Pros
Service Coordination is a wonderful company. Working remotely has its benefits and the schedule is certainly flexible, which is great. You can flex your time with supervisor approval, which means less use of annual leave so it can be saved up fast. There are many opportunities to "specialize" in different areas such as Self-Directed Services, Transitioning Youth, Crises, etc., which can make you feel like you are doing more and gaining a higher quality experience than the average employee. My experience with my supervisor was incredible- she was a wonderful mentor and boss. You learn a lot in this position about disability services, programs, Medicaid programs, eligibility programs, which can be useful in your day to day lives, not just at work. There are opportunities for incentives and bonuses, travel reimbursement for any mileage amount, and student loan repayment programs. You also truly get to meet a wide variety of people and their families and have the chance to make positive change in their lives.
Cons
The reason I left Service Coordination was not because of Service Coordination, rather, DDA (Developmental Disability Admin). Unfortunately, no matter how great SCI was, DDA will literally slow you down and frustrate you on a daily basis. It felt almost impossible to keep up with their frequent policy and procedural changes (which drives what we do every day, especially our paper work). DDA staff were often unpleasant, unorganized, and unresponsive, making the "behind the scene" nature of our work extremely frustrating. A person could be waiting months and months for one small change to their service, and it is truly out of your hands if DDA is dragging their feet, which seems to be the norm. It was not out of the ordinary to call DDA and speak to different employees and being told to do things one way, then the next day call back and be told a completely different thing. DDA Central Maryland Region needs some serious accountability checks. Another thing that was disheartening about this position was seeing how poorly so many agencies and programs are run. People sitting around, wasting their time in programs "preparing them for a job" aka coloring all day, their goals never being worked on no matter how many meetings have occurred. We can advocate all day long for people to reach their goals, but it is truly up to the agency to make a change, and that never seems to happen (Again, going back to the state needs more accountability on quality services). Finally, working remotely can be nice at first, but it does take a toll after a while with the lack of coworker interaction, and driving all over town for different meetings can be tiring.