S11 E03 - What Would You Tell Your Younger OT Self?

OT Week is an opportunity to celebrate the profession, but it can also be a time to reflect on how much has changed since we first became Occupational Therapists. The expectations we had, the challenges we faced and the lessons we learnt along the way have all shaped the OTs we are today.

Looking back on our early careers can offer a different perspective on professional confidence, the importance of boundaries and the unexpected directions an OT career can take. At a time when many therapists are feeling stretched, it's also an opportunity to reconnect with what makes Occupational Therapy such a rewarding profession.

What did being a good OT look like when you graduated?

Early career expectations are often shaped by the environments we work in and the therapists we learn from. What constitutes a 'good OT' can look quite different depending on the area of practice.

In more structured areas such as occupational rehabilitation, being organised, following through on commitments and managing processes efficiently may be central to how competence is measured. In other settings, the emphasis may be on developing therapeutic relationships, being available to families or demonstrating confidence in clinical decisions.

For early career OTs, experienced colleagues can appear to manage everything effortlessly. What isn't always visible are the systems, boundaries and clinical reasoning that have developed over years of practice.

Learning that there isn’t always one right answer

Receiving feedback can feel particularly personal early in your career, especially when you're still developing confidence in your clinical skills. Even constructive suggestions can be interpreted as evidence that you're not performing well enough.

Conflicting feedback from supervisors can also be frustrating, particularly when you're looking for clear guidance on how something should be done. Over time, it becomes easier to recognise that different therapists may approach the same task differently without either approach necessarily being wrong.

Observing different therapists and learning from their individual approaches can help develop professional judgement. Rather than searching for one prescribed way of practising, OTs can draw on different perspectives to find approaches that work for them and the people they support.

You don't need to know everything

One of the biggest lessons that comes with experience is recognising the limits of your knowledge. Early career therapists can feel pressure to appear confident and capable, even when they're unsure of the answer.

As professional expertise develops, so does an appreciation of how much there is still to learn. Experience doesn't necessarily mean having every answer, but rather knowing how to approach unfamiliar situations and where to seek support.

Being comfortable acknowledging uncertainty, seeking advice and recognising when a referral is appropriate are all part of developing clinical competence. Understanding how you learn best can also make a difference when expanding into unfamiliar areas of practice.

The career you never expected to have

The career we imagine when graduating may look very different from the one we eventually build. Experience, changing interests and unexpected opportunities can take us into areas of practice we never initially considered.

Moving between occupational rehabilitation, hospital settings, disability services and paediatric practice can involve significant changes in how OTs work. Yet the clinical reasoning, communication and problem-solving skills developed in one setting often transfer into another.

Career progression doesn't always mean becoming more experienced within the same clinical area. It might involve moving into leadership, education or supporting other therapists, sometimes discovering new professional interests along the way.

What would you tell your younger OT self?

Looking back on an early career often brings a different perspective on decis