Let’s Build a Spectacular Travel Folder!

Show me your papers!

I’m going to show you how to build your absolute best collection of documents so you can dress to impress.

First impressions matter!

I highly, highly recommend that you gather a few documents to make your life leaps and bounds easier as you start applying to different agencies. No need to reinvent the wheel every time, right?

First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality.

Napoleon Hill

Google Drive, Dropbox, or even a good old fashioned folder saved on your desktop will suffice. Saving documents to the cloud means you can access them from anywhere! Google Drive is my absolute favorite spot for organizing all of my travel work related documents.

Documents to Have at the Ready

Degree/Transcript

A copy of your degree will suffice for agency submissions, but be aware that some facilities will want to take a closer look at your transcript! Keep both on hand just in case.

Immunizations

Keep copies of your most recent tetanus, varicella, Hepatitis B, and influenza vaccination records.

Latest Physical/Health Summary

Agencies want to make sure you’re fit to work!

Don’t have some of these? That’s okay!

No need to worry. It’s just another poke, prod, or appointment that you’ll have to get lined up and taken care of once your start applying to and getting accepted to open jobs.

Resume

This one goes without saying! Agencies and facilities both want to make sure you have enough experience in the field to be able to hit the ground running.

Recent References

Keep a good variety of people in your arsenal here. Agencies will require different numbers of references and also different types. That one agency you’re really interested in might want two supervisory references or maybe just three peer references.

Touch base with the people who will be important to your travel work BEFORE you leave your current job as agencies want these references to be RECENT. Think “in the last year”… So, make sure you leave in good standing!

COVID-19 Vaccination Card

This is a relatively new one, but definitely worth mentioning. We are seeing more and more hospitals requiring their employees to get the vaccine so don’t expect them to treat you any different.

It is a good possibility that now and moving into the future not having the vaccine will severely limit which jobs you can submit to.

Driver’s License

Keep a copy of both the front and back of your up to date driver’s license. This can be useful in case someone you’re renting from needs to run a background check. Some of the documentation you’ll be filling out as you apply to agencies will require this as well!

Professional Certifications

The ASCP has moved away from providing paper certificates when you renew your license. This is a problem because you have to spend YOUR hard earned money to ship it off to multiple recruiters. Make this cost KNOWN and ask to be reimbursed!

Passport, Social Security Card, and Birth Certificate

These documents are important for filling out form I-9. This is the form that verifies your are legal to work in the United States AND they will ask you for multiple documents to prove this fact.

All of these documents are a great starting point for your newly formed TRAVEL FOLDER! Keep this up to date with any changes! Contracts are short and time flies by fast!

New To Travel Work?

Visit our entire travel work series here.

How has the travel series helped you prepare for the transition into travel work? Leave a comment and let us know.