Hello,
First of all your forum is great and full of great information. My name is Gaëtan (it's French, notice the ë) and my wife (Dawn) is a nurse at Duke. Not for very long because we decided she would do some traveling. At first we wanted to be in the Minneapolis area, she would travel locally and I would get a full time job in the Minneapolis area. But, the hospitals there did not accept her application because she did not have any travel experience. Fair enough, we decided we would be open-minded and do it for 3-6 months or so and then go back. I think it is actually a really good thing because from what I read on the boards I can tell it's better to compare more than one company before jumping in. I have to say the company we worked with did not even bother telling us she was not accepted.... so we decided to broaden our horizon.
Anyway I decided to be proactive and since I am my wife's personal assistant I submitted her resume online (monster, careerbuilder), in less than 24 hours we had about 10 phone calls and as 20 emails from different companies claiming they were the best in the business. So I took the resume off the Internet and we talked to 2 companies so far. I have plenty of questions for you because it is really confusing. Since our home is in NC we qualify, according to the companies, for a tax-free housing bonus.
The first company for example for one of the assignments gives 2200 dollars/mo tax free and then 26 dollars per hour taxed. They said it would be equal to $46/hour taxed. But let's imagine my wife need to do overtime 1-2 hours a day when she works then it's not true because the 2200 are based on 40 hours. How is this supposed to work is it supposed to be an hourly tax free income based on how many hours you work or a lump of money they give you every month? I am curious because I read some posts saying that some travel companies were not always honest.
The second one has not given us any details yet. I am really surprised because you receive tons of phone calls but when they have to move stuff forward they are slow.
What about health insurance, some of them only offer discounts other offer full coverage but when you read about their policy you have to pay 20% of the total amount for some things (i.e. inpatient surgery), that's a lot of money so the insurance is rubbish. Do you know any companies with good affordable coverage, not 650 dollars like I read. I am 24 I can find cheaper on the Internet.
Next would be bonuses and other advantages what should we be looking at? 401ks? Relocation reimbursement? Education? Paid vacation? Any really good companies you would recommend?
How much do you think is a good hourly wage in the Mid West, thinking that we will choose our own accommodation if we find a cheap place to stay?
What do you think? What is the best thing to do and what should we be looking at?
Thanks for your help,
Gaëtan
First of all your forum is great and full of great information. My name is Gaëtan (it's French, notice the ë) and my wife (Dawn) is a nurse at Duke. Not for very long because we decided she would do some traveling. At first we wanted to be in the Minneapolis area, she would travel locally and I would get a full time job in the Minneapolis area. But, the hospitals there did not accept her application because she did not have any travel experience. Fair enough, we decided we would be open-minded and do it for 3-6 months or so and then go back. I think it is actually a really good thing because from what I read on the boards I can tell it's better to compare more than one company before jumping in. I have to say the company we worked with did not even bother telling us she was not accepted.... so we decided to broaden our horizon.
Anyway I decided to be proactive and since I am my wife's personal assistant I submitted her resume online (monster, careerbuilder), in less than 24 hours we had about 10 phone calls and as 20 emails from different companies claiming they were the best in the business. So I took the resume off the Internet and we talked to 2 companies so far. I have plenty of questions for you because it is really confusing. Since our home is in NC we qualify, according to the companies, for a tax-free housing bonus.
The first company for example for one of the assignments gives 2200 dollars/mo tax free and then 26 dollars per hour taxed. They said it would be equal to $46/hour taxed. But let's imagine my wife need to do overtime 1-2 hours a day when she works then it's not true because the 2200 are based on 40 hours. How is this supposed to work is it supposed to be an hourly tax free income based on how many hours you work or a lump of money they give you every month? I am curious because I read some posts saying that some travel companies were not always honest.
The second one has not given us any details yet. I am really surprised because you receive tons of phone calls but when they have to move stuff forward they are slow.
What about health insurance, some of them only offer discounts other offer full coverage but when you read about their policy you have to pay 20% of the total amount for some things (i.e. inpatient surgery), that's a lot of money so the insurance is rubbish. Do you know any companies with good affordable coverage, not 650 dollars like I read. I am 24 I can find cheaper on the Internet.
Next would be bonuses and other advantages what should we be looking at? 401ks? Relocation reimbursement? Education? Paid vacation? Any really good companies you would recommend?
How much do you think is a good hourly wage in the Mid West, thinking that we will choose our own accommodation if we find a cheap place to stay?
What do you think? What is the best thing to do and what should we be looking at?
Thanks for your help,
Gaëtan