Professionally, I feel the most successful when I am working on projects that I enjoy and have meaning to me. This past fall, I attended the Association for Academic Surgery’s Early Career Development Course. Amazing course, but also somewhat anxiety provoking. Many of the attendees and presenters had laser focus and a clear roadmap of their future and associated successes: get this institutional grant, followed by this society grant, then some small national pilot grants, and BOOM! Multiple R01s and sustained academic success. I am, instead, launching multiple projects in different realms—rhinology, medical education, outcomes, and informatics—and allowing them to grow organically. Hopefully, this is another “different from the norm is not wrong” scenario! I suppose time will tell. Based on discussions with my mentors, [I believe that] as my career matures some of these projects will continue while others will fall by the wayside. In the meantime, I’m curious and excited to see where they take me.
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July 2018TS: I took the “easy” path to academic success but didn’t realize it at the time. I simply succumbed to my drive and overworked the first 10 years after obtaining my first academic job. Interestingly, this approach was promoted by my primary mentors at the time. I didn’t have much of a life outside of medicine. I didn’t have children. There were really no “distractions.” Now I realize how immature I was and that my situation was barely sustainable for me and completely out of the question for anyone who wants a life with balance. Now when my mentees ask me: “How did you do it?” I explain how I did it but do not recommend that path to anyone. Now, I emphasize teamwork and collaboration, both at home and on the job. Success is seen in a working, functional, productive and happy team (and family). Single-minded individuals just get in the way. I used to get in the way sometimes. I’m sorry about that.
I recommend a book called Finding Meaning In The Second Half of Life: How to Finally Really Grow Up by James Hollis (Penguin, 2005). This should really be required reading for those entering into their first real job after a long period of training. It’s time to live your life, not someone else’s.
Established Mentorship Relationship
Dr. Lavin
Dr. Thompson
Mentee: Jennifer Lavin, MD, MS, is an attending physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and assistant professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery, at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.