Pros
- They provided thorough (and paid) training which was amazing and prepared me for solo work with clients - They had a lot of nice perks like an employee incentive program and company socials - The supervisors were generally supportive and available to answer questions/concerns - There were incredible opportunities for advancement if you were interested in pursuing a life-long career in ABA (ex: discounts on graduate programs) - Of course the kids were great :)
Cons
The biggest downside was the hours. I feel like I wasn't given an accurate representation of the schedule and hours I should expect upon hire. I went in hoping to make a livable wage but even with a second job, I couldn't afford my bills. Even if I had been able to achieve "full-time" hours, they consider 30 hours full-time which is crazy considering most companies consider 40 hours full-time. And while the hourly rate for direct behavior therapy was competitive, that was only a fraction of my working hours as I had to spend hours and hours in the car every week. Drive time was paid at a different rate (minimum wage) so between that and the inconsistency of hours, it was just not worth it. For example, if one of your clients was gone all week, it was rare to get those hours made up and if they were, it was in the office which again is paid at a much lower hourly rate. All in all, if this is a supplementary income for you, great, this job will work well for you and I think you will enjoy the company but if you plan on making this your primary source of income, its almost impossible to get by. I was a newbie to the industry so maybe this is the nature of private, in-home ABA...but I just wish they would have given me a more realistic picture of the work before offering me a position.