Leaving Clinical Medicine ... And Doing It Right

I'm going to be speaking at the Medical Fusion Conference in Las Vegas in November, a unique conference developed by physicians for physicians that showcases practical strategies, steps, and tips for docs pursuing a non-clinical career.

The organizers have asked me to give a preview of my approach for helping physicians transition out of their clinical careers. I am happy to do so! In my mind successful transition really comes down to one, critical thing: preparation.

Let me explain what I mean.

I have heard a lot of reasons why physicians end up wanting to leave clinical medicine, but overall it comes down to the fact that physicians want to have more control over their practice, their income, and their life. But thinking about doing it, and actually making the move toward transition can be a very daunting task for many. How do they begin? How do they reconcile the years of training, financial investment, time and effort to become a practicing physician with the idea of leaving it behind to do something else? And what would that something else even be?

The approach to career transition is like anything else - it takes structure, focus, and time. Here's what you need to consider as you make this professional move.

First of all, let's talk about what career transition is NOT. It is not about "getting your resume together" and handing out business cards. It certainly isn't about waiting for the next opportunity to find you (you'll be waiting a long time), or going it alone. And, it isn't about rushing into something new just to escape something else. All of those things, done without a context, a direction or a strategy, are the hallmarks of unsuccessful career transitioners. And unfortunately, they are done all too often by physicians who leap before they plan, or wait in vain for years for something to happen.

So what is career transition? Career transition - successful career transition - is a process. It is about knowing yourself, about knowing the market, about knowing how and why to network / build relationships, and about being resilient and determined as you move through change. And as much as we would like it to be quick, career transition takes time, often requiring 2-3 years to occur.

Let me give you some tips for how to transition well.

Tip #1: Know Yourself

Many physicians looking at transition skip this critical step. Once they've decided they want to leave clinical medicine, they want to jump right away to handing out their CV and/or submitting applications to whatever interesting job they see online. But why is it critical to "know yourself" before doing all of this? One word: sustainability. Having a solid understanding of who you are, your interests, passions and values that make up "core", as well as the valued (and very transferable) skills that you bring to the table, ensures that when you start to identify and pursue particular new industries, job types or roles, you are pursuing those that are in alignment with what you truly value, enjoy doing, and are good at.

The quickest way to become professionally unfulfilled is to choose a career that is disconnected from who, and what, you are. Finding yourself in jobs like this (which is where you may find yourself now) drains your energy, and zaps you of creativity and joy. Finding a job that connects with those things that fire you up and fit your skill-set, ensures that you are doing what you are meant to do, what you will add value doing (critical for success), and greatly increases the likelihood of sustainability and success.

However, to make that connection and to find that direction, you need to know what those unique things are that make up your core. Many have never taken the time to sit back and reflect in this way - but making a commitment to something as big as leaving clinical medicine, requires that you do. Do you really want to be making another career change a year from now because you skipped this step and jumped into something that didn't "fit" you? So start now - identify:

• Your personal values - not your professional ones, but your personal ones ... what do you value as a human being? Is it honesty? Loyalty? Open communication? Respect? Financial security? Lay them all out and then pick your top 10. For each potential industry, company or role, evaluate them against your core values and see their fit.
  
  
• Your unique skills - take time to list out what you've developed over the course of your training and practice in medicine. List both your "domain-related" (i.e., medical) and "non domain-related" skills. List everything! Think about committees you've been on, teams you've joined, non-profit boards you've committed to ... and for each think about what kinds of things you learned how to do ... and their applicability to a non-clinical career. You may be surprised at how much you bring to the table!
  
  
• Your intention - through the above work and through reflection on your past work experiences, start to get a picture of what you've enjoyed, what you've been good at, and what you want to leverage professionally. If it is too hard to think of your direction through doing that, try what I call the "flip" exercise. Sometimes when people can't picture what they want, they find it easier to write down what they don't want... so write down all the things that you didn't like in your previous/current work, or don't want to replicate in your next career. Be specific - think of the people, places, type of work, and even physical environment that you didn't like, and list it in as much detail as you can. Now comes the fun part - for every item that you didn't like, flip it to reflect what you WOULD like. So for example, if you said that you didn't like dealing with conflict and repressed communication with your colleagues, what the flip would be is that you want an open, collaborative environment with transparency on teams. You get the idea.

Tip #2: Know Your Strategy

Too many physicians go down the path of career transition without a proper roadmap. They start responding to friends, recruiters or online job postings one-off, without a clear idea of what they want, or a plan to make the transition a smooth one for both them and their families. Don't fall prey to that trap! Put a plan into action that considers the critical pieces of transition:

• Doing Your Homework - this should be started long before you are attempting to make a move. Critical pieces of homework include researching the market around whatever it is you've focused on based on your unique core and skills (becoming an entrepreneur and developing a medical device? going into independent consulting? joining pharma?) - you need to fully understand the viability of whatever move you're considering and whether it can be supported by the market; understanding how other industries really work and getting the facts (i.e., salary, hours, travel requirements, etc.) versus having an assumption or "idealized" view of how an industry works; finding out financials and researching salaries/benefits, etc., and figuring out whether this will fit for you and your family ... or whether it could fit for now. Talk to people, have informational interviews with "friends of friends", get online - do whatever it takes to get informed. And assimilate that data into your conversations with your family / friends - make sure that you're making your decision from an informed and realistic place.
  
  
• Nailing Down Your Industry / Company / Role - once you've done your homework and figured out the best fit for you and the best market for your skills/services, start to zero in on your top choice of role type (e.g., CEO of a start-up? Senior Medical Liaison? Product Development Manager? Senior Consultant?) and top 5 companies. Begin to connect who you know with your top 5 companies.

• Changing Your CV to a Resume - from the skills inventory that you've already done, you can get a better sense of the transferable skills that will help you make the leap from clinical work to a non-clinical job. You'll also have identified those few significant experiences that you can leverage as a "launch pad" for your next career. When you know where you're going, and who your targets are, you'll be much more able to make an impactful, reader-driven resume. Non-clinical careers are not the place for academic, drawn-out lists of positions, appointments, publications,etc. Resumes are made to be persuasive. They are your personal marketing document, and they are made to highlight the skills and accomplishments that you bring to the table that will solve whatever business problem your prospective employer is having. One size does not fit all! Resumes are made to be somewhat fluid, and need to be tweaked depending on who/what company is receiving it. Spend time doing this, it is a must have in the non-clinical arena.
  
  
• Creating Your Networking Plan and Doing It - while many people loathe the idea of "networking", once they figure out that networking is really about building relationships with like-minded professionals, leveraging the relationships that you already have, and creating win-win partnerships that benefit both you and your colleague, the idea of it begins to make sense. Networking is not something you "do" only when you're desperate or when you need something from someone else. It is something that should be a core part of your general professional life. In this day and age of very limited job security, your circle of professional contacts becomes your job security, so nurturing and expanding it is a critical thing. When making a career transition, your networking needs to be strategic - beginning with simply sharing your ideas and intention to friends and close colleagues, moving on to the development of "warm contacts" (i.e., colleagues of colleagues), and finally to the identification of and contact with decision-makers in your target industry or company. There is a method to the madness! The bottom-line is that networking needs to be planned, and can not be left to random chance. And it is an extremely important part of making a successful career change.
  
  
• Knowing How to Be a Problem-Solver / Interviewee - too many people go into conversations with decision-makers, or formal job interviews gripping their resumes but being fairly unprepared to speak to how they will add value and solve their prospective employer's particular pain-point. This is what will make you stand out from the rest. Doing your homework to know where exactly you "fit" within their organization, and to provide them with some ideas of solutions that you bring with you, will help convince them of your suitability for the role. Show, rather than tell. Give them examples of successes you've had in the past that relate to their problem areas. You are guaranteed to get their attention.

Tip #3: Learn What You Don't Know

The truth is, there is plenty that you won't know about non-clinical industries and fields. But it is important that you spend time learning about those things before you make your leap. Give yourself a period of time prior to your move to really try to learn about and build the skills you may be lacking.

In my experience, the biggest things that trip up physicians that jump into non-clinical careers has to do with dealing with the subtle expectations in a business environment, as well as the "critical success factors" to high performance in the non-clinical world. These include:

• The fact that you, the physician, are now measured on - and are only as successful as - how much value you bring to the organization on a daily basis (i.e., in things such as added revenue or decreased cost)

• That you are expected to act in a team capacity and to demonstrate highly effective skills in leadership, accountability and communication - not "nice to haves", but requirements
  
  
• That you are well-skilled in building and maintaining interpersonal relationships with people at all levels of the organization, and have a highly honed level of professionalism
  
  
• That you have the basic proficiencies expected within the corporate environment - including technical (e.g., MS Office - Word, PowerPoint, Excel, MS Project, Email, etc.), project / time management, effective presenting / speaking ability, people management / mentoring, teaming)

• That you are able to avoid the common "new team member" pitfalls, with things such as talking more than listening, try to impress by having all the answers (often before getting all the facts), setting unrealistic expectations, etc.
  
  
• That you know what to do when you don't have the answer - avoiding the temptation that you must have an immediate answer and/or over-promising on things you may not be able to deliver
  
  
• That you know how to run effective meetings - do you know how to make and stick to an agenda, identify goals, keep the meeting on track while staying respectful?
  
  
• That you can stay accountable, and resist the impulse to deflect blame
  
  
• That you know how/when to delegate and you trust your colleagues - being a true team player not only words but in actions
  
  
• That you are a highly effective communicator - honing those strong interpersonal skills, mediating conflict, and being clear and unambiguous in your words and direction

For a further description of these critical success factors, please see my blog entry entitled "For Physicians Joining the Corporate World: 3 Steps to Surviving Your First 100 Days" .

And for those of you would ask - how do I learn these skills if I don't know them already? There are ways! Find and take opportunities to gain non-clinical experience while you're still practicing medicine - get involved with hospital committees, volunteer for projects, get on the board of a non-profit. Step up to take on leadership roles as appropriate within your organization - you'll learn on your feet. There are a myriad of ways to build your skills outside of your practice as well - join Toastmasters for speaking skills, work with an executive coach to help you identify your specific skill deficits and get targeted practice / feedback, learn about Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and its criticality to high performance as a leader within business environments. Look into business courses through extended education programs at your local colleges and universities. Join the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) and attend one of their yearly institutes or take some of their online workshops. The opportunities are out there.

To all of you who are considering, or actively transitioning out of clinical medicine, I hope these tips help. I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on your career change - feel free to comment.

I wish you all the best of luck!