If you are graduating this spring, your first travel assignment is closer than it feels. Here is a realistic month-by-month path from cap-and-gown to your first 13-week contract. Updated June 2026.
Most new grads can go from graduation to a first travel contract in roughly three to five months — the variable is how fast you clear your board exam and home-state license. The timeline below assumes a late-spring graduation, which is why the math lands you on a first assignment in late summer or early fall. If you are eyeing school-based work as an SLP or OT, that timing is ideal: districts hire for the new school year across the June–August window.
Do not wait for your diploma to arrive. As soon as your program confirms completion, start your home-state license application and register for your board exam (the NPTE for PTs, the NBCOT exam for OTs, or the Praxis for SLPs). Request transcripts and have your program submit proof of graduation directly to the board — that hand-off is the most common cause of delay.
Pick your home state deliberately: it anchors your taxes and, if it is a compact member, your future multi-state licensure. Our licensure-for-new-grads guide walks through that choice.
This is the gate everything else waits on, so protect it. Block dedicated study time, take the exam as early as you are ready, and choose the soonest available test date rather than the most comfortable one — every week here pushes your first paycheck back a week.
While you study, line up the boring essentials: BLS/CPR certification, a clean copy of your immunization records, and two or three professional references from clinical rotations. Agencies and facilities will ask for all of it, and gathering it now removes friction later.
Your exam result and license post (timing varies by board). Now you can talk to agencies as a license-in-hand candidate, which is when they take you seriously. Reach out to two or three agencies, not one — you want competing packages to compare. Prioritize a recruiter who understands clinical realities and explains the full pay breakdown without being asked.
This is also the right moment to think about mentorship: a first travel contract as a new grad is far smoother with an experienced traveler in your corner, and many find that support invaluable in the first eight weeks.
Submit to new-grad-friendly assignments (one to three days of orientation, reasonable productivity, a setting you trained in). Facility interviews are usually a short phone call. When offers come in, compare the full written package — taxable rate, stipends, guaranteed hours — not the headline weekly number. Then sign your first 13-week contract.
New grads should weigh setting realistically: a smaller, well-supported caseload beats a high-paying assignment that throws you in cold. Use our best-settings guide to match difficulty to your readiness.
Between signing and your start date, the agency’s credentialing team processes your paperwork, and you line up short-term housing. Build in buffer — credentialing or a license technicality is the usual reason a start date slips. Then you are on assignment, earning, and officially a traveling therapist.
Test early. The single biggest lever. Booking the earliest exam date you can responsibly handle can pull your whole timeline forward by weeks.
Gather documents in parallel. References, immunizations, BLS, and transcripts can all be collected while you study — do not serialize them after the exam.
Talk to agencies before the license posts. You cannot start without a license, but you can build the relationship, compare recruiters, and pre-stage your paperwork so you are ready to submit the day it clears.
Pick a compact home state if it fits. If your home state is a compact member, future multi-state work is a fast privilege rather than a slow full application — see the licensure guide.
Connect with agencies that specialize in placing new-grad travelers — and start building the relationship before your license even posts.
Usually three to five months. The pace is set almost entirely by how quickly you pass your board exam and your home-state license posts; the agency and contract steps are fast once you are licensed.
Yes, though it is more demanding than a permanent first job. Choose new-grad-friendly settings with real orientation and reasonable productivity, lean on mentorship, and pick a supportive agency. Many therapists travel straight out of school successfully.
Test as early as you can, but start agency conversations in parallel. You cannot begin an assignment without a license, yet you can compare recruiters and pre-stage your paperwork so you submit the moment your license clears.
School districts hire SLPs and OTs for the coming year across the June-to-August window. A May graduate who moves quickly on the exam and license can be credentialed in time to start with the school year — one of the most new-grad-friendly entry points into travel.
Your home-state license (in progress is fine to start conversations), board exam scheduled or passed, BLS/CPR, immunization records, and two to three clinical references. Having these gathered removes the most common sources of delay.