What does a Occupational Therapist do?

Assess, plan, and organize rehabilitative programs that help build or restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to persons with disabilities or developmental delays. Day to day that includes work like test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients and Complete and maintain necessary records.

What skills should a Occupational Therapist put on a resume?

O*NET rates Active Listening, Monitoring, Service Orientation, Critical Thinking, and Instructing among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Occupational Therapist list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR, Casamba Smart, Computer drawing software, Crick Software Clicker 4, and Duxbury Braille Translator. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Occupational Therapist work?

O*NET records 29 titles for this occupation, including Certified Hand Therapist, CHT, OT, and Pediatric Occupational Therapist. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Occupational Therapist need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 86% reported their level of education as "Master's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Occupational Therapist role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Occupational Therapist resume example

A resume for a Occupational Therapist needs to show the work itself: assess, plan, and organize rehabilitative programs that help build or restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to persons with disabilities or developmental delays. Day to day that means work like this: test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients; complete and maintain necessary records. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Certified Hand Therapist
CHT
OT
Pediatric Occupational Therapist
Pediatric OT
Registered Occupational Therapist
OTR
Assistive Technology Trainer
Early Intervention Occupational Therapist
Home Health Occupational Therapist
Industrial Rehabilitation Consultant
Home Care OT
Inpatient OT
Outpatient OT
Rehab OT
School OT
Travel OT
Home Care Occupational Therapist

O*NET records 29 titles for this occupation in total.

What people in this job call themselves

Titles reported by people actually doing this work, which is often not the title on the job posting.

Certified Hand Therapist (CHT)
Occupational Therapist (OT)
Pediatric Occupational Therapist (Pediatric OT)
Pediatrics and Acute Care Occupational Therapist
Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR)

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients.
Complete and maintain necessary records.
Plan, organize, and conduct occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate persons with disabilities because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems.
Plan and implement programs and social activities to help patients learn work or school skills and adjust to handicaps.
Select activities that will help individuals learn work and life-management skills within limits of their mental or physical capabilities.
Evaluate patients' progress and prepare reports that detail progress.
Train caregivers in providing for the needs of a patient during and after therapy.
Lay out materials such as puzzles, scissors and eating utensils for use in therapy, and clean and repair these tools after therapy sessions.
Consult with rehabilitation team to select activity programs or coordinate occupational therapy with other therapeutic activities.
Design and create, or requisition, special supplies and equipment, such as splints, braces, and computer-aided adaptive equipment.
Recommend changes in patients' work or living environments, consistent with their needs and capabilities.
Develop and participate in health promotion programs, group activities, or discussions to promote client health, facilitate social adjustment, alleviate stress, and prevent physical or mental disability.

17 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Complete and maintain necessary records, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Plan, organize, and conduct occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate persons with disabilities because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Plan and implement programs and social activities to help patients learn work or school skills and adjust to handicaps, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR
Casamba Smart
Computer drawing software
Crick Software Clicker 4
Duxbury Braille Translator
eClinicalWorks EHR software
Email software
Facebook
Fifth Walk BillingTracker
FileMaker Pro
HMS
Internet browser software
Language arts educational software
Lexrotech LxPediatric

36 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Adaptive cutlery
Adjustable beds
Alternative computer keyboards
Braille printers
Computer switch interfaces
Drill presses
Electric knives
Electric wheelchairs
Electronic blood pressure units
Exercise balls
Gait and transfer belts
Goniometers or arthrometers

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Active Listening
02Monitoring
03Service Orientation
04Critical Thinking
05Instructing
06Judgment and Decision Making
07Reading Comprehension
08Social Perceptiveness
09Speaking
10Writing

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Therapy and Counseling
Psychology
Customer and Personal Service
Medicine and Dentistry
English Language
Education and Training
Biology
Sociology and Anthropology

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

86%Master's Degree
14%Bachelor's Degree

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Extensive Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Common questions

What does a Occupational Therapist do?: Assess, plan, and organize rehabilitative programs that help build or restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to persons with disabilities or developmental delays. Day to day that includes work like test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients and Complete and maintain necessary records.
What skills should a Occupational Therapist put on a resume?: O*NET rates Active Listening, Monitoring, Service Orientation, Critical Thinking, and Instructing among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Occupational Therapist list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR, Casamba Smart, Computer drawing software, Crick Software Clicker 4, and Duxbury Braille Translator. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Occupational Therapist work?: O*NET records 29 titles for this occupation, including Certified Hand Therapist, CHT, OT, and Pediatric Occupational Therapist. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Occupational Therapist need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 86% reported their level of education as "Master's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Occupational Therapist role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.