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Dear friends,
These are hard times. The suffering in Palestine and Israel is devastating, and it's hard to go about our lives knowing it is happening. Please seek out the support you need and give yourself grace.
Recently I’ve been having career mentoring meetings with early-career faculty, in my role directing our K-Scholars program. The conversations have been wide-ranging and quite different from check-ins with the faculty I mentor closely and collaborate with. One person said, “Things are going well, and I like my work right now, but I am not sure I can do this for my entire career.” This question came up repeatedly, so let’s tackle it now. How do you know if you what you are doing is right for the long term? If you’re unsure about your long-term career plans, what can you do to gain clarity? Here are some thoughts.
Dip your toe in the water. Dedicate some time to projects outside of your core work. A huge advantage of academic medicine is the sheer variety of work you can do. Health- system operational or improvement work, taking a role at a scientific journal, getting more involved in a professional society, seeking industry collaborations, and working on teaching or curriculum development are all ways to figure out what you like and want to do more of. The best way to understand what you want is to try things. What you enjoy may surprise you.
Go out for coffee. It is both useful and fun to spend time with peers and near-peers who have chosen different career paths. Make sure you are having frank discussions; the goal is to get beyond the grass-is-always-greener to an honest understanding of what their work is like.
Let your mind wander. This is the hardest piece of advice for me to follow, but I’m going to put it out there anyway. It is possible to fill every bit of your time with inputs, whether it’s watching TV while exercising or listening to a podcast while you fold laundry (I do both of those things regularly, btw, and I don’t intend to stop.) However, I encourage you to take a few moments, whether you’re driving or doing chores or taking a walk alone or genuinely doing nothing, to daydream. You might find this hard- perhaps your to-do list rules your brain, like mine does- but try it. Pay attention to where your brain goes when you don’t force it to be somewhere specific.
Finally, remember that your career is a book with many chapters. Even if you don’t make drastic changes, your work will evolve over time. If there’s something you don’t have time or energy to do now, you can do it in another career chapter. As always, please share widely and, if you are so inclined, sign up for the blog here. Keep in touch and do share good news so I can amplify your successes!
Warmly,
Urmimala