Chapter 15. Developing a career
Choosing a career 426
Applications, CV and interviews 428
Appraisal and assessment 430
Research 432
Teaching and life-long learning 433
Making and giving presentations 435
CHOOSING A CAREER
Review
Review is concerned with assessing where you are now. An easy way to begin is to start a ‘career reference’ file. This can be in any form that suits your way of thinking and recording information, for example a mind map, a list, a grid. If you have an e-portfolio, you can incorporate details from it.
Educational background
Think about what you did, what you enjoyed, why you enjoyed it and, conversely, what you did not enjoy and why. What were you good at and what you did you find more difficult? Why was this?
Previous work experience
List the tasks and activities that you have been involved in. What tasks and activities did you most enjoy and why? Include all your work experience, paid or unpaid, even if it does not initially seem relevant to medicine. What did you not like doing? If you chose the experience, why did you choose it? What skills have you developed? How did you get on with people that you were working with? Are there any additional skills or experience that you might need? Do not just use your own assessments: record feedback that you have been given by others.
Your achievements
Examples can be drawn from any area of your life. What made them an achievement for you?
Your strengths and weaknesses
It is important to know your strengths so that when you are researching different specialties you can identify those which would make best use of them. However, it is equally important to be aware of your weaknesses and to identify areas that you may wish to develop. Which qualities and attributes would you like to use in a job? Ask other people what they think you are good at.
What sort of person you are
Some jobs and ways of working suit certain personalities better than others. Consider the following questions and rate your answers on a scale of 1 to 10. Use your answers alongside information that you gather from other sources to refine your thinking about potential careers.
• Have you enjoyed working in teams?
• Do you like to plan ahead?
• Do you prefer to wait until a deadline is approaching before you are motivated into action?
• Do you like a lot of variety?
• Would you describe yourself as competitive?
• Do you prefer to work independently?
• Do you enjoy working in areas that demand great attention to detail or do you prefer to be able to take a broader view?
• What role do you typically take in a group?
• Do you like to influence people?
• Do you enjoy working with concepts and theories or prefer more practical activities?
Explore
This stage of the process focuses on visualizing where you would like to be, finding out what opportunities exist and researching more about those that appeal.
Where do you want to be?
Take 10 min to visualize what sort of life you would like to have in 10 years’ time. Think about the sorts of tasks and activities you would be doing, what knowledge and skills you would be using, where you might be, what sort of lifestyle you might have.
Generating ideas
If you are struggling to generate ideas or want to widen your horizons, go back to the Review section and select something that interests you or a skill that you would like to use in a job. Draw a spider diagram with this word at the centre and add ideas of jobs that contain that element as a key feature to the diagram, so that they radiate from the centre. Doing this with a colleague will produce more ideas as they will have had different experiences. A key point when looking at the results is to keep an open mind about the ideas generated. Do not be put off by preconceived ideas of a specialty. With any ideas that you have, find out which other specialties involve those aspects that most appeal.
What else do you need to know?
Explore how the specialties that you are considering are changing. How are they going to develop over the next 10 years? What technological changes or changes in service development might affect the careers that you are thinking of? Find out the competition ratios for the different specialties.
Decide
Compromise
No job is ever 100% what you want it to be. The key is to select jobs that minimize the components that you do not like so much and maximize those that you do. Address any compromises that might involve your personal life.
Constraints
Think about the constraints that you feel are inhibiting your choice and decision-making. Is there anything that you can do to overcome them? For example, if you own a flat but need to move, you could consider renting it out.
Decision-making aids
Now is the time to synthesize your research and conclusions. You could use a simple list of pros and cons, or a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. Try to identify five or so specialties that might fit what you have in mind. Talking your ideas over with a tutor or careers adviser, who can offer an objective perspective, is particularly useful at this stage.
Implement
People who have made well thought out decisions can still fail at the implementation stage, by leaving insufficient time to research the job market and prepare for applications and interviews. It is up to you to find out when and how to apply. Read through the next section on ‘Applications, CV and interviews’ for tips on how to make the best of what you have to offer.
APPLICATIONS, CV AND INTERVIEWS
As the saying goes, ‘fail to prepare and prepare to fail’. Few people devote enough time to this stage of the job-seeking process with the consequence that even good candidates can be unsuccessful. Refer back to your career reference file (see ‘Choosing a career’, above), review your experience and choices and consider which aspects of your background are best suited to provide evidence of the skills and motivation required.
Application form
The challenge is to distil what you have to offer into succinct, interesting answers. Re-read the person specification and note ideas of evidence you might present within the application form headings. Do not forget your non-clinical experience for aspects that might make you stand out as a candidate. When completing your application form:
• use the CAR technique; it is a good way of structuring your answers: describe the Context, the Action that you took and the Result
• remember that the information you give is all the selector knows about you and saving important information to tell them about in an interview is likely to mean that you will not get an interview
• read the question: if you are only asked for one example, offering three is wasting space that could be used for expanding the one piece of evidence that will count; equally check that you have answered all parts of a question
• check that all the vital pieces of information or evidence are there: once you have submitted your application you will not be allowed to make additions and amendments
• do not repeat or paraphrase the question: you are just wasting valuable space.
Curriculum vitae
Decide what messages you want to convey and what headings you are going to use. It is usual to include the following topics:
• education and qualifications
• awards and prizes
• work experience, include all clinical and relevant non-clinical jobs; use the CAR technique to structure your description of each post; include what you have learned from any experiences or activities listed, as this is as important as what you have done
• clinical skills, e.g. central line insertion
• research experience
• publications, presentations or posters at conferences
• interests: avoid topics that are likely to polarize opinion, e.g. religion, politics and sporting allegiances; try to make your activities outside work sound different or interesting, e.g. rather than, you ‘like to eat out’, say you have an interest in Asian cooking and cuisine; include activities that demonstrate attractive qualities, e.g. energy, commitment, depth, an interest in mixing with people of different cultures, leadership qualities
• professional memberships
• referees: two are usually sufficient
• personal details: including your GMC registration status.
Select evidence from your career reference file and allocate space within your CV according to the relevance of the information. Two or three pages should be enough for the whole CV. Consult examples on your deanery or careers website.
Top tips
• have a clear, easy to read layout with plenty of white space that breaks up the text
• avoid font sizes of less than 11 pt and stick to one font type throughout
• use headings that stand out and help the reader to skip through and pick out whether you meet the essential criteria
• avoid underlining your headings or using lots of block capitals as they both make text more difficult to read
• do not start every sentence with ‘I’
• do not use exclamation marks when describing experiences
• avoid unexplained gaps in your background
• only include anything you can talk about in detail at interview
• get someone else to proofread it before you send it.
Interviews
You will usually be interviewed by more than one person and may have two or three short interviews. Consider how you come across. It is important to sound enthusiastic and genuinely interested. You should appear professional and capable. Remember that there may also be lay people interviewing you as well as clinicians: any answers that you give should be understandable to all involved.
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