Careers after Physical Therapy Assistant: 12 jobs where your skills transfer.
Every related role O*NET lists for physical therapy assistants, scored by how closely the skill profile matches, what it pays and how much extra preparation it needs. Original analysis, sources below.
- Active Listening
- Social Perceptiveness
- Speaking
- Monitoring
- Psychiatric Technician
- Medical Assistant
- Respiratory Therapist
The jobs closest to a Physical Therapy Assistant's skills are Psychiatric Technician, Medical Assistant and Respiratory Therapist (70%, 61% and 58% skill match). 2 related roles pay more without needing more preparation, led by Respiratory Therapist (+$13,900 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: Social Perceptiveness, Active Listening, Monitoring, Speaking.
To build: Negotiation, Social Perceptiveness.
Already strong: Speaking, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, Active Listening.
To build: Mathematics.
Already strong: Social Perceptiveness, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Active Listening.
To build: Science, Equipment Maintenance, Operation and Control.
How to make the move
Advice
- Weeks 1 to 2Pick one destination
Psychiatric Technician is the closest match at 70%. Respiratory Therapist pays more without more preparation.
- Weeks 2 to 6Close the top gap
For Psychiatric Technician, the biggest gap is negotiation. Build one piece of proof for it.
- Weeks 4 to 8Reframe your resume
Lead with social perceptiveness, active listening, written in the destination's language.
- From week 6Talk to people in the role
Ask three psychiatric technicians what they wish they had known before switching.
How the working conditions change
Data Share of workers in each detailed occupation, 2025 preliminary BLS Occupational Requirements Survey. Neither direction is better.
| Occupation | Telework available | No prior experience required | Workday sitting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Therapy Assistant (now) | less than 0.5% | 75.0% | 25.6% |
| Medical Assistant | less than 0.5% | 58.7% | 43.4% |
| LPN | less than 0.5% | 76.1% | 33.8% |
| Physical Therapist | less than 10% | 84.5% | 25.5% |
| Occupational Therapist | less than 0.5% | 64.8% | 40.2% |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Requirements Survey. Estimates are preliminary; ranges are shown as published.
How this page is built
Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). 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 (Job Zones 1-2, 3, 4 and 5, from very little to extensive preparation; O*NET 31.0 combines zones 1 and 2). 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).
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
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