Top Clinical Fellowship Questions for Your Recruiter: What to Prepare
Whether you are preparing to graduate from SLP school or have already crossed the finish line, you are set for the next exciting step in your young career—your Clinical Fellowship (CF)! Your CF year is an incredible opportunity for you to familiarize yourself with a new role and better understand the industry you will be working in.
Your CF will also allow you to explore different SLP settings, patient populations, and work locations so that when you obtain your Cs, you will be ready to seek jobs that best fit your personal and professional goals. So, how can you best prepare yourself to take full advantage of your Clinical Fellowship experience?
We’ve enlisted the insight of Elle D., University Program Manager at AMN Healthcare, to help you engage your CF recruiter and make educated decisions about your SLP career.
Setting Individual Clinical Fellowship Goals
Setting yourself up for a successful Clinical Fellowship experience begins before you’ve even picked up the phone to connect with a recruiter. Elle suggests that before graduating SLP school, it’s important to look inward when building the foundations of your career goals.
“I recommend that as students, they take the opportunity to have a solid conversation with themselves and the folks that know them best. This includes their loved ones and their mentors from grad school and their clinical rotations.”
Starting this dialogue early will allow you to clearly outline the aspects of role, setting, facility, and location that you are actively seeking or avoiding before jumping into the job search process.
“When they ask themselves the tough questions up front, they can pair their answers with the research they are doing. That way, they can start to narrow down the best path(s) for them when it comes to their first job within their chosen discipline.”
Once you have narrowed down the specific qualities you are seeking in your CF assignment, you are ready to dig into the finer details with a recruiter. With this being your first SLP job, however, there is still a vast amount of information to comb through before you hit your start date.
Your recruiter is there to support you every step of the way—but what should you know about yourself before those initial conversations?
Asking the Right Questions
The answer rests in knowing the right questions to ask.
“The key is to make an informed decision by asking the right questions and knowing what to talk about with a recruiter.”
You have already put in a ton of research on your own—in and out of the classroom—to inform your initial career decisions. Now, it’s time to conduct an interview with yourself. Asking yourself a series of pointed questions about your personal and professional goals will give you the perspective you need to enter your first recruiter conversation confidently.
Here are some examples of questions to ponder before you speak with your recruiter:
- What’s important for me to have during my experience and from my employer?
- What are the things I want to know more about?
- What are my deal breakers?
- Where do I want to work?
- What settings am I open to?
- What kind of lifestyle do I want?
- What are my professional AND my personal goals?
- Where do I envision myself in 1, 3, 5 years?
- What kind of schedule would I enjoy in my first position?
- What does an ideal support system look like?
- What am I willing to do to become the kind of clinician I want to become?
- Is there anyone I would like to travel with?
This list is a good place to get started, but at the end of the day this experience is your own—feel free to frame the questions to fit your own unique story. As you ask and answer your questions, you’ll start to see which path aligns with your goals and interests, preparing you for a productive conversation with your recruiter.
“By the time candidates get to the conversation with their recruiter, they will have a ton to talk about and they can both start to lay out the game plan and foundation of their career moving forward!”
Are you an SLP who is ready to take the next step in your career? Learn more about Med Travelers’ SLP Clinical Fellowship Program or connect with a recruiter today to get started!