RSS FeedIs a Career Change Worth the Pain?
16 January 2012For many professionals, with the beginning of a new year, comes thoughts and hopes for a new career. A new year often prompts us to reevaluate our lives, both personally and professionally, and look for areas in which to improve.
The year 2012 brings with it a great deal of uncertainty and potential change in the healthcare system, so planning and setting goals for your practice or career may prove even more challenging this year. Therefore, it may be best to focus on the “big-picture” issues when deciding if it’s time for you to make a serious practice transition to something new and better for you.
How do you know if your career needs are worth the serious commitment required to make a significant career change?
If you could change something about your career, what would it be? Hopefully you still want to practice medicine, but statistics show that some doctors are burned out on medical practice.
Assuming that you do wish to continue practicing medicine, what changes do you wish to make to your career as a physician? Do you wish to earn more money? Work less hours? See more patients? Offer a new service or learn a new procedure? Live closer to family or friends?
If the goals and wishes you have for your medical career cannot possibly be accomplished in your current practice, it may be a good time to consider a new or different practice opportunity.
Often, with goals and change comes discomfort. You may have to temporarily get out of your comfort zone to get the career you really want. Whether that means relocating to a new area, changing from private practice to hospital employment, or some other major change… chances are, it won’t be easy.
It has been said that the best things in life are never easy. In fact, often it’s those loftiest goals, personal and professional, that require the greatest amount of strength, determination, perseverance, and pain, in order to achieve them.
If you want to make changes in your career, but the prospective hassles, relocation, searching, interviewing, contract negotiating, etc… make you want to give up on those goals and remain complacent with the status quo, there is a little “litmus test” we often recommend to some candidates. It may help you think through how important your goals are to you, and whether or not the long-term desired career improvements are worth the short-term pain and discomfort.
We often advise candidates to think ahead, 20-30 years from now… when you are older, and perhaps retired or nearing retirement. Envision yourself sitting on your front porch in your rocking chair, reflecting on your life, maybe talking about it to your kids and grandkids. In doing so, looking back on your life, would you reflect positively on your current career, should you decide to stay where you are indefinitely? Or would you feel pangs of regret for staying in a career that is not truly satisfying, rewarding enough, or meeting your needs financially or otherwise?
Still not sure what to do? What if we take that exercise one step further…. to your death bed… what would your regrets be then? A recent blog post highlights 5 most common regrets of the dying, as observed and noted by a tenured hospice care nurse.
One of the key regrets, particularly for male hospice patients, was wishing they hadn’t worked so much and so hard. Regret for a lack of work/life balance was one of the very top regrets of those facing the final days of their life. Would that describe you, if you stay in your current practice? If you are working your life away, missing important moments and memories with your family, it may be time for a much-needed career change.
What if it’s not the change itself holding you back, but what others might say about it, that is preventing you from making the transition you know is truly best for you and your immediate family? Many candidates try to please everyone when making a practice decision — their parents, friends, spouse, kids, and for new grads, even program directors’ opinions weigh heavily in their decision…
However, another top regret of the dying, according to the hospice nurse, is to have lived one’s life based on others’ expectations and opinions, instead of remaining true to one’s self at all times. While it’s important to consider your spouse and consider your children when making a significant career move, especially a relocation, no one else’s opinion should really factor into your career decision.
You alone are the one who will spend 40-60 hours per week or more, for many years of your life, working in your medical practice. Therefore, you should be the one most at peace with your decision to make a career transition. If you can tune out the noise from voices of people who are not directly involved in the decision, you will have a much easier time making the right career decision, and one that best meets your personal and professional needs. Chances are, people who truly care about you will want you to be happy, so if you base your career decision on satisfying your own professional needs, you’ll be happy with your new career, and in turn, those around you will be supportive and happy for you as well.
Best wishes for a rewarding, well-balanced, profitable, satisfying career in 2012!
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