How to make your therapist career an open road to happiness and professional fulfillment

If you’re looking at travel physical therapist jobs or recently landed one, your chief concern is excelling at your new post. There’s no better feeling than being invited to return, receiving an offer to extend the therapist job, or simply making friends you’ll keep in touch with forever.

How can you be “PRFCT” in anticipation of, say, a new physical therapist career? In your best cheerleading voice, “What’s that spell?! “

The ‘P’ is for Professional; the ‘R’ for Reliable; the ‘F’ for Filling-in for a friend or colleague in need; the ‘C’ for Cordiality and, last but not least, the “T” is for Time Conscientiousness—you never, never want to run late.

So, ladies and gentleman of PT and travel occupational therapy jobs world, we give you PRFCT—tion in short order. When you do all of these things right, you can’t go wrong.

• Arrive a couple days ahead of your start date, so you can get a feel for your new environment.
• Make a test drive to work. How long does it take you to leave your new apartment and begin your shift?
• Take a tour of the facility and familiarize yourself with the unit you’ll be working in.
• Remember that your first day sets an overall tone for the rest of the assignment, so make sure it’s a positive “1st Day”!
• Be prepared for anything! Some assignments take a while to get intense, while others hit the ground running.
• Bring at least two pens and a notepad to take plenty of notes on your first day. The more technical savvy can use a new smart phone app called Evernote.
• Be a team player—as clichéd as it sounds, you know what it means and how important it is.
• At the end of each assignment, ask for written references from the colleagues and managers you worked with—it creates positive career momentum for your next job.