Career Management

 

Career management is not a single event but a continuous process. Ideally you should have started exploring what you want from your career and researching options in your third or fourth year at medical school. However, if you didn't, don't panic – working through our website, other career exercises available elsewhere, discussing your options with colleagues, getting hold of publications like Target Medicine, and working through books like “So you want to be a brain surgeon?” will help.

Getting started
To find out what you want from a career, you first have to analyse yourself. Identifying your strengths, your skills, your interests and your personality traits is essential. The activities here will cover some of these elements and are a useful starting point.  You should be realistic in your aspirations when looking at career paths, as some may be more competitive than others and may not match your particular strengths.

As well as looking at yourself, it’s also important to look around you.  Take advantage of all work experience and work shadowing opportunities to gain a greater insight into what’s involved in specific areas, and talk to your colleagues and other doctors already within your area of interest.

Some questions you should be asking yourself and others include:

  • What matters to me?
  • What am I good at?
  • What do I find difficult?
  • How might specialties change in the future? How might these changes affect me and my career choices?
  • What other constraints affect my career choices (e.g. geographical location)?
  • What kind of skills and qualities are particular specialties looking for?
  • How can I show evidence of these skills?
  • How can I get accurate information about careers in different specialties?

Making the most of your experience
When considering your experiences of the medical profession during your training, electives and attachments, you should think about the transferable skills and qualities you can apply to any specialty rather than just focusing on the specialty-specific elements. Be critical and analytical; look at the possible problems in a specialty as well as the positives, and what impact working long term in it may have on your life. Consider and reflect deeply on what you might have difficulty with – this isn’t admitting to ‘weakness’ but simply knowing yourself and being realistic. You should also look beyond the immediate – you may have had a positive experience because you were working with an excellent team and a charismatic consultant rather than it having anything to do with the specialty itself.

What not to do when planning your career

  • Don’t leave career planning to the last minute when application deadlines start to approach – consider your career choices carefully.
  • Don’t pursue a specialty just because you think it’s glamorous or charismatic.
  • Don’t let your view be coloured by the prejudices of others who may have an axe to grind about a particular area of medicine.
  • Don’t dismiss career options because of a personality clash with a consultant or another member of staff in that specialty.

It’s up to you
You will have people to help and support you with the career planning process but ultimately career management is your own responsibility. You have to make your own decisions and put your own plans into action. The changes in postgraduate medical education have made it even more important to start early in the career planning process and to make informed decisions.  Every job in medicine, as in other professions, has its good and its bad sides; its own burdens and responsibilities. However, most careers in medicine are challenging, rewarding and fulfilling if you’re in a job that’s right for you and starting early with your career planning will mean you’re more likely to find your niche.