A Career Pivot We're Watching Closely

Something interesting is happening in our classrooms.

Over the past several intakes at the Royal Canadian College of Massage Therapy, we've noticed something we can't stop thinking about. More and more students are arriving here after having already built careers elsewhere — in technology, IT, marketing, digital media, film and other industries. Some have been directly affected by disruption in their industries, including the rapid adoption of AI. Others are simply looking at where things are headed and choosing to pivot on their own terms.

New to massage therapy, but not to professional life

These students are new to massage therapy, but they're not new to professional life. They arrive knowing how to manage deadlines, navigate complex problems and take their training seriously. And academically, many of them are excelling.

There's an urgency to the way they approach their education, which makes sense. Changing careers midstream isn't a casual decision. Many have families, mortgages and financial responsibilities. They don't necessarily have the luxury of taking several years to figure out what comes next. They're often balancing school with work and family life, and there is a noticeable hunger to get good at this — quickly.

What might this mean for the profession?

What we find ourselves wondering is: if this continues, what might it mean for the massage therapy profession?

It's too soon to make sweeping claims, but it's not difficult to imagine that someone who has spent 10, 15 or 20 years in technology, business, marketing or another professional environment will bring some of that experience into their new career. They may approach problems differently. They may be highly process-oriented. They may think carefully about systems, efficiency, evidence, communication, business development and how they build their practice.

We also suspect many won't stop learning when they receive their massage therapy diploma. When you're beginning a second or third career later in life, there's an incentive to build quickly on what you have. Continuing education, new techniques, additional modalities and even complementary disciplines may become a natural part of that progression.

The skills that don't automatically transfer

But there's another side to this that may be even more interesting.

Many of the skills that helped these students succeed in their previous careers don't automatically translate to the treatment room. Someone can be exceptionally capable behind a computer and still find it challenging to spend an hour working one-on-one with a patient. Massage therapy is an unusually human profession. It requires communication, therapeutic touch, empathy, listening, trust and comfort interacting with people when they may be vulnerable or in pain.

For someone who has spent much of their working life in a digital environment, that can mean stepping considerably outside their comfort zone.

Where the two sets of skills meet

Perhaps, then, the interesting prediction isn't simply that these second-career students will become good massage therapists. It's what could happen when the strengths from their previous careers are combined with an entirely new set of human skills.

If they can bring the analytical thinking, professional maturity, discipline and drive that made them successful elsewhere — and pair those qualities with the communication, clinical reasoning, empathy and therapeutic skills demanded of a registered massage therapist (RMT) — we may see some exceptionally well-rounded practitioners emerge.

Another part of the AI conversation

There has been an enormous amount written about AI and the future of work, much of it understandably focused on which jobs will change or disappear.

But perhaps there is another part of that conversation worth having.

When technology disrupts one profession, what might another profession gain from the people who choose to reinvent themselves?

We're beginning to see one possible answer in our classrooms.

And we're very interested to see where it leads.