There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pediatric occupational therapist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.59 an hour? That's $84,423 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 18% and produce 23,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many pediatric occupational therapists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed dexterity, physical stamina and resourcefulness.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a pediatric occupational therapist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 14.0% of pediatric occupational therapists included occupational therapy assistants, while 11.0% of resumes included treatment plans, and 10.2% of resumes included patient care. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the pediatric occupational therapist job title. But what industry to start with? Most pediatric occupational therapists actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
If you're interested in becoming a pediatric occupational therapist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 28.5% of pediatric occupational therapists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 61.5% of pediatric occupational therapists have master's degrees. Even though most pediatric occupational therapists have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a pediatric occupational therapist. When we researched the most common majors for a pediatric occupational therapist, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on pediatric occupational therapist resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a pediatric occupational therapist. In fact, many pediatric occupational therapist jobs require experience in a role such as occupational therapist. Meanwhile, many pediatric occupational therapists also have previous career experience in roles such as staff occupational therapist or senior technician specialist.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a pediatric occupational therapist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as senior technician specialist, progress to a title such as manager and then eventually end up with the title patient care manager.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 14.0% of pediatric occupational therapists listed occupational therapy assistants on their resume, but soft skills such as dexterity and physical stamina are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a pediatric occupational therapist. The best states for people in this position are California, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Nevada. Pediatric occupational therapists make the most in California with an average salary of $96,511. Whereas in Hawaii and New Jersey, they would average $93,001 and $90,900, respectively. While pediatric occupational therapists would only make an average of $90,315 in Nevada, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Alaska
$87,066
Avg. Salary
2. Louisiana
$85,611
Avg. Salary
3. Nevada
$90,315
Avg. Salary