Working at Mayo Clinic provides many benefits, including the opportunity to work with a variety of patients, teamwork, continuing education opportunities and tuition reimbursement. THe staff is very experienced, approachable and eager to share their knowledge.

The majority of my day is spent one-on-one with patients, with a bit of paperwork throughout the day. Our goal is to help the patient become as independent as possible with their "self-cares," such as getting dressed, bathing, managing their home, addressing cognitive and safety issues (including medication or money management) and taking care of their family ... any activity of daily living. My job is to teach people new ways to perform daily routine tasks, by compensating or using equipment.

I love the one-on-one, hands-on time with people. At Mayo, you meet people from all over the world with diverse backgrounds. I also like working with other therapists, physicians, social workers, students, nursing staff and support staff -- it's a great team effort. With all the patient and colleague interactions, it really helps to have an outgoing, friendly, flexible and creative personality. You need to be able to walk into a patient's room and put them at ease, as quite often you are aksing them to move when they do not feel well or are hurt, in order to increase their functional independence. You are there to help them and gain their trust, sometimes tough to do but very rewarding. It is also very important to have good communications skills to convey the patients' needs to the other team members and care givers.

My advice would be to explore, try lots of things. Try things that you might not think you would like. If you have a little bit of an interest, try it out. Be flexible. Don't shut the door on opportunities. What helped me the most was being able to get out and actually work with therapists and have hands-on experiences.