Find Your Dream Non-Clinical OT Job

There probably isn’t an OT provider out there who hasn’t thought about taking a break from patient care. Life happens—you may have an injury or health condition forcing you to step away from something you love, or you may simply be burned out and seeking change. Family or community commitments can also change over the years, which may impact your desire and ability to work in clinical care.

The desire to change to a non-clinical occupational therapy career—whether temporarily or permanently—is normal.

Luckily, there are tons of alternative jobs you can land with your occupational therapy degree.

That said, you need to be a bit more strategic about pursuing such jobs—at least compared to clinical roles. We’ve created this guide to get you started, and to help you find the best resources for making a career pivot.

This article walks you through a self assessment of your situation, provides an overview of non-clinical jobs commonly held by occupational therapy professionals, and spotlights real OTs who work in non-clinical roles.

What is non-clinical OT work?

For the purposes of this article, “non-clinical” (a.k.a. “non-traditional”) OT work refers to anything outside of conventional, hands-on patient care roles. Office jobs, sales jobs, ergonomics/workplace evaluator jobs, tech jobs, and assistive technology jobs are all considered non-clinical in this article.

Cash-based OT, early intervention, telehealth OT, nature-based OT and other types of niche practitioner roles are not considered non-clinical.

Can you make more money as a non-clinical OT?

As with so many other questions about salary, the answer is largely “it depends.”

Generally speaking, when you first transition from the clinical OT world to the non-clinical realm, you can expect to earn a starting salary comparable to the median OT salary—somewhere in the range of $80k–$90k.

But, there are a lot of variables to consider when it comes to non-clinical compensation. Some industries (like tech) tend to pay more than others (like academia), but that increased salary may come with increased risk.

This is especially true in the health tech space, which is becoming a popular option for healthcare professionals looking to shift away from clinical work. While the salaries are often enticing, the startup world can be volatile—with some estimates pointing to a business failure rate of 90%!

The stakes are high for tech founders, which means the work environment can be super high-pressure. You might jump into a tech role, work harder than you ever have in your life, and still end up out of a job if the company fails to take off.

On the other side of the coin, for those companies that do “make it,” the rewards can be quite lucrative. Tech startups typically offer their employees some type of equity in the company as part of their compensation package—often via stock options. As the company grows, the value of each share increases. And if the company eventually goes public or gets acquired, the payout on any vested shares could be substantial (think five to six figures) depending on how early you joined the company and how much it grew.

Additionally, tech companies—like many traditional businesses—provide a lot of opportunity for advancement, especially compared to a clinical work environment. For example, you might join a company as a support specialist, move into a support team lead position, become a support manager, then a director—and even advance all the way to a vice president or C-suite operations role. You might even have the opportunity to jump into a different area of the business, like product development, customer success, sales, or marketing. This mobility can quickly take you into six-figure salary territory.

When exploring tech and other corporate opportunities, though, we recommend keeping the following in mind:

1. Look at equity/stock options as a bonus. In other words, don’t expect them to turn into real money. Stock options are essentially a lottery ticket. They could turn into a sizable chunk of change—or they could end up being completely worthless (and the latter is much more likely than the former).

2. Negotiate for the base salary you want. And, do your research to see what range you should expect. Many companies offer a combination of base salary and bonus, but keep in mind that the percentage weight of your bonus is negotiable. Bonuses are nice, but like a stock payout, they aren’t guaranteed—and many are tied to company performance.

3. Do your homework on company performance and market position. Ask questions about revenue growth, profitability, market opportunity, competitor differentiation, and product performance. Find out if the company has recently laid off any staff—and why.

4. Find out how much investment funding the company has received and how much runway it has. Runway is essentially the amount of time the company can remain operational based on the amount of cash it has in the bank. Get a sense of whether the company plans to pursue additional investment funding rounds and what its exit strategy is (i.e., are they trying to get acquired by another company or investment firm, or are they gunning for an IPO?).

5. Check Glassdoor or reach out to current employees to find out what the company culture is like. If you get the sense that they are mostly burned out and dissatisfied, then you may want to steer clear. No amount of compensation is worth jeopardizing your health and wellbeing.

How to become a non-clinical OT

Switching to a non-clinical role can feel daunting, but luckily, there are lots of rehab professionals who have gone before you. So, we’ve drawn from some of their success stories to compile these practical steps and considerations for those embarking on their non-clinical career journey.

Assess your unique situation

A career change can affect more than just you. Family members, significant others, and even friends might feel the impact of your move, so it’s vital to consider how much of a shift makes sense for you. Any career transition requires self-discipline and time.

Furthermore, some jobs require additional education or training—or even relocation. Others might force you to take a steep pay cut to enter the field. If you’re wrinkling your nose at such ideas, it doesn’t mean you can’t pursue non-clinical work—but being open-minded and willing to shake things up certainly broadens your options.

We recommend that you start by asking these 6 questions:

1.) Do you actually want to leave patient care?

Some people think they want to leave patient care, but they really just want to escape bad managers, shady corporations, or unrealistic productivity expectations.

It’s definitely advisable for new grads (or people who have only worked in one setting) to consider whether they should spend a little more time in patient care before switching gears. It’s not absolutely necessary, but when you feel you’ve truly exhausted all options in clinical care before trying something new, it helps you become more committed to the change psychologically.

2.) Can you move?

Not all non-clinical OT jobs require relocation, but many do. For example, sales, business development, and clinical/patient trainer jobs often require you to cover a particular territory, which might be far from where you live. Some roles (especially with rehab tech companies) may allow remote work—but others expect employees to work onsite, which could mean relocating to a pricey city where your salary won’t go as far.

3.) Can you earn less money?

Many non-clinical roles—like those in client/customer success—might be less financially lucrative than clinical roles (at least initially). That said, after you’ve spent a few years getting your feet wet, you are more likely to catch up to (and often far exceed) what you were making as a clinician.

This is not always the case, though; sales roles, for example, often pay much more than clinical roles do from day one! All things considered, income is an important consideration to keep in mind as you plan your move.

4.) Can you absorb the risk of having a gap in pay?

As noted above, financial considerations are real. If you’re making a slow transition into a new career, you may be able to supplement your income by working part-time as a registry or per diem OT. If you’re making a sudden jump to a non-traditional role, be aware that you might have a gap in pay while you return to school, job hunt, etc.

5.) Do you have upfront time and money you can invest in a obtaining a new certification or skill set?

This is an important question. If you’d like to switch to a career in public health, for example, you might need a master’s of public health (MPH) degree or a certification to show you have an understanding of statistics. You can take coursework online or explore community college programs near you, but both will require an investment of your money and your time.

6.) Are you okay with starting small?

One of the biggest challenges that comes with switching to a non-traditional OT job is the feeling that you’re a small fish in a big pond. As clinicians, we are usually pretty comfortable with our clinical skills, even if we don’t know everything. But it can be humbling to be the “new kid” at a company while also getting ramped up on a brand-new skill set. It can be a strange feeling to start self-identifying as something other than an OT.

Explore different options/gain experience before leaving your day job

One of the hardest parts of leaving patient care is figuring out what to do next. Here’s where working with a career coach or career counselor can be very helpful. A career coach keeps you on track and working toward your goals, while a career counselor will work with you to address underlying fears, roadblocks, and challenges that prevent you from making moves professionally.

Here are 4 ways to explore what is out there:

1.) Line up informational interviews

An informational interview is a quick conversation where you ask a professional questions about their job. The rules of thumb are to keep these calls quick, only ask questions about the person you’re interviewing, and send a thank-you note afterward. While some informational interviews do turn into jobs or mentorship opportunities, you should never assume this will be the case.

Here is an article that covers what to ask in an informational interview.

If tapping people to ask for their time gives you the heebie-jeebies, don’t worry! Check out this library of non-clinical career spotlights. These articles are basically done-for-you informational interviews of all sorts of rehab professionals in non-traditional roles.

2.) Go to a healthcare hackathon

If you’re interested in a career in rehab technology—and you can afford the time and cost—you must try attending a healthcare hackathon. These are weekend events where you’ll team up with engineering and business professionals, as well as other clinicians, to tackle big problems in healthcare. They’re an excellent introduction to the world of startups, not to mention a great networking opportunity!

While the hackathon scene has slowed down a bit in the wake of the pandemic and economic changes, a good Google search shows they’re still taking place.

3.) Explore existing non-clinical rehab job resources

Here at OT Potential, we’re big fans of The Non-Clinical PT. They provide pathways to non-traditional career opportunities for all rehab professionals, including PTs, OTs, SLPs, and assistants. The site is chock-full of great information to help you launch a non-traditional OT career.

Here are a few resources they offer:

• Non-Clinical Jobs and Networking for PT/OT/SLP Professionals – This is a free Facebook group where you can connect with other non-traditional OT, PT, and SLP professionals.

• Non-Clinical Career Crash Courses – These are low-cost courses designed to help you pursue specific career paths in the non-clinical world. With each course enrollment, you get job application materials (sample resumes, sample cover letters, etc.) and recommendations on how to interview, search for jobs, and more!

• Non-Clinical 101: The Complete Guide to Launching Your Non-Clinical Career – This is the Non-Clinical PT’s flagship course. It is designed for people who know they want to pivot to a new career, but aren’t sure what they want to do—or how to create resumes, find jobs, interview, negotiate, etc.

4.) Network, network, network

Even if in-person networking isn’t your cup of tea, there are plenty of ways you can make connections in the non-clinical world.

These free Facebook groups are a great place to start:

• Occupational Therapy Entrepreneurs (moderated by Tomeico Faison)

• Non-Clinical Jobs and Networking for PT/OT/SLP Professionals (open to all rehab professionals and run by The Non-Clinical PT, as mentioned above)

You can also look outside the rehab world and join groups geared toward the career path(s) of your choice. And there are plenty of in-person events out there. Some professional organizations have even built a non-clinical presence.

In preparation for these events, you’ll want to:

Print some business cards.

It’s always a good idea to have simple business cards with your name, title, and a personal email address on hand (and ready to hand over) whenever you meet folks at networking events, healthcare hackathons, or even happy hours!

Get a professional headshot.

A headshot is an easy way to start establishing your personal brand. Use it on your LinkedIn page, in your bylines, and for your online profile in professional networking groups. I am a huge proponent of this tip. I got my professional headshot in the early stages of building the OT Potential website, and it made it easy to maintain a consistent and professional look across our entire web presence.

See OTs who are rocking non-clinical work.

Speaking of networking…we’d be remiss not to recommend perusing the OT Directory, our searchable online database of occupational therapy professionals around the world. You can search the directory using a variety of filters, including one for non-clinical OT professionals.

Follow this link to go directly to the OT Directory with the non-clinical filter applied!

We know that in some cases, seeing is believing—and these OT professionals are proof positive that transitioning into non-clinical work is totally doable. As you’ll see, there are many interesting ways to leverage your OT background beyond direct care. We hope this resource provides ample inspiration and encouragement as you begin your own non-clinical OT career journey.

(P.S. OT Potential members can create their own directory profile in minutes, and we also offer an OTP Lite membership option if you are interested in joining this unique community without committing to a full OTP membership!)

Identify problems that you would love to solve

If you develop a skill set that enables you to solve a specific, relatively common problem—ideally one that you are excited about—then you will become extremely marketable.

For example, most OTs and PTs have a difficult time selling themselves and their services, and very few are savvy with social media and digital marketing. If you make yourself an expert salesperson, or you learn the ins and outs of online sales strategies, you will easily excel in a role as a social media manager—or a position where you’re marketing (a.k.a. selling) rehab practitioners’ services.

My hobby of writing an OT blog became a career once I switched my mindset. Rather than seeing the OT Potential website as a fun pastime, I realized I was serving fellow OTs—and solving a problem by filling in educational gaps. You can read more about my non-traditional journey, including how I built OT Potential, in this spotlight piece!

Once I made solving this problem my focus, I started building the skills needed to solve it by:

• Reading about copywriting.

• Learning about websites.

• Studying how to make my articles align with the questions people ask.

Start making some money

Unless you get really lucky and land the first non-traditional job you apply for, you’ll probably wind up slowly easing out of your day job and into your new career. For some non-clinical career paths—like writing or design—you can start by picking up freelance or contract work.

Creative Circle and Aquent offer contract work (similar to registry or per diem work) for creatives.

9 popular non-clinical OT jobs

There are many directions your non-traditional OT career could take, but here are nine of the most common. (Note: We have ordered these professions from the least risky/most stable to the most risky/least stable. So, if you’re more risk averse, you might want to narrow in on the first few items on the list.)

1. Education

The world of education is filled with opportunities for OTs. You can become an OT professor, an adjunct instructor, a tutor, a subject matter expert, or a con-ed instructor.

How to get there:

Given the number of paths you can take within education, there’s really no one set way to get there. Definitely contact your school’s alumni association to see if there’s anything you can do to network or put your name out there.

You’ll also want to beef up your resume to reflect any research, tutoring, lab assisting, or clinical instructor roles you’ve held since your student years. If you were a career changer, any previous leadership or instructing roles are relevant, too!

Reach out to companies like Medbridge; if you’ve got quite a bit of niche clinical experience, you may be able to teach a course with them!

Also, check out Dr. Arameh Anvarizadeh’s interview on her career path into OT academia and what she has found fulfilling and challenging about it.

This Non-Clinical Crash Course on Academia is also a great resource. It has templates for your CV, resume, and cover letter, and it provides guidance on the interview and presentation parts of landing a role in OT education.

2. Assistive technology professional and/or seating mobility specialist

If you enjoy working with patients, but you hate the time constraints and pressure of traditional settings, you can consider a role as an assistive technology personnel (ATP) professional or a seating mobility specialist (SMS). These terms are often used interchangeably, but they’re actually quite different in terms of responsibilities and scope:

• ATP professionals create accessibility technology for those with disabilities. This work can involve job accommodations, computer accessibility, vehicle modifications, architectural modifications, learning modifications, environmental controls, and more.

• SMS professionals are actually specialized ATPs! They spend their days creating seating, positioning, and mobility solutions for people with disabilities, and tend to spend quite a bit of their time working with wheelchairs.

How to get there:

You’ll need special certifications from Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America for both ATP and SMS roles. This means a time commitment—and, yes, a money commitment. You’ll also need to take exams to get certified.

3. Rehab liaison

If you love patient care—but hate the physical and emotional toll it takes—definitely look into becoming a rehab liaison (or clinical liaison). Rehab liaisons, also known as “intake coordinators” or “intake liaisons,” are responsible for finding the right patients for inpatient rehab facilities/inpatient rehab units (IRFs/IRUs).

You’ll spend your days seeking out and/or addressing patient referrals—and then meeting, interviewing, and running insurance on the cases that come your way. Liaisons face quotas, so if you hate productivity requirements, you might not enjoy this role. That said, the quotas are usually very reasonable—unlike clinical productivity expectations these days!

How to get there:

Try to work in multiple acute care hospitals within your region, and get to know the case managers in those facilities. This might mean picking up a few per diem OT jobs for a year and networking as much as possible with case management during that time. Then, when you apply for the rehab liaison roles, play up your connections—you’ll need them! Also, note any experience you have with running insurance or auditing charts. It’ll help your case!

4. Management

Director of Rehab and OT Supervisor job titles probably sound familiar to you. You might have even considered these non-clinical roles before, since they were the only ones with real visibility to OTs for many years.

These roles are great when they’re great, but if you’re not a manager type—or if you want to avoid getting sucked back into patient care from time to time—you might end up miserable in management.

How to get there:

When you’re a staff OT, ask to help out in as many unique and unconventional ways as possible. Organize lunches and in-services. Offer to cover the scheduling board or run point on busy days.

When you show that you can stay calm under pressure, you’ll stand out as a logical successor for managerial roles that open up. Even if you don’t move up in your existing company, you can list what you’ve done on your resume and start applying for lead roles at other facilities.

5. Home safety professional

If you enjoy working with new people all the time, you might like a job in home modification (also known as home safety). These roles are ideal for OTs who have a knack for noticing potential hazards in people’s homes.

You’ll spend your days scrutinizing environments and then making recommendations to ensure they are free from hazards and have injury prevention measures in place.

How to get there:

If you’re going in this direction, check out Home Modification OT Alliance! Networking is also vital in this line of work. Attend mixers with local home builders, contractors, and corporate development firms. Get business cards printed with your OT credentials (and any other special certifications you pursue).

6. User experience/user interface (UX/UI)

Usability is core to our work as OTs! There are tons of software and tech companies that need help with usability. The main issue is that, even though we have the perfect background for these roles, we are not landing them. This is a real issue that we OTs need to address as soon as possible.

It’s not just young, tech-savvy OTs going into usability design, either—check out this inspiring story about a 90-year-old occupational therapist who’s helping design products for older adults at IDEO.

How to get there:

You’re going to need to network as much as possible. Go to usability meetups. Join online forums. Also, you’ll definitely want to take a few courses on usability and user experience to legitimize yourself as a candidate. The initial leap into a non-traditional role will be the most challenging, but once you’re there, you’ll rock it!

Here are a few inexpensive courses you can take to kick-start your career journey in UX/UI!

• UX Design and User Experience Design for Beginners

• User Experience Design Fundamentals

• Become a UX Designer – Learn the Skills and Get the Job

If these courses seem a bit daunting (even though they’re designed for relative beginners), consider taking a basic course in Adobe Photoshop, like this one:

• Learn Photoshop from Scratch

7. Consulting

OTs are usability experts, and we’re perfectly positioned to take on consulting roles involving workplace safety, design challenges, and the removal of barriers in parks, office buildings, and residential complexes.

We can also move into roles where we consult with practices to help them improve their billing and workflow processes. The sky’s the limit with consulting work, so think about where your unique skill set can best serve others’ needs. Remember, if you identify a way to solve someone else’s problem, you’ll be very marketable!

How to get there:

To break into consulting, you’ll have to get out there to volunteer and network as much as possible. When there is new construction in your area (especially smaller projects like parks or municipal buildings), reach out and offer your services for free. Then list those experiences on your resume.

If you’re lucky enough to live near any of the 10 ADA centers in the U.S., you can also offer to volunteer there. Once you’ve made key contacts in the contracting and architecture/design industries, you can really beef up your resume (or maybe even your references, if you make nice)!

Non-Clinical 101 also contains an entire lesson to help you learn how to identify your marketable skills, find clients, and price yourself.

8. Writing

Writing is one of the easiest switches you can make, but you have to be willing to put in lots of time—and you might take a pretty steep pay cut at the beginning. Writing is awesome, though. It’s flexible, you can do it from anywhere, and it’s really easy and fun if it comes naturally to you. You’ll know if you’re one of those people pretty quickly. 🙂

If you love writing, but have some questions about grammar or earning money, there are courses you can take that will expedite the process. That said, you don’t need any additional training to write for a living.

How to get there:

The first thing you’ll need as a writer is to get published online. You can start your own blog, or you can reach out to websites that publish content in your areas of interest or expertise to pitch yourself and your work—and hopefully, start racking up some bylines.

A byline is an attribution for authorship of an article. Sometimes it’s accompanied by a picture and short bio. Your first byline is the most difficult one to attain.

Here are some examples:

Consider reaching out to write a guest post for your favorite publication. Here are some sites that sometimes accept high-quality guest posts from occupational therapists.

Once you have a few published articles under your name, you can start using sites like Upwork to find freelance and contract work.

If you want more info, here’s a comprehensive guide that covers transitioning from clinician to copywriter. And here is a great Non-Clinical Crash Course on Writing. This course covers the difference between health and medical writing, and it provides resume and cover letter templates, as well as interview practice questions and advice.

9. Health Tech

Over the next decades, we’re going to see more and more crossover between healthcare and high-tech. Innovative technologies are helping boost care efficiency and outcomes, and as these tools become increasingly specialized, the companies building them will increasingly look to specialized healthcare providers to help guide their development and market positioning.

This presents a lot of opportunity for non-clinical OT work, but as we explained above under “Can you make more money as a non-clinical OT?”, there is some risk built into these roles and the compensation packages that come with them.

How to get there:

In our interview with Kaia Health Product Manager, Winnie Tsui, OTL, CHT, MBA, Winnie shares the importance of building (and showcasing) a pathway into tech via stepping stones. In her own journey into tech, she started by consulting on the side, and that work eventually grew into full-time opportunities. To help guide your own journey into health tech, we created this post featuring influential health tech companies for you to look into. Find your favorites, and watch their career pages to see if one of the open positions might be for you!

Conclusion

Making the jump from clinical to non-clinical OT work is possible. There are people doing it. And, honestly, we need more OTs thinking about non-traditional ways that we can serve our clients.

Looking creatively at your career and skill set may enable you to help more people than ever would have been possible in 1:1 therapy.

We hope this article helped you think of some new ways to reimagine your career!