Career Map Assignment

Kin 3090
Zachri Sellier
0745026
19th March 2014

Reflection Guest Speakers

1. Adam Gee spoke in class on Wednesday, January 15th at 3:25 pm. He is the owner of
Crossbones Crossfit.
2. One aspect of his career path that I found interesting is how he is willing to push people
and help them to better themselves. He explained that he will try and help anyone that
comes in and asks for it, and if he cant he will do his best to find someone that could.
Another aspect of his career path I found interesting is that they also try their best to
educate their clients, not only make them healthier. But they teach them how to continue
being healthy on their own, even though they arent.
3. I would have liked to ask him how he comes up with different variations of exercises
depending on the client, because for me coming up with different things to make working
out interesting is a little difficult.

1. Matt Sanchez spoke in class on Wednesday, February 12th at 3:25 pm. He is the director
of Rehab and Technology at Aim 2 Walk Inc. in Toronto.
2. An aspect of his career path I found interesting is that he was able to obtain a stable job
and make up to six figures in his first three years out of school. This to me is amazing
because even coming fresh out of school he was able to find a place that accepts students
fresh out of school to mold and make their own. Another aspect I found interesting is that
he was able to be a part of a great company like Aim 2 Walk. This to me shows that I can
also become a great part of the community and try to give back.
3. I would have liked to ask him more about applying for schools after the kinesiology
program because it would really help me when it is time for me to apply for mine.

Career Options
1. Three health oriented careers that I have interest in are athletic therapy, physiotherapy
and Chiropractic therapy.
2. Some characteristics of my academic preparation that put me in a position to succeed in
each of these careers are the placement opportunity that I am able to take part in. I am
and will be able to do a placement two of these career paths and this will give me an extra
edge, experience wise giving me an advantage compared to others. During my placement
I am learning about modalities that I had no idea how to do in the past. I am able to
perform them confidently and without help from others.

Strength & Personality Traits

1. My dominant strengths are adaptability, include, deliberative, intellection and relator.
2. My traits will complement the career of athletic therapy in different ways. For the three
careers I chose the trait of adaptability would complement them because I have to be
ready to change or react to something willingly. For example if a client on a team gets
injured I have to be ready to stop and treat them. Being an includer is also a great asset.
This helps you to involve everyone in the programs you create. It also helps you to get
closer to your clients and make them more comfortable around you so they are more
willing to share information with you. Deliberativeness allows me to be careful and think
about situations, and helps me to know that there are risks in this world. Finally relator
helps me to put myself in my clients shoes to see where they are coming from.
3. The career that I am most interested in pursuing is athletic therapy. This career is more
suitable than the others because I am able to use more of my strengths in it than the
others. This career I can use four out of the five traits I have. I can use the four stated
above without fail in this career path. I am motivated to pursue this career because my
dream is to work with famous sports teams. In specific I am passionate about football
(soccer) and wish to work for one of the great teams in this world. If I am able to work
for a professional team, I would have reached one of my lifes goals.

Job Profile
Job Title: Athletic Therapist
Responsibilities, Tasks, and Related Jobs:

Prevention of Injuries:
o Consulting with coaches
o Pre-practice and pre-games taping and wrapping
o Proper selection and fitting of equipment, in conjunction with equipment
managers and coaches.
o Plan, implement and supervise warm-up, flexibility, training and conditioning
programs.

First Aid and Treatment of Injuries:

o Applying first aid at games and practices
o Referring all seriously injured athletes to specialized medical personnel, as
appropriate.

o Assisting during the convalescence period by providing therapy services under the
guidance and direction of the physician.

Rehabilitation:
o Under the supervision of the team physician, conducting therapy services to allow
for return to partial or full participation in physical activity.
o Use physical therapy techniques and therapeutic modalities to recondition
musculoskeletal injuries

Other duties:
o Maintenance of injury and treatment records
o Knowledge of insurance procedures and primary responsibility for initiating
insurance claims.
o Evaluate musculoskeletal function and posture
o Act as liaison between athletes and coaches
o Perform general administrative duties such as monitoring budgets and supervising
staff and student therapists.

Working conditions/environments:
Athletic therapists who work with teams work long, hard and physically demanding hours. They
must be present at all competitions and practices. Depending on the sport, this may require
frequent travel or evening and weekend work. This means the location of work is constantly
moving from either a clinic or field location. It will involve a lot of commuting to be with the
team at their different competitions and events.

Work Schedule:
The work schedule will depend on what days the team has practice. It will also depend on what
times the students or athletes are active from. The hours could be all day because they have
practice all day or just at certain hours. The schedule could also include weekends because when
they have games some might fall on a weekend. Also you have to be very flexible because you
might be called to deal with a client during the day or called out to join them in an event or
competition coming up. The hours would be long.

Satisfactions:
I look forward to working around my favourite sport and feel that I would enjoy being there
watching them succeed. I also look forward to helping my athletes get better and improve
themselves throughout the time I am with them.

Negatives:
I feel that I would struggle with the image of my clients getting injured or hurt during a game or
practice. I also think I would struggle with constructing challenging enough programs for my
clients to help them better themselves.

Salary (Earnings):
My expected earnings would be around $25-$40 an hour with an annual income of around
$30,000- $50,000 a year. Over time I would progress from the lower range to the right range.
Some personal expenses would be travel expenses to be with the team at their competitions and
personal equipment.

Advancement/Career Path:
Beginning I could just be an assistant athletic therapist and work my way up to the head athletic
therapist for a team. You would progress through the ranks by gaining experience with the team
and their treatments and programs. If you are confident enough in your abilities you could join or
open your own private practice and have athletes come to you for treatment, exposing you to a
wide variety of clients.

Education/Certifications:
The educational requirements to become an Athletic Therapist are a degree in Athletic Therapy
and a certificate from the Canadian Athletic Therapists Association. You can also have a degree
in Kinesiology with a major in Athletic Therapy, or a bachelor of Exercise Science degree with a
specialization in Athletic Therapy.

Job Postings:
I could look for a position in athletic therapy in many places. A few places I can look are athletic
centres, schools, therapy clinics and athletic clubs. Some online resources I can use to find jobs
are well known job searching sites like indeed.com, Workopolis.com or monster.ca. A search
term I could use is something like athletic therapist. A department that could help guide me in
the right direction in terms of jobs could be the Kinesiology department or the human resources
department. The qualifications listed in the job applications in the appendix are similar if not the
same as the qualifications I listed in the Education/Certifications section.

Extras:
Some initiatives I can take to make sure this job is a good fit for me is by doing a placement in
the field of athletic therapy. Doing a placement in the field would also be something I could do
to put myself ahead of other applicants for this job because I would have some hands on
experience. Some other initiatives I could take to make myself more appealing than other
applicants is to get an internship or show my interest in the field to someone already in the field.
I could also research more about the field and start to learn about it more from now.

Next Steps:
There are no university/college courses or diplomas or degrees needed for the program. The
programs are offered at Concordia University, University of Manitoba, Camosun College,
University of Winnipeg, Sheridan College, Mount Royal University and York University. The
application requirements for York is to have a minimum of a 5.0 gpa or C+, First Aid and CPRC, and for post graduate students to have attended York. For Sheridan college the only prerequisites to have are grade 12 English, Biology, one of Physics, Science, Exercise Science,
Chemistry and at least a 65% average. Some additional training and experience that could be
beneficial to me, is again doing an internship at a clinic or with a sports team under a certified
athletic therapist.

I think I should keep in touch with my placement co-ordinator Nicole Church, for references and
some guidance about my career path. For career guidance I can look towards the Kinesiology
guidance counselor to help me find places suitable for me. I can also talk to my placement
advisor, Stephanie Rodrigues for some help with graduate programs and career guidance. It is
important to contact the people I have identified because they have gone through what I am

currently going through right now and can help guide me through my progress. I would contact
these parties identified through email to set up meetings or just discuss online. I think these
parties should be contacted during the application process or even before to make sure I know
what I am going to do and obtain help if I need it.

Some roadblocks that may occur is being able to get into athletic therapy school and getting my
Certified Athletic Therapy Association (CATA) certificate. I feel these would affect my path if I
am not able to get into the correct program or pass and attain my CATA certificate. If I am not
able to get a CATA certificate I would not be able to practice athletic therapy. I can resolve these
problems by doing my best in school and making sure my gpa is above 5.0 or 65%. Another
roadblock could be finding a job in the specific area I want. This would affect me by not letting
me get experience I need early on to get a proper job in the future. I can avoid these roadblocks
by doing a placement or internship in my fourth year or during my post graduate studies with an
athletic therapist. This would help me to gain an edge in experience so that I can be prepared and
say that I have had experience in my desired field before.