You wouldn't treat a patient without a diagnosis, so why would you begin one of the most important steps in your career without the knowledge of a defined diagnosis.
Most physicians begin their search for a nonclinical career by searching job site and asking the question, what's out there. However, that's the same as a patient presenting with a problem and asking the simple question, what treatments are available. That's not how you would advise a patient to pursue a remedy, and that's not how I would advise you to remedy your career challenges.A Structured Diagnostic Process
Your CareerDiagnosis™ is derived from a structured interviewing process based on the SOAP note that I've developed and used from more than a decade of helping physicians better manage or change their careers and transitions.Let me explain. Your Career Diagnosis is a two day online meeting. So, no matter where you are or what your schedule, we can arrange for two days to focus just on you.
The first day is discovery. You will have taken the Objective, Birkman® behavioral work assessment prior to our first day of discussion, much like ordering some initial testing on a new patient to help you manage the subjective elements of diagnosing. Also, I will provide you with a summary of your assessment results before our meeting so you may familiarize yourself with the preliminary information I have about you.
I then want to move into an overview and discussion of physician career transition: Process, Issues, Challenges, Timelines. This is about setting and managing expectations - making sure we're both on the same page with process and objectives. I want to know your objectives for our two days together, and through an explanation of process, you will understand mine.
Now it's time dive into you and your background, what is important to you in career transition, what you done and why, what you want to accomplish, and your timelines and objectives.
Income and location are always important topics to discuss, as are any family issues or requirements and any aspect of a new career that would make it either particularly rewarding or particularly distasteful. I want to know both what you want as well as anything you really don't want.
Next we'll focus on:
- Autobiography. Your life story helps us put future into context with the past. “Every life has a story,” and we want your next step to make sense given your past. In other words, this career move should be a “logical next step.”
- Discovery Exercises. This is my structured data collection process, similar to your interview with a new patient, designed to uncover evidence of what works for you and what doesn’t work for you, your positive career symptoms, and to gain insights about what would be an ideal career/practice move.
- Your Symptoms. Elemental to what I consider your "symptoms" are your Skills, your Knowledge and your Interests. As you can see this is a building process. First what is necessary and or important to you, second your background and finally, those accomplishments and interests that will become the drivers to define a range of desirable and appropriate career paths for you to consider. That is, desirable, based on the subjective information you provide, and appropriate, based on the objective data from your Birkman Assessment.
That will conclude our first day of meeting; however, that is when my most demanding work begins. Off line and prior to the beginning of Day Two, my focus is to:
- First, analyze the relationships among Interests, Skills and Knowledge and to produce a list of desirable and appropriate career outcomes.
- Second, to further evaluate the initial list with any career parameters, requirements, or special criteria you state and adjust the list accordingly.
- Third, I will vet the list in terms of viability relative to requirements of income, and location as well as likely abundance of opportunity, competitive landscape, expected time frames for success and other factors known or expected to be of significance to your decision-making.
Day Two
We will begin with a thorough review of your Birkman results focusing on both the descriptive and prescriptive values presented.Birkman Method® Assessment: "An objective of the Birkman assessment is to cultivate long term success..." As Birkman Notes, "We are wired to pursue work that resonates with who we are and our unique interests. Understanding our behavioral traits is foundational to select a career that capitalizes on our strengths and aligns with our fundamental perceptions. Our (Birkman's) highly actionable personality insights empower individuals to navigate towards a professional role that connects with their interests, passions, and personality for sustained career satisfaction."
This is a interactive process, working together to not only evaluate the Assessment material I've developed, but to collectively brainstorm further desirable and appropriate career fits. We believe we have appropriately exhausted our outcomes list, I'll ask you to prioritize your most attractive outcomes to establish your initial area(s) of career focus, your Career Diagnosis™.
Once we have a diagnosis in place, we'll shift to a discussion of implementation, necessary next steps and your initial action plan and timeline.
Your Career Diagnosis is an in-depth career and life assessment. After you complete this engagement, you should know more about yourself, your satisfiers, your needs, stress behaviors, and interests for the future. The purpose of the Career Diagnosis is to assess, focus, and select a direction or directions for your future.