Introduction

You can use your self-assessment information to gain a clear understanding of yourself, and your own personal view of the world. You can then use this understanding when considering future specialties. However, remember you’re still taking in a great deal of information as an undergraduate and during your foundation programme, and your values and aspirations may change. It’s important to be flexible, and not assume the results of self-assessments are absolute.

“Early in their medical training, medical students should be disabused
of the idea that there is one perfect specialty choice for each person.
Instead, they should be helped to understand how they could use different
specialties to construct satisfying and successful careers.” ¹

Looking for a ‘match’

When you have completed a particular self-assessment tool, the results will be added to your personal profile. Some of the tools also generate suggestions about specific or broad groups of specialties that might suit you. However, matching specialties directly to assessment results isn’t advisable, and it’s unlikely a simple computer based ‘choose your specialty’ test will ever be developed.

People are complex, and medicine is a diverse and constantly changing area. You should therefore avoid relying entirely on computer-generated suggestions to choose your post-foundation specialty. Instead, use the self-assessment tools to point you towards specialties you should consider investigating further. In other words, the results of the self-assessment tools will generate questions you should consider when moving onto the stage where you explore your options.

Finding themes

Consider each assessment result in your personal profile individually, then step back and weigh up all the information together. Look for patterns, pictures or themes that may suggest which specialties are a good fit for you. Your self-assessment results should give you ideas about where to begin exploring, or confirm ideas about specialties you’re already considering. For instance, perhaps your profile shows the following:

• Your values questionnaire suggests working at tasks requiring manual precision is important to you.
• You know you don’t want a high degree of patient contact.
• You enjoy lab-based subjects at medical school.

With this profile, you might want to consider a lab-based diagnostic specialty.

Advisers, Mentors and Educational Supervisors

Remember, you can discuss your results with your educational supervisor, director of medical education or perhaps your university or foundation school careers specialist – anyone you think may help.

You’re certainly not alone during the career choosing process, and we would suggest that you also talk through your personal profile with friends, family etc. as this may help indicate underlying patterns or themes that point towards the best specialty for you.

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¹ Borges et al, 2004