After San Diego, I wanted to make my way up to Northern/Central California. I wanted to be somewhere in the bay area or near Sacramento. I have previously visited San Francisco but have never been to Sacramento. I mostly wanted to situate myself close to Lake Tahoe, so I could easily drive there for a nice summer weekend.
I knew I didn’t want to overwhelm myself again as I did with my search in Southern California, by having over 20 options. I just stuck with 3 agencies this time to help with my search.
My main search criteria were:
-Working with an agency that pays 1099 (vs W2): the reason is because California already takes out a high amount of state income tax, and I had already done my due diligence in San Diego working with a W2 company. I needed to balance out my sole proprietor/self employed income with my employee/employed income for tax purposes.
-Location: I wasn’t too picky about the city; I just wanted to be within 1 hour from San Francisco or Sacramento (or both).
After interviewing with a handful of clinics, I decided to choose based on the clinic I preferred over location. Since I had a great location with my last assignment (San Diego) but did not enjoy the clinic itself, my main goal was to work with a clinic that was well-run and the medical assistant’s were very autonomous.
I ended up choosing a community health center in the Bay area, between San Francisco and Sacramento. Per my conversations with the directors of the clinics, each provider has two medical assistants, and they can be as autonomous as the provider wants them to be.
I am grateful that the facility has also pre-approved my requested vacation time for two trips I will be taking during the assignment. My assignment is 3 months long, but after deducting my vacations days, I will only really be working there for 2 months.
