I am an acute hospital therapist, CI and CCCE.
What do you want to get our of your first clinical work? Do you want to settle in to someplace and work there for a long time? Do you like routine or variety? Do you want to perform a more limited number of skills and reach a point of comfort/competency more quickly? Do you want to be challenged? Do you want to be mentored? (I'll answer that one for you: YES.) Do you know your long-term professional plan, or do you want to be exposed to multiple settings and diagnoses?
Once you narrow down the things you want to get out of that first position, then you can look at settings. There is a full spectrum of all of the above in each setting, depending on the size and parameters of the practice, and on whether it is for-profit or non-profit.
Some acute hospitals offer PTs hips 'n' knees, hips 'n' knees, the occasional CVA, and maybe some hips 'n' knees. Predictable, and you'll soon feel very competent at the drill. I work in a Level 1 Trauma Center, so I experience low predictability, a chaotic work environment, and astonishing injuries and diagnoses. Rawr! Steady work, regular hours, plenty of positions in acute care.
Outpatient clinics work the same way. Some have a limited scope of practice, some a mix. Productivity is super-important.
Therapists I know who have done the SNF thing find it steady, predictable for the most part, and super-focused on the Medicare status of the patients and how many minutes per week each must get (no more, no less).
In-patient rehab may see a slightly more exotic mix than a SNF, but if it is for-profit, it likely has a patient profile it seeks to serve and the same obsession with minutes. Most serve all those hips 'n' knees, some focus on stroke, others on TBI or SCI. You can ask about the client base they serve in the interview, or do some research on them. If SCI is your great love, for example, apply to rehabs that do lots of it.
My best advice for your first job is to choose a practice, regardless of setting, where you can get mentoring and exposure to lots of skills. As a new grad, suddenly being the only PT supervising a couple of PTAs in some remote location is not optimal. Signing on with someplace that expects full productivity on day one, or expects you to do things you are not yet comfortable with will grind your soul to a nub in short order. Ask about how they on-board new therapists and new grads; any correct answer will indicate that they have given this some thought.
Good luck -
