Navigating Your First BCBA Position: What New BCBAs Should Know
- Ashleigh Evans (BCBA)
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
You just landed your first BCBA job—congrats! After spending years completing your degree, accruing fieldwork hours, and passing the big exam, you're ready to step into your role as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. This is an exciting milestone, but for many, it comes with a steep learning curve. Consider the following recommendations to help you transition into your first BCBA position with confidence.
Find a Position That Offers Mentorship
First things first, you may find that not every organization is a good fit for newly minted behavior analysts. Learning and clinical development continue far beyond fieldwork. As a new BCBA, it’s essential to seek a position that prioritizes mentorship and ongoing support.
Before accepting a new role, ask questions about training, support, clinical leadership, and opportunities for collaboration. Look for organizations that offer access to experienced BCBAs, structured onboarding, and regular feedback. A strong mentorship culture can help you build confidence in your skills while ensuring quality care for your learners.
Find a supportive position on the ABA Job Board! Take Time to Learn the Systems & Policies
Starting with a new company or even stepping into a BCBA role within your current organization comes with a learning curve. Policies, expectations, and internal workflows can differ significantly from what you’ve seen during fieldwork or prior roles.
Give yourself grace and allow time to learn rather than rushing through this process. Ensure you understand:
How to use the practice management platform the organization uses (e.g., Office Puzzle). Every organization uses these tools differently, and not all features or workflows are the same across companies.
Documentation standards and requirements
Supervision, feedback, and performance expectations
Billing requirements and processes
Authorization workflows
Communication protocols and chain of command
Build Rapport With Your RBTs & Caregivers
Transitioning from direct care to a supervisory role can be a big shift, accompanied by new expectations and responsibilities. Suddenly, you're expected to lead clinical decision-making, support staff, and train caregivers. At the heart of all of this is building strong, trusting relationships.
Building rapport with staff and caregivers is just as important as building rapport with clients. Go into this new position with a collaborative mindset. Get to know the technicians you're overseeing—how they prefer to receive feedback, their strengths, goals, and what they need to feel supported.
The same applies to caregivers. Get to know the family unit as a whole—who they are, what their goals and concerns are, and what they value most. Practice active listening, validate their concerns, and involve them as experts of their own child.
Make Changes Thoughtfully & Systematically
As you ramp up your caseload as a new behavior analyst, you'll likely take on cases transitioned from other BCBAs. Taking on well-established cases can be a helpful starting point, but it can also be frustrating when you notice things that could be improved. Resist the urge to implement changes immediately. Before adjusting programs, intervention plans, or session procedures, spend time observing sessions, reviewing historical data, talking to staff and caregivers, and understanding why things were done a certain way. Making changes slowly and thoughtfully will help build trust with the client, family, and staff.
Set Boundaries & Self-Advocate
This one is so important! BCBAs experience high rates of burnout, and the impact can be far-reaching. As a new BCBA, navigating this can be particularly challenging, as there’s often a strong desire to prove yourself in your first role. This may show up as taking on extra cases, accepting additional responsibilities, or responding to calls and messages outside of work hours.
Setting clear boundaries early in your career is essential to preventing burnout and maintaining ethical, high-quality care. Boundaries help protect your time, energy, and effectiveness.
Your boundaries may look different from those of other clinicians, and that's okay. What matters most is recognizing what you need to practice sustainably and advocating for yourself accordingly. Setting boundaries may look like:
Establishing working hours & refusing to work outside of them (e.g., not answering that text from a parent at 10 pm)
Speaking up when your caseload exceeds what you can ethically or effectively manage
Requesting a sustainable balance of billable to non-billable time—and expecting pay for all hours worked, as federal law requires of hourly employees Related: Learn more about salary versus hourly positions
Asking for training or mentorship
Respectfully declining responsibilities that fall outside of your areas of competency
Find conferences, CEUs, and other events across the ABA field
Find the Right Tools to Support Your Work
Starting your first BCBA position comes with a lot to manage. Finding the right tools can empower you to focus your energy where it matters most. Some of ABA Resource Center's top recommended resources include:
The MOTAS (Meaningful Outcomes Treatment and Assessment Scale): This is one of the newest assessments making waves across the field. It's comprehensive and includes a deep focus on what's truly meaningful for the client and their family, rather than just checking off boxes. They also have an online platform that makes it even easier to assess and analyze results. Learn more about assessments used in ABA
FirstWork DTT app: Skip the endless hours searching for images, printing, cutting, and laminating. Instead, this digital stimuli app makes it easy to prepare materials, allowing your staff to implement programs seamlessly.
One Year ABA Parent Training: If you're like most new BCBAs, parent training feels like a big undertaking and one you may not have been adequately trained to take on. The One Year ABA Parent Training takes the stress off your plate with easy-to-follow, customizable parent training lessons.
BCBA® Fieldwork Supervision Curriculum: If you're taking on fieldwork trainees as a new BCBA, we highly recommend a curriculum to guide your efforts. Also, don't forget that new BCBAs also need a mentor with 5+ years of certification to provide supervision in their first year.
See more recommendations in our Trusted Resource Directory!
Recognize What You Don't Know
Nobody has all the answers—not even those of us who have been in the field for decades. Acknowledging your limitations isn't a weakness. It's an important part of ethical practice as a behavior analyst.
It's okay to say things like:
"I don't know the answer to that, but I'll find out for you."
"I need to take a closer look at the data before I answer that."
"I'd like to consult with the Clinic Director on this. I have some ideas, but I'm not 100% sure how to proceed."
"I'm going to look at the research on this, and then I'll get back to you."
Collaborate
Collaboration is key to success! Historically, BCBAs have sometimes been perceived as hesitant to collaborate with other professionals. But it's critical to recognize that we don't have all the answers and our way isn't the only way. Lead with an open mind. Seek input from your RBTs. Partner with caregivers and family members to ensure therapy is meaningful to them and that outcomes are sustainable in their home environment. And lastly, coordinate care with speech therapists, occupational therapists, teachers, and other professionals for a cohesive approach to care.
Partnership & Transparency Disclaimer
The content we share on ABA Resource Center is reader-supported. This means that if you click on certain links and make a purchase, we may earn a small referral fee. Rest assured, we only recommend tools, resources, and services that we genuinely believe add value to the ABA field.
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