My first travel therapy “interview” lasted eleven minutes. The facility manager asked me three questions, I asked zero, and we were done. I showed up on day one with no idea what the documentation system looked like, no understanding of the productivity model, and no real sense of whether the therapy team I was walking into was going to be collaborative or resentful of travelers.
It took me about four assignments to realize that the interview is not a formality. It’s your primary opportunity to decide whether this assignment is going to be a good 13 weeks or a miserable one. Most travelers treat it like a hurdle to clear. The ones who do it well treat it like due diligence.
Here’s the framework I developed over six years and dozens of travel interviews.
Treat a travel therapy interview as a two-way screen, not a hurdle: they’re short (often 15 to 30 minutes) and mutual, so use the time to ask specific questions. Ask about the daily schedule, productivity expectations, onboarding support, and whether travelers extend. You have the leverage to decline or ask for a day to think it over.
First: Understand What Travel Therapy Interviews Actually Are
Travel therapy interviews are structurally different from permanent job interviews in ways that matter. They are shorter — often 15 to 30 minutes, sometimes a quick phone or video call with a therapy director or DOT. They move faster because the facility already knows the role; they’re evaluating whether you’re reliable and competent, not exploring whether you’re a long-term fit. And they are, in a real sense, mutual — you have more leverage than you feel, because the facility needs coverage and has already invested time in the process.
The implication: you don’t have a lot of time, so the questions you ask need to be specific and direct. You cannot spend ten minutes on rapport-building and then tack on your actual questions at the end.
Before the Interview: The Prep That Changes Everything
Ask your recruiter these things before you speak with the facility, not during the interview itself:
- Why did this position open up?
- What does the therapy department structure look like — how many permanent staff, how many travelers?
- What EMR or documentation system do they use?
- What are the typical productivity expectations for travelers?
- Have you placed travelers here before? Did they extend or leave when their contract ended?
A good recruiter can answer most of these. If they can’t answer any of them, that’s information too. You want to walk into the facility interview already knowing the basics so you can use your time there to go deeper, not to cover ground your recruiter should have covered. For the full set to run past your recruiter and agency first, see our questions to ask a staffing company.
The Questions That Actually Matter in the Interview
“What does a typical day look like for the travel PT/OT/SLP in this role?”
This is your opening question and it does several things at once: it’s collaborative rather than interrogative, it shows you’ve thought about the actual work, and the answer tells you immediately whether the role is what your recruiter described. Discrepancies between the job description and the therapy director’s description of the actual role are common and worth surfacing here.
“What does the productivity expectation look like for travelers, and how is it tracked?”
Ask this directly. Productivity expectations that are reasonable for permanent staff who know the facility, the patients, and the documentation system can be brutal for a traveler in weeks one and two. You want to know: is there an onboarding grace period? Are productivity targets the same for travelers as for permanent staff from day one? How is productivity measured — units per day, patients per hour, something else? Get specifics.
“How does the team typically work with travelers — is there a designated point person for questions in the first week?”
This question surfaces a lot. Some facilities have a culture of genuine support for travelers — someone who takes ownership of your onboarding, walks you through the documentation system, introduces you to the team. Others expect you to figure it out. Neither is necessarily a dealbreaker, but knowing which you’re walking into changes how you prepare. A therapy director who answers this question with a specific name is a green flag. Setting up those first days well matters as much as the interview — here’s our playbook for your first travel therapy assignment.
“What’s the biggest challenge travelers typically face in the first two weeks here?”
This is a question that catches people off guard, and that’s the point. A thoughtful therapy director will answer honestly: “our EMR has a steep learning curve,” or “the patient population is higher acuity than most outpatient travelers expect,” or “parking is genuinely a problem and you need to know that before you set up housing.” Any of those answers is more useful than silence or a deflection. A director who says “there really aren’t any challenges, it’s a great place to work” has told you they either haven’t thought about it or don’t want to tell you.
“Do travelers typically extend their contracts here?”
A facility where travelers extend is a facility where travelers are comfortable. A facility where travelers routinely leave at the end of thirteen weeks is either a facility that actively discourages extension, or a place where travelers don’t want to stay. Ask directly. The answer is usually honest.
Red flag mid-interview: If the therapy director can’t tell you what EMR system they use, what the productivity model is, or why the previous traveler left, those aren’t just gaps in their knowledge — they’re signals about how organized and communicative the department is. That same disorganization will be your problem starting day one.
Questions to Skip
Some questions that feel natural in permanent job interviews are a poor use of your limited time in a travel interview:
- “What does the company culture look like?” — too vague for a 13-week assignment, and the answer is almost always positive regardless of reality.
- “What are the opportunities for growth?” — irrelevant for a contract role and signals you might be thinking longer-term when they need short-term coverage.
- Detailed questions about PTO, health insurance, and benefits — these come from your agency, not the facility. Asking the facility about them signals you haven’t fully understood the travel model.
How to Handle the “Do You Have Any Questions?” Moment
In travel interviews, this question often comes up early — sometimes before the facility has even asked you anything substantive. Don’t be thrown by the sequence. If they ask you first, lead with the daily-schedule question and work through your list from there. The facility director wants to know you’ve thought about the role. Asking good questions is the fastest way to demonstrate that.
After the Interview: The Conversation with Your Recruiter
Immediately after the interview, before you give any answer to the facility, talk to your recruiter. Tell them specifically what you heard — the productivity expectations, the onboarding situation, anything that surprised you. A good recruiter will help you interpret what you heard and flag if anything seems inconsistent with what they knew about the facility. Then make your decision.
If anything you heard in the interview was significantly different from what your recruiter told you in prep, that’s a conversation worth having with your recruiter before you sign. Discrepancies at the interview stage tend to get larger, not smaller, once you’re actually on contract. And before you sign, read the contract just as carefully — our list of travel therapy contract red flags shows what to check.
The One Thing Most Travelers Get Wrong
The biggest mistake I made in travel interviews, especially early on, was treating them like a hurdle to clear rather than a decision to make. I said yes too many times to assignments I had doubts about because the recruiter was excited about the placement, the location sounded fun, or I was nervous about not having my next contract lined up.
You have the right to decline after an interview. You have the right to say “I need 24 hours to think about it.” You have the right to say “I heard something in that interview that doesn’t match what I was told — can you clarify before I decide?” Exercising those rights in year one will save you from at least one bad assignment. It saved me from several.
At ProTherapy, our job is to help you make a good decision — not to close a placement. If something doesn’t feel right after an interview, that’s a conversation we want to have with you. Talk to our team or call (484) 324-8320.