Pros
Everyone's experiences may vary: - The kids, I worked with really sweet kids some trouble behaviors but working with them was the best - Luckily the parents I worked with were super cool and understanding but if you get terrible ones this could make working harder - Easy to get hired and get experience in the field - You will get to see meaningful change and make a difference to people
Cons
- Low pay. I worked for over a year and only received a 40 cent increase which feels like bare minimum. Biggest reason to leave is due to pay, you can just switch companies for better pay. - Terrible hours. Most of the time I was here I worked less than 20 hours a week on top of the low hourly wage its hard to manage your life. When I was schedule 30 hours a week it was great and I made decent money for the job but that didn't last long and the company never gave me another client. - Horrendous communication. The company expects you to reply right away to emails but the moment you need something from them its difficult to get answers. Contacting higher ups you need to fill out forms that are hard to find. Working at this company feels very bureaucratic and lacks any human warmth. Company will make huge changes with little notice. They always tell you to contact BCBA supervisor when things happen but mine took forever to reply and never answered the phone. - Other issues stem from the industry itself not necessarily the company. For example, they care way more about the data collection and graphs above all. They keep adding goals and trials that arent really meaningful but only exist to justify the billable hours for the insurance. The amount of goals and trials they make you do backfire because they start to stress out the kids but on paper and with the graph it looks great to the insurance. The science behind ABA is also outdated, it is based of behaviorism and reduces behaviors to reward/punishment loops while ignoring their cognitive processing or internal experiences which could provide explanations for behaviors.
Pros
I’ve experienced tons of support by my program manager, clinical supervisor, admin, and my trainer when it came to any of my questions and concerns. My program manager and clinical supervisor respond quickly to any messages sent on Teams and if they’re already in the clinic I’m in, they’ll pop by and model a trial, answer my question personally, or even help me when my clients experience challenging behaviors! I get lots of feedback and praise by my clinical supervisor and program manager when they sit in on my sessions for the last hour. They were always quick to reassure me when i felt unconfident or uncertain. Praise and feedback were always a given! I was constantly reminded to always ask first about something because they would rather you ask than guesstimate and skew data results. This isn’t something I’m used to, it felt like I had to beg the management of my previous job to give me support and feedback. Environment is young and upbeat. I also like to know I’m making a difference in the world. My previous management practically treated children in poor living situations as cash cows and I don’t get that vibe here at all! I also love my clients and find it difficult to call off work because I feel extremely dedicated to their well being and want to keep rapport with my client and caregivers as much as possible! The pay is decent for the experience I have and I was one of the lucky BI’s to score a 40 hr work week. My co-workers are fantastic! Theyre all extremely friendly and exactly the right people you would want to care for your children! The clinic is small, but they’re getting a much bigger one soon, which would be lovely for the BI’s and children to have more space from one another to prevent injuries. I was also provided a tablet which is extremely handy rather than being constricted to a small phone screen. As a final note, it truly seems like Intercare upholds their company values and lack of BCBA’s isn’t their fault. The child development and psychology field has been in a chronic shortage for a long time, which means now is better than ever to begin working in the field. I definitely recommend anyone with some experience to take this entry level position.
Cons
I was told I would only be sent 25 minutes away from my home. My eta on a good day is 45 minutes. It doesn’t matter as much for me, because I don’t think I want to go anywhere else as I really love the clinic I’m working at, but this could be a problem for others. It took a month for me to get assigned a client after training. How every BI starts out greatly varies. Some will have much more positive experiences if they’re fit in the right place, but other BI’s might realize at home leads to perceived lack of support when you’re just texting through a screen compared to supervisors being in the same place as you. Some BI’s are assigned more difficult cases than others, which can also affect work experience. Expect to get sick a lot in the beginning, but that just comes with job, so take your zinc and sanitize your hands and tablet regularly!! Not every BI’s first experience will be the same. My experience has been great, but others might be different. That’s not Intercare’s fault, just something to keep in mind. Central Reach will be confusing for a while. I consider myself tech savvy but have had a hard time navigating through this somewhat archaic system. However I know the company wide transferring of data from one application to another would be really tedious.
Pros
Steady paycheck but at the cost of your mental and physical health
Cons
If you are considering working here, take this as your sign to pause and really think it through. This company will push you past a sustainable workload very quickly. The expectations are not realistic, and no matter how hard you work, it never feels like enough. You will be juggling more than any one person reasonably should, and the pressure to keep up does not let up. You will end up working longer hours than you planned. What is expected of you cannot be done in a standard workday, so the work follows you home. Boundaries are not respected, and support is minimal when things start to pile up. What is most concerning is how often things feel misaligned with ethical standards. There are moments where you are expected to prioritize output over proper care, and that creates a constant level of discomfort. If you care about doing things the right way, this will weigh on you. Leadership talks a lot about culture and support, but the day to day experience tells a very different story. Burnout is common. Turnover is high. People leave for a reason. You will likely start off hopeful and motivated, but that fades quickly once you see how things actually operate. Run. There are better environments out there where you can do good work without sacrificing your well being.
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