Careers after Physical Therapist: 15 jobs where your skills transfer.
Every related role O*NET lists for physical therapists, scored by how closely the skill profile matches, what it pays and how much extra preparation it needs. Original analysis, sources below.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Service Orientation
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Occupational Therapist
- Clinical Nurse Specialist
- Nurse Practitioner
The jobs closest to a Physical Therapist's skills are Occupational Therapist, Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner (91%, 86% and 86% skill match). 5 related roles pay more without needing more preparation, led by Emergency Medicine Physician (+$232,790 median).
Where your skills transfer
Data Skill match and pay change are our calculations from O*NET and BLS data (method below).
The three closest moves
Data Skills where the destination's O*NET level is at least half a point higher are listed as gaps.
Already strong: Service Orientation, Social Perceptiveness, Instructing, Active Listening.
To build: Learning Strategies, Active Learning, Management of Financial Resources.
Already strong: Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, Judgment and Decision Making, Critical Thinking.
To build: Active Learning, Science, Learning Strategies.
Already strong: Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Social Perceptiveness, Complex Problem Solving.
To build: Science, Active Learning, Persuasion.
How to make the move
Advice
- Weeks 1 to 2Pick one destination
Occupational Therapist is the closest match at 91%. Nurse Practitioner pays more without more preparation.
- Weeks 2 to 6Close the top gap
For Occupational Therapist, the biggest gap is learning strategies. Build one piece of proof for it.
- Weeks 4 to 8Reframe your resume
Lead with service orientation, social perceptiveness, written in the destination's language.
- From week 6Talk to people in the role
Ask three occupational therapists what they wish they had known before switching.
How this page is built
Skill match is the correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared. Pay change compares the BLS national median annual wages (May 2025) of the two occupations. Preparation change compares O*NET Job Zones (1 = little preparation, 5 = extensive preparation). Destinations without BLS wage data or O*NET skill ratings are left out.
- Licensing or degree rules for a specific destination.
- Whether employers in your area hire career changers.
- Your own skills: the scores compare occupations, not people.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
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