Our Crazy Last Week:

What to do when things fall apart

The past few weeks have been some of the most tumultuous in our travel therapy careers. Yes, we are dealing with a newborn baby, and there are obvious inherent stressors associated with keeping 7 pound mini-person alive, but the stress I am referring to in this case is work related.

Here is the situation:

Long before baby Kinley was ever thought of, Ellen and I decided that we were going to spend the fall of 2017 closer to our Ohio-bound families. In order to do so we planned to take contracts in the wonderful Bluegrass state as it is easily drivable to both sets of parents (now grandparents), we have copious social connections to the Lexington area, and it is where we first met nearly a decade ago. The surprise pregnancy this past year only served to strengthen our conviction to move back to Kentucky and ensure we would be with both families for the holidays.

Being the busy-body go-getter that I am, I decided to reach out to a few Lexington clinics and attempt to land a contract long in advance (2+ months) of my potential start date of October 2nd. Fortunately for me I was able to have a wonderful interview with a company based in the immediate Lexington area, and even better, four of our closest classmates from PT school also work for the same company. It seemed like a perfect match. I was quickly offered the job, agreed to terms verbally, and proceeded to go about finalizing the necessary formalities (contracts and such).

Nervous about our health care situation after Kinley was born, we decided that contracting through our current travel agency would be the best situation. Yes, I would be sacrificing some income, but the peace of mind knowing that the health insurance was affordable, having paid our deductible already, was well worth it.

Slowly weeks rolled by and there was still no contract. Checking in with my recruiter I was assured that all was well and the only reason it had not been taken care of yet was because we were nearly nine weeks out from my start date (an eternity in the travel world). But nine weeks quickly turned to five, then to four, and finally three weeks from my starting date. I called the clinic and sent cautiously worded emails asking if there was anything I could do to assist or facilitate the closing of this deal. These calls and emails were met with encouraging words assuring me that everything was still good and that they were excited to have me join their team.

With our lease in Colorado ending in two weeks and still no signed contract from the clinic I was to join in KY, my recruiting agency received a final and deal breaking phone call. The clinic who repeatedly had promised me the position was choosing to hire a local permanent staff member at the last minute instead.

To say we were frustrated would be a pale understatement. The final word was given to us on a Friday, we were headed Las Vegas for TravCon on Sunday, and without being able to rally our recruiters until Monday, by then we would have 10 days to find a job before finding ourselves homeless and jobless in Colorado. It is in situations like this that make us tremendously thankful for having built our skillset and network of recruiters as we have.

While business was not open until the new week, having established healthy relationships with our recruiters I sent them all personal texts of desperation to alert them of our circumstance. By Saturday I had lists of jobs filling my inbox and notified the various agencies of which jobs to submit me to come the start of the work week. Monday and Tuesday I fielded interview calls, took a job offer, and negotiated a contract all while enjoying TravCon and the Vegas experience. By Wednesday night we were back in Durango and under contract for another Lexington, Kentucky job – Back on track for our original start date.

It is in situations like this that make us tremendously thankful for having built the skillset and network of recruiters that we have.

There were a few factors at play, each helping me to be able to pull this off.  First, I have a very diverse resume which has allowed for my job search to be as broad as possible.  (We will discuss this more in the future) This is especially important when the search is confined to a small geographic area.  Second, I have strengthened my interview skills and know how to bring added value to each company I work for.  Third, the relationships with my different recruiters are all based on transparent communication and honest negotiation.

A few years ago we could have never done this. Rallying the troops, finding, landing, and negotiating a new job with such a quick turn around takes a tremendous amount of work and trust. But just like any relationship, cultivating a productive and trustworthy relationship is paramount. The panic of last week has made us realize how thankful we are to have the relationships we do and the trust we have built amongst us. Each recruiter knows that we will give them a fair shot at finding us a contract and in turn I know that each of them will work hard to find us something that fits our needs. True, this is far from a normal circumstance, but sometimes extreme situations can highlight often overlooked aspects that we fail to appreciate during the mundane everyday.

For the next three months we will be living in Lexington, Kentucky, and while only one of our recruiters will get the credit for finding me this position in a pinch, we are thankful for all of them and will not quickly forget the effort that they put forth during this past week. An effort, made in earnest, rarely goes unrewarded.

Written by: Stephen Stockhausen

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Our Crazy Last Week: What to do when things fall apart

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Sometimes things just fall apart. With a lease ending in 10 days we suddenly found out that I was not going to have a contract for my next job. Fortunately, due to a few factors, we were able to scramble and find ourselves back on track.

Author

Stephen Stockhausen