Many medical students feel pressured to take the traditional route in medicine—one which requires your career to be the focus of your life. But after years of being overworked and living up to everyone else’s expectations, physicians are beginning to opt for alternative jobs in medicine. In other words, they’re starting to value their quality of life over the status quo. This is not to say they’re abandoning their MD degrees by any means—rather, they are finding ways to make their professions fit their lifestyles, instead of the other way around. Here are a few ways physicians have gone about finding alternative jobs and lessons you can learn from them: Shifting to part-time status In order to find a work-life balance, you don’t have to jump ship completely. For some, simply decreasing the hours they work can make a huge difference, especially when children and other aspects of life come into play. In today’s career-driven world, we feel pressured to do it all: the successful career, the family, the hobbies, the big house, you name it. For some, this may seem like a derailment from the prestigious medical career you always dreamed of, but as you transition from the single student to the married with kids physician, your priorities begin to change. Lessons learned: Physicians find that removing career from priority #1 in your life not only makes you a better spouse and parent, but can actually improve your medical career as well. You become more productive at work, you develop people skills as a parent they don’t teach in medical school, and you lead an overall more sane, satisfied, abundant life. You eventually realize that having it all does not mean doing it all. Moving away from clinical While some are cutting back hours, others are finding new ways of using their MD degrees altogether. Whether they experienced burned out, decided to focus on family, or simply realized clinical medicine wasn’t for them, these physicians put their MD degrees to good use in other areas—taking alternative jobs in medicine, like medical writing, healthcare software development, and physician career consulting, to name a few. Lessons learned: So does this choice to transition from clinical practice come with a sense of failure? Hardly! These physicians were able to find ways to uniquely use their gifts and passions rather than forcing themselves into an unsustainable mould. By taking a risk for their happiness, they were able to have broader influence over health care policies and software, develop meaningful connections with clients, and have the freedom to treat themselves and their families the way they treat their patients. Doctoring the doctors In addition to finding an alternative career path that works for them, some take it a step to further—helping other struggling physicians do the same. As medical career consultants, they encourage physicians to find a way to make their current jobs more manageable or explore alternative jobs in medicine that might be a better fit. Having gone through a similar struggle, these medical career consultants are able to offer a unique and relatable perspective. Rather than helping patients, they devote their careers to helping doctors. Lessons learned: Physicians are primarily driven by the desire to help others, and the field mistakenly makes them believe there is only one way to do that. The truth is, less of us fit the unrealistic doctor mould the we think, but most would rather suffer than admit defeat. This mindset only hurts ourselves and prevents us from making the biggest impact with our lives. Have the courage to be open-minded and think outside the box, striving to discover the unique service that only your personality and talents can provide to the world. Source
