I guess that when you enjoy a location, it’s hard to keep you away from it. This is exactly how I felt as I signed up for my second traveling bout in Boston and how I still feel today as I sit here on a hot 105 degree day in Arizona writing this. (I could use a nice ocean breeze right now).
Boston for me was an amazing place to work as a traveler. I’ve touched on this some in my first post about traveling in Boston. But, in regards to geographic location, it’s perfect. It has the ocean, it has mountains just to the north in NH, VT, and ME, it has drive-able destinations such as RI and NYC, and it has a major city full of things to do. It was the total package for me.
It’s expensive here but the income is good, and even though the cost of living is high, there are still ways to live below your means and pocket more of your income while enjoying a destination location like Boston.
You Can’t Go to Destination Locations as a Traveler
We are all told this very regularly that if you want work in popular locations that you either can’t, or you will need to sacrifice your money and/or your preferred work setting. However, for the second time now, I was able to work in this popular location, take home over $1750 per week, and work in an outpatient hospital with 1 on 1 care.
I believe that as travelers, we often settle on the first location that offers us a contract. It’s stressful setting up our next assignments, I get that. We are working a full time that is wrapping up, while trying to talk to one or more recruiters about new assignments between patients because for whatever reason recruiters seem to forget that travelers do in fact still work during the day.
Sometimes, to avoid this stress, we settle on the first job that is offered to us to avoid the headaches of finding another assignment. But often times, this first offer is only sort of near our preferred location or likely paying under what they could potentially offer you.
Your recruiter may pressure you to accept this assignment giving you only 24 hours to decide, but stay strong because if it isn’t what you are looking for, why settle. Bigger cities are easier to get to than you think, you just need to be patient, stay strong under the recruiter pressure, and often times working with a few companies can further improve your odds.
Each time I said I wanted to work in Boston, I received multiple offers for jobs in rural Mass, jobs in the cape, or jobs outside of outpatient therapy. Each time I have stayed true to my wants and each time I have found jobs just outside of the city in outpatient hospital settings.
It will work out, don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise. The more I travel, the more I improve my confidence to advocate for what I want. Always remember, only you will have your best interests in mind.
The Job
This time around in Boston, I was working in a suburb about 15 to 20 minutes south of the city. This allowed me to live in the city and commute the opposite way of rush hour both to and from work. As mentioned, the setting was again hospital outpatient.
The more I continue to travel, the more value I continue to place on hospital outpatient work. I guess further making me more picky in my assignment selection. I was able to work with a staff of about 5 other PTs who were all amazing people. I was definitely the youngest at this location but this allowed me to continue to grow as a practitioner as my colleagues had much to teach.
This location was the first location that allowed me to work overtime which actually let me build on the already solid take home pay. I worked around 45 hours per week which brought in roughly another $200 dollars of take home pay.
I did work Saturdays from 7 to noon but then as a result had Sundays and Mondays off. What I found, was that this actually kick started my weekend and led to me becoming much more productive. In Boston, I didn’t do much traveling out of the city, so for me, I still felt like I didn’t miss out on much because most of my friends in the city weren’t active before noon anyways.
Living Situation
As mentioned, Boston is expensive. So this was a situation that ended up working out on more than one front. As always, I searched my normal list of ideas to find housing. I went on some house tours, but ultimately decided on a place that I had found on Craigslist. It was $700/month, utilities paid for!!! In Boston!! Wild.
The only problem, was that the apartment wasn’t furnished. I couldn’t beat the price so I said yes anyways. My solution, was that because the rent was so cheap, that I figured I could then afford the nicest possible air mattress on the market. So I researched and eventually settled on large queen sized mattress with a built in pump.
My mattress came and I truly didn’t even notice a difference sleeping on this versus a mattress and now I have an air mattress to travel with in the future in case this situation arises again or I have friends visit.
The price isn’t even the best part about this location. By pure chance, one of my two roommates I lived with was awesome. It turned out we were about the same age and had very similar interests and to this day, still talk very regularly. I then had someone to talk to, go out with, or watch sports with. I now consider him a very close friend.
Conclusion
Prior to traveling, I would have never allowed myself to be a situation where I showed up at a new city, started a new job, moved into a new house, and began hanging out with new people. I was very sheltered and very stuck in my routine and my own comfort zone.
Traveling healthcare continues to push me out of my comfort zone and turn me into a more confident individual. For me personally, I don’t know if I would have made these life changes had I not started this journey. Now, I have a sense of adventure and can’t wait to explore new areas, meet new people, and continue to grow as an individual.
I’m not saying this will be everyone’s experience with traveling, but it is mine and I hope to continue to help others with their own journeys in the process.
As always, comment below if you have any questions or write to me here with any more specific questions or if you want to get in contact with my awesome recruiter.
