How to hire physical therapists

Job description template

Copy it, fill in the brackets, and remove anything that does not fit your job. Keep only must-haves you would really turn someone away for.

[Job title] at [Company name]
[City, State] · [Full-time / Part-time] · [Pay range]

About the role
[Two or three sentences about your team, the work and why it matters.]

What you will do
• Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
• Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.
• Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
• Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
• Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
• Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
• Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
• Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.

What you bring
• [Required license, certification or years of experience, if any]
• [Education, only if you truly need it. Typical to start in this job: Doctoral or professional degree]
• Strong active listening, critical thinking, reading comprehension, speaking, monitoring and writing skills
• Working knowledge of customer and personal service, therapy and counseling, medicine and dentistry and psychology
• [Anything else you would really turn someone away for]

Pay and benefits
[Pay range]. For reference, the U.S. median for this job is $49.40 an hour ($102,760 a year).
[Benefits, schedule and anything else candidates should know.]

How to apply
[Apply on JAI Bot. Every applicant hears back.]

Copy the template Check your finished job post

Interview questions for physical therapists

Ask every candidate the same questions, in the same order, and write down what they say. Questions about past work show what someone has actually done.

1. Tell me about a time you had to administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling. What did you do, and how did it turn out?
2. Tell me about a time you had to confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program. What did you do, and how did it turn out?
3. Tell me about a time you had to evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit. What did you do, and how did it turn out?
4. Tell me about a time you had to instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home. What did you do, and how did it turn out?
5. Tell me about a time you had to understand a request or problem that was explained poorly. How did you make sure you got it right?
6. Describe a decision at work where the obvious answer was wrong. How did you work out the better choice?
7. Tell me about written instructions, a policy or a manual you had to follow closely. How did you make sure you followed it correctly?
8. Why this job, and why now? What would make you stay here for the long term?

Good answers name a real situation, what the person did themselves and what happened. Avoid questions about age, family plans, religion, health, national origin or anything else unrelated to the job.

What physical therapists do

• Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
• Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.
• Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
• Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
• Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
• Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
• Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
• Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.

Skills that matter most

Active ListeningCritical ThinkingReading ComprehensionSpeakingMonitoringWritingCustomer and Personal ServiceTherapy and CounselingMedicine and DentistryPsychology

Education, experience and outlook for physical therapists

• Typical education to start: Doctoral or professional degree (BLS)
• Related work experience most have: 3 to 6 months (O*NET)
• Job outlook: +11.9% over ten years, much faster than average · about 13,400 openings a year (BLS)

What to pay physical therapists

Pay depends a lot on where the job is. Highest and lowest median yearly pay by state:

See physical therapists pay in every state

Related hiring guides

• Physical Therapist Assistants
• Physicians, All Other
• Occupational Therapists
• Physical Therapist Aides
• Occupational Therapy Assistants
• Occupational Therapy Aides
• Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
• Registered Nurses
• Pediatric Surgeons
• Recreational Therapists

Job duties and skills: O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license; O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. JAI Bot has modified this information; USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. Pay: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS, May 2025. Interview questions and the job description template: JAI Bot, based on the duties and skills above.