Landing the Job You Want After Graduation
Upon obtaining your massage therapy license and graduating from massage therapy school, you are legally allowed and ready to practice massage therapy professionally. Most people will start working at a day spa. Some people opt to set up their own practice. Others rely on the internet and phone to get new clients to either come to their house or serve them at theirs. On the other hand, there are those who want to establish a proper business, complete with the facilities required to provide topnotch massage therapy services. This is what some students have in mind when they graduate. However, many aren’t willing or ready to learn the trade and take the risk of being self-employed. And some will take the plunge without understanding what opening a business really means and therefore fail within the first year. That is why it is so important for new graduates or students about to graduate to seek help from their massage school’s placement office to talk about their future in massage therapy. Here at European Massage Therapy School, we offer our graduates lifelong job placement assistance. Our graduates continuously receive job opening listings from the time they graduate until they are gainfully employed and don’t need it anymore. We offer help in resume review and interview skills. Many employers take time to visit our school and speak with our students in hope of landing some of our graduates to work for their companies.
Massage therapists practice in a variety of settings and locations and in a variety of contractual arrangements. Some examples of locations in which massage therapists practice are:
- massage clinics
- in home or in room with massage on demand apps like Soothe
- physicians’ offices and clinics
- franchises
- hospitals and wellness centers
- nursing homes/hospices
- senior living communities
- chiropractic offices
- on-site (chair massage in offices, shopping malls, health food stores, casinos, airports and at public events, for example)
- health clubs and fitness centers
- sports teams and events (amateur and professional)
- hotels
- spas and resorts
- day spas and salons
- cruise ships
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that you will walk into a job as soon as you graduate. You will have to put in some effort and time to find the type of job you are looking for.
Just like job hunting in any profession, the first step towards a job as a massage therapist is getting an interview where you’d like to work.
- Start by creating a strong resume. Not only do you have to present your resume, it also has to be topnotch and solid.
- Appearance matters. Like the resume, you also have to take the job interview seriously. You have to present yourself as a massage therapy professional, and it is imperative that you look sharp in your interview.
- Be prepared. A great way to prepare is to do research online. There are a number of questions you could come across related to your education, training, and skill set.
- You should be prepared to give a massage on the spot. Think of it as an audition that you have to pass to land a job. The interviewer may ask you to perform any specific modality of massage therapy.
- Get some practice before your interview. If you stop giving massages after graduating until you get a job, there is a chance you may not be able to perform well.
These tips can help you as you begin your journey of landing a massage therapy job after graduating from massage school. Besides our lifelong job placement assistance, there are many resources available to graduates of our school, including membership in professional associations and networking opportunities in the massage therapy community. But ultimately, before you can get hired, you have to make sure you have learned everything that were taught in school and get the most out of your clinical practices because in clinical practices is where massage students transform into massage therapists. In this current environment where qualified massage therapists are sorely needed to fill many job openings, if you do well in school and keep an open mind about where you want to work, there is no reason why you would not land a job as a massage therapist after you graduate and received your massage license.
