Sometimes we need a new career or are fresh out of school and trying to determine how to get the right medical career. There are questions you must ask yourself to ensure what exactly you are passionate about. Like what do you enjoy most? What are some things you could do and feel good about it every day? Many people attain medical careers for various reasons, from salary and security to the reward of helping people in need. Some medical professionals don’t feel good about the position they are currently holding and desire a change but would enjoy staying within the same field for these reasons.
Understanding what kind of career fits you is important to living a happy and successful life. Many people become unsatisfied with their daily job and it affects their happiness and life relationships. There are certain things you must think about to help you determine what career you need to be in.
Table of Contents
Understand what you want to do
Figuring out what you want to do and what your passion is is important in scoring a career that is fulfilling and satisfactory in all areas. Sometimes you may have to prioritize and compromise certain things to ensure you get the most out of your daily job. Think about what moves you and what you would like to spend time doing every day. What is your motivation? You must dig deeper than the surface of things to ensure you decide on the right thing.
Figure what kind of personality you have. Do you enjoy interacting with others? Or do you like to work alone? Those who enjoy being a people person should shoot for patient interaction careers or ones that involve some sort of management. Those who are introverts should shy away from these jobs and reach for behind the scenes positions like lab technicians or medical IT. Don’t neglect the research stage of figuring out your career in medicine because there are so many options and positions out there, from high paying physician positions to patient services. As time goes on and technology improves, even more, careers are created.
Understand your current skill set and build off of that. You don’t want to jump into something extremely new and throw yourself for a loop with new training and learning processes.
Find a specialization
Determining a specialization is where you want to figure what exactly you want to do. We know you want to work in medicine but at what level and expertise? If you want to work with children, how would you want to work with them? There are various ways to interact with younger patients from pediatrics to school nurses. Or maybe you want to focus on technology because you’re passionate about electronics and technical advancements. There are countless careers that deal with all kinds of technology from radiologists to sonographers. Doing a job search will help you find certain careers that are tailored to your liking.
Understand what kind of work environment you want to be in. Medical professionals usually work longer hours than usual so you want to decide on a work environment that you will be happy spending a lot of your time in. Different work environments include:
- Hospitals
- Universities
- Schools
- Federal institutions
- Military
- Medical offices and clinics
- Non-profit organizations
- Hospice
- Nursing homes
Weigh the pros and cons
It’s important to research and find out the good and bad things about working within a certain environment. Certain careers have large vacancies due to the number of cons it entails, and this isn’t just within the medical field. Sometimes the good outweighs the bad and many people will overlook the cons of their career choice because of the great rewards they receive, whether it be salary and benefits to travel and interactions.
You may find that the career you’re in isn’t exactly what you want or it isn’t as satisfying as you may have thought before. Perhaps, you just want to make sure you land the perfect career, to begin with. Through extensive research, you can determine if a career is worth the stress and issues it may bring.
Find out what levels of training and education is needed
Once you have decided what kind of position you want to pursue, focus on what kind of education and training is needed. Some careers in medicine take years and years to accomplish and if you’re willing to dedicate a large portion of your time to learning. Careers like surgeons and radiologists take time but the end reward is so grand that some believe it is quite worth it.
Assess your current skills and see if you even need any further education to obtain the career you want. If you want to gain more credentials then go for it. Some carers do not require as much education and training and if you don’t want to wait years to get a career within medicine, you can start with a medical assistant career or nursing.
Network
Networking is a crucial part of obtaining the right career in medicine. Its beneficial short and long term to create business relationships. The colleagues you meet and network with could help you land the exact career that you want. Networking isn’t absolutely necessary in the job search process but it is quite important.
