The Job Hunt

[aer258]

I am currently in my last semester of PT school and graduate in May! I am studying for the NPTE and plan on taking it at the end of April and my jurisprudence exam the first week of May. I have been on clinicals since August and am now in my last 10 weeks clinical! (Woohoo!) As excited as I am to graduate, I am eager and nervous to find a job. I have been keeping my eye on the job market since the early fall and it has been bleak to say the least. It appears that there are many PRN positions and some part time, and very few full time positions in any of the settings. I am open to working in OP or IP, however my first choice would be a full time SNF, IPR, or acute position in addition to prn at some point if I could have my dream job situation. When is the best time to apply for jobs as someone graduating in May? I want to stay on top of it and find a job soon after graduation. While it may seem early to be applying for a job, I already feel behind. Is it appropriate to apply for jobs before graduating or passing the licensure and jurisprudence exam? I am aware people are hired under the contingency that they pass both the licensure and jurisprudence exams. I know people usually receive job offers on their clinical, however, all of my clinicals have not been hiring full time positions (only one is hiring and it is for a prn position). Many job applications I have viewed ask for your license # and highest degree earned. It feels odd to not be able to fill out these fields and apply for a job. Any recommendations of how to go about applying for jobs before graduation? Thanks in advance for any advice you may have!

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[kdubz7w7]

I am currently in my last semester of PT school and graduate in May! I am studying for the NPTE and plan on taking it at the end of April and my jurisprudence exam the first week of May. I have been on clinicals since August and am now in my last 10 weeks clinical! (Woohoo!) As excited as I am to graduate, I am eager and nervous to find a job. I have been keeping my eye on the job market since the early fall and it has been bleak to say the least. It appears that there are many PRN positions and some part time, and very few full time positions in any of the settings. I am open to working in OP or IP, however my first choice would be a full time SNF, IPR, or acute position in addition to prn at some point if I could have my dream job situation. When is the best time to apply for jobs as someone graduating in May? I want to stay on top of it and find a job soon after graduation. While it may seem early to be applying for a job, I already feel behind. Is it appropriate to apply for jobs before graduating or passing the licensure and jurisprudence exam? I am aware people are hired under the contingency that they pass both the licensure and jurisprudence exams. I know people usually receive job offers on their clinical, however, all of my clinicals have not been hiring full time positions (only one is hiring and it is for a prn position). Many job applications I have viewed ask for your license # and highest degree earned. It feels odd to not be able to fill out these fields and apply for a job. Any recommendations of how to go about applying for jobs before graduation? Thanks in advance for any advice you may have!

I starting applying before I graduated this past December. I started applying around end of November, so a month out from graduating and two months before my boards (I took them 1/26, a month ago). I assume your state allows you to get a temp license?

Very few of my classmates had offers from their final rotation, I am sure at least partially because of covid, census being down etc. The ones looking for anything but OP have been struggling more to find jobs, so maybe start looking now if you prefer non-OP settings? Your timeline should be quite clear on your resume. On all my apps I sent an email/cover letter stating my timelines of graduating, boards date, and that I was planning on getting a temp license, just to be transparent about when I could potentially start.

Within two weeks of graduating I had 3 fulltime offers, two OP and one SNF, local to my area, and landed an additional 2 interviews (one SNF couldn't hire me until I was fully licensed and the other OP I guess just didn't like me, lol). Not bragging, just saying there are jobs out there depending on where you live/want to live. Other people live in areas that are apparently saturated with PTs....job market just depends on where you live.

In short, I don't think it is too soon to start putting feelers out & congrats on being almost done!!!!

 

[ya1]

I am currently in my last semester of PT school and graduate in May! I am studying for the NPTE and plan on taking it at the end of April and my jurisprudence exam the first week of May. I have been on clinicals since August and am now in my last 10 weeks clinical! (Woohoo!) As excited as I am to graduate, I am eager and nervous to find a job. I have been keeping my eye on the job market since the early fall and it has been bleak to say the least. It appears that there are many PRN positions and some part time, and very few full time positions in any of the settings. I am open to working in OP or IP, however my first choice would be a full time SNF, IPR, or acute position in addition to prn at some point if I could have my dream job situation. When is the best time to apply for jobs as someone graduating in May? I want to stay on top of it and find a job soon after graduation. While it may seem early to be applying for a job, I already feel behind. Is it appropriate to apply for jobs before graduating or passing the licensure and jurisprudence exam? I am aware people are hired under the contingency that they pass both the licensure and jurisprudence exams. I know people usually receive job offers on their clinical, however, all of my clinicals have not been hiring full time positions (only one is hiring and it is for a prn position). Many job applications I have viewed ask for your license # and highest degree earned. It feels odd to not be able to fill out these fields and apply for a job. Any recommendations of how to go about applying for jobs before graduation? Thanks in advance for any advice you may have!

I tried to apply for inpatient and outpatient jobs before taking NPTE with a temporary license and found only 1 outpatient clinic that hired me at $35/h. They did offer full time or part time. After I got my permanent license, the situation changed: almost everyone responded to my application. I got a full-time job offer less than a month later with a higher pay.
So you can try to apply for jobs before you get your permanent license, but don't have high expectations.