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So, some of you might have seen how drastically I've been shifting from one career to another. I've tackled Nursing, IT, Computer Science, Film, and a few others. Had a good conversation with a friend who is an ICU nurse. She suggested Occupational Therapy. Which I thought was ironic, cause it literally is last on my list of career shopping ideas I've come up with: I really haven't looked into it until just now. I've spent the last 2 hours on YouTube and Reddit getting in deeper with OT, and I'm starting to think it's a great combination of my various skills and things that I want out of a profession. This is what speaks to me:
I'm a 30 year old guy, if that makes much difference. My Holland code is SEA / SAE (e & a were tied) and my personality "type" is ENFJ-A (The Protagonist...I've also gotten The Campaigner before) if that does anything for anyone. I was kind of getting set in the idea of going an IT route and even spent $150 with a goon helping me get together the best resume possible (he did a GREAT job, hit up Parahexavoctal). But, being stuck behind a desk seems so scary. I've got to be around people. I'm curious of what OT goons may have to say in regards to all of this 
89 fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Jul 2, 2017 |
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Jul 2, 2017 10:27
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| # ? May 5, 2024 16:51 |
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I don't know much about occupational therapy. However, what I can suggest is researching Business Analyst or Corporate Trainer within IT. Business Analyst - Identify business requirements and translate them for IT. You are the liaison between the business and IT. Every company will have a different interpretation of what a business analyst does so the jobs will vary wildly from company to company. Corporate Trainer - Train business people on new applications, processes, etc. The Corporate Trainers at my company work with Product Management and Business Analysts to learn new in house applications and processes. Then the trainers will train our staff how to use the applications, analyze and identify the functionality which requires more training, and then determines an action plan forward to remediate those gaps. Both are very high level summaries. Both pay very well and can set you up to move higher up the ladder as you figure out what you truly want.
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Jul 2, 2017 14:54
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I don't work in occupational therapy but my sister does. - She initially wanted to do physical therapy because she was scared that occupational therapy would burn her out. To summarize the difference between the two fields, PT tends to be more about helping people return to "normal" after an injury and OT is more about helping people live independently to the best of their ability if they have a very severe disability due to genetics/injury. My sister became very passionate about helping children with disabilities and switched to OT, but her first job after her master's has been helping stroke patients in a hospital. - My sister got her BS in Biology, her master's in OT, and then she did several months of an internship at a hospital. Our state also requires a licensing exam after people graduate/finish the internship--the details on the licensing exam might differ depending on the state where you practice. - Elder care has the most demand for OTs (but that seems to be the case for most medicine...). - Definitely emotionally taxing. My sister is a straight-to-the-point person who doesn't have much patience for coddling. That can be good when she's motivating someone by telling it straight about why they need to push through a very difficult physical exercise so they can return to living independently, but I think that constantly having to work with elderly people under severe stress who might not ever fully recover just exhausts her. Her hospital partially reviews her performance based on her bedside manner and I'm not sure it comes to her naturally, especially when she's under lots of stress. - She's on her feet all day but it's not as physically taxing of a job as being a PT assistant or a CNA since she doesn't lift or restrain people. She's often guiding them in exercises while they lay in bed. However she is concerned about being on her feet in her 50s. Her long-term goal is to finish her doctorate at night and teach OT university students when she's ready for a more sedentary job. - Whenever we're watching dancers or athletes, she has a lot to say about how they're probably very injured people due to the strain of what they do. I've noticed there seems to be a weird tension between OTs and PTs--OTs think of PTs as too focused on helping people recover with short-term solutions that don't prevent problems from re-occuring. My sister especially looks down on sports medicine PTs since she thinks most professional sports ruins the athletes' bodies for others' entertainment and thinks that sports medicine professionals ignore this.
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Jul 2, 2017 15:19
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I appreciate you guys replying! What I've come to understand, OT is like PT but a lot more laid back? But you deal with mostly stroke patients. Where as PT deal with injuries and things that heal with time. Sports PT being the most fun of them all. oh rly posted:I don't know much about occupational therapy. However, what I can suggest is researching Business Analyst or Corporate Trainer within IT. Isn't there a lot of saturation with Business Analysts? Does seem appealing to get a bachelors. The idea of being the middle man between the software side of things and the business side of things does seem intriguing. Also relates to things I've done in my spare time.
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Jul 6, 2017 00:33
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89 posted:What I've come to understand, OT is like PT but a lot more laid back? But you deal with mostly stroke patients. Where as PT deal with injuries and things that heal with time. Sports PT being the most fun of them all. Oh, my sister is an OT, not me. I'm not sure either one is laid back. PT is more about helping someone return to their "normal" functioning. For example, if someone breaks their arm and needs to do exercises to regain their strength and mobility in their arm afterwards but the doctor doesn't expect them to have permanent damage that would affect their ability to function independently, that person would go to a PT. (like, you hear about people who break a bone and maybe they can never quite extend/bend that joint exactly the same way as they could before the break, but otherwise they're expected to have a full recovery with no impairment to day-to-day tasks such as walking, feeding themselves, putting on clothes without assistance, etc) However if the patient is expected to have some kind of permanent damage that affects their ability to feed themselves/clothe themselves/live independently, they might be more likely to go to an OT. OTs generally work with people who are expected to have some sort of disability that will affect their daily functioning for the rest of their lives. This might be due to a health condition that someone was born with (ie cerebral palsy, being born with some sort of muscular-skeletal condition that affects mobility), or an injury/illness that leaves them with a permanent impairment to their strength and mobility. For example, if you lose mobility in your arm, an OT will try to build your strength as much as possible with exercises, but they will also focus on helping you learn how to do things like dress yourself, feed yourself, etc with the permanent loss of mobility/strength in your arm. My sister originally wanted to work with children born with physical disabilities, but there's just so many more job openings in elder care *and* she's a recent grad so she didn't want a gap on her resume. Thus, she mostly works with older people that are learning to live independently after having a stroke that may have permanently taken away some of their mobility. Maybe one day she'll be able to work with kids, but for now to pay the bills she does eldercare. legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 05:55
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I'm not an occupational therapist, but I am a mental health therapist (LMFT) and working on a counseling psychology (PhD). I've worked on treatment teams with Occupational Therapists, and from what I can tell, if you don't like the medical model, you will probably really enjoy the OT model. A lot of it is technical problems solving, not the general stuff that social workers do -- more of the detailed work. One thing you need as an OT is a very broad skillset, which it sounds like you have. IT could be very helpful if you are helping someone with an apparatus that uses tech, such as communication assistants or prosthetics. Overall, the entire field of therapy is pretty interesting with integrated behavioral health and OT becoming more prevalent in treatment teams. I would say that similar to being a doctor, it's great if it's work you find inherently rewarding, but if you're in it for the money just go into business because you will burn out really quick. I've seen quite a few therapists get 5 years in, advanced degrees, and many hours of continuing education to then just leave the field completely because no matter what the pay will never be quite worth the work -- you need to be getting something else from it. You could be paid 200k as an OT, and if you don't like helping people in need (and practically, not as an abstract idea) you will still quit for an office job paying 50k in a few years.
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Aug 12, 2017 22:19
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| # ? May 5, 2024 16:51 |
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My wife has done it for the last few years in hospital settings. You apparently deal with poop a lot more than you think you have to. That is all. She tells me all the stories. You would be amazed on how many people try their hardest to get out of doing therapy. They rather stay broke in a bed, then get up and move. She gets yelled at by angry patients, some with brain issues, some without, and their family members on a somewhat daily basis. So if you have an attitude where you take poo poo personally, you may have an issue. Also, like 80% of her cases are all the same. Fat, heart attack or stroke, diabetes.
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Aug 27, 2017 06:19
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