What is myOTcareer all about
We started MyOTCareer after becoming frustrated that we had so many great colleagues applying for Occupational Therapy jobs and not getting the posts they deserved. We soon realised the expertise we apply to helping OTs move on in their careers will also support the next generation of therapists looking to step into university.
How did we know? Well … we worked them. As therapists, undergraduate students and work experience students.
We saw tremendous promise and potential in people that we would have gladly promoted if we had the posts. Something was not making sense. Some were failing at the first hurdle and not even getting an interview. Others, often excellent OTs, were being overshadowed at interview and failing to secure the posts they wanted. After a bit of debriefing it became clear that they were preparing for the interviews from the wrong perspective. They were trying to double guess what the recruiters wanted to see without ever actually checking to see if that was actually what they wanted at all .
From a recruiters perspective we were equally frustrated interviewing therapists but struggling to really find out how well they could fit into our teams and do the job. This is not to say they couldn’t, just that they didn’t convince us that they were the sort of candidate we couldn’t do without. Now there is a cost to recruiting. That money goes down the drain if you don’t get a successful outcome. BUT … this pales into insignificance when you consider the costs of getting it wrong. Choose the wrong person and the consequences will have impacts on your teams years into the future. So unless we were 100% convinced that a therapist was right for the post it was always wiser to not recruit.
Now put these two perspectives together. The need to support candidates to show the very best of themselves throughout the recruitment process was clear to us. We both win. As candidates … you get the post you really want. As recruiters … we get to find the best candidates.
Key ways that myOTcareer can support you with Occupational Therapy jobs and careers
As a result we have focused our experience on advising therapists and potential therapists –
- How to write brilliant Occupational Therapy application forms
- How to prepare for Occupational Therapy Interviews
- How to answer common questions at Occupational Therapy interviews
- How to succeed at Occupational Therapy interviews and by showing the very best bits of you as an OT.
- How to have the best chance of starting your OT career by nailing your university interview.
The lead adviser at My Occupational Therapy Career is Matt Bowen. Matt has been an OT for over twenty years and has worked in the NHS and private sphere. For the last fifteen he has been involved in recruiting OTs. This has included recruiting an entire clinical team of OTs, Nurses and Physiotherapists, and more recently regularly recruiting to band 5,6 and 7 posts within a University Health Board. He has also been asked to support recruitment of other disciplines including physiotherapists and support staff.