Back in the Game

After working at one assignment for the past year, I had to get back in the groove of working in locums again. I was used to working with the most amazing recruiter, which made me have high expectations for all other recruiters.

My priority for my next assignment was for it to be a 1099 job. I had worked most of the year with a W2 agency and had also paid tons of taxes to Uncle Sam. I needed to work with a 1099 agency to allow me to have more tax deductions at the end of the year. Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn’t continue working with my favorite recruiter for my next assignment.

My experiences so far have been a bit rocky. Prior to presenting me to an assignment, I felt like this one recruiter/account manager put me on the spot as if it was an official interview. He asked me “what is special about you, that would make me want to present you to my site”? I was appalled because I know I am great, but I didn’t feel as if I needed to explain to him the reasons why. Because the reality is that by me working with this site, I would be providing him with his income. This is a type of question I wouldn’t mind answering someone interviewing me from the site, but not the agency….

Another recruiter called me SEVEN times in one day! I kid you not. If this were a relationship I would have broken it off long ago! Another one of my pet peeves is when I am not scheduled for a phone interview with a site, but the site will just randomly call me. I think it is more professional when you provide your recruiter with good interview times, and then they confirm the time the site will be calling you. Instead, I had a site call me during the mid-afternoon while I was at work. Then we were playing phone tag for the rest of the week.

I decided to accept a brief assignment with a new agency I haven’t worked with before. The credentialing process hasn’t been the smoothest. For instance, I was told by my recruiter to go to a lab site and request a urine drug test (without an order). Usually the agency provides me with a confirmation form for the urine drug test and I just bring in that paper to my scheduled appointment. I called the lab site prior just in case and they told me I needed to register for the urine drug test prior. I informed my recruiter, and she gave me a number to register for the test. When I called, they said the place of employment had to register me. -_-

The issue was resolved but sometimes it boggles my mind because don’t these people deal with this on a regular basis?

Another credentialing contact person requested I sign the protocol with my supervising physician. She only sent me the last page to sign via email. I had to let her know that I would not sign a protocol without seeing the complete set. Also, the board of nursing requires the original protocol with original blue signatures. Typically the agency will fed-ex me the protocol to sign and send back to them via fed-ex. So just printing the protocol and scanning it back to them wouldn’t make it official.

Many of my readers have shared some of their frustrations when starting locum tenens, and unfortunately a lot of them are due to their recruiter/agency. I was so used to working with some great recruiters and agencies, I almost forgot how bad others could be. Alas, I had to continue working with this agency because the assignment they offered really matched my current needs. I was a bit disappointed that my recruiter didn’t ask me how everything went after my first day of the assignment. It was something I was used to when working with other recruiters, and I think it’s a nice gesture.

After writing this, I am going to send my favorite recruiter some flowers as a big Thank You for Being Awesome! This pretty much sums up why I often advise my readers to reach out to me personally, to recommend specific agencies and recruiters, because they are not all created equally.