Career Awareness

There is a misconception among medical students that finding their career pathway or specialty of choice is a passive process, which simply “happens” with time. This may very occasionally be the case. However, actively seeking information about specialties, and evaluating your experiences with this information in mind, is far more likely to lead to good decision-making and a satisfying career in the future.

Pre-clinical years: This is a particularly good opportunity to think about the intellectual (or basic science) component of various specialties, and compare these with your own interests and/or strengths. For example, if you love anatomy, radiology or surgery may be for you. If you are more interested in physiology, a career as an anaesthetist, intensivist, or respiratory physician might be more suitable. Of course this is only a component of your final decision, but an important one nevertheless.

Clinical years: This is a time when students often have their first prolonged exposure to doctors in the workplace. It is a chance to speak to registrars and consultants in various specialty areas and to ask questions (and make some contacts in the process) that may assist you in your future career choices.

As you can see these are very simple steps that are not very time-consuming, but can make a big difference down the track. Even in the short-term, career awareness will help you to seek good research projects and medical electives. The very demanding early postgraduate years are not the best time to be considering your career options from scratch.

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