First Contract Playbook for New Grad Travelers

Ten years ago, "travel as a new grad" was unusual advice. The conventional wisdom was: do two years permanent, build clinical confidence and a mentor network, then go travel. Some clinicians still hold that view strongly. But the share of new grads going straight into travel has been climbing steadily, and in 2026 it is no longer unusual to meet a PT, OT, or SLP whose first job out of school was a 13-week contract in a state they had never visited.

This issue is for that group: clinicians less than a year out of their program who are weighing travel for their first contract, or who already signed one and want to know how to make it work. It is not a sales pitch for traveling early. It is an honest accounting of what the trade-offs actually are, and a checklist for setting up a first contract so it does not blow up.

The Case For Traveling as a New Grad

Three things draw new grads to travel:

1. The pay gap. A new grad in a permanent SNF or outpatient role typically earns somewhere in the high $1,000s/week. A new grad on a travel contract in the same setting often earns somewhere in the low to mid $2,000s/week. Over a year, the gap compounds into real money — especially if you are paying down student loans aggressively.
2. Setting variety. You can spend your first 18 months working acute, SNF, outpatient, and home health in three different states. That is a clinical exposure profile most permanent first-year hires take five years to build.
3. Lifestyle flexibility. If the first job is in a place you do not love, it ends in 13 weeks. Permanent jobs come with golden-handcuff dynamics that are easier to avoid when you start as a traveler.

The Case Against

There are real reasons new grad travel is not for everyone. The honest version:

• Mentorship gaps. Travel contracts assume you can hit the ground running. Many facilities will hand you a caseload on day one and expect you to carry it. If your program left you weak in any clinical area, travel does not give you a structured way to fill the gap.
• Productivity expectations. SNF and outpatient contracts in particular often come with productivity standards (e.g., 90–95% billable productivity in SNF) that are difficult for any new grad. The facility expects experienced output regardless of your years.
• Documentation autonomy. You will be writing evaluations, plans of care, and discharge summaries with no peer review. If your documentation is not clean, the facility will notice fast.
• Isolation. Travel can be lonely, and being lonely while also being clinically uncertain compounds. The travelers who do this well usually have strong remote support networks.
• The pay gap is smaller than you think after taxes. Stipends are tax-free only if you have a valid tax home. Many new grads do not, because they moved out of their parents' house only to start traveling. See Issue 11.

None of these are dealbreakers, but all of them are real and worth thinking about before you sign. The clinicians we see thrive in new-grad travel are the ones who walk in with their eyes open about all five.

How to Evaluate a First Contract

For an experienced traveler, contract evaluation is mostly about pay and location. For a new grad, that is the wrong order. The variables that matter most for a first contract, in order:

1. The setting. Pick a setting where you feel reasonably solid clinically. Going from a school-heavy program straight into acute care is a recipe for stress. Outpatient ortho is often the most forgiving first setting because it is structured and relatively predictable.
2. Mentorship language in the contract. Some facilities will give a new grad an experienced clinician as an unofficial mentor. Some will not. Ask explicitly during the offer call: "Will I have a designated clinician I can ask questions of?" The answer is more important than the pay rate.
3. Productivity expectations. Get the facility's productivity target in writing before signing. If it is above 90% for a setting like SNF, ask how they handle ramp-up for travelers. If they have no answer, that is a red flag.
4. Contract length. A 13-week contract is enough time to learn the system and demonstrate value. Anything shorter is brutal for a new grad. Some agencies offer 8-week starter contracts — we generally would not recommend those for a first job.
5. Recruiter quality. A first-contract recruiter should walk you through everything, not assume you know how it works. If your recruiter is brief, transactional, or pushes you to sign quickly, find another. There are plenty of recruiters. Our sister site traveltherapyrecruiters.com has guidance on how to vet one.
6. Pay rate. Yes, it matters. But it matters less than the five things above for your first job. A first contract that goes well at $2,200/week is worth more in long-run earnings than a first contract that goes badly at $2,800/week.

Realistic Pay Expectations

New grads typically earn slightly below experienced rates. The discount is not huge — usually $100–$300/week below the discipline average from Issue 06 — but it is real. Expect a first PT contract to land in the $1,900–$2,400/week range, OT in the $1,800–$2,300/week range, SLP in the $1,900–$2,500/week range. Lower in saturated metros, higher in shortage markets.

Your second contract will pay better than your first, almost regardless of agency, because you will negotiate from "I have travel experience now" instead of "I am a new grad." The first contract is partly an investment in being able to negotiate the second one.

Tax Home Setup Before Day One

This is the part new grads most often skip, and it is the most expensive thing to skip. To collect housing and M&IE stipends tax-free, you need a valid IRS tax home. For most new grads, this means:

• You have a permanent residence somewhere (not your parents' house unless you pay them documented fair-market rent)
• You return to that residence between assignments
• You can document the duplicate expenses (rent or mortgage payments, utilities, etc.)

If you do not have a tax home in place before your first contract, every dollar of your stipends is technically taxable income, and the IRS can come back years later to assess the tax plus penalties. This is the single most expensive mistake new grad travelers make. traveltherapytax.com has a checklist for setting one up properly. Set it up before day one, not after.

The Documentation Habit

Clean documentation is the single best protection a new grad traveler has. Audits, productivity disputes, contract cancellations, and bad reviews all start with documentation problems. A few practices that experienced travelers rely on:

• Complete daily notes the same day, ideally before leaving the facility
• Use objective measurements, not vague language ("patient ambulated 50 feet with min assist x1, requiring 2 verbal cues" beats "patient walked with assistance")
• Document patient refusals and skilled-need rationale every visit
• Save copies of your evaluations and discharge summaries (within HIPAA, of course) so you have a personal portfolio

Where to Find Mentorship Outside the Facility

If your contract does not come with formal mentorship, build it yourself. The travel therapy community is unusually generous on this front. Sister site traveltherapymentorship.com has resources for finding a mentor. Online communities (subreddits, Facebook groups, Discord servers) are also full of experienced travelers willing to answer questions if you ask thoughtfully. The clinicians who do well as new grad travelers all have some version of "people I can text when I am stuck."

One agency-side observation worth noting: smaller, clinician-owned agencies often handle new grads more gracefully than large national ones, simply because the recruiter is more likely to be a former PT/OT/SLP themselves. ProTherapy Staffing, for example, is a PT-owned agency that has historically been transparent about how new grads ramp into travel work; they are not the only one, but the pattern of clinician-owned operations being more new-grad-friendly is real and worth knowing about. The point is not which agency to pick — it is to ask the question on every recruiter call.

If you are weighing whether to travel at all as a new grad, our companion site traveltherapynewgrad.com has more long-form material on the decision. And the broader traveltherapycompanies.com rankings can help you compare agencies once you decide to move forward.