Speech-Language Pathologist
(Female, Age 36) from Redondo Beach, CA
This is a REAL-LIFE job profile written by a Female aged 36 who works as a Speech-Language Pathologist in Redondo Beach, CA. We have removed all names and personal information in order to protect privacy. This professional kindly spent a bit of their time to complete one of our job profile surveys so that prospective job seekers like you could read their insights. Please excuse any punctuation or grammatical errors in this profile.
At a Glance
Current Job
Basic data on your current job
| Job Title | Speech-Language Pathologist |
|---|---|
| Salary | $65,000 |
| Other Compensation | None Set |
| Hours/Week | 40 |
| Company Size | (not answered) |
| Location | Redondo Beach, CA |
| Years Experience | 5 years |
Career Ratings
Opinions on your CAREER overall (i.e. not just your current job)
| Years in Career | 0 |
|---|---|
| Education | (not answered) |
| Income Rating | 0 / 10 |
| Interest Rating | 0 / 10 |
| Work-Life Rating | 0 / 10 |
| Fulfilment Rating | 0 / 10 |
Current job Q&A
Describe the type of organization you work for.
I work for a private school serving children from 2-21 requiring services such as Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy and Physical Therapy.
Describe your job role and responsibilities.
I see children from ages 2-19 during the school day for speech therapy either in the classroom or in a therapy room. I help them to generalize these new skills to their everyday lives and in the classroom.
Please list an additional benefits (beyond compensation) that you receive.
Health care, dental care
Do you feel you are under/over or well/fairly compensated at your current position?
Compensated for the amount of work I do, but could be compensated more.
Does your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this something you like/dislike about your job? Please explain.
Yes, I work with children/students of a variety of ages. I also work with teachers during the day as well as office staff. I enjoy being around other people and feel it helps ground me in my work.
Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes
Describe your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what you like/dislike about working in it.
I work in a school where I have a therapy room that also functions as office space. I don’t mind working in my office space to treat kids, but my school is old and is not in the best shape.
Please rate each of the following aspects of your current job on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest/best):
Income: 3
Benefits: 4
Hours: 2
Co-Workers: 8
Supervisors: 7
Job Title: 6
Level of Responsibility: 5
The Actual Work: 1
A day in the life of…
Please describe a typical workday for you in your current job:
| 5am to 6am | |
| 6am to 7am | |
| 7am to 8am | At this time of day, I am still getting ready for my work day, making my lunch and taking care of general grooming. By 7:30 AM, I need to be in my car leaving for work, since it takes at least 30 minutes to get to work. Traffic is not usually too bad, and I listen to the radio to help keep me entertained, on track and ready for the day. I generally work at the preschool side of our campus, so this is where I park my car. |
| 8am to 9am | At 8:00, I was still in my car, I arrived a little late to work today, around 8:10. Between 8:15 and 8:30, I get together my ipad, paperwork and toys/therapy materials and walk across the street to the K-12 school I work at on Tuesdays. By 8:30, I am seeing my first client for the day, and see him till around 9 AM, we are working on plural /s/ identification. |
| 9am to 10am | At 9:00 am, I see another client for 30 minutes. We are working on identifying he and she in pictures.
At 9:30 am I see two girls together for a speech group, they are working on naming categories and also naming items that go into a category. We also play connect 4 to work on language, strategies and problem solving. |
| 10am to 11am | At 10:00, I see a non-verbal boy with Autism, we work on identification of verbs and following directions and waiting, via pointing on the computer.
At 10:30, I see another client who is non-verbal with Cornelia DeLange syndrome. He was in a bad mood today and was hard to work with, once settled, he was able to answer at least 10 What questions. |
| 11am to 12pm | At 11:00 am, I saw another client for 30 minutes. We worked on pointing to verbs, following directions and some oral motor activities.
At 11:30 am, I saw my last client for the morning. We worked on listening to short stories and answering yes/no questions and Wh- questions. |
| 12pm to 1pm | At 12 AM, I go back across the street to the preschool and my office and eat my lunch. I only have around 15-20 minutes to eat my lunch today, since I have another client at 12:30 pm today. At 12:30, I have another, client a non-verbal boy with Autism. We work on using sign language to communicate and pointing to verbs with a computer game. |
| 1pm to 2pm | At 1pm, I see a preschooler with possible Autism, who is working on imitating words, identifying nouns and naming nouns. He also needs to work on following directions and increasing use of play (he is not able to play independently or turn take, etc). |
| 2pm to 3pm | At 2pm, I see a kindergarten student, a girl with Autism. I take her in the speech room and we work on identifying nouns in pictures, following directions and increasing her ability to imitate verbalizations.
From 2:30 to 3:00, I see a private client at the school, who is a boy with undiagnosed Austism. We work on answering questions, increasing his ability to use language to request and following directions. |
| 3pm to 4pm | During this hour I spend time checking my email and also getting caught up on my email. I also spend a little time writing into my schedule what I did for the day and typing in who I saw and what time. I also write in a billing sheet who I saw for therapy and how long I saw them. |
| 4pm to 5pm | I spent some time writing a progress report for a preschool student, creating goals and tracking their progress. I also continued to work on progress notes for the students for the day. |
| 5pm to 6pm | |
| 6pm to 7pm | |
| 7pm to 8pm | |
| 8pm to 9pm | |
| 9pm to 10pm | |
| 10pm to 11pm | |
| 11pm to 12am |
Table of Contents
How you got your job
How did you get your current job?
A trade magazine related to my career.
What was the application process?
Submitted a resume and had a personal interview.
Did you have to interview for your current job? If yes, what did the interview process entail?
Yes, I met the owners of the school and the head therapists. It was a group interview where they all asked me a variety of questions related to the work at the school.
If you can remember, what questions were you asked during the interview?
I cannot remember specific questions, but they were related to why I wanted the job, what I though the job involved and how to deal with certain kids and situations related to the job.
Do you feel your employer properly prepared you for your job? Explain.
Not as well as would have initially liked. In some ways I felt thrown into the position and had to ask too many questions to make it through my first year there. But I was able to get a better handle of my job with experience and gaining confidence in myself.
Was there training for your current position? If yes, what did it entail?
Only a little related to the paperwork, scheduling, writing reports and billing. More for things that were exclusive to the school where I work.
Do you feel your educational background prepared you for your job? Explain.
For the most part it helped me work on theory and the overall important areas of my job. There are many things in my job that you learn with personal experience and learning by making mistakes and learning from other peoples.
If applicable, do you feel your internship experience helped you prepare for your job?
My internship taught me a lot about what I do and do not want to be as a therapist and taught me the importance of relying on others for help and working together with others.
If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
Take classes at a preferred college undergrad related to communication disorders to see if you think it is the career path you want. Ask other people you know in that career if you can shadow them for a day to see if you think you would enjoy this career.
What skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a position like yours?
You will need to have very good social skills and interpersonal skills, since you are constantly in contact with people and using communication as a career.
Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
Yes, having a Masters degree is very important, and keeping up with training is very critical.
What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Remember some things you learned in Grad school, but also remember that the real world is not the same as they taught you in grad school. You don’t know everything out of school and need a few years to take it all in and find your “groove”.
Long-term career plans
Is your current employment part of your overall career plan? Why or why not?
Yes, I hope to do what I do for a long time, and hope to get more experience working with younger kids and find a way to incorporate my experience into other venues, such as managerial/ownership.
What are your current career goals?
Stay working with younger children in a preschool setting, but gain experience in other areas, such as obtaining training in parent training, and using new cutting edge therapy techniques in therapy.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your career?
There is a critical shortage of Speech-Language Pathologists and is a career that can be very fulfilling. This career is very fulfilling in the sense that you are able to help increase many people’s ability to communicate with the world around them.
Prior work history
Please list your most recent jobs prior to this current job:
| Title | Length | Salary | Description | |
| Prior Job 1 | Speech-Language Pathologist | 2 years | 50000 | Evaluated, set goals and treated children through adults in a private practice setting related to speech and language impairments. |
| Prior Job 2 | Grad Assistant | 1 year | 1000 | Worked for a professor at my University, graded tests and took care of photocopying as well as other general duties for University classes. |
Educational background
Please list your educational background:
High School GPA:na
| GPA | School | Degree | |
| College (Undergraduate) or Technical/Vocational |
3 | Minot State University | Communication Disorders |
| Graduate or Professional (Masters or Doctorate) |
3.4 | Minot State University | Communication Disorders |
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