3 Essential Career Truths No One Will Ever Tell You
No one tells you because no one wants you to know
When I first finished medical school and residency training I thought I was done. I thought I just needed to find a job and plug away for 40 years until retirement. I watched other peers and clueless classmates do the same thing I was doing.
I was also saddled with over $200,000 in medical school loans with no real plan on how to pay them off. Physicians are notorious for being bad with money. I was now in my 30’s and had no knowledge of how the real world worked because I was in school for the past 15 years.
I was the first one in my residency class to sign a contract for a full time job as an attending physician. I look back on those early years and cringe. There was so much I didn’t know about work or a career in general. I wish I had someone guiding me on how to make good career decisions.
After being out in the real world and practicing medicine for a decade, I’ve learned a few things. Actually I’ve learned A LOT of things. Here are three career truths I wish I had known at the beginning of my career. These truths apply to anyone and not just physicians.
1. You have to ask for what you want
Negotiate. Negotiate. Negotiate. When I signed my first contract right out of residency training it was for a 3 year term. I had no idea what I was doing. I took exactly what they offered me. Looking back I left SO MUCH money on the table. I didn’t know I could ask for more money and better terms on almost everything.
Remember that everything is negotiable. Not just the financial aspect of a job. You can negotiate your time off, relocation, and a million other things. You have to ask for what you want. What’s the worst that can happen? You don’t get it. Every increase you get in your base pay becomes your new standard for your next opportunity.
If you work for yourself or are a freelancer, it’s the same concept. You can set your rates as high as you think you can get. Someone out there charges $50 an hour for their services and someone else charges $5,000. You have to know what you’re worth and what you bring to the table that’s unique. Every industry has its own guidelines or standards that show you on average what people make. For physicians one prominent source is MGMA.
You have to practice negotiating all the time for it to become natural. Most people are worried what others will think of them if they ask for more money. Don’t be this person. I have negotiated my rent down by $100 per month. That’s an extra $1200 per year back in my pocket that I would have paid anyway.
2. Your career will be whatever you want it to be
There is no career finish line. Your skills will change over time and so will your career aspirations. You’ll reinvent yourself over and over again. It’s always blown my mind that colleges expect an 18-year-old to decide what they want to do for the next 40 years. The world is changing so fast that most skills become obsolete in a matter of a couple of years.
You have have to run your own race. Don’t look to your left or your right. You have to do what’s right for you professionally. In the world of medicine I see so many physicians pick specialties that will earn them a lot of money, but will drain their soul. Life is short. Do what you think you will enjoy and be excellent at. Don’t pick something because it impresses your parents or your friends. You have to do something you can do for a long time even if you earn less money.
You will likely change your profession or the direction of your career several times over a lifetime. The days of having one specialized career for 50 years are coming to an end. Even if you have a traditional career, such as a lawyer or a doctor, you can still do so many other things such as write, podcast, or have a YouTube channel to complement your traditional job.
Whatever you decide to pursue make sure you’re trying to be the best at it. The world is full of average people just trying to keep their head above water. Please don’t be one of these people. Read and learn everything you can about what you’re doing. Try to learn something new for an hour or more per day in your industry. Your effort will show to the rest of the world in a very short amount of time and I promise you will stand out.
3. A degree isn’t enough anymore
In this new economy a college degree isn’t enough anymore. Even a law degree isn’t a guarantee to a high paying job. Law students are graduating with 6 figures of student loan debt and no job prospects. You have to have real skills that produce real results and not theoretical skills that have not been tested.
Traditional careers are taking a back seat because the gatekeepers to these careers are almost irrelevant now. Medicine is still one of the only professions left where you still have to go through the gatekeepers who determine what specialty you will go into.
If you want to be a writer then write. If you want to act then act. You can self-publish a book. You can start posting videos on YouTube. The world will give you feedback. You can then either give up or get better. You have to keep experimenting and trying new things to figure out where your genius lies.
You can have as many streams of income as you want in this new economy. You just can’t expect a degree to take you there. Your creativity and ingenuity are what will take you there. With YouTube and Teachable you can learn almost anything. Your focus should be on getting better every single day.
Final thoughts
I wish I knew these three career truths when I was first getting started. I’ve realized that no one wants to see you succeed, except maybe your mom. You have to take the direction of your career in your own hands. You have to run your own race and do what’s right for you professionally.
There’s no one right way to have an exceptional career. If your parents want you to be a dentist, doctor, or lawyer only go down that road if that’s what you truly want. In this new economy you can make a living from YouTube, blogging, or teaching online courses. Go take some chances and see where your genius lies.