It is very important that when you are planning your career you do so with a back up plan. A Plan B and even a Plan C. This is not about being:

Negative

Or

Pessimistic

You may have a clear idea of the specialty you wish to enter. Have you thought about what would happen if you were not successful in your first choice? Have you also considered other important aspects of career planning? You may have preferences in the area that you wish to live and work or you may be considering time abroad as you develop your career. You should be actively planning your career having taken into account all different variables all the while considering what you would do if you did not get onto your first choice of specialty training programme after completing the Foundation Programme.

This is when you need a PLAN B

When planning your career it is important that you come to a well informed and realistic decision about your:

Skills                    

Interests

Personal influences

Values

There are career planning tools on this site to help you with this process.

The 4 stage career planning model advocated on this site follows the following framework:

During stages 1 through to 4 you should be making plans beyond a narrow view of what single specialty you may be considering. Also think about the type of hospital that you would like to work in, the area of the country that you prefer, the types of patients that you would like to work with and so on. Career contingency planning may involve compromise and the more you carefully consider this and plan, the easier it will be for you progress through to an enjoyable and rewarding career. Once you have carried out a through self assessment  and discovered your interests, skills etc you will start to focus on specialties that you are most suited too.

It is important to remember what you have learnt about yourself as you carry out stage 2  - career exploration  and as you research the various career options that will not only chime with your self assessment but will also afford you an interesting and rewarding career.

There are many routes to go down and everyone will be different in how they approach exploring options. It is important not to have a blinkered approach to career planning but to fully explore all avenues that would interest you. You may well revisit some options that you had previously thought were not for you. As you develop, something that you did not find particularly interesting for example at medical school may take on a new light during the Foundation Programme. If you are doing this you are starting to formulate back up plans.

When looking at your options you should explore all related aspects of what drew you to that particular area of work. For example, if you are considering surgery, what aspects of surgery really interest you and what is it about that setting that appeals. It could be that you enjoy working in theatre. If this is the case what other options could you consider that are involved in theatre work. Perhaps you should also explore anaesthesia and so on. Is it the level of hands on work that surgery affords? This practical aspect is not solely found in surgery, have you considered interventional radiology. As you can see, by doing a little bit more exploring several different career paths may start to open up for you and by taking this approach you are broadening your horizons and generating ideas for a contingency plan.

Stage 3 of career planning is perhaps where having a back up plan should be most carefully considered. Stage 3 is the decision making  part of career planning. This is where you have to make choices. This is not to say that you disregard all the other options that you have considered and then revert back to a narrow focused approach.

After completing career exploration you need to decide and this can be difficult. You should however be buoyed by the fact there will be options open to you if you are unsuccessful in your preferred choice. Remember there are over 60 specialties to choose from. It is perhaps worthwhile asking yourself some questions – how you would you answer somebody if they said to you, “What would you do if you did not get job A?" Hopefully you will be in a position to say that there are other options and I am aware what path I could take in this circumstances. You may also find yourself in the position of having more than one offer. What would you do if you got offered your plan B before your Plan A and you had 48 hours to decide what to do. Close your eyes now and ask yourself:

“What would I do in this situation?”

If you have carried out a robust career planning strategy you should be able to confidently deal with this situation as you have explored, researched and planned your choices weighing up the pros and cons of each option and scenario that you may be presented with. Ultimately you have to be happy with your choice which is why career planning and having the skills to plan effectively are crucial.

You may not be aware of it, but as you have progressed through your life to date you have been effectively planning for these types of situations. Think back to your GCSE choices. How did you go about choosing these? Did you choose a broad range of subjects that could have led to several careers? The same goes for A-level choice, although you would have had to choose certain subjects at A Level to go onto study medicine directly after school. Some however may have taken different routes into medicine and had a range of ideas and career thoughts prior to coming to the decision medicine was for them. Essentially you would have explored, considered and decided what was best for you at the time while having other options that were open to you.

You were probably advised at the time to keep your options open as medical school is a competitive university course to get onto. This would have made you think about a plan B. What would you have done if you were disappointed with your A level results? Had you planned for this happening? Hopefully you would have applied for more than one medical course or even another course that interested you to act as your back up plan. Perhaps you decided to take a year out prior to starting medical school and then re-applied. All these aspects of life that you have experienced to date will show you that it is crucial to plan carefully always being mindful of your plan B.

There are also other considerations that you should be aware of as you broaden out your medical career horizons. You should be aware of:

Competition Ratios – how many people apply for jobs/specialty. Having an awareness of how competitive your plan A is, will inform the importance of having a plan B and C

Workforce Statistics – Are important when researching the popularity of specialties and can provide good intelligence on application strategy.

Future Service needs – For example the Department of health estimates that by 2011 50% of medical graduates will be required to work as GPs.

• Carry out a thorough and honest self appraisal. Consider all aspects that are important to you e.g. geographical location, importance of family and friends, type of hospital etc.
• Link your self appraisal to jobs or specialties – try to find matches with more than one. Most jobs will have a down side to them. It is important that you weigh up the pros and cons of the specialities that you are researching in the career exploration stage.
• Discuss your ideas with supervisors/other trainees (including more senior trainees)/careers advisers/friends
• Come to a WIRD – Well Informed Realistic Decision

Going for any job is competitive. Good career planning takes this into account along with the other factors described above and should enable you to have other options that would afford you a long and rewarding career if you were not successful with your Plan A.

As you are considering the options that would interest and be best suited to you in the career exploration phase of your plans, be mindful not to get too focused on one option and keep an open mind to consider as your contingency plan. There are over 60 specialties that you can train in so it is important that you have considered all the options available to you.

It is also important not too get disheartened if you do not get onto your first choice specialty. You will obviously be disappointed however you should take away lessons from this experience and it will make you stronger and importantly better prepared to cope with challenges in the future. You should reflect back on your experience so you can learn from it and try to gather as many positive aspects as possible.