Travel Therapy Career Cast is brought to you by Onward Healthcare, a leading nationwide provider of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech language pathology jobs. If you’re looking to get started as a travel therapist, you should apply online at www.onwardhealthcare.com or call 1-800-278-0332 and speak to an experienced recruiter today.

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In This episode, Hillary O’Keefe interviews Barbara Johnson., senior recruitment manager for Onward Healthcare.

Questions Hillary ask Barb:

1. Today, we are going to discuss the best ways to ace your interview once you and your recruiter find a great opportunity for you to pursue. So, before we get into the interview techniques and tips for success, let’s talk about what our listeners should expect. Are most travel therapy interviews conducted over the phone?

2. How does the phone interview get setup? Is this something that is completely on your end or do the travel therapists need to initiate the process?

3. When the interview process starts, is there a phone screen first, or does it cut right to the chase and get into the real interview?

4. How do I want to prepare myself and, of course, my immediate environment to ensure a really successful call?

5. How long do these calls usually last?

6. Are there standard questions that the travel therapist should be prepared to answer during the interview?

7. How much competition is there for a typical travel therapy opening and what kind of tips and advice do you recommend for me, if I’m interviewing, as a great way to standout from the rest of the competition?

8. Once the call is over, what is the next step I should take if I really, really want that job?

9. What “hot jobs” do you have right now, and where are they located?

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Thank you for tuning in to Travel Therapy Career Cast. For more information on beginning an exciting career as a travel therapist, you should visit Onward Healthcare at www.onwardhealthcare.com or call 1-800-278-0332 to speak with one of our experienced recruiters.

Follow Onward Healthcare on Twitter at Twitter.com/onwardhealth and

Fan them on Facebook at Facebook.com/travelnursing.

This jobcast will feature Emergency Nurse positions at Stamford Hospital, The Regional Center for Health in Stamford Connecticut. Stamford Hospital is Affiliate of Columbia University-College of Physicians & Surgeons and Member of the New York Presbyterian Healthcare System. Joining us today is Sarah Devine, RN Recrutment and Retention Manger Kerri Ubaldi, ED Nurse Manager, and Magna Bayoneta, an RN working in the ER.

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Questions Sarah, Kerri, and Eileen answer in this jobcast:

1. To start off, please tell us the credentials and qualifications needed to fill the ER nursing position in your emergency room.

2. What about background? How much experience are you looking for and is there any specific training that would be an asset to the RN’s interested in this position?

3. How large is Stamford Hospital, and what is the nurse-to-patient ratio?

4. Tell us about your benefits package?

5. What about continuing education and career development programs at Stamford Hospital?

6. Would you consider Stamford Hospital to be “state of the art” in equipment and technology?

7. How would you describe the nursing staff at Stamford Hospital? (supportive, friendly, etc)

8. What do you think is unique about Stamford Hospital and why do you like working there?

Look here for more CT jobs.

This jobcast will feature OR positions for Registered Nurses (RN) at Stamford Hospital; The Regional Center for Health in Stamford Connecticut. Stamford Hospital is Affiliate of Columbia University-College of Physicians & Surgeons and Member of the New York Presbyterian Healthcare System. Joining us today is Clinical Director Robert Bolek, Human Resources Partner Evena Williams, and OR staff nurse, Sharon Lyden;

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Questions Evena, Bob, and Sharon answer in this jobcast:

1. To start off, please tell us the credentials and qualifications needed to fill the Operating Room nursing position at your main campus in Stamford?

2. What about background? How much experience are you looking for and is there any specific training that would be an asset to the RN’s interested in working in your OR?

3. How large is Stamford Hospital, and what is the nurse-to-patient ratio?

4. Tell us about your benefits package?

5. What about continuing education, and career development programs at Stamford Hospital?

6. Would you consider Stamford Hospital’s OR to be “state of the art” in equipment and technology?

7. How would you describe the nursing and physician staff working in the OR? (Supportive, friendly, etc)

8. What do you think is unique about Stamford Hospital and why do you like working there?

Welcome to an all-new episode of Travel Nursing Insider. I’m your host, Peter Clayton. While the travel nursing profession has flourished over the last 20 years, there are still many misconceptions about working as a travel nurse. Today, we’re going to be talking to Lindsay Francis and Suzanne Johnson, travel nursing recruiters from Onward Healthcare, who are going to help set the record straight, and address some of the common misconceptions and myths that are associated with travel nursing.

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Questions Lindsay and Suzanne answer in this episode.

1. So Lindsay and Suzanne, let’s start off by talking about travel nursing. Is it a less stable career choice during the current economy?

2. Lindsay, are those across the country or are there specific geographic areas that you’re seeing a lot of need?

3. And Suzanne, talk to us a little bit about a career as a travel nurse. What does it do to your resume?

4. You know, another misconception out there, Lindsay, is that if you work as a travel nurse, every three months you’re going to have to take on a new assignment. Can you address that for us?

5. And listen up, baby-boomers, you are not too old to work as a travel nurse! Am I right, Lindsay?

6. Peter: How are travel nurses treated by permanent staff?

Stay tuned for part 2 of Fact vs Fiction: Travel Nursing myths, coming soon. Lindsay and Suzanne will tell us about resume myths, agency myths, and career paths available to travel nurses.

Download Travel Nursing Insider Here .mp3

Visit Onward Heathcare’s Travel Nurising Insider

Welcome to our latest edition of Travel Nursing Insider. This is Peter Clayton reporting. Today, we’re going to discuss the process of choosing a travel nursing assignment. We have a great show lined up with insider tips and advice: how to find where the jobs are, and equally as important, what type of environment will be the very best fit for you. With us today, frequent contributor to Travel Nursing Insider and Director of Travel Nursing, Sera Cullen and Lindsay Francis joins us who’s the Recruitment Manager for Onward Healthcare. (download mp3) or play live:

Complete Transcript:

Sera, when you begin to work with a new traveler, do they usually know where they want to go or are they relying on you for advice to find out where the jobs are?

Sera: It’s actually a little bit of both. As a recruiter, one of your primary roles is to really communicate with your nurse and find out what’s motivating them and why they want to travel. Some nurses are very site specific. They’re going to a particular location, they’re relocating there, they’ve got family there. They have an agenda and a reason for going to where they want to go. My job is to then look and try and find them what they’re looking for.

There are other nurses that are completely open for an adventure, a great opportunity. They’re looking either because they’re money-motivated, because they want to go someplace warm, they want to go skiing – everyone has some sort of reason for wanting to get into the travel business and as a recruiter, it’s our responsibility to have those conversations with those nurses so we can help direct them to the best fit possible.

Peter: Lindsay, you’ve been working for Onward Healthcare for over seven years now, what kind of questions do you typically hear from first-time travelers who were trying to decide where they want to go?

Lindsay: Well, I know a lot of first-time travelers we always hear and we joke about it, they want to go to Hawaii and yes of course, I’d like to go to Hawaii too but you know at that point, really what it’ss our job to do is kind of hear about what they’ve been doing, where they’ve been working and then figure out there what’s best for them to go to. Like Sera was saying, some of them will have a specific agenda and if that’s certainly the case, then we work to help them get into that certain location. Other times when they’re deciding where to go, you know a lot of them have done their homework, they’ve talked to other travelers so they know the areas of where there’s lots of opportunity, where there may be better pay rates, that sort of a thing, and then it’s really our job to after finding out what their strengths are, what their interests are, helping them pick a location.

Peter: How does this differ from seasoned travelers who you’ve worked with for a while and who have gone out on several assignments?

Lindsay: Well, I think the biggest difference between seasoned travelers is that I already know them so I’ve already talked to them for probably months at a time now. I know who their brothers and sisters are, who their kids are, where their mom lives, so I’ve got a better idea of their agenda, where they’re looking to travel to, who they’re looking to visit, and I also know generally speaking what kind of activities they do outside the job. It’s very important for a travel nurse, they’re going to different locations not just based on the job opportunity but also what’s in the surrounding areas, so that goes a lot with rural versus urban. What are they looking to do, what kind of social aspects are they looking to get into in a particular location. With the seasoned traveler they’ve got all the fears already gone of the first assignment, they know what to expect about housing, pay, and all the other assets of the job so really what they’re looking at now is kind of figuring out what location and what hospital is going to be the best fit for them.

Peter: Sera let’s talk about urban versus rural, is that a big difference when placing a traveler on an assignment?

Sera: Actually, it’s a huge topic and a great one for us to discuss because it’s pretty complex. Basically, you’ve got your urban locations, which are your large teaching hospitals in big cities. A lot of nurses will want to go to those locations because it’s a resume builder for them, they’re going to have exposure to a lot of units and cases that they may not see in a smaller hospital. They’re going to be teaching so they’re going to have interaction with a lot more stuff. Also, in a bigger hospital there will be less floating, they won’t be shuffled from unit to unit because the units are going to be so full and busy that they’re going to actually be able to stay in one location and really get to know that hospital.

On the flip side, you’ve got a rural location where it maybe a slower pace hospital. You’re going to have people that really need to know their specialty, there’s not going to be a lot of support staff around. Sometimes they may be the only people on the unit so they need to be very experienced in their craft and know exactly what to do in any sort of situation. They also have to be able to do more than just one specialty just because a med/surg nurse maybe pulled into a pediatric unit… they may be pulled into a tele unit, they could be pulled all over the hospital… the census may drop… there may not be as many cases and stuff like that, so they really have to be able to float and know a lot more than just their one specific area.

The big thing about urban versus rural is some people may say I’m only a big city girl, I only want to go to this location, I can only deal with cities, I couldn’t deal with being in the country and this is one of the great things about travel nursing, is the fact that you do get to go on an adventure, you do get to go into a new location and somebody may never have considered Boise, Idaho as ‘oh, my dream job. I’ve always wanted to go there’ but surprisingly enough, a lot of the feedback that we get from nurses is they have these assignments in locations that they may never have considered and then they turn out absolutely loving it and being a huge advocate for those locations.

Again, with travel nursing, the big thing is to have an open mind to really be open to adventure because you’re going to find things that you may never have thought you would have liked but you end up liking.

Peter: Lindsay, any advice that you’d like to share?

Lindsay: I think the most important thing, like Sera was saying, am I big city person, am I a small town person – definitely the more flexible you can be being open to considerations, listening to your recruiter and what the advice that they give you because just like Sera said, you know Boise is a great example, or there’s ton of cities out there that would also be a great example. You may have never thought about a certain location before, you end up taking an assignment there and all of a sudden, you’re relocating there and you want to go perm staff.

The biggest thing I also tell first-time travelers – or even seasoned travelers depending on where they get an assignment – for whatever reason, if it doesn’t work out, it’s 13 weeks, it’s three months, you’re there for three months, you have a great time and then during that time, we’re working on getting you to a different location. That’s definitely an advice, especially for first-time travelers who may just need to get their foot in the door and take the first assignment they’re offered so that they get that travel experience on their resume.

Peter: Sera, back to sort what you were talking about earlier, do you tend to see more openings at large hospitals versus small ones and better opportunities?

Sera: Actually, it’s pretty equal right now. Small hospitals need help just as much as the big hospitals. I think nurses are having more of an open mind right now in taking on new adventures partly because of the economy but partly because they know that this is a resume builder and as Lindsay just mentioned, it is a way to get your foot in the door and this is why the communication with your recruiter is so important because your recruiter is going to help you and guide you to those locations that you’re going to be great at. They’re not going to suggest that you go some place in the middle of nowhere if you don’t drive or are bringing a bunch of dogs or cats with you, stuff like that; the recruiter is actually going to take into consideration all of the factors that come with you so they can place you in a great hospital.

Peter: Lindsay, back to something you were talking about at the very beginning, are there tips you can give travelers about how to successfully achieve that dream location and assignment?

Lindsay: I think the biggest thing for them is to pick a recruiter, get a recruiter that they trust. If they’ve got a recruiter that they trust, that they can build a great relationship with, then the goal will be to always get them that dream job. That dream job may be the third assignment they take, it may be the sixth assignment they take, it may be the first assignment they take but to pick someone, get a good rapport going with someone, have a recruiter that knows you very well and you know obviously be as flexible and as open as you can and the more they learn about you, the more they’re going to be able to find that perfect job for you.

There is also a lot of times when you think you know what the perfect job is, the perfect location for you, but that’s just not realistic. It may be in a state that licensure takes a long period of time. It may be in an area where they want someone with five years experience and you have three. So that’s where you really need to build a relationship, have trust in your recruiter that they’re going to send you on assignments and have assignments for you that are going to lead you to that eventual perfect dream job that you may end up going perm staff.

Peter: Sera, additional advice you’d like to share with our listeners?

Sera: I would just say communication is key. Make sure that you’re talking with your recruiters and being very honest and upfront with your situation. Everyone’s situation changes as well, so making sure that they’re kept in a loop of exactly what’s going on with you, your family, and that way they’ll be able to help you every step of the way.

Peter: Great. Okay, It’s time for the hot jobs segment. What great summer locations do you have lined up for our travelers, Sera?

Sera: Two of the locations that we’re really seeing a lot of opportunities come up to right now is Connecticut and New York. Connecticut is fantastic. It’s a really easy licensure process, we’re on the water, it’s just a beautiful location, it’s not too hot during the summer and the pay is normally very good. And then we’ve also got New York which is a hot spot right now. New York City is a fun place to be in for the summer, lots of activities, lots of concerts. The licensure process there does take a lot longer but if it’s a location that you’ve always wanted to go to, we are seeing opportunities there consistently.

Peter: Alright, well thank you so much for taking time to speak with us again on Travel Nursing Insider.

Sera: Thanks for having us.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Onward Search Career Cast, the podcast that brings you the latest insight and career advice from experts within the internet marketing and creative space. Onward Search is a leading, nationwide provider of web-based talent. Onward Search offers a full range of recruitment and staffing solutions. (download mp3) or play live:

We’re at the corporate headquarters of Onward Search in Wilton, CT with Ken Clark, co-founder and executive vice president of Onward Search, and Josh Gampel, vice president for Onward Search.

Onward Search Career Cast Episode #1 – Transcript

Welcome to Onward Search Career Cast, the podcast that brings you the latest insight and career advice from experts within the internet marketing and creative space. Onward Search is a leading nationwide provider of web-based talent and offers a full range of recruitment and staffing solutions.
If you’re looking for a career in search engine optimization, interactive design, or emerging technologies, you should apply online at OnwardSearch.com or call 1800-829-0072 and speak with an experienced recruiter today.

Hello, and welcome to the inaugural episode of Onward Search Career Cast. We’re in Wilton, Connecticut with Ken Clark who’s the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Onward Search and Josh Gampel, Vice President for Onward Search.
I’d like to start with you Ken, can you give us some of the background of Onward Search, a little bit of the back story how this whole company started, what your vision was?
Ken: Onward Search is a company that my brother and I actually founded several years ago and it came really as a result of a kind of complementary background that we’ve had in both the marketing, and technology, and staffing industries. A couple of years ago, we were looking at the search engine optimization space, and it’s pretty amazing even with kind of the economy we’ve had over the last or so, the online marketing industry is forecasted to literally double over the next five years, and one of the big challenges that companies have right now is finding the talent that can power their online marketing initiatives.

Both Kevin and I, as I’ve mentioned, have had experience founding other staffing businesses, and we started Onward Search with the goal of becoming the number one provider of internet marketing and creative talent in the country. So what that really means is we have a temporary staffing company with actually an executive search division as well, that provides everything from search engine optimization experts, to social media consultants, to Flash developers, graphic designers, usability experts, really anyone that helps a company market their company on the web.

Peter: To your point, there’s been a lot of publicity recently about Pepsi’s decision not to sponsor the Super Bowl this year and to put their money into all of the social media.

Ken: Yeah, and that’s indicative of what all companies are doing right now. You know, if you look at the trends, print and traditional marketing, advertising budgets are literally being slashed and marketing dollars are being spent online and these answers are pretty simple; (1) it’s because that’s where people are going and (2) it’s such a quantifiable and measurable form of marketing. You know, I can look at for my company a number of reports online right now and I can tell you exactly how much every lead is costing us and that’s what companies are doing all across the country.

Peter: Josh, can you give us an idea of what kind of professionals Onward Search looks for, for staffing?

Josh: Sure. As Ken mentioned, on the broad level, internet marketing and creative talent. We do this all across the country and invasively what does that mean? That means anybody that is involved with acquisition of customers via the web; so whether it’s search engine marketing professionals that are working on a pay-per-click basis, search engine optimization professionals that are doing organic search, social media professionals – I’m sure everybody out there is familiar with Twitter, it’s the most popular form of marketing right now – we deal with acquisition of customers to their website. But once they get to the website, we also deal with the creative aspect, the information architecture, the user experience, the web design, the graphic design, you know the total look and feel, the site is all part of the internet marketing and creative buckets that we consider that we recruit for.

Peter: As Ken mentioned, these are all temporary assignments, so how long is a typical temporary assignment with one of your clients?
Josh: Sure. Great question. I can’t give you 13 weeks as a finite number because every assignment varies. It depends on what the projects are for the company. We have several assignments that are three months in length. We have others that are two years in length. It all depends on exactly what the client is looking to execute. We have a certain client right now that’s doing a complete website redesign. Once that design is done, the project is over, it’s slotted to be a four month project but it’s most likely going to take about six months.

On the other end, we do temporary staffing. We also have an executive search division. The executive search division is permanent only so those assignments are indefinite in length.
Peter: Is there a chance for a temp position becoming a permanent position?
Josh: Yeah, absolutely. Most of our clients, that’s one way they like to evaluate talent, to make sure that the culture fit is right on both ends, the skill set is right. It’s also a way to just try before you buy on the client end. So temp to perm is a very popular model that we have. It also allows the candidate to determine if they like the company. I mean, in the search engine marketing world, the demand is very high, the supply is constrained, and that’s still the case today in even the economy that we’re in. So it allows both parties to make sure it’s the right fit before you jump right in and commit to each other.

Peter: Are most of your assignments onsite or are there opportunities for remote employment?

Josh: There are opportunities for remote, it depends on the client. I would say 90% of our assignments are onsite. It gives you a chance to go in, meet face to face. If you do remote work, most likely you have the ability to get to the office one or two times a week for meetings.
On the social media front where you can really, it’s a virtual world out there, we tend to have some more remote work but all of our needs are dictated by what the client wants and we really produce the candidates to match up with what their projects are.

Peter: Ken, what kind of clients do you normally work with?
Ken: The majority of our clients are actually what I generally categorize as Fortune 1000, Fortune 2000 clients. We certainly actually do a decent amount of work with internet marketing and advertising agencies out there as well but if you look at the bulk of our clients, they’re the big names in the industry that you’d read in Fortune magazine, frankly.

Peter: And what makes your staffing company unique or different from the other staffing companies out there?

Ken: I think it really gets back to what we started with when we talked about the premise of how we started Onward Search. There is not a single other company in the country right now that focuses on the niche that we specialize in. We have the DNA from the minute we started this company that internet marketing and creative staffing is what we do. When you look at the way, again, that the global trend line is going to online, we have the experts in that industry, that have been recruiting in that industry for years. Literally, everyone that’s on our team has unbelievable amounts of experience recruiting in this niche. We’re at the trade shows, we’re participating in the online communities. We really understand the space, frankly, better than any other company out there.

Peter: I think one thing would be very helpful is for you to deconstruct what the difference is between a staffing company, an executive search company, a retained search, a contingency search – this is very confusing to a lot of different people.

Ken: What I can do is let me just start with how the temporary side of the business works and then Josh, why don’t you talk about the executive search side.

The core of our business is temporary staffing and in essence, when you work with a temporary staffing business, what we’re doing is we’re speaking with customers usually in major metro markets that we operate in and they’re coming to us saying they need the best talent to get their products completed. So what we do is we keep a database of the most talented folks, nationally and within our regions, and we help you find a job that best meets your talents. As Josh mentioned, most of our work is project-based in some nature on the temp side and what we do is we then become your employer. You get benefits from us, healthcare benefits. We offer 401K plan, we offer health, life insurance, kind of all the benefits that you expect to get from any employer, but the benefit on the career side is you have the flexibility of moving from assignment to assignment and in this segment, that’s critical because the key to driving your career path forward is to advance your career, get a diversity of assignments and always be on the cutting edge of technology. So, working with Onward Search is actually a great way to do that.
Peter: And Josh, can you tell us a little bit about the executive search business?
Josh: Sure. On the executive search side, the way it differs from what Ken mentioned in regard to the temporary staffing is that it’s permanent assignments. What we do is partner with our clients typically on 100,000 or above positions and we really search for the right fit on a cultural and skill set basis for the person. We work with very large clients, typically Fortune 500 or the Internet Retailer’s top 500 and we really look for the best of the best.

Most often our assignments are all across the country. We’re looking for senior VPs of customer acquisition, senior VPs of SEO, VP of marketing, anybody that would run a marketing or acquisition strategy for the company is typically where search for and we do a lot of work and really headhunting as opposed to temporary staffing.

On the temporary staffing, it’s all about projects executed right away and for the talent that’s out there that’s listening, it’s typically those that are in the market available for work or looking for long-term projects.
On the executive search side, most likely you’re working right now. You’re going to get a call from us, listen to what we have to say, if it’s not a fit for you right now, we establish a relationship for the future and kind of go from there.

Peter: So what kind of trends are you seeing for 2010 going forward in the staffing industry and executive search, Ken?

Ken: Well, probably the biggest trend that we’re seeing which will come as no surprise to the folks out there is the rise of what I call mobile application development, mobile marketing. That is absolutely within our wheelhouse, so to speak, in the sense of what we do.
We have a number of projects ongoing right now where we’re helping companies develop iPhone applications, Android applications for the new Google operating system, as well as Blackberry applications.

It’s kind of interesting, CES, which is a big trade show, one of the keynote speakers made a quote and I’m paraphrasing him that said, “Not having a iPhone app is like not having a website,” and that is so true in what we’re seeing in the marketplace. Mobile is moving very quickly and in light of that or in the background of that, as I mentioned before, the whole online space, social media, email marketing, SEO, SEM, per Forrester’s research report that they released this year around the state of the industry, as I mentioned, is scheduled to double over the next five years. So all of these jobs are moving fast, growing and companies need talent and they are looking very hard for it right now.

Peter: Speaking about that Josh, can you give us an idea of some of the hot jobs or the hot professions that you are currently looking for temp help for?

Josh: Sure. Ken nailed it right on the head – iPhone application developers right now are as hot as they come. What clients are looking for, especially the larger ones are those that have experience doing enterprise-wide iPhone applications. What I mean by that is for instance, a financial services company that we’re working with wants to build out an iPhone application that can leverage accounts across multiple areas and multiple divisions, tie them all into one so a user such as myself or you that are out there listening can easily go to their iPhone, log in to whatever their account portfolios are, look at their 401K statements, look at the stock market and know in real time what their portfolios are doing. It involves a certain skill to be able to build the application but also to understand what’s going in the database in the backend and is as hot as can be right now.

Other areas that are very hot are Flash developers, anything that has to do with the look and feel of the website and the usability. If you’re really good, you’re going to find great work in clients that are looking for you. The other aspect as we mentioned in the beginning is search engine marketing; it’s one of the fastest growing markets out there, the talent is very high in demand and if you’re good and you have proven results, then we want to talk to you.

Ken: Just one thing I wanted to add to what Josh was saying on the iPhone side; we talked about our client mix and how we really work with enterprise clients, I meant that niche of an enterprise level iPhone developer as opposed to not that iPhone developer that creates games or utility apps isn’t needed or wanted in the marketplace, but that niche of an enterprise iPhone developer is in hot demand.
My tip to the talent out there is get your Cocoa and objective C books out and really focus on that because that’s a hot industry right now.

Peter: Well, thank you so much for your taking time to speak with us in the very first episode of the Onward Search Career cast, and be sure to tune in next time when we will be describing how a typical assignment with Onward Search works and joining us again will be Ken Clark who is the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Onward Search and Josh Gampel, the Vice President of Onward Search.
Thank you for tuning in to Onward Search Career Cast. For more information on the career opportunities available through Onward Search, you should visit us online at OnwardSearch.com or call 1800-829-0072, and speak with an experienced recruiter. And you should also follow Onward Search on Twitter at Twitter.com/onwardsearch.

Tammy McCoy, RN at Exempla’s Good Samaritan Hospital (map it) stops by to tell us what life is like as a nurse for one of Colorado’s top hospitals. She’ll also talk about her career path and give us insight into why nursing is such a rewarding career. To apply visit exemplajobs.org.

MP3 File