Beat Medical Blog

Career Planning for Health Professionals

Posted by Beat Medical

Is your career at a critical point of change? Just starting out? Shaun Hughston talks about how to navigate your career crossroads.

Do I really need to floss?
A dentist routinely asks her patients whether they have been flossing. They think carefully, and say “Yes, of course”, knowing that the last time they flossed, Happy Days was the most popular show on television. It’s something we should all do, in order to avoid an ultimate negative outcome - but for some reason, most of us don’t.
Career planning tends to fall into that category, and is often on the list of things you do once in your life, like knit a scarf, take salsa lessons, or hit a hole in one. Like most things worth doing, though, career planning is a process - not an event.

Who will be at your funeral?
Before you start, do this exercise - imagine you have been lived a long life and you passed away at the age of 101. Write a eulogy for yourself based on the way your life is going now. Be honest - it has to have the good, the bad and the ugly.

Now, write another eulogy based on how you want people to remember you - what they will say you did, how you carried yourself, and what you achieved.

What is the point?
The point of this exercise is to get you thinking about a day other than today, tomorrow, or next week. Even though your plans will change, you have shifting goals, and you will change your mind over time. Now is the time to start planning how you’re going to get to that ultimate destination.

Writing a career plan
A good career plan needs to come from the heart - nothing more than one handwritten A4 page. It can have words, flowcharts, timelines, pictures - really anything that makes it clear for you what you really want out of your career, and how that relates to your life. We don’t suggest any particular format or template, but it should at a minimum contain the following elements.

Your unique points
List as many unique points about yourself as you can think of - be positive, and specific. You might even use a mind-map to do this. For example, if you are a good communicator - partition that particular skill into subsets, and keywords, such as “Superb presentation skills”, or “Excellent bedside manner”.
The purpose of this activity is to find at least ten areas you excel at - this should give you a picture of where you should be heading. Take time to think about the feedback others have given you, and consider the activities you are most passionate about. You should use these points (and your own personal values) as a guide to where you are going. They can also be used as keywords to build your resume, application letters, and interview scripts (we’ll discuss interviews in more depth in a later article).

Your team
Consider two doctors. They both aspire to be neurosurgeons, specialising in a particular paediatric neurological disorder only found in Venezuela.  One has a mentor who already does that job. The other does not.  Which would you assume would be the most successful?
Having a mentor means support, guidance, a role model, and accountability.     You may even wish to have a few different mentors to give you a balanced view - and feedback on how you are going. It can be confronting, and a bit embarrassing to ‘ask’ someone to be a mentor - but most mentoring relationships are informal - and the word ‘mentor’ is never even mentioned.
Being a mentor can be just as rewarding - there may be a junior doctor, a medical student, or even an international medical graduate who would appreciate the opportunity to have guidance from someone who has “been there and done that”.

So, write on your career plan at least three names of potential mentors, and a plan for how to arrange a time to meet one on one. Also think about the type of person you would like to be a mentor to.

Another very important part of your team is your referees (who may well be your mentors). All too often I hear the phrase “so and so didn’t even mention they wanted me to be a referee”. Any reference following this statement is usually less than ideal!

Think very carefully about who your ‘verbal’ referees are. By asking them for a written reference as well, you will get an indication of what they will say to a potential employer, or recruiter. If the written reference states “Bill worked here for one term in 1987. His performance was satisfactory, he was well liked by his peers”, you are in trouble. You need postitive, glowing, incredibly enthusiastic references. Keep looking until you find people who can help you in this way. They are your slam-dunk after an excellent interview.

The final part of your team is professional representation. Sportspeople, actors, and other professionals have agents- so why shouldn’t you? Professional healthcare career planning and recruitment organisations can add a new dimension to the breadth and scope of your career by helping to open up the ‘hidden’ employment market - and helping you keep on track with the basics of resumes, interview planning, and contract negotiation.  

Networking is for losers
As I write this section on networking, I can feel the psychic cringe from our readers. Networking does not need to involve specific events, anything related to pyramid schemes, or handing out business cards. Rather, networking is consciously considering how you can help others, and how they can help you.

One key to good networking is collecting information - phone numbers, email addresses, and details about the people you meet. When you meet other  professionals, show genuine interest in what they do, where they work, and what they are saying.
Imagine you meet someone at a conference who mentions a need for specific training at their hospital. Later on, you realise you have a colleague who carries out that training on a regular basis. By connecting those two people, you have created positive energy which helps to build a consistently positive perception of you.

In you career plan, think about people you would like to set out to meet at conferences, or social occasions in order to build your network. It is simply about collecting information that may help others, or you at a later stage. Keep in touch with these people - with a note from time to time, visit when you are in town, or a Christmas email.

Knockbacks and failure
Knockbacks and failure are reality. There is no silver bullet we can suggest to make it feel better.
You may be rejected for your dream job - perhaps repeatedly. This means they don’t want you, or you don’t want it enough.
If they don’t want you, find out why. Make a time to go see the interview convenor to discuss it. Instead of asking them for feedback on how you went - which will invariably make them defensive and uncomfortable - ask them “what did the successful candidate do to get the job?”.
On your career plan, you need to have some go-to actions to turn to when you are facing difficulty in following your plan. These alternate paths and back doors will be there to help you evaluate the situation more effectively, and to take the right action in that moment. For example, your crisis action  points might be:     1. Talk to mentor
2.    Come up with 10 options in this situation
3.    Take a day with no action to think

Plan for the speed humps now, and you will see the difficult times with more clarity.

The path to enlightenment
Here is where we depart from typical career planning. We do not encourage a career goal, or ultimate job. Your career plan simply needs to be consistent with your unique points, values, and the advice of your team.  So, on your career plan, write at least five ultimate career options (i.e. the job you want to retire in). Pick one of these, and run with it for now.
You may choose twenty potential careers, and end up in none of them. One person’s options might be:
-Emergency physician
-GP
-Farmer
-Mother
-Philanthropist
-Writer

For now, choose the path you are most passionate about, explore it, test it - then accept or reject it. The good news is that you might be able to follow more than one path at a time.

The rules
The final section of the career plan should be ‘your career rules’. These should be based on your principles, beliefs, and values. For example, you might write “I will never let others’ perception of me guide my career choices”, or “I will always work in a position that benefits others”. These may change over time, but set the ultimate direction now.

Share and be accountable
As soon as you have written your draft career plan, take it to one of your team (mentor, partner, friend), and discuss it with them. Encourage them to be positively critical - and to challenge you on why you have chosen the paths you have. In considering the feedback and perception of others, take it into account, think upon it, and let it pass.