What does it really take to know what kind of career you want to pursue?

Dear Mahir,
Selecting a career path can seem overwhelming. Start by identifying your skills and talents as well as your wants and needs. What do you like doing? What are you good at? What do you enjoy learning? What special expertise or knowledge do you have? Once you know the answers to those things, the next question is, who will pay me to do this? To get started, you may want to use a self-assessment tool. Look at the free website www.mynextmove.org. Based on how you answer the questions, it will offer some career paths for you to investigate. You might also want to look at fee based assessments like www.highlandsco.com. Next, you have to educate yourself about the world of work. Read job descriptions... volunteer, do internships, work part time, talk to professionals doing the things you are most interest in! Try things on while you are in school to help you narrow things down a bit before investing a great deal of time and money pursuing something that sounds good but in reality is not what you think it is!

Check out this short article for more advice. https://showcase.tempestamedia.com/graduates-learn-how-to-launch-your-careers-aid-21130/

Go set the world on fire!!

Kathleen

Hi Mahir,

I agree too with the advice presented so far.

My advice is to first keep an open mind toward the plethora of career options out there and then answer 2 questions for yourself: What is the root of uncertainty toward a medical career? What would you love to wake up to do every morning?

Personally, I've changed my chosen career field throughout college and what I look to now as an alumni is whether I smile when considering the opportunities I pursue.

Remember-it's your life and you should pursue what brings you a heartfelt smile and personal satisfaction.

Hope this helps!
Kimberly

One is to know what you want, money or career, now we all would like both but a lot of times it is one or the other. For me, it was the one out of the other but now it is the career. For a long time, it was the money because bills had to be paid and I needed a job, any job would do and believe me this is not the way to go for more than five years of your journey of the career. Yes, I am making less but I am being rewarded because I am trying to help others achieve what they want during their personal career journey.

Hi Mahir,

I agree with much of the advice that has already been given; I think it's very important while students are in school to talk (and shadow! Shadowing and interviewing should be done concurrently in my opinion) not only with professionals but to the students in front of them. In your case, this would be residents and fellows, etc. Volunteer work/ internships and personality assessments can all be useful... But I think the thing you may really want to hone in on is, what is your reason for saying you're not sure if what you're doing now is really the path for you?

Ask yourself what the nature of your concern is. Do you feel you might be more interested in other fields, and that you may be pursuing it because your family is in it? Are you unsure about the schedule? The debt? The time commitment? I think the key to discovering whether you should stay the course or make a change starts with finding the root of your uncertainty. From there you can sooner decide whether you can satisfy your hesitation within medicine somehow (ex. By gearing yourself toward a particular specialty that may be more of a fit) or whether you'd be better served to pursue something new entirely.

The best way to know if you want to enter any field is to interview current professionals and not just the ones that enjoy what they are doing. Develop a list of questions that focus on what they like about the work and what they dislike. Next arrange to spend time in the field with these professionals to see what the day to work entails and what the environment is like -- be sure to interview a wide range of professionals in many different environments.