The Secrets to Finding the Right Employer as a New Graduate

Congratulations on completing your OT degree! Now, where to next? You have put in the hard yards, and now it’s time to decide where you want to start your journey as an OT. You may feel nervous, excited, and confused all at the same time – I know, because that was me 12 months ago. It has been over a year since I chose The Potential Ability Group (TPAG) to kick off my OT career, and I couldn’t be happier that I did. Come with me on a journey to discover the things I found most important in my first year as an OT.

In your first 6 months as an OT, you do more learning than you did across your entire OT degree. It is important to find an employer that understands this and allows you the brain space to learn the essentials before jumping into a full caseload. The first 3 months of my OT career with TPAG was focused on skill building, not just in a clinical sense, but learning all the company policies and procedures. Trust me – prioritising learning this early will save you so much time in the future! When looking for the right job, ensure you ask for an accurate picture of what the first 6 months will look like. How many clients will you see each day? How much extra time is allowed per client to plan and prepare, or does this need to be done outside of work hours? (HINT: This should all be completed within work hours!). Who determines when I am ready for more clients? (HINT: This should be guided by you!).

Frequent supervision is integral to becoming a confident and competent OT. Being a community OT on the road frequently means that you are not able to just pop over to your supervisor’s office to ask a question, so having frequent formal opportunities to ask clinical questions is so important. Along with this, you should be provided with the opportunity to connect with your supervisor informally when needed – whether it be via phone call, zoom or text message, to support building strong relationships. During my first few months at TPAG, not only did I have frequent formal and informal supervision, but I was also provided with the opportunity to connect with a fellow ‘OT Buddy’ to ask all those pesky questions relating to processes and procedures, so that my time with my supervisor could be spent on clinical skill building. When looking for a job, ask for the specifics. How frequent is formal supervision? Will I have access to my supervisor outside of these set times? If not, who else is there to contact within the company to ask any burning questions?

You’ve spent 4-5 years completing full-time study, alongside working a job after hours and on the weekends to keep yourself afloat. During this time, it is unlikely you had any form of work-life balance. Now that you have completed the hard yards, it is important that you find a company that will support you to have this balance. While being an OT is so rewarding, it can be challenging and lead to burnout if you don’t have the appropriate supports. Having a graded caseload for the first 6 months goes hand in hand with creating a healthy work-life balance, but what do you do when you reach a full caseload? When looking for a job, learn about the companies’ values and if they are willing to invest in the work-life balance of their staff. At TPAG, we have paid self-care that can be used flexibly to support work-life balance. I often use mine to extend my lunch break or attend an appointment so that I have more time after work to do things that fill my cup.

Another important factor to consider in work-life balance is flexibility. You have studied so hard for so many years, why not take on a role that suits the demands of your personal life? When job searching, think about what your ideal FTE may be – if you are looking to have a better work-life balance, then ensure you ask about opportunities for part-time roles. In my first year, I have chosen to take on a part-time role to ensure I can ease into the job and not burnout after one year. I am so glad I am employed by a company that not only allows this but supports me to flexibly complete my hours when it works for me.

Since you’re an OT, it’s likely that you have a love of learning. Not only is it important to complete professional development to remain registered as an OT, but we need to fuel our brains with knowledge relating to the clinical area that we are working in. When starting out look for a company that will allow you time to look through all the resources that they have and complete any trainings that they have available. On top of this, look for a company that provides paid professional development leave. You don’t want to be coming home from work and having to spend your well-earned weekend completing professional development. Find a company that values the importance of evolving potential and work-life balance and allows you to complete professional development within your work hours if required. At TPAG, we are not only provided with paid professional development leave but are given a day to shadow another team member to learn more about their role or a different clinical area. This allows you to either learn more about your current clinical area or help decide if you want to expand your scope to include another area. When looking for the right job, ensure you ask about opportunities for knowledge building. Will you be provided with time in the first few months to build your knowledge in your clinical area during work hours? Will you be allowed time for professional development? Are there opportunities to learn about other clinical areas within the team and expand your scope of practice over time?

Being a community OT can be lonely sometimes – despite spending your days with your clients, there are lots of hours to fill in between, where you are driving and completing admin work. When looking for the right job, make sure you ask about opportunities to connect with other team members during work hours. It is important to find a company that values building strong relationships and allows you to connect with team members like you would if you were all in an office space together. At TPAG, we have a team meeting at least every 6 weeks to not only facilitate robust clinical discussion, but to allow team members to connect, as well as online ‘drop in lunches’ and when possible, our calendars are booked to facilitate catching up with other team members for lunch in the same areas.

Now that you’re equipped with this information how do you make sure the company you are interested in has these opportunities available? It’s simple – ask questions! Use time during the interview to ask questions about the company. An interview shouldn’t be a one-way interrogation, it should be time for both the company to learn about you, and for you to learn about the company. A preferred employer will allow you the space to ask questions during the interview, and value you wanting to learn more about the company so you both find the right fit.

If these top 5 non-negotiables sound good to you – why not check out our New Graduate Program to learn how you can become part of the TPAG family.