My Journey as a Behavior Interventionist (Therapist)
Pros
Once you get in full time it's a stable work environment. Great people to work with. Passionate in helping the community served. Very rewarding working with kids and families, when you see progress in a child or adult you are working with it is really fulfilling. There are various opportunities of growth within the field as they provide additional sources for education. If you want to pursue further your career they have partnered up with a few schools so you can get a Masters at a discounted rate and pass your BCBA certification. I see there is an urgency to change the culture when needed and very professional. My Director and PM are amazing people and I feel that if I speak up they listen and they try their best to help.
Cons
During my training I felt very overwhelmed and reconsidered my employment. I felt bombarded with information. The first 2 weeks were good because I had close to full time hours. Unfortunately once I started working on my own cases I only was assigned to 2 kiddos. It was rough at first because I thought how will I make ends meet? I talked to my direct supervisor about this and she was amazing! she advised me to do my best, ask questions if needed, and she always modeled programs when needed. I talked to my scheduler and expressed my need to want more hours. She explained that I needed to open my availability to later afternoon/evening times. Which I did. It took a few weeks for me to do that until I started getting more cases assigned. I did have the chance to go to different sub-sessions and make up sessions as well. It took me a few months to get to a point where I had enough hours, but I still didn't qualify for full time. I was working almost a 40 hour week and due to the way ESSC does full time status in Autism Services. Eventually I became full time but I feel it took more work than it should have. Compensation is something too... do not get a job here if you are looking for a quick paycheck just because of the flexible schedule. You have to love what you do and working with people because you only get a raise once a year and it's no more than 5%, however both reviews I had so far I only got 3% :( when I worked so hard. When I said no once to a sub-session (with a kiddo that is not my case) I was told that if I put my availability open at that time that I needed to be there, this with a couple of hours heads up. That was news to me, but I did it anyways because I wanted to be full time. You may ask why give them a 5 star if things are so bad? Honestly it has been a tough road, but I love what I do and the organization itself is very stable. The people are great!
