My Interview with Allison Ong

     In my computer science class at Mills I was assigned to conduct an informational interview with someone who is in the field of work I am interested in and might one day be a part of. The person I chose to interview for this project was Allison Ong. She works for the California Children's Services (CCS) at their San Mateo location as an occupational therapist (OT), meaning she helps kids that have problems with eating, moving, and doing other everyday tasks. I have known her for a while because she works closely with my mom, who is also an occupational therapist. I chose to interview Allison because of this and also because I like working with children and I love helping others. Before talking to Allison, I emailed her asking when she would like to meet. She responded and told me that she could come over on the third of November (today) at 7:00 PM. Unfortunately, she got sick and was unable to make it. So instead I called her and we did the interview over the phone.

     From the interview, I learned about the requirements for becoming an occupational therapist, what the job is like, and what the benefits and rewards are. At the time that my interviewee was still in college, she only needed a master's degree and six years of schooling to become a therapist. She told me that when she applied to become an OT at CCS in San Francisco, they were not looking to hire anyone. The advisor suggested that she apply at the San Mateo county location and she got the job. Apparently the employment rate is not constant. It keeps fluctuating over time; sometimes they will hire a handful of people, but other times they will not be hiring anyone at all. However most therapists tend to stay in their field of work for a considerably long time. 

     Allison also told me about her daily work and what kind of things she does as an occupational therapist. She usually works for around 8 hours a day, balancing her paperwork and reports with making phone calls and appointments and seeing patients. The most difficult part of her job is determining how to treat and handle the kids she works with and dealing with the parents' problems and issues. Sometimes parents will load all their feelings onto their child's therapist, causing them to be emotionally drained. This makes the job very tiring and stressful. But there are also bright sides to this job. Allison's favorite part of being an OT is building relationships with long-term patients and gaining their trust, although it takes a lot of time and physical labor to work with them.

     For Allison, her salary is around $48 per hour. Salaries vary depending on how long you have been working at your job, so if you are a newer employee you will be paid less, but if you are an older, more experienced employee then you will earn more. And since she works for the county, her advisers are pretty flexible when it comes to sick days and time off. The county also gives her some dental provision and will give her a pension when she retires.

Typical physical/occupational therapy room

          After I had finished my interview, I realized how easy it was to talk to my interviewee, and not just because I knew her well. I was really interested in what she had to say about being a therapist and I enjoyed learning about what kind of work she does. I found out that being a therapist is more tiring and difficult than I thought it was, and I learned that sometimes this job is not always as relaxing as it seemed to be at first; sometimes all the paperwork and physical labor will stress one out. One thing Allison told me confirmed what I had already believed to be true about working with kids in the medical field: it is very rewarding. This is one of the major reasons why I like to work with kids and help people out. I love the feeling of brightening up someone's day and making it better, even if it is just a little thing that I did for them. Hopefully one day I will be able to make a difference in people's lives like Allison does. 

Picture Citations: 
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLjlKDM_p8VvW3PLljV5amlGVUs3VbovAxaJZZOToMyjKfzAs-23Fu6AWhVi9tv-s-XpYB1MLQOJLWHIIDm1xHDgm7Hpq3MQfYxTvPOkU4dLEf69hSCvw_ZJ1qgWCVYwSr7P4UPo1Ik4/s1600/otgradadimage2.gif 
http://www.maryland.va.gov/facilities/Baltimore/bt_virtualtour/full/Physical_Therapy_and_Occupational_Therapy_Area_jpg.jpg