The long and winding career path: lessons learned
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COMMENTARY
The long and winding career path: lessons learned Susan M. Hamman 1 Received: 10 July 2020 / Revised: 10 July 2020 / Accepted: 4 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
After a 14-year hiatus, I returned to a professional career as a pediatric radiologist. I left private-practice general and pediatric radiology while expecting my third child, unable to balance family and work demands. The days turned into years until my children were older and I considered how to meaningfully spend my time during the rest of my life. Here I review some lessons learned in my winding career path.
Stay positive and persevere Many were skeptical about a physician’s ability to regain competence after such a long work gap. It has been an unusual career path and getting my foot back in the door was not easy. The feeling was like when I was applying to medical school years ago and had no credentials. Because any journey starts with small steps, I proceeded where openings could be found. A baseball mom friend was program director for an emergency medicine residency and invited me to give five radiology presentations for their large emergency medicine conference. She mentored me, and I attended their conference over the academic year. This led to a musculoskeletal radiology observership that got me back in the reading room and cemented my decision to return. Step by step, this led to a 6-month mini pediatric radiology fellowship through two pediatric radiologists with whom I had practiced for 5 years after my first pediatric radiology fellowship, completed 20 years earlier.
* Susan M. Hamman [email protected] 1
Section of Pediatric Radiology, C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Department of Radiology, Michigan Medicine, 1540 E. Hospital Drive, Room 3-233, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-4252, USA
Reassess and do not look back During my time away from the hospital, my family was used to me always being there. Pushback ensued upon my return to medicine, though they were generally supportive. I had to have a mindset of not letting anything get in the way, as I did in medical school. While pursuing my path back to radiology, I also looked at other options in case radiology did not work out. I earned an emergency medical technician (EMT) degree and certification. I completed a detailed career skills assessment, which recommended a career in a creative field involving people and computers. I thought that perhaps I could work as an EMT while completing a graduate degree, in case it took years to reestablish my radiology career. The skills assessment also recommended consideration of a Master of Public Health degree. This aligned well with my interests and experience in education and medicine, and I am still working on this degree. I took a comprehensive online review course, completed continuing medical education articles with self-assessment, and read books to prepare for the second fellowship. I did not look back or give up, realizing that many parents have worked continuously, often not by choice.
Take noth
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