelly a hug goodbye and shouts out a loud, perfect, “Bye!”  He picks out his favorite sticker to take home and then we are off.  After we leave, it is business as usual. Preschool on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, play dates, taking his brothers to and from school and extracurricular events, grocery shopping, meal cooking, laundry ... all of life’s little distractions rolled into a week that flies by in the blink of an eye. To say the least, reinforcing the words he learns at speech could easily get lost in the shuffle once we leave the SLP’s office.

When we first started this journey, an SLP told me, “You are his mother. You are not his speech therapist. That is my job. Your job is to love and nurture him.” And for a couple of months, I took this advice, breathing a long sigh of relief that teaching him to talk wasn’t my job. But, what I’ve come to realize in this past year, is that if he’s ever going to sing a song, invite a friend over to play, or read a book aloud, I better be there to make sure it’s going to happen.

It takes discipline, hard work, and love, which eventually turns into a habit that feels a lot like normal life. I make him say words for anything that he points to or grunts at throughout the day. I demand that he always gives me his best. I drill him on Kaufman cards on the days he doesn’t have speech therapy. I’ve learned to turn off the television, ignore my household chores, and interact with him by playing games or molding play dough. I research online and talk to other apraxia moms to find out what’s working for their child. I sit with him and play abcmouse.com on the computer as many times as he wants. I read books and point to pictures, hoping one day he’ll be able to mimic the words that I say every night at bedtime. I have found the right therapy when the wrong therapy wasn’t working. Most importantly, I’ve learned to turn speech therapy into an all day, every day challenge and make the most out of every moment I have with him. 

The bottom line is, being the mother of an apraxic child means always doing your best to ensure that one day your child will be able to speak. It’s also about taking a deep breath of patience and then counting to ten to calm your nerves, when he repeats the same word two hundred times in one day because he can’t say the other fifty he was saying the day before. 

But, as our public school SLP told me last year, “Children with apraxia have good days and bad days. The goal is to have as many good days as possible in order to see progress.” Now that we are getting therapy that is designed to beat this frustrating disorder, we are hearing voices up ahead in this silent tunnel we’re trapped in. And I know, if everyone pulls together and works hard, we’ll make it to the end, holding hands, and most importantly ... talking. 

You can read more about Jake at www.jakes-journey-apraxia.com.

 

Great employers

Knowing that the holidays have ended and that it's time to "get back down to business", I just have to take a minute to comment a bit on my company.  While running a very successful business, my managers make our work place fun, interesting and rewarding for all of us working as recruiters.  Over the holidays, they devised a reward system (called the Cash Cow) for anyone who brought in a new contract by allowing that person to "pull" from the Christmas stocking (which they stuffed with money) and potentially win up to a 100 dollar bill.  We'd be called to the meeting each morning at 8 a.m. by "moo's" over the intercom.   There were also some fun games such as cow trivia (did you know that one cow can produce over 2000 gallons of milk per year and produce 20+ gallons of saliva daily?) and a contest to see who did the best Will Farrell cow bell impersonation ('Don't Fear the Reaper") from an SNL skit.

When I arrived at my desk the Friday before the holidays, there was a small wrapped box sitting in front of my computer.  I was fairly certain that it wasn't a ring, as I'm not anywhere near such a circumstance to warrant a proposal.  I opened it and still wasn't sure what it was.  My co-worker, Shelley, assured me that it wasn't a fancy lapel pin, but an IPod Shuffle!  Nice gift from management, eh?  Then they had us all leave for our "Winter Party" hosted by our president, David.  It's always a lovely affair with a catered brunch, more gifts, a performance by our choir (we have some lovely singers in our group), and the traditional hand-written poem read by one of our managers.  This year, the surprise ending of the poem announced the upcoming arrival of his first baby boy!

Well, in conclusion, I hope that all of you land in a job where you admire, like and respect your employer as much as I do.  Here's hoping that 2012 will increase chances of finding employment and that you are completely pleased with where you have landed; and, if not, call me and I'll see if I can help you make a change!  ;-}

1099 vs W-2 pro/cons

We as recruiters have to know what a traveler/contractor expects in their pay package.  We need to have a handle on money to determine if our company is a good match in their search for work.  It often happens that someone will give me a rate of pay that sounds astronomical and totally out of my range of an offer.  My next question would then be, "are you a 1099 contractor?"  So many people who contract individually hear an hourly or yearly rate of pay and are dazzled by it, as anyone would be!  

My company hires all of our special education contractors as employees who will receive a W-2 for their earned taxable wages.  The portion of the pay package that is non-taxable if you are a "traveler" (housing and per diem) is not listed on the W-2, nor is it required to be reported by the IRS.

I found the article listed below and think it gives a fairly good representation of the differences between a 1099 contractor and a contractor who is actually hired and under the umbrella of a company as an employee:


For a frame of reference, a 1099 contractor making 115k a year, will end up owing roughly 30k in taxes for that year. That is with a home office, mortgage interest, mileage, sales tax, office/computer equipment deductions - pretty much standard fare for a contractor.

Yeah, you can possibly be more aggressive and try to write-off more stuff - but the IRS is cracking down on the self-employed. Even taking a home office deduction is a risk.

You pretty much need to set aside 30% of your earnings and give it to the IRS quarterly.

The best way (that I have found) to compare a given W-2 job with a 1099 gig is to calculate what the yearly take-home NET pay is for each. For contracting, assume that 33% is your tax liability. Then add on health care. For the W-2 job, go to salary.com and use their paycheck calculator to figure out what your bi-monthly paycheck will be - and multiply that by 26 (many people forget that there are 26 bi-monthly paychecks in a given 12 months - usually resulting in an extra paycheck in June and December).

Then you have to take into account stuff like any matching 401(k) the W-2 company has, etc. There are also holidays and vacation to consider. A contractor is NOT paid for holidays and gets no paid vacation.

Also, if you plan on getting a loan for anything (car, house, etc) it is a bitch and a half as a self-employed contractor. Many times you have to get a "stated income" loan, which have higher rates.

NOW, you can avoid some of that if you incorporate. You can pay yourself a small salary, and then issue yourself dividend or bonus checks to make up the difference, and it will reduce your tax liability.

Honestly, if you do decide to take a contracting job, you should see a CPA about how to structure things to be best in your favor