I have been in sales for about 12 years. I make pretty decent money but I am about tired of all the stress and pressure. My wife got a new job last year and she makes enough money now that I can take a little hit in pay. I was thinking of something in the health care field because that is what she is in and it just seems like every person there is just riding a gravy train. I don't see myself as a nurse and I am 31 so I don't care for going back to school for 4-5 years either. I can get the PTA license in about 1 to 1.5 years depending on how many classes I take. It it seems like something I might enjoy.

Just wondering if anyone here does that or knows anyone who does. From what I can find it seems to be a decent job. How hard is the school work? I have done a lot of web research but I would like to get some direct feed-back

Appreciate any help I can get.

I misspelled therapist. And I can't edit.

a buddy of mine on another site, just got his physical therapist license... and absolutely loves it - he went from environmental engineering to being a pt... in about 18 months time.

He went to a school somewhere in connecticut - i don't recall where -and went to an open house at the school to explore the idea and fell in love with it. i'd definitely try to find a school that's offereing an open house where you can ask questions.

Would te school work be hard? eh - you're not an idiot.. but would you want to do it if it were easy? I'd hope it'd be a little challenging for a person... but it'd be a challenge that a person would love...

My best friend just got her OTA cert... it took two years including a semester of clinicals... she did at community college (already has a bachelors from before) and she loves it too... so much so that I'm thinking I might become an OTA, too. I thought about PT until I read that you have to play with cadavers.... no thanks! Plus if you want full cert you can always get additional schooling, or not. And financially, even if you're cutting your pay... you could be cutting stress which later in life could save you a lot in medical bills... just an extra silver lining

Thanks mal, Good idea on the open house. I'll check into that. The biggest concern I have is the clinical part. After the program is completed you have to do 16 weeks of 40 hr per at a clinic. You are uncompensated for that. Thats a little scary to me.

back when the dinosaurs walked the earth - and i was in college - internships were pretty m uch mandatory for finance majors -and they were unpaid.. the experience you got and the resume filler though were worth it...

If you and your wife can live on her salary for the short term -then in the long run it's worth it because you're getting on the job experience... tehre are things that you'll learn in the real world -that you won't see covered in books...

I may go ahead after and get the PA license. My wife says that you can pick up a lot of extra money doing free-lance home health also. She is in hospice and they pay PT's and PTA's when they have a patient that needs it. She doesn't know how much but its just like a little 30 minute visit per day a few days a week.
I am not worried too much about the salary difference. Just the clinical portion. 4 months is a long time to work for free.

Yeah I understand that. We have interns here where I work also. They just arent 31 with 2 kids.