About the field

There is much concern about the changing job market in physical therapy. But as some doors are closing, many others are opening. In this article, PT Magazine profiles six APTA members who have branched out beyond the traditional role of physical therapist clinician. If you are considering a shift in career path, read on for advice from those who have made the transition with success

APTA offers this free resource to members only. A mentor can assist you in developing career goals, assessing skills, and suggesting options.

Developing Career Goals
A successful job search begins by developing clear career goals that reflect an understanding of what you are looking for in a position and what you have to offer employers. Your goals may change as you learn more about yourself, jobs, and employers, but developing an initial focus will help you narrow your options and target appropriate employers. Know Yourself Developing career goals requires two basic types of information: knowledge about yourself and information about career options that are compatible with your interests, values, and skills. Begin by creating a picture of your ideal position, one that will bring you real job satisfaction. Think about what you enjoy doing, what is important to you, and what you do well. Ask yourself questions such as:
· What do I want to spend my days doing?
· What do I like thinking, learning, and talking about?
· Would I rather create new ideas or work with established data?
· Would I rather use my analytical skills or work with people?
· What kind of work setting do I find most comfortable?
· What kind of people do I want to work with, for, or around?
· What kind of lifestyle would I like? What salary do I need?
· How much time do I want for myself, friends, family?
· What type of employer would I like to work for?
· Do I prefer to work independently, in a group, or with an individual?
· What do I want to be doing in a year?
· What motivates me to do my best?
Clarify InterestsFurther explore your work interests or preferences by remembering what courses you've enjoyed and careers you've considered. Also consider hobbies, volunteer activities, and other informal interests. Do you prefer working with people, data, things, or ideas, and how do you want to work with them?
· People: Instructing, healing, entertaining, representing, etc.
· Data and Information: Compiling, classifying, computing, analyzing, etc.
· Things: Designing, manufacturing, arranging, coordinating, etc.
· Ideas: Inventing, communicating, interpreting, synthesizing, etc.
Assess Values Determine which of your values are important to you in terms of job satisfaction. Review the following and rank those most significant to you.
· Helping others
· Contributing to society
· Interacting with the public
· Working as part of a team
· Working independently/autonomously
· Supervising or managing others
· Intellectual challenge
· Recognition
· Potential for advancement
· Financial rewards
· Professional status
· Job security
Determine Skills Evaluate what skills you currently possess or want to develop. Skills come from a variety of work, academic, and life experiences, and generally fall into three categories:
· Work-content skills demonstrate your ability to perform a specific type of job. These are skills you have gained from your academic courses or work experience, such as psychological research, accounting, engine design, human resource management, speaking a foreign language, or writing for newspapers.
· Functional skills cross careers and academic preparation, enabling you to relate to people, data, things, and/or ideas in many different settings. These include problem solving, analyzing, selling, team building, conceptualizing, and managing.
· Self-management skills are related to the style or manner in which you work. These include abilities such as coping with deadlines, working under pressure, paying attention to detail, as well as personal traits such as patience, reliability, risk taking, resourcefulness, and innovation.
Explore Career Options
· Familiarizing yourself with various career fields and what jobs actually entail is critical to developing career goals. As you read about careers, speak with professionals in the field, and gain work experience, several options that are most consistent with your interests, values, and skills will emerge and become the focus of your job search.
· Information Interviews: An excellent method of gathering information about work that interests you is to conduct information interviews with people who are working in the field. Develop Preliminary Career Goals Summarize the results of your self-assessment in a prioritized list to serve as a reference as you begin to identify and research employers. Include what skills and knowledge you would like to use in your work, and consider how your values may relate to other special needs. For example, you may prefer a job helping others, but have a greater need for a high salary to repay education loans. Think about work setting (nonprofit, corporate, government, etc) and size of the organization. Develop a geographic focus for your job search by specifying one or more cities or regions of interest to you. Also include other considerations which are particularly meaningful to you, such as lifestyle

Ten Steps
· Establish goals. Develop a list of objectives to achieve, and review it frequently, taking action at every opportunity. This could include reading trade journals and building customer relations.
· Get organized. Using project tracking software or a day-planning notebook helps with organizational skills.
· Seek new responsibilities. Offering to assume additional duties or oversee projects provides valuable experience and fosters professional growth.
· Learn new technologies. With new computer systems and software introduced daily, technical training is never complete. Developing greater expertise with new applications or becoming more Internet savvy will enhance career development.
· Network. You've heard it before, now act on it. Join a professional association or other group for interaction with others in your profession. Maintain contact with former business associates, college alumni and professors.
· Dress for success. Select business attire appropriate for the position you would like to have in your company.
· Become a mentor in your department. You will benefit by assisting coworkers and fostering staff camaraderie and you will strengthen your interpersonal and leadership skills.
· Be visible. Without boasting, take prudent steps to ensure your accomplishments are known to others. This can include speaking up during meetings, presenting suggestions for improving business practices, or even arriving early to the office.
· Remain flexible. Be open to new challenges and assignments. Don't dismiss a project if it falls outside your job description -it could serve as a springboard to gaining new responsibilities.
· Stay upbeat. Maintaining a positive attitude when work loads peak shows an ability to produce results under pressure, always a valuable trait.

25 Tips to Manage Your Career by William S. Frank
Since the late 1970s, I've spent more than 20,000 hours as a career consultant listening to people talk about their work. My clients have included CEOs, law firm partners, professional athletes, engineers, factory workers, you name it. They've shared their highs and lows, and their innermost secrets. They've taught me the do’s and don’t’s of corporate politics and given me the keys to success. My sixteen years of career counseling can be boiled down to a few short lessons:
· Achieving success usually involves sacrifice. If it were always easy, everyone would drive a Porsche.
· Even if you work for a big company, you're essentially on your own. Businesses offer career paths, training, and team building, and they want to be fair, but they're subject to impersonal market conditions like mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, and international competition; so anything can happen. That's why your employer can't be responsible for your career. You have to take charge of it yourself. Those who expect companies to take care of them, or to "do the right thing" are often disappointed. Chances are, no one will ever care more about your career than you do.
· The workplace can be fun and challenging. It can also be difficult. It rewards effort, planning, and training, but it punishes indifference and lack of preparation. Those who don't take charge of their own careers—who just let things happen—often end up in painful, dead-end jobs, feeling trapped in unhappy lifestyles.
· People are very different. Certain people belong in certain kinds of careers. You have special gifts that fit you for some jobs and disqualify you from others. If you're in the right place, you'll skyrocket. If not, you'll struggle. In order to learn where you'll be happiest, get to know yourself.
· Take time to assess your skills, temperament, aptitudes, likes, dislikes, and natural gifts. Design your ideal work life on paper, then risk to create your dream. There's no reason you can't enjoy your work. If you need help designing or implementing your plan, seek the advice of a professional career counselor. (But never pay large counseling fees in advance. Pay only by the hour.)
· Your career may be your biggest financial resource more valuable than any stock you could own. For example, let's assume you're earning $20,000 per year today. The average annual pay raise is about 5%. If you earn 8% instead, you'll earn an extra $264,000 in 20 years. You may be paid what you're worth right now, but investigate the market. Don't over- or under-price yourself.
· Jumping from job to job from salesman to customer service representative, then to teacher, staff accountant, and technical writer isn't a career. Beginning as an accounts payable clerk, then progressing to junior accountant, accountant, controller, chief financial officer, and vice president of finance is a career. A career builds on itself over time.
· In a growing and expanding industry like environmental science, job changing isn’t necessarily a problem, because there are always too few experienced workers. But in a declining industry like oil & gas, where established companies are systematically downsizing and keeping only their top performers, moving from employer to employer makes a candidate an unattractive hire. That's more true the older you get and the higher your pay.
· Changing fields, industries, or functional specialties is difficult, and the bigger the change, the more difficult it is. Hardwood manufacturers may not want you if you've been in softwood. And vice versa. Therefore, choose your direction carefully. Once you leave a career path to try something new, it may be difficult to re-enter. You'll look like a "traitor" to insiders, and you'll be competing with those who've stayed.
· Today's engineering graduate is obsolete in less than five years. You may be, too. If you aren't learning something new today, you may be out-of-date and unmarketable tomorrow. That's especially true for those over 40. (If you're over 40, do you know Microsoft Word? How about Excel?)
· Think of your career as a public relations campaign, much like running for political office. Your goal is to get as many people to like you as quickly as possible and keep liking you. Therefore, every person male, female, minority, old, young is important. Treat all others with kindness and respect. Make life a little easier for those around you, and your career will benefit.
· "People skills" are just as important as "technical skills," because even in highly technical jobs, you have to work with others. Many outplacement candidates are technical superstars who've been fired. They knew their jobs, but couldn't collaborate or get along with others. Average performers with strong people skills often last longer. It's better to be a "people person" with average skills than to be an abrasive expert who wins at the expense of others.
· Be careful expressing strong emotions in business, especially anger and disappointment. Communicate your feelings quietly and tactfully. Understate your case. Anger is powerful, even when expressed softly. Don't explode, threaten, or attack others publicly. Don't tell opponents off, even if it would feel great.
· Burning bridges damages your reputation not only with the person you dislike but with the business community at large. Remember, if you make an enemy today, it may take them ten years to "get you." But chances are, they will.
· Spend time with people you admire. Success really does rub off. There's no substitute for "knowing the right people," and for "being in the right place at the right time." Take a risk to contact someone you'd like to meet.
· Whether you are an entry-level shipping clerk or a CEO, a warm, enthusiastic, caring, and positive attitude outwardly expressed to others is your single biggest career asset.
· On any given day, your present job may end, even if you own the company. Therefore, think short-term. Don't take your present opportunity for granted. I define a consultant as "someone who wakes up every morning unemployed." You should feel the same way. Get up every morning feeling unemployed, and constantly fight to prove yourself. Appreciate your job, but figure out what you're going to do next. It's always nice to have a "Plan B."
· Except in rare cases, don't sue your former employer if you're fired or laid off. Take a good, hard look at yourself. Ask yourself what, if anything, you could have done differently. Did you stay on the leading edge of technology? Were you too political? Not political enough? Were you giving it 110%? Did you get complacent?
· Honestly determine your part in causing the problem. Then work to create a better life for yourself, even if you think it was the employer's fault. Don't dwell on the past. It's non-productive and it prolongs your unhappiness.
· If you lose your job, 80% of your marketing for a new position will already have been done. That's right. Your reputation, results, accomplishments, people skills, contributions, and friendships are all a matter of record. If you've been a contributor, if you've been kind to others and easy-to-work-with, you'll be in demand. If not, you won't. No career consultant in the world can create close friendships and a good reputation for you if you haven't laid the groundwork yourself.
· Your friends--even distant friends--are your best allies in your life and in your career, especially in job hunting. No one will help you more than those who already know you. So make an extensive list of your business and personal contacts (essentially, everyone you've met), and stay in touch with them, even after you've found a new job.
· Employers hire their friends first. Only when they run out of familiar faces do they consider hiring strangers. When companies recruit from a group of outsiders, they interview, test, and screen heavily. Your best career strategy--besides keeping your skills up-to-date and achieving a lot--is to cultivate deep, long-lasting friendships.
· Your accomplishments are your calling card for the future. They will help to determine your marketability. In selling yourself, it's results that count. A baseball player who gets a hit every time at bat is easier to market than one who doesn't. It's that simple. Try to contribute something substantial and measurable every single day. And make sure you keep a written record of your results.
· Don't let yourself be unemployed, even for a day. Volunteer a few hours, work part-time for a temporary agency, help a friend in his or her company. Do something to get yourself out of the house. We live in a fast-changing world. Look carefully. There are people all around you who need your help.
· Love, happiness, friendship, and time for oneself are just as important as making it big in the world. If your career is your whole life, you're vulnerable to disappointment and burnout; and burned out people are often less marketable.
· Too much success can kill you. Learn when enough is enough. If you think you're burning out, you may be right. Highly successful people are the most subject to burnout. They demand too much from themselves--and from everyone around them. Seek balance. Remember The Golden Mean: "All things in moderation."
· Don't stay in a job you hate. Hating your daily routine can ruin your health; and it can make everyone around you, including your spouse and family, miserable. Take a risk! Take action! Change things!
· Don't make excuses when things go wrong. I have collected a list of "66 Excuses," and few of them are valid. When facing challenges, tell yourself this: "I'm in control of my own future. No one can deny me a happy life if I decide to plan it and work for it. Ultimately, no one can stop me from becoming successful but myself."
· Whatever your expertise, give some of it away.

APTA Professional Ethics - Overview
Under the Bylaws of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), one of the Association's primary functions is to maintain and promote ethical principles and standards of conduct for its members. The House of Delegates, the Association's highest policy-making body, has authority to adopt ethical principles and standards to govern the conduct of members of the Association in their roles as physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. The House of Delegates has adopted the Code of Ethics (HOD 06-00-12-23), which contains principles for physical therapists, and the Standards of Ethical Conduct for the Physical Therapist Assistant (HOD 06-00-13-24), which sets forth standards for physical therapist assistants.
The Guide for Professional Conduct (Guide) is intended to serve physical therapists in interpreting the Code of Ethics (Code) of the American Physical Therapy Association (Association), in matters of professional conduct. The Guide provides guidelines by which physical therapists may determine the propriety of their conduct. It is also intended to guide the professional development of physical therapist students. The Code and the Guide apply to all physical therapists. These guidelines are subject to change as the dynamics of the profession change and as new patterns of health care delivery are developed and accepted by the professional community and the public. This Guide is subject to monitoring and timely revision by the Ethics and Judicial Committee of the Association.
The Guide for Conduct of the Physical Therapist Assistant (Guide) is intended to serve physical therapist assistants in interpreting the Standards of Ethical Conduct for the Physical Therapist Assistant (Standards) of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). The Guide provides guidelines by which physical therapist assistants may determine the propriety of their conduct. It is also intended to guide the development of physical therapist assistant students. The Standards and Guide apply to all physical therapist assistants. These guidelines are subject to change as the dynamics of the profession change and as new patterns of health care delivery are developed and accepted by the professional community and the public. This Guide is subject to monitoring and timely revision by the Ethics and Judicial Committee of the Association.