Massage Jobs -Mission Statements/Informational Interviews

Mission Statements and Purpose/Philosophy Statements for Massage Therapy Jobs.

Creating a mission statement will give you some added perspective and direction. Mission statements are often used by businesses to

 create a guideline to doing business. You can create a personal mission

 statement that will summarize your vision. It should communicate the essence of who you are and what you want to do. I feel that it can be helpful when looking for a job to discover your mission. That way you it will make it easier to decide if you want to go to work for someone when the offer arrives.

To write a mission statement, it is necessary to find out about yourself and make meaning of what you are doing.

What is your reason for wanting to do massage?

What do you feel is your goal in doing massage?

What brought you to massage in the first place?

What does doing massage mean to you? What do you think that you bring to your clients (or will)?

Or just do a search on google.com in the above box for mission statements.

Write out the answers to the questions and then start combining all of the answers into one or two sentences.

Your philosophy statement is just that – what do you believe in?

Knowing what you believe in and making a statement about it will also add clarity to your vision.

  •   What is your philosophy about what massage does for people?

  • What physical effects does massage have?

  • What emotional effects does massage have?

  •   What spiritual effects does massage have?

  •   What does getting a massage mean to you?

  • What has becoming a massage therapist meant to you? 

  •   How has massage changed your life?


Again, you can combine the answers to these questions into one or two sentences to add clarity to your vision.

Finding a Place to Work as a Massage Therapist

So after you create a vision of what your intention is surrounding getting a massage therapy job and thought about your mission

 statement, you want to do you can begin researching places that might hire you or you can start thinking about how and where to create your own job!

Start with the graduates services department at your massage school!

 They are your number one resource. You need to become best friends

 with this person as they will most likely know of the most job opportunities.

If you don’t have a graduate services department there are many other things you can start with.

Locate businesses that you are interested in working for according to your vision. Look in the phone book or online.

Drive around the neighborhood that you would love to work in and look for opportunities – massage clinics, chiropractors, physical therapists.

Start collecting names, addresses and phone numbers of all possibilities. Even if you don’t think you want to work someplace, they may have connections for you with some other places. Start collecting information.

 

Informational Interviewing

Once you have collected some ideas on where you would like to work start narrowing the search down by doing some informational interviewing. This is the process of contacting places just to find out information about them. It doesn’t really matter if they are hiring or not. You just want to find out if you really want to work for them or not.

Some suggestions of what to ask and what to do:

  •   Call places and ask about their services, hours of operation and prices.

  • Make an appointment and get a massage or chiropractic treatment or whatever service.

  •   Find out what they do – What service do they provide and to whom? What is their philosophy on health and healing? Who are the people who work for them?

  •   Do they ever hire massage therapists or have they ever thought of hiring massage therapists?

Once you narrow your search down to places that you feel have integrity, a high level of service and the atmosphere that you envisioned, you can start making efforts to contact them for the purpose of getting a job. The first thing you need to find out is who does the hiring?

The next step can be the most intimidating because you are going to start asking for what you want – a job in massage therapy with the company of your dreams!!

You can contact them by phone, email, in person or my mail. You can start with a resume and cover letter or a phone call asking about employment. Don’t expect them to get back to you!! If you really want to work there, it may take some perseverance and commitment.

There are many places out there hiring massage therapists who are paying very low wages and charging very low prices for their massage services. It is important to consider all the pros and cons of working for such a place.

What image are they portraying about massage?

 How do they treat their therapists?

Do they understand the meaning of massage and what it really does for people?

Do they respect the work of massage therapists and support the massage profession?

One of the best ways to find out what is really going on inside these places is to talk to their therapists or go in and get a massage from a few different therapists. Are the therapists friendly or are they just there biding their time? Are they passionate about what they do and feel good about themselves while only getting paid the low rates that they do? On one hand it will give you an excellent opportunity to work on many clients and get experience. You can learn all the ropes of running a business with the intention of going out on your own.