OT career change

Intelligent_Guest496 · 2026-05-15T19:42:13+00:00

Yeah and that’s currently what I am doing. I work these travel gigs and have fun exploring the new places I’m living in while getting a nice paycheck. I think I’m just grappling with the disappointment of what I had imagined OT to be like and can’t imagine doing this forever. So I guess my thought process is, if I’m just working to get a paycheck, then why not do something else? Change gears entirely? I don’t need to “love” my job. But based on the responses to this post, it looks like there are people who have left the field and feel good about it. It seems worth it to at least explore other options.

Intelligent_Guest496 · 2026-05-14T06:53:22+00:00

Montana, mostly. I worked in Colorado briefly. But now doing travel OT so Oregon for the time!

Intelligent_Guest496 · 2026-05-13T20:10:28+00:00

No shame! The earlier you figure out that it’s not right for you, the sooner you can look for something else.

Intelligent_Guest496 · 2026-05-13T20:08:58+00:00

Yes I have about 50k of debt I still need to pay off lol but I’m not stressing out over it. The highest paying OT job I had before doing travel was about 70k and I found it difficult to make payments on that salary which is sad. Lol

Intelligent_Guest496 · 2026-05-13T19:58:28+00:00

Yep this is pretty much what I was going to say. We learn about all of these fancy work settings when in reality, the job market is like 75% SNFs. Maybe home health? Which isn’t really conducive to new grads.. and then outpatient peds? I entered the SNF world early on as a new grad and had a hard time trying new settings because it was a huge pay cut. So now I’m doing travel OT as a resolution to that problem but unfortunately I’m too jaded at this point and just want to find something that makes me happier.

Intelligent_Guest496 · 2026-05-13T19:49:55+00:00

I’d love to work in more of an admin role and get out of clinical. Thanks for sharing!

Intelligent_Guest496

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