PRN is pleased to be able to follow the progress of clinical physicians as they search for new non-clinical careers. This fourth entry from an Internist in Los Angeles is titled: “Honing in on Your Area of Career Interest.”
Once you have decided on your area of career interest, if you want an expedient career transition, and you are working full time, you need to say “no” to any requests for your involvement in long-term commitments outside of work. I have heard it said one should spend 15 hours a week to do a successful job search. I opted to aim for 4 hours per week and found it difficult to do that because of the commitments that I took on during my career change.
This career was completely foreign to me, so I wanted to learn as much about it as possible, before I started interviewing. The areas that I focused on to familiarize myself with were 1) networking, 2) reading journals and business books applicable to my new career and 3) rewriting my resume.
It was interesting to find out how helpful people who were mostly strangers want to be when you request help. There were people who only would help me one time, however everyone imparted invaluable information that helped me move along my journey. I found that some people felt I should start sending out my resume immediately. Others felt I needed to have some medical writing samples before I took a position as a medical director in charge of medical writers. I decided that I would attempt to do some freelance medical writing to become more familiar with the process before I started interviewing. I wanted to be very confident about my understanding of what the job entailed before presenting myself as a candidate. I also felt writing might be a source of more networking. The best case scenario would be to get a job through the network I was building.
Since my new position would require negotiation and public speaking, I found two Toastmaster Clubs that I joined to improve my public speaking and ability to think on my feet. I rewrote my resume in a way that highlighted the skills I had that were transferable to the new job. In fact, I revised the new resume so I could use it for medical writing assignments as well.
Finally I began reading Journals from the new industry. One very inspiring journal that one of my contacts told me about had a listing and description of the Top 50 Medical Communication Companies, and what they were doing. This allowed me to understand the breath of the field of Medical Communications. When I start my actual job search I plan to use that listing to compile a list of companies in close proximity to my house, where I can send cold call letters with an attached resume. I also read business books, like Collaborative Selling, by Allesandre and The Tipping Point, by Gladwell.
I identified the career I wanted to pursue 10 months ago and my goal was to make the transition one year later. I have not even started sending out resumes, so it is unlikely I will get into my new career by August. I have however, started to build a network, and I know a lot more about the field of Medical Communications. I even have a resume that is ready to be sent; however, I want to add a few more writing samples before I distribute it. I have come to the conclusion that preparing for a career change is like taking on a second job. I have also concluded that if I want to accomplish this in a reasonable time frame, I need to give this activity the 8 to 16 hours I would give a second job.
