Negotiating with a Travel Nurse Recruiter

Negotiating with a travel nurse recruiter is one of those dreadful things that you know you should do – but you either don’t want to or simply don’t know how to.  It wasn’t until I had years of travel nurse experience and started to learn the ins and outs of the industry for myself that I finally wrapped my head around the art of negotiation.  Lucky for me, at this time I also didn’t necessarily feel like I needed to negotiate anymore – I had found my recruiter that I loved and knew that she was always giving me the most money she possibly could.  However, my negotiation skills came to light when I took an assignment with another company.

Before reading this please know that this is my personal experience with a recruiter.  This does not reflect every recruiter nor will these tactics work for every contract.  I highly suggest to work with a recruiter that you trust so that you don’t have to negotiate.  You trust that they are giving you the most amount of money that they can and are being upfront and honest with your pay package.  I also will say that a recruiter can make or break a company.  A good recruiter will make a bad company look, well, good.  A bad recruiter will make a good company look, well, bad.  You can read more about why I recommend choosing a recruiter over a company here.

 

IF YOU WANT TO BE CONNECTED WITH MY GO-TO RECRUITER, FILL OUT THIS FORM TO BE CONNECTED

 

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• Your A-Z Guide to Travel Nursing

 

Negotiating – Should You or Shouldn’t You?

Until you find that one recruiter that you trust, I would say that you should always negotiate for yourself as a travel nurse.  But to start, it’s important to know what you are negotiating for.  Do your research, find out what the normal base pay is in the area you’re moving to, and know what you will and won’t settle for.  (Again, a good recruiter that you trust won’t be yanking your chain.  They will already be upfront and honest with you thus eliminating the need for negotiation).  Before going into negotiations, you have to know your limit and when you will walk away.

Here is a direct example of how I negotiated for more pay and why you shouldn’t back down from a recruiter…

 

My Background Story

I’ve been a travel nurse on and off for seven years and have signed 12+ travel nurse contracts.  For as long as I can remember I have been trying to land a travel nurse assignment in San Francisco, with all previous attempts being unsuccessful.  I either needed too much time off of work, couldn’t start on the start date requested, and so forth.

Unfortunately, American Mobile has first rights to Northern California, specifically Kaiser facilities – the hospital that I wanted to work at.  This means that American Mobile is allowed to fill all jobs at Kaiser FIRST – before other companies are allowed to place their travel nurses at the facility.  (This is why I had to work with American Mobile on this assignment and not my normal recruiter).  For that reason, if you want to work in San Francisco (especially a Kaiser facility), it’s imperative that you have a profile with American Mobile to ensure that you are getting first dibs on all job openings.  While I strictly worked with American Mobile only to be placed in San Francisco, I do not recommend working with them otherwise.  You can read about my past experience with American Mobile here and here.

 

 

Getting Placed in San Francisco = Time to Negotiate

Once I had filled out my profile with American Mobile and got paired with a recruiter who was on the lookout for jobs in San Francisco for me, I received a phone call a couple of days later telling me there was an opening at the hospital I wanted to work at.  I asked Patty – (not her real name) – to please send me the pay package, and if the offer was good, I would love to be submitted.

 

Pro tip:  Do NOT let a recruiter submit you to any assignment without seeing the pay package first.  Once you’re submitted, you may not be submitted with any other company and you lose all power to negotiate.

 

Don’t miss…

• 7 Red Flags in Travel Nursing
• 30 Questions to Ask a Travel Nurse Recruiter

 

Step 1:  Receive Pay Package & Look it Over

Patty knew how badly I want to be in San Francisco, which is probably why she thought that she could get away with taking a higher margin and giving me a lower cut of the pie (resulting in a lower paycheck).  But what she didn’t understand was my utter disdain for being “screwed over” or my knowledge of the travel nurse industry (lucky for me, unlucky for her).  And Patty certainly underestimated me when I told her that I would walk away if the contract didn’t feel right.

Needless to say, the pay package was worthless.  My rate was split in two – summer and winter rates – with the summer rate being lower than the winter rate.  (This is the first time I’ve seen a contract with pay separated like this).  But most importantly, the pay package was less than what I knew should and would be coming out of Kaiser San Francisco.  I knew this based on speaking with other travel nurses who had previously worked at the hospital, plus I had kept all San Francisco contracts that had been sent to me in years prior.

 

Pro tip:  As a travel nurse – keep every single contract a recruiter sends you even if you have no intention of taking a job at that hospital.

 

Step 2:  What is the Bill Rate?

Patty wouldn’t budge on pay – despite me telling her it was too low, so I resorted to asking her what the bill rate was.  (If you don’t know what “bill rate” is, read this post and this post).  She told me that it was unprofessional of her to tell me what the bill rate was and my response was, “I want to work with a recruiter who has a traveler first mentality”.

 

Note:  A lot of recruiter will not share the bill rate with you (not that I blame them) and I really only ask this question as a last resort; I generally don’t like to work with recruiters that make me feel like I have to ask this question because it means that I believe I’m being screwed over.

 

Step 3:  Being Willing to Walk Away

After going back and forth with Patty over the pay package, she resorted to threatening that the job would go “quick” if I didn’t act now.  And yes, that can happen.  But you should NOT be scared into taking an assignment.  If it doesn’t feel 100% right, it isn’t going to be right.  I would have rather known I was being paid fairly versus getting there and being bitter that I didn’t feel like I was making enough.

This went on for a while, with Patty repeating that I needed to accept the job now because there were only 5 positions and 9 nurses had already been submitted.  And that’s when I realized it was time to walk away.  In my mind, I had a bottom line and Patty wasn’t willing to meet me there.  (For more clarity, I wanted to make $2,800/week after taxes but my bottom line was $2,500/week after taxes.  The initial pay package was for $2,000/week after taxes).

Realizing we weren’t getting anywhere, Patty told me that I should think about my answer and tell her in the morning, to which I said, “The answer is no unless you get me to $2,500/week after taxes”.  She told me that she couldn’t do that and we got off the phone.  Of course I was disappointed, but I also knew that I would be even more disappointed showing up each day, knowing I was making less than the other travel nurses.

 

Step 4:  Knowing Your Value = Getting What You Want

The next morning, I received a phone call from Patty.  She told me, “I went over the numbers again and now I’m able to get you the $2,500”.  You see, I knew she could do that.  I knew that the money was there – she just had to take smaller margins.  And I knew my worth.  I was the one who was going to the hospital to work.  I was the one who had moving expenses and high rent to pay.  And I knew that I wasn’t willing to compromise.  And because I knew my value, I was able to successfully negotiate.

 

Travel Nurse Essentials

 

Again, every situation will look differently; but I think that the bottom line when you’re negotiating is to know your worth, be prepared with facts, and know your bottom line.  I hope that this example of negotiating with a recruiter provides you a little bit of context into what negotiating looks like at times.  And if you have any questions about negotiating, let me know in a comment below!

 

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For more information and inspiration on all things nursing and travel nursing, make sure to check out my Instagram page/highlight reel by searching “#ppinscrubs” or under my highlights for “Nursing” or “Travel Nursing”; alternatively, head to my TikTok and search for the saved “Nursing” or “Travel Nursing” highlight

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