Occupational Therapist Working for Change
While paging through the Occupational Outlook Handbook several years ago, Anthony Simpkins discovered good news: Demand for his chosen new career--occupational therapy--was expected to grow by leaps and bounds in the upcoming decade.
The Colton resident earned an associate degree in occupational therapy (with a minor in anthropology) at Loma Linda University, then applied for work as an OT assistant so he could generate much-needed income. He found that he greatly enjoyed helping disabled people relearn living and working skills.
But what the handbook didn’t tell Simpkins was that, because of recent health-care cutbacks, cautious employers frequently hire OT assistants on a per diem basis. For 37-year-old Simpkins, this tense arrangement means no health insurance, vacation pay or livable wage. Currently, he earns about $10 an hour. He worries that he may not be able to keep up with payments on his $45,000 student loan, which came due this month.
“One can’t pay bills and have a reasonably normal life waiting by the phone all the time,” Simpkins said.
Simpkins realizes that he can increase his employability and earning potential by returning to school to complete his bachelor’s degree. But the thought of piling on additional debt troubles him, particularly when OT opportunities may remain limited.
So he’s rethinking his career plans. Because he loves learning about cultures and interacting with people who have backgrounds different from his own, Simpkins is contemplating switching majors to anthropology and getting a bachelor’s in that field. But he reminds himself that this too might be a risky financial and educational investment.
For help with his career dilemma, Simpkins consulted Daniel King, Boston-based founder of Career Planning & Management Inc. The two readily agreed that Simpkins should first channel his efforts toward finding steady, higher-paying work. King encouraged Simpkins to research companies that employ occupational therapy assistants, then send them individualized correspondence that showcases his qualifications.
Previously, Simpkins had been following what he described as “the traditional job-hunting route”: answering want ads, making cold calls and faxing resumes, all to little avail.
As for Simpkins’ long-term career prospects, King had Simpkins list the activities he most enjoyed. Simpkins named helping people, communicating and dealing with cultural diversity issues. After enumerating these things, Simpkins said quietly, “They say, ‘Do what you love, and the money will come,’ but I think that’s not very realistic.”
“If you simply hope for money to come, yes, that is wishful thinking,” King said. “But doing what you love takes careful planning. You may want to challenge some of your assumptions, because you really can earn a good living at what you like to do.
“You may tell yourself, ‘Nobody is going to pay me to do anthropology.’ But if you don’t get stuck on the anthropology label, you’ll find lots of related opportunities out there: diversity [consulting], mediating disputes, helping cultures understand each other, and more.”
King suggested that while Simpkins explores these many options, he take some elective courses in human resources, including such subjects as employee relations, training and development, and diversity.
Following are additional pointers from King and other experts:
* Business anthropology. Although anthropologists are renowned for stomping through jungles to live among indigenous tribes, a growing number of them are opting to trek through urban wilds, studying corporate cultures and serving as $1,000-a-day consultants to Armani-clad chieftains.
Corporate heads are increasingly hiring cultural anthropologists to help their businesses run more smoothly. When opening overseas plants and branches, firms may need advice from anthropologists about their new locale’s traditions and mores. While launching international ad campaigns, they may ask cultural anthropologists to review their materials to ensure that they don’t make what insiders call “hilarious cultural mistakes.”
Those struggling with internecine employee feuds may ask anthropologists to do ethnographies of their workplaces. These intensive research projects involve chronicling personnel interactions, analyzing corporate culture and investigating work-site conditions that could be interfering with employee productivity.
Some companies, including Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson, retain academics to use cultural anthropology research methods to gain a better understanding of their customers’ needs. And even Hollywood studios hire anthropologists to review their film and television works-in-progress for cultural accuracy, said Mari Womack, a Los Angeles-based cultural anthropologist and author of “Being Human: an Introduction to Cultural Anthropology” (Prentice Hall, 1998).
Simpkins, who says that he’s interested in corporate-related work, might find such assignments challenging and exciting. But he should be advised: A graduate degree--either a master’s or, more preferably, a doctorate--is typically required for these pursuits.
* Cultural diversity careers. Should Simpkins decide to go for an advanced interdisciplinary degree--perhaps studying psychology, sociology, anthropology and organizational development--he’d have the education necessary to become a cultural diversity practitioner. This might enable him to find employment in the HR department of a corporation or with a nonprofit such as New York-based Better Chance, which helps place minority youths in corporate internships.
Experienced diversity consultants who have set up their own companies are increasingly in demand by companies desiring to educate their work forces about cross-cultural issues, such as overcoming stereotypes and dealing with cultural differences, said Barbara Deane, editor of the journal, Cultural Diversity at Work, in Seattle.
Newcomers to this field are advised to take extensive business and organizational development course work, so they can understand the problems corporations face, said diversity consultant Anita Rowe of Gardenswartz & Rowe in Los Angeles.
With additional teaching and corporate experience, Simpkins may be able to find work with an organization such as Princeton, N.J.-based Berlitz, which, among its other services, helps foreign executives and their families become familiar with American business and social practices, once they’ve relocated here from overseas.
* Medical anthropology. Because Simpkins already has occupational therapy experience and education, he may want to explore an anthropology specialty with a medical focus. Medical anthropologists study healing and medicine from a cultural perspective. They are employed at hospitals, health maintenance organizations, clinics, government agencies and universities.
Research projects they may undertake could include investigating patterns of AIDS transmission, interviewing shamans about healing remedies and studying why infant mortality rates are higher in certain populations, said Linda-Anne Rebhun, assistant professor of anthropology at Yale. Because the field is very competitive, some medical anthropologists also obtain a master’s degree in public health to further their understanding of medico-cultural issues, Rebhun said.
For now, Simpkins can enroll in the American Anthropological Assn. (https://www.aaanet.org) as an associate member and join its medical anthropology section to learn more about the discipline.
“I’m feeling a little more energized already,” Simpkins told King. “Sometimes I get so intent on something, I forget to be flexible and adaptable. But I’m working on that.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Time for a Change
Name: Anthony Simpkins
Current occupation: Occupational therapy assistant
Desired occupation: Uncertain
Quote: “I’d like to make a positive difference in people’s lives...However, because of my debt, I need to find a way to bring in income right now, while I look into longer-term options.”
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Coach’s recommendation
Hone job-application techniques. Focus first on increasing current income. Then explore anthropology and culture-related vocations.
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Meet the Coach
Daniel King is the principal and founder of Career Planning and Management Inc. in Boston. He has counseled, trained, and assisted individuals with career development for more than 20 years.
