The Fourth Assignment - Georgetown/Austin, Texas

The Fourth Assignment Trail Guide

We were not ready to end our time in Texas, so we decided to pack our things and head to Central Texas for the dog days of summer and early fall. We found our Home #7 in Georgetown, Texas: Andrew worked in Round Rock and Alyssa worked in Northern Georgetown. We completed this assignment from August 6, 2024 - November 1, 2024 with the same travel agency as before, CoreMedical Group. We also worked with the same hospital-based outpatient clinic company as DFW, so we already knew the documentation system. We again took 2 weeks off and negotiated a Tuesday start date so we could celebrate Alyssa’s birthday. This trail guide will provide insight on our journey.

The Search

Back in May, we were forward thinking and discussed starting our next contracts at the start of August. We knew we did not want to extend our DFW contracts, but wanted to take another contract assignment in Texas due to wanting to “get our money's worth” out of our Texas license. P.s. we are still waiting for our respective home states to become a part of the PT Compact. After knowing our anticipated start date, we backwards planned our contract search to begin at the beginning of June. We were open to working mainly any area in Texas again and any type of clinic. 

We first began scouting potential options during the first week of June with our current travel agency, CoreMedical Group, but were mainly browsing their job listing page. Our recruiter actually did reach out to us and provide some potential options in DFW that week on their own. On Sunday June 9th, Andrew checked CoreMedical’s job board, and saw 2 outpatient clinics near Austin, Texas, at Hutto and Cedar Park. We then texted our recruiter to inquire. The following morning, our recruiter asked the clinics and was told that they filled their openings but may have additional offers in the region and they would ask their regional manager. Our recruiter got back to us later that day and asked if we were willing to be “float PTs” to a few clinics in the Austin region with the same hospital based outpatient company we were currently at. We thought sure, we could interview to see if it would be feasible to us.

We then gave the go ahead to submit our applications to the jobs later that evening, June 10th. On June 13th, the company’s regional manager texted us to set up a joint phone interview on Friday, June 14th. During the phone call, everything seemed like a good fit. The conditions were that one of us would mainly be at one clinic in Round Rock, while one of us would float between a clinic in Georgetown, Cedar Park, and/or Pflugerville. On Saturday, June 15th we were offered positions. And on Monday, June 17th, we accepted the positions.

Accepting the Fourth Assignment Contract

We decided that Andrew would work at the Round Rock clinic and Alyssa was to be the “float PT” between 3 clinics in the region. Ultimately, everyone at the Georgetown clinic loved Alyssa and her productivity, that she stayed at the same clinic the entire 13 weeks! Our contract was slated for the typical 13 weeks. We negotiated our start date to be August 6th, 2024 to November 1st, 2024. We did request a long weekend off this contract due to attending a UF football game in Gainesville the first week of October, which was approved. As far as time off goes during this assignment, we started on a Tuesday (giving us a 4-day week), had labor day off, and a Friday and Monday off during the weekend of the Florida football game. We also received a tiny pay increase from our third contract assignment. Unfortunately, we were not provided with an opportunity to create our schedule for this assignment. Andrew worked 9am-6pm Monday-Thursday and 8am-5pm on Friday while Alyssa worked 8am-5pm Monday-Thursday and 7am-4pm on Friday.

This contract, Andrew needed to complete a Physical, drug test, and a background check while signing the usual contract paperwork. Alyssa only needed to complete a drug test, background check, and the contract paperwork for the assignment. We did speak to our respective clinic managers on the phone leading up to our first days.

Finding our Home #7 in Georgetown, Texas

This may have been the easiest home search to date. We first browsed Furnished Finders on June 15th and messaged a few promising places in the North Austin area. We briefly browsed AirBnB and VRBO, but wanted to stay away from those platforms due to the 3rd party fees accompanying the sites. We heard back from one option on Furnished Finders early on, a large duplex townhouse in Georgetown. Alyssa being the negotiator she is, asked for rent to be lowered from $2500 to $2000, to which the landlord then counterted at $2200. Our lowest rent to date at a brand new duplex townhouse, fully furnished and stocked kitchen! 

Home #7 was located in Southern Georgetown. It was approximately 22 minutes (10 miles) from Alyssa’s clinic and 13 minutes (6 miles) from Andrew’s clinic. Even better, it was 13 minutes (6 miles) from our gym, Georgetown Fitness. We still trained in the mornings before work and we left directly from the gym to work. This shortened Alyssa’s commute to 12 minutes (6 miles) in the morning and Andrew’s was 10-15 minutes (8 miles) in the mornings. We loved Georgetown Fitness. It was a small local gym and one of our first ones that was not a large commercial based gym.They had good pricing and offered discounts on couples and healthcare workers, with no bs contract fees etc.

We loved living in Georgetown! A very peaceful area away from the city, but only a 45 minute drive to downtown Austin. More to come in the following post about our fun experiences!

Our Contract Experience

Overall, we both enjoyed our contract experiences, our co-workers, supervisors and the general clinic cultures. Andrew had a way better experience at this contract than the previous assignment. There was no competitive culture and rather it was friendly, professional, and fun. Andrew had 5 front desk support staff, 1 OT, and 8 PTs. There were 1 PT and 1 OT students, a new grad PT that started about 4 weeks in, and a recent full-time hire, who was the previous traveler. There were a few PRN therapists who provided coverage care throughout his time being there. Andrew’s clinic was large, seeing between 8-14 patients a day, between the ages of 14-85. It was mainly a general ortho population with general ortho post-ops.

Alyssa’s clinic had 3 front desk support staff, 1 OT, and 9-12 PTs depending on the day. Alyssa mainly saw 70-90 year olds due to being located right beside a retirement community. Alyssa’s caseload was very similar. We both became friends with Alyssa’s co-workers and even went to grab drinks with a few PTs from Andrew’s clinic while Alyssa enjoyed a few happy hours with her clinic.

Since becoming licensed physical therapists, these two clinics were one of the most enjoyable experiences for a variety of reasons such as caseload, documentation systems, co-workers, and clinic culture. Andrew was encouraged to extend multiple times during his contract and even offered a permanent position multiple times. Alyssa’s clinic did as well.

10/10 experience!

Best Wishes,

ATB & AJS