My journey to becoming a PT

I think my work experience differentiated me from the pack just enough. I think most people have experience in more than one physical therapy setting and I think that’s more or less the minimum requirement so if you have some life experiences or if you have more than two experiences in the physical therapy setting or other medical settings, I think that's going to set you apart. I knew after speaking with many people in the physical therapy profession that I needed to do get experience in that profession as an entry-level student. So I embarked on a journey to complete that experience and it started in a more traditional way with being a PT aide and at a local PT practice and as I went through college I had many opportunities to do things that were related to medicine but not necessarily PT.

My experiences were varied I had a great opportunity to actually work as an autopsy assistant so I saw the highs and lows of life of course there and that gave me great anatomical perspective on the tolerances of the human body. I also volunteered in a orthotics and prosthetics laboratory and I worked at a hospital as a volunteer so that included everything from running charts and filing charts to seeing surgeries from afar, working with different medical professionals up close first-hand. So I think the more that you can diversify the better the chances that you’re going to gain acceptance into a graduate program.

I think my path to becoming a physical therapist was fairly conventional. I completed my college education, I got accepted into physical therapy school right away. There was the choice of waiting to go to a more prestigious school or getting into a school that was close and ready six months earlier so I chose to start earlier than versus taking a more established graduate program and I think working as a coroner's assistant was a little unconventional and maybe it helped me a lot.

Once you meet the requirements for a physical therapy license, getting a job is the easy part. You won't have to knock out a bunch of doors or send out five hundred resumes. It's more of just finding the right match between what you're looking for and what the employers looking for.