I was frustrated and vented to my best friend over margaritas in 2014. Why was it so hard to find an honest recruiter? I was drinking away my blues from finding out that day that I was working a contract and making about $400 less a week than a co-worker who had the same company as me (just a different recruiter).
“Recruiters are allowed to just pay us anything they want?! They are treating us like a used car sales lot!” I said. “I wish there were a place that we could go to find the honest recruiters, how are we even supposed to know who is being fair without learning the hard way? My recruiter seems so nice, so I just trusted him. I feel like a fool!”
A few hours later, fueled by passion and margaritas, we had come up with the first blueprint for Nomadicare. “If we want things to change, let’s create it!” we said. It was written on a napkin at that Mexican food restaurant with a borrowed pen from our waitress. And now, years later, that vision has come to life, and the dream of transparency for us travelers just keeps growing!
What do we need to change?
The first step for me was learning the ins and outs of the industry. Why was it set up the way it was? What was a recruiter’s role, and what made a great one? I interviewed hundreds of recruiters, CEOs, and different players in the industry. I sat next to recruiters at varying agencies for days and watched how they worked and what motivated them. I learned everything about pay, profits, and contracts. I interviewed thousands of travelers to make sure I knew what was important to us collectively. And I was able to find out what is fair for travelers to ask for, and what makes the best recruiters for us.
To sum up a perfect recruiter in 5 words: We need knowledge, integrity, reliability, empathy, and transparency.
I was on a mission to find these honest recruiters from dozens of different companies and create a website that travelers could find recruiters they trust. And by working with dozens of companies, we could also match travelers to the right agencies for them. The ones who have access to the locations they want and have the benefits they need.
That dream came to life, and Nomadicare’s custom matching was born. Travelers would tell us in a survey where they wanted to go and what benefits were must-haves, and we would pair them with two honest recruiters who also had the benefits and locations they wanted.
What does it mean to be empowered?
My next goal was education. It was so important to me to make sure travelers felt empowered and had access to unbiased information. I had learned so much in my research phase of Nomadicare. Things I wished I knew from the start! I wanted travelers to have their own knowledge so they could easily spot red flags in recruiters and contracts. The education would be kind, clear, and use simple language.
The industry is not all that complicated, but it is very confusing to figure out which resources are honest. Facebook groups are full of contradicting and poorly researched information, which creates fear and distrust. But when information is honest and simple, it allows you to feel a sense of ease. That is what I wanted to give to the industry!
From that dream, the Empowered Travelers Facebook Group, the free traveler guides, the Fair Pay Calculator, and the Empowered Travelers Youtube Channel were born.
And it’s also why we decided that every traveler that uses Nomadicare to get a recruiter match would get paired with an expert traveler mentor. We become part of your team.
With education and matching going great, my heart started craving a way to bring even more transparency to the industry. And I was learning a lot about technology! It has such potential to create big changes.
What can we do different?
Job boards at that time were full of fake jobs, over-inflated pay promises, and were just a modern “bait and switch” to get a traveler’s contact details. Also, getting your paperwork in fast enough to actually submit to any of those jobs was tricky.
But with the right technology, job boards could be a place to learn about pay trends and to see real jobs as they open. You could also allow travelers to control and store their own paperwork so they could be submittal ready without a lot of friction. The goal is simply to create a technology that allows travelers to see a job that is real and be able to submit fast enough to get an interview.
And so with that dream, the Nomadicare anti-bait-and-switch job board with instant matching technology came to life. And Nomadicare brought the amazing new technology to the agencies, so honest pay packages can be shown to travelers faster and easier without all the manual work from the past.
With honesty, integrity, and transparency in the industry – what is left? Simply an amazing travel career! Getting paid to travel should be the adventure of a lifetime where you get to learn more about yourself and enjoy life. Nomadicare is here for you to have the ability to enjoy traveling and exploring without the fear of being lied to. No more being the traveler who showed up making 400 dollars less a week than your co-worker like I did.
I am honored to serve you and this industry to help make it everything it can be for all of us! Stay tuned for even more products coming around the corner! And please share Nomadicare to your travel friends so we can keep the empowered traveler movement going!
