Opportunity Drive is a company whose sole purpose is to connect medical professionals to jobs, faster.  Our single product is a smartphone application (called Opportunity Drive), which is available on the iPhone, iPad Touch and all Blackerry devices.  (Android App Coming Soon)

Healthcare Travelbook recently partnered with Opportunity Drive. So, you can now access jobs from Healthcare Travelbook straight from this amazing App!

What Does the App Do?
 
The Opportunity Drive app, in a nutshell, allows you to browse through the jobs of participating staffing agencies from your phone.  It is the first apps of its kind; allowing you to get a birds eye view of what jobs are out there with every participating agency, or to get more specific to find a job within 1 agency. 
 
Most healthcare travelers work with multiple agencies, making it difficult to stay in constant contact with multiple recruiters.  Our app simplifies the process.
 
Why Use a Mobile App to Find a Job?
 
People are, for the first time ever, accessing the web more often on their cell phones than from computers.  Cell phones have evolved into more of a portable computer that allows you to make calls.  Products like Apple’s iPhone, Android powered phones and the Blackberry devices have made mobile phones the first thing people grab when they want to access the Internet.  This, coupled with the busy, traveling lifestyle of a traveling healthcare provider makes Opportunity Drive a natural fit. 
 
What are Some Features of the App?
 

• Choose to look at jobs from all participating agencies or handpick the companies whose jobs you want to see in your search results.
• Search by specialty, state, city or all of the above.  You can even search for jobs within a certain mile radius of a city.
• Shows you the job’s location on a zoomable map.
• Contact an agency about a job THROUGH the app; either by phone or by sending them a message.
• Favorite jobs to keep an eye on job possibilities.
• Set an alert to notify you when a job comes up that matches your criteria. 

 
What Makes Opportunity Drive Different Than Traditional Job Boards?
 
Imagine if you were looking to buy/sell stocks, but had to look at data from the stock market that was 3 weeks old.  Or even one DAY old.  You probably wouldn’t make very accurate decisions.  That’s what we compare traditional job boards to.  Traditional job boards only give you a “snapshot” of what an agency has for jobs.  Opportunity Drive integrates each company to stream their open jobs, updating as often as every hour to give you an accurate “motion picture” of what’s available. With jobs in temporary staffing opening and closing so quickly, traditional job boards, if not constantly updated, tend to not be much more than an advertisement that an agency is out there and has jobs in your specialty.  Opportunity Drive lets you invest in your next position using nearly live data, without having to worry that you’re missing out on the newer jobs.  And as anyone working as a healthcare traveler will tell you that timing is everything.


Any Tips for Users?
 
The features of Opportunity Drive are so simple that almost anyone can use it with ease.  There are some hints and tricks that users are using/doing to give them the best results and experience.  Here are some of these tricks users have shared with us:

1. Start out with as specific of a search as you want.  If there are no jobs that match, change your criteria to broaden out.  If, for instance, you search for a job within 30 miles of Atlanta, GA and get no results, widen your search to a 60 or 90 mile radius.  Or search for all jobs in Georgia and then view those results on the map to see their location.
2. Similar to the last trick, set multiple alerts – one with very specific criteria of a job you want in an area you want, another to notify you of jobs that meet a more broad search criteria.  This way you won’t miss out on jobs in your specialty that might work well for you.
3. If you’re already working with a certain agency/agencies and either find a job that you’re interested in or are alerted about a new job that matches your criteria, click the “Forward Job” button and forward that job to the recruiter that you’re working with asking them to submit you to that job.  This way you don’t have to write down the details about the job – when your recruiter gets the email they can view the job you’ve looked at and submit you.

 
Where Can I Download The Apps?
 
For Apple devices, you can download the app through the Apple App Store.
 
For Blackerry devices, you can download the app through Blackberry App World.
 
*Links for both apps are also at www.opportunitydrive.com.

Many travel nurses and therapists alike either dream of doing an assignment in Alaska or are on their way. There  seems to not only be a fascination with this beautiful and remote state, but there never seems to be a shortage of questions about working and living there.   In an attempt to quell these curiousities, I have provided some useful information and tips that you may consider when planning your next assignment in Alaska!
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I was inspired to write this blog after we received a call recently from our close traveling COTA friends, Phil and Jen.  They set out on the trek from Washington to Tennessee for a new contract earlier this week.  Knowing how grueling a cross country drive can be (I just drove from Washington to Texas in March) when you are on a fixed time schedule, made this story not only unfortunate but humorous as well!

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