Treatment plans, patient care, and facility aren't the only skills occupational therapists have. In fact, there's a whole list of personality traits that are commonly seen among them, including:
See the full list of occupational therapist skills.
Over half of occupational therapists have graduated with a bachelor's degree. In fact, it seems 32.7% of people who became an occupational therapist earned a bachelor's degree. When it comes down to graduating with a master's degree roughly 58.4% in this career have them. If you're wanting to pursue this career, it seems it may be impossible to be successful with a high school degree. In fact, most occupational therapists have a college degree. But about one out of every nine occupational therapists didn't attend college at all.
The occupational therapists who went onto college to earn a more in-depth education generally studied occupational therapy and psychology, while a small population of occupational therapists studied rehabilitation science and kinesiology.
Once you've graduated with your degree, you're ready to tackle the world as an occupational therapist. But where to start? Generally, occupational therapists are hired the most by Healthpro, Genesis HealthCare, and Select Medical. Currently, Healthpro has 483 occupational therapist job openings, while there are 244 at Genesis HealthCare and 242 at Select Medical.
But if you want to earn the most bang for your buck, occupational therapists tend to earn the biggest salaries at The Orchard Post Acute Care, Marshfield Clinic, and Mayo Clinic. Take The Orchard Post Acute Care for example. The median occupational therapist salary is $107,030. At Marshfield Clinic, occupational therapists earn an average of $101,816, while the average at Mayo Clinic is $98,332. Now before you get too googly-eyed over those digits, take into consideration how difficult it might be to secure a job with one of these companies. While The Orchard Post Acute Care has 0 job listings for occupational therapists, Marshfield Clinic and Mayo Clinic only have 6 and 6 job listings respectively.
View more details on occupational therapist salaries across the United States.
The most prestigious occupational therapists can be found working at RehabCare Group East, Aegis, and Encompass Health. We determine this by assessing the schools where occupational therapists have earned their degrees, and then looking at the companies that have hired a significant number of occupational therapists from the top 100 educational institutions in the United States.