Sometimes, it’s time for a change. Switching a medical career is common enough within healthcare in this country today. In fact, it is perhaps even more common than it should be – but that’s not your fault. Online healthcare recruitment service Health Jobs Nationwide say that there is a very clear reason for this – the current jobseeker’s market and how it inevitably leads to talent churn. Therefore, preparing for the eventuality of potentially having to change your career is a wise move.
The Effects of the Jobseekers Market
The term “jobseeker’s market” refers to a job market that is saturated with vacancies but with a dearth of (top) talent to fill them. This affects the quality of healthcare in several ways. One phenomenon that has recently been observed is that some healthcare institutions – especially those disadvantaged by being remote or lacking the top reputation of some hospitals – are lowering their standards in order to snap up talent. This is done by overlooking qualification inadequacies in candidates or by making interview processes easier.
This inevitably leads to talent churn, as candidates may end up working in healthcare jobs that are not suitable for them, simply because not every requirement has been adequately communicated before they come on board. In turn, this leads to job dissatisfaction and talent churn as employees eventually quit.
Ultimately, this leads to problems forming effective healthcare teams, as such teams need time to train up new recruits and gel as a working unit. This is bad for the patients, and it also means that career switching is more common today than it has been in the past.
Of course, you might be changing your medical career for quite different reasons, but whatever the cause of your departure for pastures new, it is important not to make many of the mistakes which, unfortunately, are still far too common today.
Mistakes To Avoid
Here follows some mistakes to avoid making if you find yourself – for whatever reason – changing your medical career.
Starting Without a Plan
The term “career” means something different from the term “job”. When you switch career, you are not just getting a new job, you are embarking on a new path within the healthcare world, which is something that takes planning. For one thing, you need to consider if you have the financial resources to make it possible as you could be going for some time without an income.
You also need to consider where this new path is leading; your first new job should ideally have been a steppingstone as you developed your talents. You should plan carefully both how you are going to manage the switch and what the switch is ultimately leading to.
Switching Without Really Knowing Why
There is a difference between hating your position and hating your career. Why are you leaving, exactly? You need to ask yourself this question. Do you not like the work or are you dissatisfied with things like pay, perks, or hours? If it’s the latter, the changes you need to make could be quite different from switching career.
Failing to Network
When you switch career, you probably don’t want to go right back to square one, as if you’d just graduated med school. When you switch career, you should have some contacts for people involved in that career path that you can rely on to help you out. Failing to do this could land you in the exact same position in another year’s time.
There is nothing wrong with switching your career but doing so blindly is sure to end in failure.
