First Contract Playbook for New Grad Travelers

A new graduate can take a travel contract only with the right to practice in that state, and a PT Compact privilege is not an early route, because the PT Compact Commission requires a current home-state license to buy one. Some boards, such as Texas's and New York's, let a new physical therapist work under on-site supervision on a temporary license or limited permit before the full license, so new grads weighing travel should check the board for the state they want.

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. Over a year, the gap compounds into real money — especially if you are paying down student loans aggressively.
2. Setting variety.
3. Lifestyle flexibility. 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. 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 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.
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.

Realistic Pay Expectations

New grads typically earn slightly below experienced rates. 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. If you're weighing that first contract now, a recruiter can talk you through the settings that take new grads: Find my next contract.

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
• 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."

Agency-side questions worth asking: who owns the agency, whether your recruiter has worked as a PT, OT or SLP, and how the agency ramps new grads into travel work. ProTherapy Staffing, for example, is owned and run by licensed physical therapists; the other two questions still apply to it. The point is not which agency to pick — it is to ask these questions 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 agency profiles at traveltherapycompanies.com can help you weigh agencies once you decide to move forward.