New Practitioner 101: Salary vs. Experience

I decided that I would like to write a blog about professional issues that I encounter as a new practitioner. Entitled "New Practitioner 101," I will write about the things I learn and professional dilemmas in my new professional life as an occupational therapist. I am so excited to start my career!

Over the past few weeks and months, I have been reading the emails of friends and peers from my OT class regarding applying for jobs and considering salaries. It made me think about how I obsessed over looking at jobs and salaries through the course of my OT education. Once I graduated and started reallly looking at jobs, I realized that I had to evaluate what I was really looking for and what I wanted in my first job. It seemed to me that everyone was putting the most weight on what salary they would receive. I definitely understand the need to pay your bills and the lure of a high salary, but should that be our top priority as newly graduated occupational therapists looking for our first job?

I decided that the other side of the coin is experience. What kind of job, setting, facility, and environment would give me the best experience? I feel like this is the most important thing that a new practitioner should be looking at when deciding to take a new job. The experience gained (or not) in the first job could set the course of a person's entire career. Things I think are important to consider are: long term and short term career goals, mentorship availability, and amount of interaction with other OTs and other team members. Just because a job offers a high salary does not mean that it won't provide a good first job experience but it also does not guarantee the best opportunities to learn and grow as an occupational therapist.

In the end, I decided that pay was not going to be the deciding factor in my job search. I hope that the experience that I will get in my first job will be invaluable and will be a jumping point for a successful occupational therapy career. I have many goals for my career and this is just the beginning!