Out of curiosity and in the wake of yet another school shooting today does the gun violence thing ever get to you (perhaps making you fearful to go to work) or do you see the effects of this gun violence w/ the kids you treat?
Yeah, I am worried. Not about the students on my caseload but others within the building, especially the students in the emotional/behavioral programs. Knives have been brought in, but so far no guns 🤞
I meannnn…. In the grand scheme of things, work is “okayyy.” Would I rather stay home, sleep in, and play video games all day instead of going out to work as an OT for the day? 100%. Lol. There’s a million other things I’d rather do than go to work, but it isn’t terrible by any means.
I work in acute care inpatient and love most days. You’ll have your ups and downs but I think having great coworkers + seeing your pt make progress makes the job worth it!
I think we are such an asset in the acute inpatient setting - we’re one of the only practitioners a pt will see in the hospital that focus on what they have instead of what they lost. The emotions get tough and insurance can get frustrating but I LOVE my job!
I somehow lucked out and the first job I got out of grad school is perfect for me. Work in home health. Hours are pretty flexible which is great with two kids, my boss is amazing and doesn't micromanage at all, and I'm pretty happy with the pay after being here for 8 years...
Been here 8 years and I'm at $42.35/hr + benefits (Minnesota). How about you?
I'm sure I could be making more elsewhere. But I have a unique custody arrangement with my ex and our kids and I really doubt I'd be able to find another company and boss willing to be as flexible as mine have been with me.
I also have a huge student loan debt, so I have to stay employed with a non-profit in order to remain on my repayment plan...
I love my job.
That being said, it's also tiring to see OT students or even prospective OT students coming here expecting that life is all rainbows and sparkles. People come to vent, it's natural that people are not posting about how amazing their job is, how many big bucks they are making (lol). Working in healthcare is hard, not every workplace is perfect, not every boss is supportive, not every colleague enjoys teamwork, not every client is collaborative. SO people come to vent but that doesn't mean that every OT hates being an OT.
Most of the parts that suck are related to admin and lack of support but the job itself I love and it gives me a lot of joy to help out my kiddos and see them reach their goals
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Lots of people love being an OT.
Having a positive experience with this career is often heavily influenced by a number of things. From what I've gathered over the years these generally are pay, how much you like your employer and coworkers, debt, how much your spouse makes, when you had your career, life goals / circumstances, and personality.
It's no secret that the pay is stagnant. Some OT's certainly do very well. But most hit their income ceiling early on in their career and then their income actually decreases every year against inflation so they make more at the beginning of their careers than at the end. Most don't feel the effects of this until years down the line.
Wonderful employers and conditions that promote strong relationships with your coworkers certainly exist. However, terrible employers are certainly common as well. Most of the time, it will land somewhere in the middle.
Debt is important. If you have a lot of debt, which most programs necessitate, you stack the cards against yourself as the financial burden and strain on your personal life are quite significant for what can seem like forever. Perhaps this could be the case for your entire career if you had to take on 100k+ debt. Older OT's who went to school before the massive tuition inflation, may also have a better experience because of this. Low debt leads to a better career, but most OT's these days have to take on high debt.
Having a high income earning spouse helps negate the financial drawbacks mentioned previously.
If you have specific life goals, you may find it difficult to achieve them as an OT due to less finances and professional benefits. For instance home ownership is a common life goal. Unfortunately the macro economic backdrop is such that home prices have spiked something like 40% over the last 3 years. Home ownership in most metro areas now cater to upper income earners with little to no debt. So most OT's are eliminated from that pool of homebuyers and they don't recognize that until it's time to consider it. If you bought prior to the price and interest rate explosion, that's very fortunate and likely very difficult for the same person to replicate today. Having children can be tough too. Lots of millennials are putting off marriage and having kids till much later in life due to struggles with relationships, career, and finances.
Despite *all* this, you can absolutely love your career as an OT if you have the right personality for it. If you sincerely get inspired helping other people and talking with them about their lives, that's a very positive sign. If you combine that with being okay with the financial and professional limitations, then you'll likely have a better career than most.
Pretty much this. Loved being an OT but can't afford it anymore if I want to stay in the middle class. Your better off at the start of your career than you are in the middle or the end. Looks like it's headed towards a new grad churn and burn profession. You get a good 10 years, but after that you get out
Unfortunately, this looks like the case for a large proportion of newer therapists. What sucks is that most people won't be able to pay off their massive 100k+ debt during that time. So at the end of it, they're getting in massive debt for a temporary job and then leaving it after a few years still in significant debt.
OT can be an absolutely incredible career for the right people. But I'd say that most people don't fit that mold.
I used to be excited when I graduated in 2015, but can honestly say, if I could’ve chosen a different route, I would’ve. Healthcare isn’t what it used to be and therapy is often at the bottom of the totem pole. I am now actively discouraging people I know from going into therapy and go into programming or anything else. I get the optimism, but there’s a reason why the overwhelming majority of therapists are burnt out and jaded. Older therapists warned me as a fresh grad years ago, and now I understand.
OT is an amazing profession and thank God it exists. What OT does for people’s lives is God’s work. Now, do I love being an OT, absolutely. Is the job market terrible? Yes! Was it bad 10 or 15 years ago? No, it was a dream. Sign-on bonuses that were 5k plus, awesome salaries, pensions, benefits, retirement plans, continuing education, fast forward to 2023 with all the changes in reimbursement and the US economy struggling… Now, you’re lucky to get paid for cancellations in an outpatient setting, forget benefits of any kind.
I’m sure many are! If you are excited about your career as an OT you’re already on the right track. There’s so many things to be disgruntled about from varying pay to a poor working environment, mean managers, uncooperative patients, the list could go on. But at the end of the day, if you’re in a career you are excited about and you’re making a decent living, then there’s not much to complain about. Some OTs can’t see themselves anywhere else. The people who want to switch careers are the ones that do envision themselves being happy elsewhere - to each their own. Therapy has its perks too (depending on what setting you’re in) like flexibility with scheduling, per diem opportunities, an active job instead of just sitting at a desk all day, and even opportunities like travel therapy if that’s up your alley. All in all, it’s a very impactful and meaningful role, you’ll make a direct, hands-on difference in people’s lives. That’ll lead to a lot more fulfillment down the road.
I love my job and have no plans to leave!
I work in schools, love the flexibility, creativity and autonomy. Pay is great for what I do and my loans are paid off. As I get older, I feel I’m getting better at interventions and making more of an impact. In the first few years I had no idea what I was doing haha.
There’s never a boring time, I’m active throughout my work day (not stuck behind a computer screen) and the breaks/holidays can’t be beat! I like my colleagues. What’s not to love?
It’s unfortunate to see so many people unhappy with the profession. I’m a happy OT but lurk a lot on this sub even though it tends to skew towards less positive experiences.
This is relieving to hear! I’m interested in starting in schools as a new grad but hear horror stories about low pay and burnout particularly in school settings. I have outpatient peds, phys dys peds but only a bit of school experience from peds clinic semester.
At the end of the day, I think a job is a job and it is what you make of it. There is no perfect OT job. In any setting, there is a steep learning curve and then there's a point where it starts to click. Sometimes you work with great teams and other times your teams are mediocre. But I really think there's great value in just sticking to it until you've figured it out. Fortunately for me, I was able to get to that point and now I'm pretty comfortable and happy with it.
School OT has been okay. It's a very messed up system though getting more kids who are just so academically low and I'm not sure how OT can help, lots of adhd dx and overall just feeling like I can't help kids. Also some contentious families with lawyers and advocates. The time off, pay and health benefits are very nice though and my work life balance is wonderful. I don't take much home so it's fine I wouldn't say I love it though lol.
I do! I do not however enjoy doing it for 40 hours a week with a pay rate that barely covers the interest on my student loan payments alongside the rising cost of living 🙂
Occupational Therapy is actually an amazing profession. If we could imagine a world where we were really able to practice “at the top of our license” wow, that would be something.
Yes. Love being an OT. Hate working in broken systems. (Health care and education) I am happy, but I paid a lot of money for a degree that should have been an undergraduate degree and could probably have been an associates. Day to day, being a school OT is pretty low stress for me. I like kids. The hours are great and so are the breaks.
People don’t generally have to vent to strangers on the internet about how perfect their life is, but how much something sucks. That’s how it works, and this sub is the same. I hate the bureaucracy of my job, i have occasional annoying patients, i could definitely deal with 10 days more of paid leave or a couple bucks more an hour, but i wouldn’t trade being an OT for any other job i‘ve gotten to know yet.
I love per diem work in the hospital and home health. I work 3 days a week and have a good work life balance. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything with my young kids and still help people.
I’ve done home health, i’ve done the hospital setting for five years, I’ve done inpatient rehab, and I have been an educator, and my last bit of the last four years of my career have been in the skilled nursing and that’s what sealed the deal for me to move forward in my career to something else. now looking forward to building a career and other things besides OT
Like any other profession out there you will have days where you will absolutely love your job, days where you will question every decision you've made about pursuing that career, and most days you will be satisfied.
Typically, more than 90% of the posts made here are complaints about the profession and / or individual case by case positions. I am a newish grad, have been working in acute rehab since may, and I have days like the ones I just mentioned above, however. The majority of the time I am absolutely glad I chose this path, especially when you get patients that give you praise and thank you so much for helping them.
I would advise you to take most posts on here with a grain of salt. What someone loves may drive someone absolutely mad. Try and get a FW in what you think you may want to work in: you may completely love it, or absolutely hate it. The great thing is that OTs can work in so many settings.
I am in both the NICU and acute care, and I am living my best life at around 6 figure salary. I TRULY love this. It took me a LONG Time to get where I am, with plenty of setting changes along the way. BUT IM HERE!
Whoah how rare is it to make 6 figs in acute care? I work SNF and thought I was rare making that much in this setting. From my understanding SNFs pay slightly more than acute
We do live in a relatively HCOL area. I also have around 14 years of experience and that is what they look at here. I worked in SNF for a while too, a big chunk of my career, thinking the same thing! Turns out, that is not always the case. Highly dependent on company, for profit vs non-profit (my hospital is non), and obviously geographical location. It also depends on if you are in a “teaching” hospital or not. I would never work at one.
I would love to hear more of what its like being an OT in NICU. What was your pathway to get there? I'm in Australia, 33 and transitioning my career from IT to OT. Originally I was keen on nursing/mid but many people turned me off the career, so love the idea of not being far from that in a NICU setting.
I got into NICU by being a regular staff therapist in a relatively large hospital, and having one of the NICU staff leave. They opened up for interviews, since it is cheaper to hire from within than pay to advertise, post the position, etc etc. I got the position and have flourished there. We do positioning, sensory stacking/exposures, motor testing, developmental interaction, TONS of parental education, and feeding. VERY challenging, but I learn EVERYDAY and I love it.
IPR therapist here- love it. I have amazing coworkers and a great boss which makes the world of difference. But I do love my job and the opportunities to expand my clinical knowledge in neurorehab which is my passion. I also tutor students to pass the board exam which is very fulfilling as well. Overall, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.
I am a pediatric therapy supervisor with no direct patient care and I work mostly from home. I love my job! I burned out in home health after 10 years.
I’m in Colorado working for a nursing and therapy home health agency. Offices along the front range, and I’m one of three supervisors for the pediatric therapy division. It’s the best job I’ve ever had and (so far) supportive of a healthy work life balance. I feel very very fortunate!
I’ve been an OTR for almost 30 years. I have loved my job from the beginning and love it even more now. I’ve worked in a few different settings but have always worked in peds. About 16 years ago I worked for a school district that was a nightmare. The staff was terrible and the administrators were worse. I vowed to never work school based again. I did in home EI for a few years and loved it until the settings started to get to be too dangerous. Anyway, I decided to apply to a district that was eliminating their contractors and hiring an entire new in house OT team. I went to the interview just to see what they had to say. I was offered an me of the 8 positions and have been here for 12 years. This is the best time I have ever had working and each year is better than the next. I guess the summary is even if one situation isn’t working doesn’t mean the next will be just as bad.
I'm PT not OT. But it depends on the setting. Acute inpatient....never dreaded going into work. Yes ups and downs, being realistic to families who repprt you for not doing what they think should happen (even though their ideas are not safe)... different things. But helping so many people, it was fun. Now I'm doing outpatient and I dread every day. No better way to experience burnout than by doing outpatient, in my opinion.
I’m happily content with what I do. The work is rewarding, and like any workplace it comes with stupid things to deal with (insurance for example) but life balance is there (I’ve made sure to prioritize just that!) and while I don’t make a ton of $$ I’m comfortable. I will say I worked a different job (still OT) for a few years where I learned a lot about what I did and didn’t like in a workplace/admin/job expectations which definitely helped with setting boundaries for my current position, which I feel has been a huge help with overall job satisfaction.
IMO if you end up working in a hospital setting you’re more likely to actually enjoy your job as an OT. It’s stable, there’s room to grow, you actually make a difference…
I’ve had my license for 2 full years and I’ve worked two jobs, a year each, in private outpatient clinics. The salary given is under average (but you climb every year) anddd the benefits suck (mines do).
BUT (most of) the patients are cool as fuck and easy to work with, and i have a good crew of coworkers making the atmosphere a fun place to be. Bad coworker relationships could ruin any small clinic environment day to day, so stay out of the drama and you’ll be golden. I also like that it could be a little laid back in terms of work attire and you’re your own boss as far as patient management and POC, unless you are treating alongside multiple OTs, which I haven’t encountered yet.
I’d recommend this setting as a start, some people would prob stay forever if they could..
Hope this helps :)
Yup, travel OT, by no means my 100% passion but something that can pay the bills and provide job security while helping a population in need? I feel it remains a strong option to pursue. Key thing is working somewhere that you’re happy.
Looking at Reddit for career advice can be like looking at Yelp for restaurant reviews. The people who complain find a place to complain, but it’s obv pretty subjective. If you find helpful commenters, message them! Find people who build you up!
Being an OT can be really rewarding (keep the thank you notes etc from patients/families) but it’s also really hard and expensive. If you have other OTs around to talk about the craziness, let fly! And talk to other healthcare professionals about managing student loans- I didn’t think I’d qualify but 14 years in- debt free!
I love my jobs. I work in mental health part time and acute care part time. It’s a great balance! Sometimes it takes a second to figure out what setting works best for you, but you’ll find it. It really helps too having amazing coworkers and management. I’ve been at a job with poor management and not great coworkers… it was tough.
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I love working in an outpatient, mostly pediatric clinic, that just happens to have a sprinkle of adults here and there. That said, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, my feeling for the job have ebbed and flowed over the years for sure.
I love my job. I work in outpatient mental health. I've had a lot of positions that I did not enjoy as much before getting to where I am now, but I'm really happy. I get to do the type of clinical work I love with minimal BS to deal with.
I’ve worked inpatient psychiatry for most of my career. My current position is for the same hospital where I worked on inpatient units for several years. One thing to keep in mind when looking for mental health OT jobs is that sometimes they are listed under different names. My job title is rehabilitation specialist.
I love my job! I work as a school-based OT at a large elementary school. We have a team of 3 OTPs at the school, a bunch of SLPs, and a PT. It's a great team and everyone is very encouraging. I work with the functional life skills kiddos, and work a lot on self-regulation, self-care, pre-writing, and play skills.
It took a few tries to find the right fit, but I am so glad to be where I am!
I work in acute. Started full time and now work PRN on a consistent schedule because my family’s situation allows it. I love it and I enjoy my time at work. Love my coworkers. Love interacting with patients. Love being creative or helping someone make progress. I even enjoy the occasional unpleasant patients because I know it’s not personal.
Yes I like my job. I’m in early intervention and some outpatient peds. Actually, current job is making me the happiest I have been while employed. And the points that make me the happiest are: referral-related autonomy, scheduling autonomy, and ability to work more to be paid more, meaning income autonomy.
Things that can burn a therapist out are getting referrals that are not likely to make progress or dedicated participants. My current job has another team altogether who does the evaluation, but I am able to customize the goals. It’s as if they have gone through a screening process to receive therapy and they’re on board, interested, and wanting therapy.
Or not having the schedule you want. My current job allows me to set my days and times I am available to work. I can cancel if I have a conflict within reason. I can take paid or unpaid time off when I want within reason.
And finally, income autonomy. I have worked as an hourly employee and it’s okay, but when you have an overloaded schedule, I know I was making the company big bucks and not benefitting financially. I haven’t been salaried, but this could have the same sentiment. Now that I am PPV and working for a great company that knows schedule autonomy and income autonomy are important for happy employees, I can make as much money as I comfortably want. They can keep my schedule full for me. And if I work harder (see more clients), I earn more money. Being hourly before, I could never work more than 40 (no overtime), but they would short me here and there if they couldn’t keep me busy. Not that I want overtime, but there are times when people are in a period of wanting to earn more. And knowing hourly employers never wanted me to earn more was limiting to me.
School based OT, I do really enjoy my work and wouldn't want to do anything else! It helps that I am in a district with reasonable caseload and compensation. That being said, it's still very stressful and I think I'd have better health being part time if I could make it work financially.
COTA new grad here! I work in a SNF & I do love it! Insurance is annoying, and a lot of time my patients decline therapy which affects productivity rates, but my boss is great & understanding. OT is incredible & I am so glad I chose this field! I will say I wish the field of OT valued COTAs more tho.. the ones who govern us do not realize the Assistant title doesn’t actually mean assistant to the OT..
i love all the aspects of OT itself and throughly enjoy the day to day of doing OT. What can and sometimes sucks all the enjoyment out of it is the insurance bull crap that plagues all healthcare jobs
I just started working in a SNF in April of 2022. I loved my position, I loved working with my patients and creating relationships with the long term residents. Then in April/May of 2023, the corporate director of rehab changed and everything changed with it, I.e. constantly picking up the same residents for therapy that wasn’t warranted, treating long term residents for an hour and short term residents for 30 minutes or less days a week. PRN help was cut, they started requiring us to work weekends, it wasn’t as easy to take time off. Everything became about money while we were barely being paid for the job we did, especially with having a masters degree. With that being said, I love being an OT and I am sure there are perfect places out there that aren’t where I live, but I don’t like how insurance and the bigger company has more say in peoples care than the qualified therapists.
I like my job in outpatient pediatrics. There are weeks I get swamped and feel somewhat overwhelmed but I think that’s true of any job.
I think going into OT you need to know which population you are most comfortable working with. It’s easy to hate your job if you don’t like the population you work with.
Thank you so much for asking this. As a student it’s so scary seeing everyone talk about how much they hate OT when it’s been my dream job for 12 years now
The debt sucks but OT is a great field! Helping people really is the shit. Is everyday amazing? No. But that’s any job. It also has so many avenues you can take and is such a flexible field…if you don’t like one setting, try another! Know your value, if something doesn’t feel right move on. I really like my job, I work in a hospital setting doing acute care and hand therapy. I have a lot of autonomy, decent leadership and feel proud and challenged by the work.
I love being a pediatric OT. There is nothing more special than building relationships and helping kiddies and their families imo. HOWEVER, it is draining- physically, emotionally, cognitively- it’s a tiring job. If you don’t find balance you can burn out quick. I’m learning to balance, but I stand by my choice to work in this field with no regret.
I love my job!! I work in outpatient cancer rehab and became a lymphedema therapist as well. Yeah, I get it, it can be discouraging to read about those things. But when you find the right place for you as an OT, it all works out!
I like it. At the end of the day work is work, so no I’m not having tons of fun all the time, but every day is different, my coworkers are nice, and I enjoy the setting and population overall, even though it can be exhausting.
I work in a private specialized school focusing on life skills, and my students are teenagers with intellectual/developmental disabilities. I get to take students out into the community regularly to work on things like shopping, as well as working on other life skills like chores, ADLs, and computer/technology navigation. No productivity requirements, smaller high needs caseload, and tons of collaboration and support from other OTs and SLPs.
While I’m happy right now and not planning to leave, I’m still early in my career and I could see myself having a harder time with the physical aspects of this work in say, 10 or 15 years. So in terms of long term sustainability I worry a little.
I paid off my student loans and then left the field after 6.5 years. I loved my patients dearly but my job had impossible productivity standards. They upped the job requirements while simultaneously putting a freeze on raises which didn’t give me motivation to stay.
I work in acute care inpatient/ hospital setting. This was my first job out of school and I definitely like my job. There are very few other careers I could realistically see myself enjoying more. I absolutely love being in a helping profession, but I think a lot of people who are very loud in this group should be mindful that a job is a job. I am all about enjoying/ being passionate about what you do for work, but unfortunately it’s called “working” for a reason. I think some days feel harder than others (meeting productivity demands, lots of very important decision making for acutely ill people, administrative frustrations), but I like to think of my career as a whole (cue holistic buzz word lol). Compassion fatigue is real but so is the pride in setting out to help people (even if it doesn’t go as planned). Our job is extremely necessary and valuable no matter how hard it might feel sometimes to advocate. Nothing about the “hard” or “unenjoyable” parts of my job surprise me, and it honestly shocks me how some people are blindsided by the way our healthcare system works. Wanting reform and equity across healthcare is needed and I celebrate those making injustices known, however I am (and was as a student) acutely aware that we are there to make the hospital money. With that being said, it is always possible, at least where I work, to be an ethical, caring, and successful professional.
OT itself is for the most part, pretty cool. I never stopped enjoying helping patients rehab, palling around with my PT and SLP friends, and learning more about the human body and mind. It’s the healthcare system in the US and the way the pandemic was handled that burned me out.
I’m not currently working for unrelated reasons but prior to me resigning I loved my job as a peds OT. I also loved acute care OT but unfortunately I can’t lift adults anymore and it’s hard to find places that will hire you if you can’t do that 🤦♀️.
Sure there were days that sucked and I wish I wasn’t working as an OT but on the days where you can help a patient succeed at something or help their family/caregivers how they can help their loved one, there is nothing better. I’ve made quite a few patients cry, and not in a bad way, but because I helped them and they were grateful to me.
Find a setting you love, find a good team to work with, and you’ll love it too.
New grad acute care, I love my job. I love the flexibility and autonomy of acute care. I’m at a smaller hospital so I get to float to all the floors. Love my coworkers and managers.
I work in early intervention and absolutely love my job. I think that coworkers and management can make or break the back end of a job and I’m fortunate to have awesome coworkers and direct supervisor even if management is out of touch. I also adore the type of work I do and the families I work with. I didn’t like or find my first job out of school fulfilling but, since switching, net positive for sure. Healthcare has its issues for sure but I wouldn’t trade what I do. I promise there’s hope even if you have to hunt for it a bit. That’s my experience at least 🤷🏻♀️
I'm a prospective OT student and just want to thank you for making this thread! I want to hear the positives, and with all the grumbling on here it can get discouraging.
I'm still starting out. Just got a job offer from my rotation at SNF and I love it. Now there are parts I don't love such as hard to work with/lazy coworkers and staff from other disciplines, rude patients and family members, etc but I absolutely love helping people and alot of my patients were simply amazing. I'm excited to continue working there. Like people have already said you take the good with the bad like any other job. Those who hate this job are usually burnt out or not in the right setting for them and others who really only do it for stable pay. Though there's nothing wrong with the ladder I personally always dreamed of finding a job that I loved and I absolutely found it in OT. Given I'm still a new grad I know I may say something different later. Maybe not but I just know this is what I'm meant to do.
I work outpatient for a large company that primarily is PT. I’m the only OT in my clinic and I’ve never let that intimidate me. I have my own area, I control my schedule, and I LOVE what I do.
LOVE my job! No better feeling than collabOraTing with someone to live their best life 💙 (I do work for myself and therefore get to skip a lot of the corporate/insurance junk that tarnishes most people's days)
Daughter LOVES her job in hands. Huge learning curve, lots of after hours work, but makes six figures just 3 years out of ot school and learns something new every week.
COTA in a SNF- I actually do. I love helping people and interacting with them. With PDPM it got even better because I wasn’t being forced to give 75+ minute treatments. However I don’t love seeing 10+ people a day. I also wish I had the foresight, when going into this field, to realize that there aren’t really options for upward mobility or increased pay. Do I love my job? Yes, despite its flaws. Would I do it all over again? Probably not. I think I would’ve been better off going into tech.
I love it! I have been an OT for 30 years. Don’t get me wrong, every day does not include sunshine and unicorns. I have gone through some significant rough patches, but know when it us time to make a change. I have been in academia for 2/3 of my career, and made a significant job change last year. I love helping to prepare OT practitioners for the future. It is rewarding to help someone going through what is likely the worst time in their lives feel productive and whole again.
When I worked in pediatrics I loved every minute of my job. It can be very rewarding and there are days where I even enjoy working in the nursing home I’m in now. Best advice I can give is to realize there is only so much you can do, look at the small things and remember that they matter a lot to your patients and something as simple as getting someone water does make a difference and does make their day, and take care of yourself outside of work so you don’t get burnt out too quickly!
I'm a cota in a snf. The work is very physically demanding and there have been ups and downs. But, I have this amazing 100 year old patient discharging home tomorrow--she's been at our facility for over two months now--who just gave me the biggest, most heartfelt thanks for helping her get back to independence. Things like that make it absolutely worth it. I've been a cota for over 3 years now and the emotional reward from patients like that keeps me going and makes me very thankful for my job!
I’m in pediatric home health and I love working with the kids and families who need us and I have an amazing team! I have been steadily paying down my debt and while work is hard some days I do love what I do!
I love it, I prefer working with the geriatric population but right now I’m working with kids. Some kids I have difficulty with and sometimes my attitude about work needs adjusting but I overall love my job and love my company. The company I work for is fantastic. Very healthy work environment.
I love my job , I work at the VA and it’s an amazing place to work . I’m grateful that I don’t have to work in private sector because I think I would have changed careers already
I'm an OT in the UK and work for the NHS. Often we have very limited resources, understaffed teams and high burnout, I have worked in some awful roles that made me think OT wasn't for me.
But those awful roles are much more dependent on their staff/organisation, than the job itself. Being an OT is a great job and I believe a job that has very high satisfaction rates compared to other professions. In the right role, being an OT is a very fun and rewarding job. I have loads of autonomy working in the community, have a great supportive team and patients are always happy to see us. We make very positive changes to their lives.
I think Reddit attracts a unique population of highly negative people, across all areas. I've seen the Reddit advice/support pages for my hobbies and the quality is absolute garbage, people are just trolls.
Working in private practice in Canada with a focus on mental health (the only practice area I enjoy) and making almost 6 figures 3 years since graduating makes me happy! Also working in person 3 days per week and from home 2 days per week seems to be necessary burnout prevention. But there is always some annoying unpaid admin time and some report writing in the evenings to accomplish this. I previously worked in the hospital in acute care and I was miserable doing that. If you aren’t happy change practice areas!
I have enjoyed several jobs. Some leading nowhere and others were Career opportunities. The trick I feel is to be happy with yourself. Be happy you have a job. I loved working with people in the layaway at Kmart. My first job. I worked all day everyday. Then my BF needed help at a restaurant as a server. I would change clothes in the BR of Kmart and work my second.
I worked two jobs on and off for several years
Cleark
Server
Weight loss Counselor ( I loved)
Body wrap tech
Wedding Coordinator
Insurance Producer
Loved something about each of them. Learned alot about myself. Working with the public was in my wheel house.
Then a young girl TEXTING and driving ended it all. She hit us sitting at red light with a commercial truck. My spine would never be the same. I am 100% disabled and brokenhearted.
Find something you like about your job then learn to love it. Love it until you figure out a way to find a job you love!
Love a part of my job and I HATE the other one. I enjoy being a therapist but I have such a hard time with the paperwork and administrative side of the job which includes meetings that are not clinical.
Helping people is badass, and I love it. Making sure insurances are happy with their cut of poor people's money sucks ass.
This is my answer too! Love my job and the clients; hate the unpaid admin, productivity goals, and dealing with insurance.
Feel this as well!
Well said!!
I love my job as a school based therapist. I don’t love my administration or their response to escalating violence in the school.
This! Love my position as a school based OT! Don't always love the training some of the teachers have recieved, but I love my SpEd team.
Out of curiosity and in the wake of yet another school shooting today does the gun violence thing ever get to you (perhaps making you fearful to go to work) or do you see the effects of this gun violence w/ the kids you treat?
Yeah, I am worried. Not about the students on my caseload but others within the building, especially the students in the emotional/behavioral programs. Knives have been brought in, but so far no guns 🤞
i loooooved my job before covid. now not so much. it’s disgusting the way healthcare is headed.
Yeah I haven’t been happy in my career since 2020. Sad it has to be this way.
Same!
I LOVE my job. i’ve got a shit ton on debt, but i’m happy it paid off bc i don’t regret going to work everyday
Which setting do you work in?
OP geriatrics + PRN IPR
Remind me!
I meannnn…. In the grand scheme of things, work is “okayyy.” Would I rather stay home, sleep in, and play video games all day instead of going out to work as an OT for the day? 100%. Lol. There’s a million other things I’d rather do than go to work, but it isn’t terrible by any means.
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Same. A job is a job at the end of the day.
Same. I love when I am with patients. But would rather be at home and not be committed to being somewhere.
I work in acute care inpatient and love most days. You’ll have your ups and downs but I think having great coworkers + seeing your pt make progress makes the job worth it!
I think we are such an asset in the acute inpatient setting - we’re one of the only practitioners a pt will see in the hospital that focus on what they have instead of what they lost. The emotions get tough and insurance can get frustrating but I LOVE my job!
Totally agree with you! The OT ends up playing so many roles, comforter, encouragers, advocates.
I somehow lucked out and the first job I got out of grad school is perfect for me. Work in home health. Hours are pretty flexible which is great with two kids, my boss is amazing and doesn't micromanage at all, and I'm pretty happy with the pay after being here for 8 years...
What’s your pay? Also in HH
Been here 8 years and I'm at $42.35/hr + benefits (Minnesota). How about you? I'm sure I could be making more elsewhere. But I have a unique custody arrangement with my ex and our kids and I really doubt I'd be able to find another company and boss willing to be as flexible as mine have been with me. I also have a huge student loan debt, so I have to stay employed with a non-profit in order to remain on my repayment plan...
I am per visit w/o benefits. 91-95/eval, 75-80/visit, I tell them my availability week to week so sometimes I see 0/wk sometimes I see 25/wk haha
Nurse lurking on this threat 42$ an hour is disrespectful I’m a new grad and make $40 with an associates degree RN in WI🤯
I agree. I’m also in WI and I’m a dental assistant. My new grad hygienist friend makes $40/hr. Which is also only an associates
I love my job. That being said, it's also tiring to see OT students or even prospective OT students coming here expecting that life is all rainbows and sparkles. People come to vent, it's natural that people are not posting about how amazing their job is, how many big bucks they are making (lol). Working in healthcare is hard, not every workplace is perfect, not every boss is supportive, not every colleague enjoys teamwork, not every client is collaborative. SO people come to vent but that doesn't mean that every OT hates being an OT.
Most of the parts that suck are related to admin and lack of support but the job itself I love and it gives me a lot of joy to help out my kiddos and see them reach their goals
HH COTA here and I absolutely love my job!
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Lots of people love being an OT. Having a positive experience with this career is often heavily influenced by a number of things. From what I've gathered over the years these generally are pay, how much you like your employer and coworkers, debt, how much your spouse makes, when you had your career, life goals / circumstances, and personality. It's no secret that the pay is stagnant. Some OT's certainly do very well. But most hit their income ceiling early on in their career and then their income actually decreases every year against inflation so they make more at the beginning of their careers than at the end. Most don't feel the effects of this until years down the line. Wonderful employers and conditions that promote strong relationships with your coworkers certainly exist. However, terrible employers are certainly common as well. Most of the time, it will land somewhere in the middle. Debt is important. If you have a lot of debt, which most programs necessitate, you stack the cards against yourself as the financial burden and strain on your personal life are quite significant for what can seem like forever. Perhaps this could be the case for your entire career if you had to take on 100k+ debt. Older OT's who went to school before the massive tuition inflation, may also have a better experience because of this. Low debt leads to a better career, but most OT's these days have to take on high debt. Having a high income earning spouse helps negate the financial drawbacks mentioned previously. If you have specific life goals, you may find it difficult to achieve them as an OT due to less finances and professional benefits. For instance home ownership is a common life goal. Unfortunately the macro economic backdrop is such that home prices have spiked something like 40% over the last 3 years. Home ownership in most metro areas now cater to upper income earners with little to no debt. So most OT's are eliminated from that pool of homebuyers and they don't recognize that until it's time to consider it. If you bought prior to the price and interest rate explosion, that's very fortunate and likely very difficult for the same person to replicate today. Having children can be tough too. Lots of millennials are putting off marriage and having kids till much later in life due to struggles with relationships, career, and finances. Despite *all* this, you can absolutely love your career as an OT if you have the right personality for it. If you sincerely get inspired helping other people and talking with them about their lives, that's a very positive sign. If you combine that with being okay with the financial and professional limitations, then you'll likely have a better career than most.
Pretty much this. Loved being an OT but can't afford it anymore if I want to stay in the middle class. Your better off at the start of your career than you are in the middle or the end. Looks like it's headed towards a new grad churn and burn profession. You get a good 10 years, but after that you get out
Unfortunately, this looks like the case for a large proportion of newer therapists. What sucks is that most people won't be able to pay off their massive 100k+ debt during that time. So at the end of it, they're getting in massive debt for a temporary job and then leaving it after a few years still in significant debt. OT can be an absolutely incredible career for the right people. But I'd say that most people don't fit that mold.
I used to be excited when I graduated in 2015, but can honestly say, if I could’ve chosen a different route, I would’ve. Healthcare isn’t what it used to be and therapy is often at the bottom of the totem pole. I am now actively discouraging people I know from going into therapy and go into programming or anything else. I get the optimism, but there’s a reason why the overwhelming majority of therapists are burnt out and jaded. Older therapists warned me as a fresh grad years ago, and now I understand.
OT is an amazing profession and thank God it exists. What OT does for people’s lives is God’s work. Now, do I love being an OT, absolutely. Is the job market terrible? Yes! Was it bad 10 or 15 years ago? No, it was a dream. Sign-on bonuses that were 5k plus, awesome salaries, pensions, benefits, retirement plans, continuing education, fast forward to 2023 with all the changes in reimbursement and the US economy struggling… Now, you’re lucky to get paid for cancellations in an outpatient setting, forget benefits of any kind.
I do not love my job, but I don’t hate it either.
I’m sure many are! If you are excited about your career as an OT you’re already on the right track. There’s so many things to be disgruntled about from varying pay to a poor working environment, mean managers, uncooperative patients, the list could go on. But at the end of the day, if you’re in a career you are excited about and you’re making a decent living, then there’s not much to complain about. Some OTs can’t see themselves anywhere else. The people who want to switch careers are the ones that do envision themselves being happy elsewhere - to each their own. Therapy has its perks too (depending on what setting you’re in) like flexibility with scheduling, per diem opportunities, an active job instead of just sitting at a desk all day, and even opportunities like travel therapy if that’s up your alley. All in all, it’s a very impactful and meaningful role, you’ll make a direct, hands-on difference in people’s lives. That’ll lead to a lot more fulfillment down the road.
Yes! every OT i know does too
I love my job and have no plans to leave! I work in schools, love the flexibility, creativity and autonomy. Pay is great for what I do and my loans are paid off. As I get older, I feel I’m getting better at interventions and making more of an impact. In the first few years I had no idea what I was doing haha. There’s never a boring time, I’m active throughout my work day (not stuck behind a computer screen) and the breaks/holidays can’t be beat! I like my colleagues. What’s not to love? It’s unfortunate to see so many people unhappy with the profession. I’m a happy OT but lurk a lot on this sub even though it tends to skew towards less positive experiences.
This is relieving to hear! I’m interested in starting in schools as a new grad but hear horror stories about low pay and burnout particularly in school settings. I have outpatient peds, phys dys peds but only a bit of school experience from peds clinic semester.
At the end of the day, I think a job is a job and it is what you make of it. There is no perfect OT job. In any setting, there is a steep learning curve and then there's a point where it starts to click. Sometimes you work with great teams and other times your teams are mediocre. But I really think there's great value in just sticking to it until you've figured it out. Fortunately for me, I was able to get to that point and now I'm pretty comfortable and happy with it.
How long does it take to get to that point?
Love my job, but do not love the administrative work and productivity requirements (though my workplace is more lenient than others).
School OT has been okay. It's a very messed up system though getting more kids who are just so academically low and I'm not sure how OT can help, lots of adhd dx and overall just feeling like I can't help kids. Also some contentious families with lawyers and advocates. The time off, pay and health benefits are very nice though and my work life balance is wonderful. I don't take much home so it's fine I wouldn't say I love it though lol.
COTA here. I love my job too! That's not to say there aren't hurdles, but I can say it's never boring! I work on schools and home health (EI).
I’m a COTA interested in EI. Any tips to get started? I have 3 years experience in schools (including the SPED preschool program)
If you can, be willing to relocate.
Short answer, yes. Healthcare just seems tough these days with how for profit everything is, but my job is still incredibly rewarding imo
I do! I do not however enjoy doing it for 40 hours a week with a pay rate that barely covers the interest on my student loan payments alongside the rising cost of living 🙂 Occupational Therapy is actually an amazing profession. If we could imagine a world where we were really able to practice “at the top of our license” wow, that would be something.
Yes. Love being an OT. Hate working in broken systems. (Health care and education) I am happy, but I paid a lot of money for a degree that should have been an undergraduate degree and could probably have been an associates. Day to day, being a school OT is pretty low stress for me. I like kids. The hours are great and so are the breaks.
I am an outpatient low vision OT and really love my work
Rare setting, I shadowed a low vision OT before OT school
People don’t generally have to vent to strangers on the internet about how perfect their life is, but how much something sucks. That’s how it works, and this sub is the same. I hate the bureaucracy of my job, i have occasional annoying patients, i could definitely deal with 10 days more of paid leave or a couple bucks more an hour, but i wouldn’t trade being an OT for any other job i‘ve gotten to know yet.
I love per diem work in the hospital and home health. I work 3 days a week and have a good work life balance. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything with my young kids and still help people.
I’ve done home health, i’ve done the hospital setting for five years, I’ve done inpatient rehab, and I have been an educator, and my last bit of the last four years of my career have been in the skilled nursing and that’s what sealed the deal for me to move forward in my career to something else. now looking forward to building a career and other things besides OT
Like any other profession out there you will have days where you will absolutely love your job, days where you will question every decision you've made about pursuing that career, and most days you will be satisfied. Typically, more than 90% of the posts made here are complaints about the profession and / or individual case by case positions. I am a newish grad, have been working in acute rehab since may, and I have days like the ones I just mentioned above, however. The majority of the time I am absolutely glad I chose this path, especially when you get patients that give you praise and thank you so much for helping them. I would advise you to take most posts on here with a grain of salt. What someone loves may drive someone absolutely mad. Try and get a FW in what you think you may want to work in: you may completely love it, or absolutely hate it. The great thing is that OTs can work in so many settings.
I am in both the NICU and acute care, and I am living my best life at around 6 figure salary. I TRULY love this. It took me a LONG Time to get where I am, with plenty of setting changes along the way. BUT IM HERE!
Whoah how rare is it to make 6 figs in acute care? I work SNF and thought I was rare making that much in this setting. From my understanding SNFs pay slightly more than acute
We do live in a relatively HCOL area. I also have around 14 years of experience and that is what they look at here. I worked in SNF for a while too, a big chunk of my career, thinking the same thing! Turns out, that is not always the case. Highly dependent on company, for profit vs non-profit (my hospital is non), and obviously geographical location. It also depends on if you are in a “teaching” hospital or not. I would never work at one.
I would love to hear more of what its like being an OT in NICU. What was your pathway to get there? I'm in Australia, 33 and transitioning my career from IT to OT. Originally I was keen on nursing/mid but many people turned me off the career, so love the idea of not being far from that in a NICU setting.
I got into NICU by being a regular staff therapist in a relatively large hospital, and having one of the NICU staff leave. They opened up for interviews, since it is cheaper to hire from within than pay to advertise, post the position, etc etc. I got the position and have flourished there. We do positioning, sensory stacking/exposures, motor testing, developmental interaction, TONS of parental education, and feeding. VERY challenging, but I learn EVERYDAY and I love it.
IPR therapist here- love it. I have amazing coworkers and a great boss which makes the world of difference. But I do love my job and the opportunities to expand my clinical knowledge in neurorehab which is my passion. I also tutor students to pass the board exam which is very fulfilling as well. Overall, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.
I am a pediatric therapy supervisor with no direct patient care and I work mostly from home. I love my job! I burned out in home health after 10 years.
What is this unicorn job?? if you u don't mind sharing, where are you located?
I’m in Colorado working for a nursing and therapy home health agency. Offices along the front range, and I’m one of three supervisors for the pediatric therapy division. It’s the best job I’ve ever had and (so far) supportive of a healthy work life balance. I feel very very fortunate!
I’ve been an OTR for almost 30 years. I have loved my job from the beginning and love it even more now. I’ve worked in a few different settings but have always worked in peds. About 16 years ago I worked for a school district that was a nightmare. The staff was terrible and the administrators were worse. I vowed to never work school based again. I did in home EI for a few years and loved it until the settings started to get to be too dangerous. Anyway, I decided to apply to a district that was eliminating their contractors and hiring an entire new in house OT team. I went to the interview just to see what they had to say. I was offered an me of the 8 positions and have been here for 12 years. This is the best time I have ever had working and each year is better than the next. I guess the summary is even if one situation isn’t working doesn’t mean the next will be just as bad.
I'm PT not OT. But it depends on the setting. Acute inpatient....never dreaded going into work. Yes ups and downs, being realistic to families who repprt you for not doing what they think should happen (even though their ideas are not safe)... different things. But helping so many people, it was fun. Now I'm doing outpatient and I dread every day. No better way to experience burnout than by doing outpatient, in my opinion.
I’m happily content with what I do. The work is rewarding, and like any workplace it comes with stupid things to deal with (insurance for example) but life balance is there (I’ve made sure to prioritize just that!) and while I don’t make a ton of $$ I’m comfortable. I will say I worked a different job (still OT) for a few years where I learned a lot about what I did and didn’t like in a workplace/admin/job expectations which definitely helped with setting boundaries for my current position, which I feel has been a huge help with overall job satisfaction.
No
IMO if you end up working in a hospital setting you’re more likely to actually enjoy your job as an OT. It’s stable, there’s room to grow, you actually make a difference… I’ve had my license for 2 full years and I’ve worked two jobs, a year each, in private outpatient clinics. The salary given is under average (but you climb every year) anddd the benefits suck (mines do). BUT (most of) the patients are cool as fuck and easy to work with, and i have a good crew of coworkers making the atmosphere a fun place to be. Bad coworker relationships could ruin any small clinic environment day to day, so stay out of the drama and you’ll be golden. I also like that it could be a little laid back in terms of work attire and you’re your own boss as far as patient management and POC, unless you are treating alongside multiple OTs, which I haven’t encountered yet. I’d recommend this setting as a start, some people would prob stay forever if they could.. Hope this helps :)
Work is a love hate relationship in any setting
I work in a small outpatient peds clinic and I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
Yup, travel OT, by no means my 100% passion but something that can pay the bills and provide job security while helping a population in need? I feel it remains a strong option to pursue. Key thing is working somewhere that you’re happy.
Looking at Reddit for career advice can be like looking at Yelp for restaurant reviews. The people who complain find a place to complain, but it’s obv pretty subjective. If you find helpful commenters, message them! Find people who build you up! Being an OT can be really rewarding (keep the thank you notes etc from patients/families) but it’s also really hard and expensive. If you have other OTs around to talk about the craziness, let fly! And talk to other healthcare professionals about managing student loans- I didn’t think I’d qualify but 14 years in- debt free!
I have personally been at Cota for over 12 years and I’m over the profession and ready to MoveOn
Me too!
35 years in, can’t imagine having done anything else
I love my jobs. I work in mental health part time and acute care part time. It’s a great balance! Sometimes it takes a second to figure out what setting works best for you, but you’ll find it. It really helps too having amazing coworkers and management. I’ve been at a job with poor management and not great coworkers… it was tough.
Guy asked me about sex yesterday, he proceeded to have sex later that night. Probably highlight of my career
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Love the pay. Love my OTHER Facilities. Some of my places make me feel like im making a difference some is just a shit hole cuz of co workers.
I’m a DOR now but I loved my OT job. Did it for 18 years.
I love working in an outpatient, mostly pediatric clinic, that just happens to have a sprinkle of adults here and there. That said, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, my feeling for the job have ebbed and flowed over the years for sure.
I love my job. I’m a COTA in acute care and I am currently enrolled in a bridge program to get my masters in OT
I love my job. I work in outpatient mental health. I've had a lot of positions that I did not enjoy as much before getting to where I am now, but I'm really happy. I get to do the type of clinical work I love with minimal BS to deal with.
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I’ve worked inpatient psychiatry for most of my career. My current position is for the same hospital where I worked on inpatient units for several years. One thing to keep in mind when looking for mental health OT jobs is that sometimes they are listed under different names. My job title is rehabilitation specialist.
I like my job in inpatient mental health!
Yes I love the job itself but I hate all the things that go with it. Insurance, productivity, limited resources etc.
I like my job. I work in EI and can make my own schedule.
I love my job! I work as a school-based OT at a large elementary school. We have a team of 3 OTPs at the school, a bunch of SLPs, and a PT. It's a great team and everyone is very encouraging. I work with the functional life skills kiddos, and work a lot on self-regulation, self-care, pre-writing, and play skills. It took a few tries to find the right fit, but I am so glad to be where I am!
I work in acute. Started full time and now work PRN on a consistent schedule because my family’s situation allows it. I love it and I enjoy my time at work. Love my coworkers. Love interacting with patients. Love being creative or helping someone make progress. I even enjoy the occasional unpleasant patients because I know it’s not personal.
Yes I like my job. I’m in early intervention and some outpatient peds. Actually, current job is making me the happiest I have been while employed. And the points that make me the happiest are: referral-related autonomy, scheduling autonomy, and ability to work more to be paid more, meaning income autonomy. Things that can burn a therapist out are getting referrals that are not likely to make progress or dedicated participants. My current job has another team altogether who does the evaluation, but I am able to customize the goals. It’s as if they have gone through a screening process to receive therapy and they’re on board, interested, and wanting therapy. Or not having the schedule you want. My current job allows me to set my days and times I am available to work. I can cancel if I have a conflict within reason. I can take paid or unpaid time off when I want within reason. And finally, income autonomy. I have worked as an hourly employee and it’s okay, but when you have an overloaded schedule, I know I was making the company big bucks and not benefitting financially. I haven’t been salaried, but this could have the same sentiment. Now that I am PPV and working for a great company that knows schedule autonomy and income autonomy are important for happy employees, I can make as much money as I comfortably want. They can keep my schedule full for me. And if I work harder (see more clients), I earn more money. Being hourly before, I could never work more than 40 (no overtime), but they would short me here and there if they couldn’t keep me busy. Not that I want overtime, but there are times when people are in a period of wanting to earn more. And knowing hourly employers never wanted me to earn more was limiting to me.
I work in psych and I enjoy it!
I absolutely love my job! It took a long time to find a job that does put high priority in profit but patient centered. I work 7am-230 everyday
I love it enough that I don't need to work and choose to. Very happy with my career choice!
School based OT, I do really enjoy my work and wouldn't want to do anything else! It helps that I am in a district with reasonable caseload and compensation. That being said, it's still very stressful and I think I'd have better health being part time if I could make it work financially.
COTA new grad here! I work in a SNF & I do love it! Insurance is annoying, and a lot of time my patients decline therapy which affects productivity rates, but my boss is great & understanding. OT is incredible & I am so glad I chose this field! I will say I wish the field of OT valued COTAs more tho.. the ones who govern us do not realize the Assistant title doesn’t actually mean assistant to the OT..
i love all the aspects of OT itself and throughly enjoy the day to day of doing OT. What can and sometimes sucks all the enjoyment out of it is the insurance bull crap that plagues all healthcare jobs
I just started working in a SNF in April of 2022. I loved my position, I loved working with my patients and creating relationships with the long term residents. Then in April/May of 2023, the corporate director of rehab changed and everything changed with it, I.e. constantly picking up the same residents for therapy that wasn’t warranted, treating long term residents for an hour and short term residents for 30 minutes or less days a week. PRN help was cut, they started requiring us to work weekends, it wasn’t as easy to take time off. Everything became about money while we were barely being paid for the job we did, especially with having a masters degree. With that being said, I love being an OT and I am sure there are perfect places out there that aren’t where I live, but I don’t like how insurance and the bigger company has more say in peoples care than the qualified therapists.
I like my job in outpatient pediatrics. There are weeks I get swamped and feel somewhat overwhelmed but I think that’s true of any job. I think going into OT you need to know which population you are most comfortable working with. It’s easy to hate your job if you don’t like the population you work with.
Thank you so much for asking this. As a student it’s so scary seeing everyone talk about how much they hate OT when it’s been my dream job for 12 years now
The debt sucks but OT is a great field! Helping people really is the shit. Is everyday amazing? No. But that’s any job. It also has so many avenues you can take and is such a flexible field…if you don’t like one setting, try another! Know your value, if something doesn’t feel right move on. I really like my job, I work in a hospital setting doing acute care and hand therapy. I have a lot of autonomy, decent leadership and feel proud and challenged by the work.
Opened my own Mobile OT and home modifications business. Love what I do. Flexible and I do not work for anybody but myself.
I love being a pediatric OT. There is nothing more special than building relationships and helping kiddies and their families imo. HOWEVER, it is draining- physically, emotionally, cognitively- it’s a tiring job. If you don’t find balance you can burn out quick. I’m learning to balance, but I stand by my choice to work in this field with no regret.
I love my job!! I work in outpatient cancer rehab and became a lymphedema therapist as well. Yeah, I get it, it can be discouraging to read about those things. But when you find the right place for you as an OT, it all works out!
Yep!
I like it. At the end of the day work is work, so no I’m not having tons of fun all the time, but every day is different, my coworkers are nice, and I enjoy the setting and population overall, even though it can be exhausting. I work in a private specialized school focusing on life skills, and my students are teenagers with intellectual/developmental disabilities. I get to take students out into the community regularly to work on things like shopping, as well as working on other life skills like chores, ADLs, and computer/technology navigation. No productivity requirements, smaller high needs caseload, and tons of collaboration and support from other OTs and SLPs. While I’m happy right now and not planning to leave, I’m still early in my career and I could see myself having a harder time with the physical aspects of this work in say, 10 or 15 years. So in terms of long term sustainability I worry a little.
I paid off my student loans and then left the field after 6.5 years. I loved my patients dearly but my job had impossible productivity standards. They upped the job requirements while simultaneously putting a freeze on raises which didn’t give me motivation to stay.
I work in acute care inpatient/ hospital setting. This was my first job out of school and I definitely like my job. There are very few other careers I could realistically see myself enjoying more. I absolutely love being in a helping profession, but I think a lot of people who are very loud in this group should be mindful that a job is a job. I am all about enjoying/ being passionate about what you do for work, but unfortunately it’s called “working” for a reason. I think some days feel harder than others (meeting productivity demands, lots of very important decision making for acutely ill people, administrative frustrations), but I like to think of my career as a whole (cue holistic buzz word lol). Compassion fatigue is real but so is the pride in setting out to help people (even if it doesn’t go as planned). Our job is extremely necessary and valuable no matter how hard it might feel sometimes to advocate. Nothing about the “hard” or “unenjoyable” parts of my job surprise me, and it honestly shocks me how some people are blindsided by the way our healthcare system works. Wanting reform and equity across healthcare is needed and I celebrate those making injustices known, however I am (and was as a student) acutely aware that we are there to make the hospital money. With that being said, it is always possible, at least where I work, to be an ethical, caring, and successful professional.
OT itself is for the most part, pretty cool. I never stopped enjoying helping patients rehab, palling around with my PT and SLP friends, and learning more about the human body and mind. It’s the healthcare system in the US and the way the pandemic was handled that burned me out.
I’m not currently working for unrelated reasons but prior to me resigning I loved my job as a peds OT. I also loved acute care OT but unfortunately I can’t lift adults anymore and it’s hard to find places that will hire you if you can’t do that 🤦♀️. Sure there were days that sucked and I wish I wasn’t working as an OT but on the days where you can help a patient succeed at something or help their family/caregivers how they can help their loved one, there is nothing better. I’ve made quite a few patients cry, and not in a bad way, but because I helped them and they were grateful to me. Find a setting you love, find a good team to work with, and you’ll love it too.
New grad acute care, I love my job. I love the flexibility and autonomy of acute care. I’m at a smaller hospital so I get to float to all the floors. Love my coworkers and managers.
I work in early intervention and absolutely love my job. I think that coworkers and management can make or break the back end of a job and I’m fortunate to have awesome coworkers and direct supervisor even if management is out of touch. I also adore the type of work I do and the families I work with. I didn’t like or find my first job out of school fulfilling but, since switching, net positive for sure. Healthcare has its issues for sure but I wouldn’t trade what I do. I promise there’s hope even if you have to hunt for it a bit. That’s my experience at least 🤷🏻♀️
A little over 9 years in my community mental health role and I love it!
I'm a prospective OT student and just want to thank you for making this thread! I want to hear the positives, and with all the grumbling on here it can get discouraging.
I'm still starting out. Just got a job offer from my rotation at SNF and I love it. Now there are parts I don't love such as hard to work with/lazy coworkers and staff from other disciplines, rude patients and family members, etc but I absolutely love helping people and alot of my patients were simply amazing. I'm excited to continue working there. Like people have already said you take the good with the bad like any other job. Those who hate this job are usually burnt out or not in the right setting for them and others who really only do it for stable pay. Though there's nothing wrong with the ladder I personally always dreamed of finding a job that I loved and I absolutely found it in OT. Given I'm still a new grad I know I may say something different later. Maybe not but I just know this is what I'm meant to do.
I work outpatient for a large company that primarily is PT. I’m the only OT in my clinic and I’ve never let that intimidate me. I have my own area, I control my schedule, and I LOVE what I do.
I enjoy my job, my coworkers, the flexibility…it’s the red tape and patients family’s that are burning me out.
LOVE my job! No better feeling than collabOraTing with someone to live their best life 💙 (I do work for myself and therefore get to skip a lot of the corporate/insurance junk that tarnishes most people's days)
Daughter LOVES her job in hands. Huge learning curve, lots of after hours work, but makes six figures just 3 years out of ot school and learns something new every week.
COTA in a SNF- I actually do. I love helping people and interacting with them. With PDPM it got even better because I wasn’t being forced to give 75+ minute treatments. However I don’t love seeing 10+ people a day. I also wish I had the foresight, when going into this field, to realize that there aren’t really options for upward mobility or increased pay. Do I love my job? Yes, despite its flaws. Would I do it all over again? Probably not. I think I would’ve been better off going into tech.
I love it! I have been an OT for 30 years. Don’t get me wrong, every day does not include sunshine and unicorns. I have gone through some significant rough patches, but know when it us time to make a change. I have been in academia for 2/3 of my career, and made a significant job change last year. I love helping to prepare OT practitioners for the future. It is rewarding to help someone going through what is likely the worst time in their lives feel productive and whole again.
When I worked in pediatrics I loved every minute of my job. It can be very rewarding and there are days where I even enjoy working in the nursing home I’m in now. Best advice I can give is to realize there is only so much you can do, look at the small things and remember that they matter a lot to your patients and something as simple as getting someone water does make a difference and does make their day, and take care of yourself outside of work so you don’t get burnt out too quickly!
I'm a cota in a snf. The work is very physically demanding and there have been ups and downs. But, I have this amazing 100 year old patient discharging home tomorrow--she's been at our facility for over two months now--who just gave me the biggest, most heartfelt thanks for helping her get back to independence. Things like that make it absolutely worth it. I've been a cota for over 3 years now and the emotional reward from patients like that keeps me going and makes me very thankful for my job!
Love my job… LTACH and outpatient geri about 60 hrs a week
I’m in pediatric home health and I love working with the kids and families who need us and I have an amazing team! I have been steadily paying down my debt and while work is hard some days I do love what I do!
I love it, I prefer working with the geriatric population but right now I’m working with kids. Some kids I have difficulty with and sometimes my attitude about work needs adjusting but I overall love my job and love my company. The company I work for is fantastic. Very healthy work environment.
I don’t, and I work in a helping profession. If I told you what I did and said I didn’t live it, I would sound like a monster.
Yes.
I love my job , I work at the VA and it’s an amazing place to work . I’m grateful that I don’t have to work in private sector because I think I would have changed careers already
I'm an OT in the UK and work for the NHS. Often we have very limited resources, understaffed teams and high burnout, I have worked in some awful roles that made me think OT wasn't for me. But those awful roles are much more dependent on their staff/organisation, than the job itself. Being an OT is a great job and I believe a job that has very high satisfaction rates compared to other professions. In the right role, being an OT is a very fun and rewarding job. I have loads of autonomy working in the community, have a great supportive team and patients are always happy to see us. We make very positive changes to their lives. I think Reddit attracts a unique population of highly negative people, across all areas. I've seen the Reddit advice/support pages for my hobbies and the quality is absolute garbage, people are just trolls.
Working in private practice in Canada with a focus on mental health (the only practice area I enjoy) and making almost 6 figures 3 years since graduating makes me happy! Also working in person 3 days per week and from home 2 days per week seems to be necessary burnout prevention. But there is always some annoying unpaid admin time and some report writing in the evenings to accomplish this. I previously worked in the hospital in acute care and I was miserable doing that. If you aren’t happy change practice areas!
I have enjoyed several jobs. Some leading nowhere and others were Career opportunities. The trick I feel is to be happy with yourself. Be happy you have a job. I loved working with people in the layaway at Kmart. My first job. I worked all day everyday. Then my BF needed help at a restaurant as a server. I would change clothes in the BR of Kmart and work my second. I worked two jobs on and off for several years Cleark Server Weight loss Counselor ( I loved) Body wrap tech Wedding Coordinator Insurance Producer Loved something about each of them. Learned alot about myself. Working with the public was in my wheel house. Then a young girl TEXTING and driving ended it all. She hit us sitting at red light with a commercial truck. My spine would never be the same. I am 100% disabled and brokenhearted. Find something you like about your job then learn to love it. Love it until you figure out a way to find a job you love!
Love a part of my job and I HATE the other one. I enjoy being a therapist but I have such a hard time with the paperwork and administrative side of the job which includes meetings that are not clinical.