How to Survive a Career Transition
Shifting careers is not easy...
As we transition into the changing seasons, from summer to fall, I wanted to write about the joys and challenges of career transitions. I have had the opportunity to speak to and provide tips for those looking to shift into the health informatics field. In my own career, I have recently shifted from analytics to quality improvement, as a result, I have had to come to terms with some of the obstacles we can face when jumping into a new career transition. I would love to hear from you, what are some of the challenges you have faced when transitioning into the health informatics field or any career transition you have made? In this newsletter, I wanted to dive into some of the less commonly discussed aspects once you successfully pivot your career, we are in this together!
When you move to a completely different industry or subject matter area, imposter syndrome might rear its ugly head trying to convince you that you are starting from zero. This is not true because when you come from a different industry, you often bring your unique perspective and skills you have learned in previous roles. I wrote an article titled “4 Jobs That Can Transition Into a Health Informatics Role”. In this article, I listed a nurse being one of the roles that can transition into an informatics role and this might be obvious to some. However, in this article, I also outlined that a project manager who might not have direct clinical experience could also be a good fit for an informatics role.
A project manager will have a variety of skills in their toolbelt such as dealing with difficult stakeholders, outlining a project plan or charter, and being able to set realistic deadlines and timelines. These are all valuable skills used in the health informatics field, if each worker had the same set of skills this would create a point of failure but having workers with a diverse set of skills, from different industries (e.g., those who have patient-facing experience, analytical skills, project management skills etc…) can help to develop a robust workforce.
Don’t let imposter syndrome get you down and make you think that you have nothing to bring to the table, with your multiple years of experience, recognize that your perspective is valuable to your team. Although imposter syndrome can bring up negative thoughts, it can also shine a light on potential skill gaps. For example, for the majority of my career, I have worked with Power BI and feel very confident using this tool, as I have used this application in different industries and across various use cases.
In my new role, I know that my public speaking and communication skills can be honed. One of the communication skills, I really want to work on in the next year is my frameworks for making decisions. I recently finished reading Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish and I took many nuggets from this book. One aspect that I have been trying to incorporate into my work process, is the importance of getting clear on defining what the problem is.
When I look at a problem, I sometimes want to quickly jump into finding a solution without taking the time to analyze the root cause(s) of the problem. In these situations, it’s key to check your ego, especially if this is a problem that has been around for a while, it is probably a complex issue with several moving parts and context that you might miss if you jump right into thinking about solutions. The book even highlights if there is a problem your team needs to solve you should have two separate meetings, one meeting for just defining the problem, and another meeting for finding potential solutions to the problem.
When it comes to finding ways to define the problem, you can carry out the exercise of the “5 Whys”, which is attributed to Sakichi Toyoda, the Japanese industrialist, inventor, and founder of Toyota Industries. In this framework, you ask why, five times, in the context of the problem to determine if there are details that you might be missing when it comes to defining the problem.
In this book, Shane provided a clear-cut example of how a dog shelter originally thought the problem was that they needed to figure out how to increase adoption rates at their shelter but the real problem to solve was how to reduce the number of individuals who surrendered their dogs to the shelter. They found that covering food costs and vet bills for pet owners helped to reduce the rate of individuals who surrendered their dogs.
During this process, it might be beneficial to get external opinions on who might be able to provide context and/or you might carry out a literature review, to see if a similar problem has been researched. Once you have a grasp on the problem then solutioning will not be as challenging and might be more straightforward, which is not to say that actually carrying out the solution will be a walk in the park.
Another quote which I hope to incorporate more in my new work environment is a quote from the book:
“Force yourself to explore at least three possible solutions to a problem.”
This is an area I want to work on because when I think of an idea, I quickly want to jump on what I think the solution is, I don’t always give myself time to think of alternative solutions. In addition, I sometimes get stuck on this one idea that I thought of first, being the best solution because it was the first one that came to mind but this might not be true. Forcing yourself to think of other solutions allows you to be more creative, identifies potential risk factors, and helps you reduce your bias towards the first idea being the best.
To end on a positive note, I know you and I are not starting with zero when making a career transition, even though it can feel that way. Oftentimes we forget the indirect experience we might have, running a podcast, starting a side hustle, volunteering etc… we just have to remember what we are made of and the obstacles we have made it through 😊
Resources
Need help with developing your technical skills in Power BI and SQL to make the career transition into health informatics easier? Check out the course here
Podcast Episode: Health System Mandates genAI training for All
If you missed the Health and Care Analytics Conference 2024 because of being in a different timezone, they have posted recordings from their sessions on YouTube