Zoie Jenkyns

Zoie Jenkyns took the opportunity to start her own occupational therapy business Making a Difference when COVID-19 claimed her first post-graduation job.

Zoie Jenkyns didn’t set out to start her own business, but when COVID-19 claimed her first job after graduation, she knew she had to adapt fast. The result is her business Making a Difference, an occupational therapy practice that is doing just that; making a difference in the lives of not just her pediatric clients but their whole families, too.

“I’ve always wanted to help people,” she says. “I initially had my heart set on being a physiotherapist, I was fixated on it! Ever since I was nine and needed some physio I thought it was what I wanted to do.” But when she began her Bachelor of Exercise Science she found it wasn’t the right fit for her. “So then I saw an adviser at Griffith who asked me why I went into exercise science. I told her it was because I wanted to help people and she said, ‘Well have you heard of occupational therapy?’” Zoie hadn’t, but as soon as she wrapped her head around what it actually was, she knew that was the career for her.

After finishing her Bachelor of Occupational Therapy, Zoie had been lucky enough to be hired straight out of university. “I landed myself a full-time job before graduation, in a pediatric private practice, which was amazing. I had so much fun there and never done placement in pediatrics before. It was just like a full new explosion of information, a big learning curve.”

She thrived there for six months at that company, falling in love with working in the occupational therapy space with children, but then like so many others, her job became a casualty of the pandemic. Unfortunately as one of the last people hired, Zoie found herself on the chopping block.

“Everything happens for a reason and that's definitely come to light since then,” Zoie explains. “After being in pediatrics I already know that was my new passion, I definitely wasn’t finished in that field yet. So within the first week of being out of a job, I was already looking for work in the same field.”

But with the pandemic still raging, most companies had instated hiring freezes and job availabilities were few and far between.

“Everyone was in the same boat in the heart of COVID-19, trying to minimise staff and costs rather than increase. It was really challenging, and I didn't find anything that suited my needs.

“At the same time, I’d had clients from my old job reaching out to me personally, saying ‘Where are you going? Can we follow you?’ But I had nowhere for them to follow me to.”

She knew the time had come to make a big move, and she established Making a Difference, seeing clients under her own banner while still looking for full time work. And although she did find another position, her business had other plans, really taking off and leading Zoie to make the decision to back her own brand.

“It’s been a rollercoaster ever since,” Zoie enthuses. “It’s been so exciting, and I’ve been so busy!”

She says her work is a special sort of fulfilling. “It is so rewarding seeing the children grow and gain some independence and see how much they can learn and pick up and achieve. Also seeing not just the difference I'm able to make in the child’s life, but the whole family, I can't even begin to explain how happy it makes me. It melts my heart every time and I think, ‘This is where I am meant to be’.”

Zoie says studying at Griffith helped put her on the right path to her dream career. “I did a lot of research on universities and even though Griffith was the furthest from me—I live in Brisbane and the degree was on the Gold Coast—it had the best medical resources that I could find anywhere.

“And I was like, ‘this is amazing’; the resources and opportunities that Griffith was able to provide was just fantastic. The way that the occupational therapy course is delivered at Griffith is very holistic in the way that it not just develops you as a practitioner, and an allied health professional, but it also sets you up to be a professional person. They teach you those employability skills, the business skills, the communication skills you need to do well.

“In the fourth year of my degree they also offered a course on entrepreneurship, which has of course very much come in handy. They go through starting your own business, business development and planning and we get an idea of how it might be to branch out on our own. I learnt all these foundation skills that were definitely helpful to have going into my own business.”

Zoie says it takes a certain type of person to go into occupational therapy and encourages prospective students to give it a try if they like helping others. “One of the best things about occupational therapy is how broad and diverse it is, so you really just need to follow your passion. I've obviously chosen to go down the path of pediatrics, but there are so many other areas of occupational therapy, you can literally create yourself a career in every area of every industry. All you have to do is want to help people and put your mind to it, and you’ll never be bored.