How to creatively design a nonclinical career

What nonclinical career would be a good fit for me? What would I even do with myself if I wasn’t practicing clinical medicine? What if the culture of clinical medicine doesn’t make sense for me anymore?

Our guest this week, Dr. Rachel Mandel has an interesting story on transitioning out of clinical medicine and creatively designing a career as a physician consultant. She worked for many years as an OBGYN, but at some point along the way decided that the late nights on call, and the long clinic days weren’t working for her anymore. Despite initial pushback from her peers, she pivoted into a career in hospital administration, but realized that wasn’t quite the right fit for her either.

Finally, she took a step back to deconstruct what parts of her career made her unhappy and what parts fed something in her soul. She pieced together a physician consulting business where she is able to do work she enjoys with more freedom and time flexibility than she ever had in clinical practice.

Listen in as Dr. Mandel and Chelsea discuss creative career design, having the courage to be honest with yourself, the identity of being a physician, and how to leverage your network for nonclinical opportunities.

This episode is full of practical tips and insightful perspective shifts. It is sure to give you a boost of motivation in creating a fulfilling career! Tune in by using the audio player above or searching for “Life After Medicine” wherever you listen to podcasts.

Transitioning into her first nonclinical career

Dr. Mandel enjoyed her work as an OBGYN. She loved her patients, delivering babies, and got satisfaction from helping people in the OR. However, she realized early on that she didn’t want to do clinical practice until she was 90 years old. She started exploring alternative career paths for physicians and initially made the transition into hospital administration.

This seemed like a fairly natural transition since she had seen other colleagues and mentors make the pivot from clinical work into administration. She thought this was going to be her last job, but ultimately realized that it wasn’t right for her long term.

Getting creative with nonclinical career design

She took a step back to do some reflecting. During this time, she deconstructed what things in her career made her unhappy and what fed something in her soul. She asked herself powerful questions such as:

What were those things that made me come home and say “today was a good day”. What were those good days and what are the common denominators?

What were the moments that helped me feel like I really made a difference?

What parts of my work do I enjoy?

Once she was able to recognize the parts she liked doing, she was able to start taking steps towards building her own business as a physician consultant.

Problems within the culture of medicine

The way the culture of medicine is structured, it is normal to stay up all night on call and to continue to operate well into the next day. There is a work ethic that encourages people to “keep going”. Many people get swept up in this hustle culture. The dig in and work really hard so they can have a comfortable lifestyle financially, but they spend a majority of their time unhappy.

This approach to life didn’t make sense to Dr. Mandel. Ultimately she had to develop the courage to be honest with herself and say “I don’t know if this is the best way for me to do it”. She didn’t feel the constant hustling was in her best interest or in the patients best interests. It’s not easy to be honest with yourself and admit when something is no longer working for you.

Changing into a nonclinical career isn’t easy

The easy thing to do is just keep doing what you are already doing career wise. It is easier to do what people expect you to do, aka practice clinical medicine until retirement.

Most people feel like they can’t pull out and start pursuing a nonclinical career unless something significant happens that makes them change their way of thinking. Something like a death in the family, an illness, or other major life event. There are certain things that push people to make big decisions, otherwise it’s easy to just keep going with the flow.

For Dr. Mandel, she gradually and incrementally began to shift her interests and priorities when it came to her career. A set of circumstances aligned well for her to transition out of her clinical practice.

She did face push back from her peers about going into administration. They told her that she was “going to the dark side”. However, she dealt with this pushback with humor, by changing her ring tone to the Darth Vader march.

Identify of being a physician

There can be so much identity wrapped up in being a physician. People wonder what would I do if I wasn’t practicing medicine? Their sense of self is so wrapped up in being a clinically practicing physician, it can be unfathomable to think about “giving it up”, even if they are unhappy.

Dr. Mandel has a different perspective on this, that allows her to have a more expansive definition of “being a physician”. The way she sees it is this:

“I never stop being a doctor. Whatever you learn can be applied to anything. You take that information and can apply it to anything. No one can take your past perspectives , problem solving skills, or education away from you. Everything you’ve learned and been through it to make it to this point. you still have that.“

Becoming a physician consultant

Looking at job boards for full time non clinical jobs wasn’t appealing to Dr. Mandel. She wasn’t interested in getting hired for a full time job that she had to commute to. After getting clarity on what she enjoyed doing, Dr. Mandel decided to start a new chapter of her nonclinical career as a physician consultant.

She started by leveraging her network connections, asking herself the question “who do I know that does this kind of work”. Physicians don’t realize how many people they have in their network who they can reach out to.

Now, she works as a senior healthcare advisor focused on lean process improvement and also does consulting work for a company working to improve the trauma response in their local community. She loves the time flexibility and being able to have slow mornings. Most days she doesn’t schedule meetings until 11am.

If you are feeling unfulfilled in your clinical career

If you are feeling unfulfilled in your clinical career, here is Dr. Mandel’s advice:

Slow down. Take a breath. You don’t have to make a decision right now. Talk to some people who have followed different career paths to get some ideas and inspiration.

There are plenty of opportunities out there for people who are bright, engaged problem solvers. You don’t have to stay stuck and miserable. You are not cornered. It’s also ok to get it wrong. It might take you a few tries to land in a nonclinical career that really works for you.