Top 10 Tips for getting your first therapy job!


1. Identify if location is a priority for you, you can then target or widen your search.

2. Be honest with yourself; do you want to specialise or do a rotation? Have you got to get any job immediately due to finance or can you afford to wait?

3. Once you have identified where you want to go and how quickly, do your homework, apply for a relevant job or wait for the right one.

4. Check your networking, have you been on placement, do you know anyone who knows anyone?

5. Arrange a visit with any of the above or the contact person. Also meet or ask permission from the person writing your reference.

6. Visit and make mental notes of conversations and everything you observe for future reference.

7. Review the person SPEC and write up, with balanced quotes from your placement educator including comments from each section of your assessment booklet integrating the summary of your strengths.

8. Think about your development as an Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Speech Therapy professional. Make a list/diagram/recording of the significant light bulb moments you have had from the day you heard you had a place on the course. Go through old diaries, placement booklets and people you have met.

9. Apply for the post and then take a deep breath, believe in yourself and that you have just the right combination of knowledge, skills and personality they are looking for.

10. Arrive early for the interview and just be yourself, it's not an audition, if you fit into the jigsaw they will have you, if not keep applying till you find the perfect fit.

by Margaret Spencer MA Consultant Occupational Therapist & Senior Lecturer LinkedIn Profile  


What now?

Read more:

Top 10 Articles | Occupational Therapy Articles | Physiotherapy Articles | Speech Therapy Articles

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