Hi, how's it going?
Everybody?
It's Dr Hugo
here.
Just today.
I've just hopped off a call with one of my students this
morning actually and just wish to and actually sparked this
kind of topic that I really want to talk about.
Not really about study today, but really kind of practical
advices and How you should really be choosing your career?
So it kind of my five cents or two cents about this.
So as you know, I am a pharmacist and adopters of been through
a lot of these kind of career choices as well.
And now, you know establishing these online programs as well
kind of having that different hats of now being like a entrepreneur
as well.
So kind of putting in my five cents as an what you should
be considering and also practical advice when you're actually
contemplating about having a career.
Career, so let's dive right into it.
So when you actually when you actually think about having
a career there are certain things that kind of go through
your mind, but a lot of the advice that we get often.
Maybe it's from our family maybe you know, it's some injected
values from our parents a lot of times or maybe it's some
sort of relatives or that that they are having that career
in particular and they and you see a particular good site
that you want in your own life.
That's why you kind of Suing this Korea, but when it comes
to kind of picking career, of course, there are different
ways in a different categories as well in terms of you know,
there are other professionals a lot of these that require
degrees that you need to get into the engineers the doctors
the lawyers the accountants and so on.
So a lot of these needing a some sort of degree to get this
so the other things would be you know broad category would
be then everyone kind of outside of this would be the Professionals
including you know all your business business owners your
entrepreneurs and other workers that may not require a certain
degree as well.
So there are a vast majority of things and each and every
one of them, of course as with anything in life would have
its pros and cons as well.
And today I really really want to talk to you about kind
of how you should be evaluating these pros and cons and how
you can actually pick a pick a career.
That you would end up loving for the end of it, you know
until the end of your working life.
So, let's Dive Right into this.
So first of all, I think the most practical thing that I
can tell you is find out what they actually do.
This is probably one of the most practical advice that I
can give you is find out what they actually do not what you
really think what they're doing, but what they actually do
because a lot of things with our information we get it from
our parents from Our relatives from what we see on external
for example, you know from what I have experienced when I
wanted to become a doctor.
It's only when I say visit a GP or if I go and actually listen
to say what my mum thought about this profession.
It might not be an accurate presentation of what your life
would actually be in tailing in the future.
So one of the main things that you really want to do is to
find out what their life actually entailed in terms of You
know, what are the routines like what do they actually do
in terms of the roles?
Sometimes you might not be clear as in what they need to
deal with in terms of during the start of the day and in
the middle of day and at the end of the day a lot of different
tasks that they need to fulfill and whether you know, what
kind of time and what kind of duration takes over most of
this time in terms of what are the things that you need to
do the positives the negative things that they deal with
what are their worst days look like and what are the typical
day look like and what would be a good day look like these
are the kind of the insights that a lot of times when you're
an outsider before you even go into the profession.
It's really hard for you to actually know.
What is it like living that life.
You know, what is the salary like what kind of life would
they be able to afford in the future?
And then what kind of work life balance are they going to
have is you know, an understanding yourself is really come
comes into a big play to this, you know having that self-awareness
what you want in life and How is this profession going to
serve you in terms of have you know, it does the positives
and the negatives do you accept both of these and also the
salary that the amount of life that the life that you're
going to get and the work-life balance that you're going
to get.
These are kind of the things that you really really want
to kind of think about before you go into the profession
because often we only find out a lot of these even maybe
the hidden positive but a lot of times the hidden negatives
we only find out when we We actually go into the profession
per se and I see this amongst a lot of my Pharmacy colleagues
and also even my doctor colleagues as well that they find
out a lot of negatives.
They find out that a little bit too late because when they
have actually sucked in so much time inside this profession
and obviously studying towards his profession and they find
out all these negatives then they end up not liking what
they wanted in the first place which is, you know, maybe
the perceive that now the positive Not big enough to overcome
the negative things that they have to deal with every single
day. And that is how people can go into a negative Loop and
often become, you know, quite depressed or even burnt out
at times because of these unforeseen negative.
So this is kind of the perspective that I really want to
bring to you today with this particular mini lesson or mini
tutorial as you would say and then then you would ask kind
of how am I able to find out all these routine?
Ins positives negatives and you know, what is their life
like so the most so most direct way is actually for example,
if you're able to get a trial job, for example, a lot of
I know a lot of these professions it's very hard because
you're not able to work a day as a GP or a day as a surgeon.
It's not it's not particularly helpful.
But the thing is there are a lot of jobs that you can be
trialing as well.
Say for example in the non-professional space and to actually
see what their life is like in Of trying to Shadow what their
life is going to be like and just go through with them.
For example a weekend a week even try to offer working for
free because it makes sense.
You're trying to sync your whole life and dedicate your life
to towards the perfect this profession you might as well
be very clear on what this job is going to entail right and
so getting a place at this, you know workplace, for example,
if you like accountancy, then actually go and go to an accountancy
firm and actually reach out to them because a lot of them
actually like helping out students and people who are liking
this job and actually see how you can you know, maybe offer
your time for free to do something for them in exchange for
actually learning about more about this profession or even
you know offering your weekend or maybe your summer holidays
to actually go and see if this job is for you because a lot
of times people think into the job and they find out that
it's too late they have, you know, may be studied for I've
study for now 10 years for medicine and People study for
even longer.
What if then they only then find out that there are so many
of these negatives that they can't bear to deal with every
single day.
I've met doctors literally they have they actually don't
like dealing with patients, but the only thing they need
to do every single day including the job is actually to deal
with patient.
So really really understand what is what is entailed in your
job and the second thing is interview that person if you
are not able to get that job maybe interview You person that
is doing their job.
They'll be able to give you Insight what you need to consider.
What type of person do you need to be to thrive in this job?
And then another thing that's quite interesting in emerging
is that you know, having these day and life YouTube videos.
I see a lot of doctor colleagues from Alice YouTubers doing
these day and life videos and gives you kind of more the
first person view as an what their life is going to be.
What kind of things are they going to like.
When did they wake up?
How much time do they get to sleep?
How much time do they get to You know, I sleep and how much
time do they get to eat lunch and do other things as well.
They're kind of day in life.
What what does it entail then kind of coming down the ranks
would be actually, you know, these Google articles or from
family relatives.
I don't really I don't really recommend as much because this
might not be the best way to find out the most accurate information
about this job unless your family are relative is in the
job. Then you actually interviewing this person doing this
job. So kind of very quickly just Evaluating the pros and
cons because for every single profession there will be the
positive but then there will be their negatives as well and
bringing new to have this concept between infatuation versus
resentment. Right Infatuation by definition really is seeing
too many of the positives but never really perceiving any
of the of the negatives at all.
So as you go into the profession then you find out.
Oh actually yes, there are some sort of these It is but if
you never have seen these negatives at all suddenly if there
are ten of these that just piled up and it becomes overwhelming
for you that is where people start to kind of resent their
job. This is where they tell the world never touch this profession.
This is the most horrible thing ever.
They never tell you this before you go in.
So I think the most important thing is kind of strike a balance
between work out both the positives and the negatives to
actually arrive to this informed.
Choice of really your career and then so kind of sharing
a little bit about myself in terms of how my pro career progressed
and how I actually came to this career.
And first of all with Pharmacy that was basically back in
high school.
My I was hearing a lot about Pharmacy from my older sister
because my older sister is a pharmacist.
So I was actually hearing, you know, quite good things about
it and my mom keeps on saying okay.
Yeah.
They have a really stable.
Boob job, and also it's kind of a nine to five thing as well.
You don't need to be taking any work from from work to home
as well because the pharmacy closes the patient's won't be
finding you anymore and and so on and and I keep on hearing
positive things about it and I've never really heard about
the negative side of things.
I never really went into a pharmacy even I haven't been into
a pharmacy per se before I went into this this profession.
I never ever really bumped into these negatives of Pharmacy
until I started working as a pharmacist unit inside a Community
Pharmacy. I never found out that wow.
There's actually a lot of you know, we actually managing
the dispensary as if you know, we it's like a almost like
a supermarket and a lot of times the patient's might not
be appreciating you as much for example, because they might
have spent two hours at the doctors.
They sometimes I don't know why they would have a lot of
For the doctors, but pharmacist study the same study hard
as well.
They have very knowledgeable.
But then when it comes to getting the prescription, they
almost sometimes treat pharmacist as if they are some sort
of sales person with a you know, really good degree per se
and this this sort of not just you know, your efforts at
work and are not as appreciated as what you would think,
you know, you put in a hundred percent of your heart, but
then the patient would just be like, okay when must script
ready. These are the kind of things that you don't really
see and then when all of these kind of Stack up often a lot
of my colleagues start to start to see these stack up and
start to resent even the profession itself.
But if we were able to go into this profession no fully knowing
that okay, in order to get these positive things.
I will need to deal with these negative things as well.
If you are fully informed by the time you go in then you
would have a full picture on what this profession is going
to be like and actually have a fully informed kind of career
choice for your life and same for doctor as well.
What I immediately thought you know, when I was vamsi as
like get seeing all these negative stack up.
I was like, okay, you know being a doctor people would be,
you know, I'll be able to help people at first against balancing
that narcissism versus altruism that give give give in terms
of I'm able to help people I'm able to help people and you
know use my time to you know, sometimes you also get a lot
of appreciation from the patients as well, which is really
good and also, The hospital environment you also continue
to learning as well every single day there.
We met new medications new protocols that comes up and there
will be a lot of positives and also, you know you getting
paid quite decently doing that as well and all of this, but
before I really went in again, like I never really went and
analyzed what this profession is about and it's the same
goes for a lot of my colleagues as well.
They never really analyze what were the downsides as well?
A lot of the Trap is actually Seeing a lot of the positive.
That's why they wanted to go in in the first place but not
being able to see the negatives.
For example, what were they work hours life?
Like are you okay working 15-hour days where you only sleep
a few hours at night and then you're back at the hospital
again. And then the very hierarchical nature of the hospital
as well.
There's the Consultants.
There's a registrar's and then you know, when you come out
as a junior doctor, you are really in a position where you
actually dealing with a lot of paperwork per se you need
to work through.
At that stage and a lot of people never never ever went and
did the researchers and asking what the journey is like whether
they can actually embrace this journey to become a fully-fledged
doctor and then you know, what kind of pressures they have
to deal with that work and what kind of patients they have
to deal with in occasions and you know the life life and
death situations.
Are they able to handle this kind of pressure?
So a lot of times, you know and even Hospital Politics as
well a lot of these Unforeseen negatives then again start
to build up and it comes to a stage where they start to again
resent the profession rather than when they come in.
They were infatuated, right?
They they were they were not able to see all these negatives
but they were seeing all the positives.
So when it come when all these negatives come and hit them
all at once then they go to the sudden realization, right
and then kind of talking about little experience about kind
of Entrepreneurship as well is kind of the this side.
Online programs that have been building as well.
A lot of people maybe infatuating on in the fact that entrepreneurship
is great is the best thing ever.
You will make heaps of money from it.
You get to Be Your Own Boss you get to work your own hours.
You could do have a lot of say in your direction.
You get to have a vision you get to build a lot of things,
you know from scratch and then they go in and they go and
again with this infatuated mind then the negatives come.
Um's when they actually go and do this themselves, you know
having to deal with the a lot of stress now the coronavirus
is hitting and when the business goes down turn, they're
not able to cope with where the business going ahead and
all the negatives in terms of you know, the the expenses
how they're going to afford the wages and what if these this
business doesn't work out what if the family is depending
on them and they're not able to bring an income.
So again, all of these comes from a balanced perspective
Is probably one of the most important thing is to find that
balanced. perspective is to develop that ability to perceive
and to research all the positives as well as the negatives
before you go into that profession.
So you are kind of well prepared and you haven't kind of
wasted your time studying a long time for a profession for
example, or actually dived, you know risked everything in
dived into a business for example kind of researching and
making sure that yes, this is really what I wanted.
I know the positive I know is negative and this is what I
want. I think this is probably the best way and leading towards
a career that is really fulfilling and also that you are
very happy about I think that's probably the best what I
called key performance indicators or kpi that you can really
get is like even knowing the positives and even knowing the
negatives you still happy about your job.
So I hope this mini lesson has helped you in terms of having
that perspective of your future career, and I look forward
to seeing seeing you in the next one.
