Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

In this chapter, you learn how to transition from your training mentorship and support network to a profes- sional network by building an enhanced success network – a set of people who take an active interest in your journey and assist you in your personal and professional development as you strive toward your post-resi- dency career and life goals. These mentors, sponsors, peers, and advisors who make up your success net- work will give you wisdom, inspire you, provide tactical advice, and most importantly, create accountability. For the past decade, you’ve been surrounded by professors, program directors, faculty, and peers who have helped guide and support you throughout training. Soon you’ll be making many significant work-life deci- sions that will impact you both personally and professionally as you transition. These key career decisions include choosing a practice opportunity, deciding where to live, buying a home, and many other important career and life choices that will shape your lifestyle, work life balance, and overall wellness. An enhanced success network —mentors, sponsors, coaches, advisors, and peers—can help you in all as- pects of your life. No matter where you are in your life and career journey, creating and sustaining high quality relationships will help you make good decisions, navigate your path, and achieve your goals more quickly than you could without them. Part I: Introduction to Success Networks Part II: Your Current Success Network 1. Start with reflection on your advisors, your network, your relationships, and your needs 2. Understand how relationships work by leveraging relational models Part III: Build Your Future Success Network 1. Define your career and life goals 2. Back to the future: Assessing your current versus future success network 3. Build high-quality connections 4. “BOLO”: Be On the Look Out for variety in your developmental relationships 5. Success networks and the learning cycle 6. You: lifetime learning from a protégé and to a mentor • Discover the wide range of advisors that can help you through major career transitions. • Understand the importance of mentoring in the context of your success network. • Chart and map the success network that support- ed you through your residency. • Evaluate your network in terms of help you need for your new career and life goals. • Learn about four key relational models that help shape all relationships. • Build out and map your future enhanced success network. • Learn distinctions among mentors, sponsors, and coaches in career management. • Recognize and avoid “tor”-mentors going forward. • Reflect on the importance of lifelong learning, change, and the ability to adapt as you consider your success network over the long-term. L E T ’ S G E T S T A R T E D In This Chapter O U T L I N E G O A L S Your Success Network 389 WWW.PHYSICIANCAREERPLANNING.COM