What does your future hold? Have you thought of a specialty that you want to pursue? This article discusses the different factors that you may want to consider and will hopefully help you to think about what route you would like to take in your career.
Make sure you join our Careers WhatsApp Group – there are subgroups for every specialty & alternative careers outside of the NHS such as moving abroad or different fields e.g. HealthTech.
Contents
Your dream job and career values
Choosing your future career in medicine
Choosing your future career is an exciting time. The world is full of possibilities and opportunities. It is also a stressful time, and doctors often put themselves under enormous pressure to “get it right”.
Let me begin by asking you a question. Whatever job you end up in, how much can you influence your job satisfaction? The answer is really quite a lot. You can be a passive person who turns up and expects the employer to spoon-feed them success and make them happy. Or you can be someone who actively manages their career and workplace in a way that allows them to work in accordance with their values, making their own successes themselves and not relying on anyone else to make their career flourish.
I’d encourage you to be the person who actively makes theirs a flourishing career, no matter what. This attitude will help you deal with the inevitable challenges that come up. It also means that getting your career choice “right” is much less important. In fact, medicine may already be a second career to you, and many doctors later in their careers search for additional roles to enhance the pure patient-facing role.
Yes, there are some people who know exactly what they want to do (hopefully they achieve what they are pursuing as if they don’t, then acceptance may be difficult). And there are many many many others who don’t know exactly what they want to specialise in. You may have a general idea, but in reality, you can most probably be happy in any one of several different jobs. Unless you are leaving medicine, whatever path you choose will most likely have fairly similar pressures, responsibilities, and rewards.
I’m assuming you are here to help you decide what specialty to choose. So start by taking the pressure “to get it right” off yourself, choose to be the person who actively finds ways to flourish no matter what, and get ready to work through the upcoming questions to help you decide.
What are you doing in your dream job?
Imagine I wave a magic wand and move us 20 years into the future, and you now have your dream job. We set up a video camera and record your life over a week. Once we’re back in the now, we settle down on the sofa, press play, and watch the recording. What did the camera see you doing?
Make a list of things that the camera records you doing. Focus on the things that you are doing and can be seen, rather than on how you are feeling.
What are your career values?
Values describe how we want to behave now and always, and indicate how we want to treat ourselves, those near to us, and the world around us. They help us grow and develop, and create our present and our future. They inspire us, motivate us, and make our lives meaningful. Living by our values means consciously choosing to focus on what matters to us. When the going gets tough, choosing to behave according to our values motivate us and keeps us going. Values are different to goals. Goals are what you want to complete, achieve, have, or own. Values are how you want to behave as a human being.
You may already be very clear on these. If not, here are a few questions to help you:
- What are the really important things that matter to you in your career?
- When you are having the best day ever at work, what are you feeling?
- If you had a brilliant job and someone approached you with another offer, what would it take for you to go?
Your personal circumstances, qualities and how those around you can help with your decision
What are your values relating to your health, your family / relationships, and your leisure time?
The values in other aspects of your life don’t have to be the same as your career values. However, if you end up in a job that is at odds with what matters to you in your relationships/family, health or leisure, then finding a good overall balance in your life may be challenging.
What are your strengths?
It’s much easier to do a job that uses your strengths well. Imagine doing something that you do well, it comes naturally, time flies when you are doing it, and you can’t get enough. If your strengths are not used, you may find yourself bored. It is quite possible to learn and develop set attributes also; however, whilst you may become good at them, it is possible that using these learned strengths may leave you feeling drained rather than energised.
You may know your strengths already. If not, there are a variety of online questionnaires e.g. www.viacharacter.org or books that can help you find them.
How can those around you help decide?
The people you work with may be an invaluable source of data to help you choose a career. You can ask them what they think, invite suggestions, and remember to ask a variety of people. Another way of asking would be to get feedback on how you are at work, and then use this to help you choose. For example, ask colleagues three simple questions:
I am trying to decide what career to pursue. I would welcome your views formed from working with me. In relation to my job / career:
- What do I do well?
- What should I do more of?
- What should I do less of?
A face to face question from you may be effective, but sometimes an anonymous online survey or an interview by a third party can get more information. You also need to make sure that you are up to receiving such feedback, as sometimes you might not like what you hear. Being supported by an experienced supervisor or coach is often useful to ensure that you get the most out of this process when you are opening up and seeking people’s honest views.
The mandatory 360-degree assessments required for ARCP may similarly be useful. However, as those are part of your summative assessment, in my experience they often end up being a tick box exercise where the goal is to pass, rather than to gain insight.
Do you have a specialty in mind? Let’s think about it
Final thoughts
As a doctor exploring careers, the world is your oyster. Remember to get to know yourself, as well as prospective careers. Explore the careers as just one aspect of your life as a whole, and not in isolation from the rest of who you are. Be the person who actively finds ways to flourish no matter what; career happiness depends much more on what you bring to the career, rather than on what the career brings to you.
Good luck!
©Mat Daniel 2020
