TR employers having difficulty finding TRs
Over the course of this past several months I have heard from about six employees that they are having a difficult time finding someone to take their recreation therapist or activity director job opening. They say that they have posted job openings at the Therapeutic Recreation Directory, Monster.com, local newspapers, etc and was not able to find a suitable candidate and/or very few people applied for the job.
There is a state psych hospital near where I work that has had extreme difficulty in finding a TR for their rec therapy position for several years!
I don’t know what the real answer is. I can only speculate… can it be that the position is in a very rural area and no one wants to relocate to such a setting? Can it be that people are “picky” with the types of jobs or places they are willing to work? Are people not willing to “pay the dues” and work in lower paying or less desirable jobs? Are the pay scale too low? With more colleges dropping TR programs are there not enough TRs out there?
I also hear from others having gone through many interviews and not being selected.
What are your thoughts? I envite you to post your comments and experiences with your job searches.
Charlie Dixon
2 Comments on “TR employers having difficulty finding TRs”
I have found that with so many colleges not offering the program it is getting hard to find TR people. The ones that are out there want to start at these high paying salaries because the pickings is slim on who you can hire. I have my Assoc. and am trying to find a school that is close enough to get my Bach. or even do it on-line and it is impossible. Plus at the High Schools no one has even heard of TR – all people think of is Rec = Bingo. It’s sad.
Kathy Maher – New Milford, CT
There are tons of jobs just none where I happen to live. We have a strong affiliation in California, North Carolina, New York, CT, Texas and a few others. I live in Tennessee where you can get a Masters in TR from UT but you can’t find a job in TR.
The trend that I see happening is that agencies are hiring Activites Directors because they are getting them cheaper. All they provide is activities but that is all most agencies want. If they could learn about TR and what we do I think the market would open up. We need to do marketing to teach everyone about what we can do. We are not Activities Directors but they are right on our tails and will continue to take our jobs if we don’t take our profession to the next level.