The incidence of career change for otolaryngologists and other doctors is on the increase for a whole range of reasons that I don't need to get into! Many are moving sideways into administrative jobs or positions that are very much medically based.
A major factor here is that medical students are one of the few groups who expect to actually use their degree after they qualify.
Which means that their whole training and working experience is in the medical field. So even when they consider a career change, for otolaryngologists it's easiest to do what's comfortable and familiar and stay in the same arena.
And, of course, much of the career advice available will point you at picking out those things that you have become good at, and utilizing those.
Here are some 'different' ideas about assessing a career change that equally apply to those considering a career change for otolaryngologists.
But what about you? I mean the real you!
I understand that for most of your working life your attention has been on making sure that other people are okay. Sometimes it's a matter of not even having the time to look after yourself. Remember that doctors don't have a very good health record, with a high incidence of alcoholism and depression amongst other things.
So the question remains, who are you? Do you have a deep felt, visceral response that lets you know without question that you exist, that you're okay, and that acts as a beacon to let you know that you're moving in the direction of your own life?
Or is your answer to question 'who are you?' simply the utterance of your name, with or without the 'doctor' part in front of it? If so, you may be mixing up who you are with what you do. And you wouldn't be alone in this.
What happens for many people is that they try and find things to do that gives them a sense of satisfaction or contentment, or even a sense of self worth. And unless they're doing that thing, they have little sense of themselves. It's also one of the reasons that people continue to do similar careers, while they are a doctor, or a vet, or a policeman, then they know they're okay.
So a career change for otolaryngologists and physicians may sometimes mean a stepping away from the whole identity they have spent years building. This is not a small step!
This is why I ask the question do you know who you are. Do you know how to make the adjustments in your physical system so that your mindbody is aligned as one unit? With your mental, emotional and physical systems all congruent with each other? With your thoughts aligned with your behaviors and both being a manifestation of who you are?
Because when you can do this, you make different kinds of decisions. The things you choose to do feed back into, and strengthen, who you are, and who you are becoming determines the things that you do.
I'm not suggesting that a career change for otolaryngologists should be away from medicine altogether. There are many doctors for whom medicine is their passion.
Being a doctor is what allows them to express who they are in the world. And there are many who ended up in medicine for a variety of reasons and often see no way out.
The important thing is to recognize which one is you...