¶ Career Trajectories and Transitions in Professions
What's good everyone . This is Dr Nidarko . Make sure you hit the subscribe button below so that you're always up to date on the new uploads , as well as alerts on this show . The other thing that you can do to help build this community is make sure you leave a comment below .
Let us know what you like , what you don't like about the show and , ultimately , let us know who's winning these arguments , because I need to know that I'm beating Renee in these debates . Run the tape . We did have a listener shout out . Okay , let's hear that , because we like to hear good news . We love to hear good news .
It's from Vladimir , vladimir Hilaire . Sorry if I mispronounced it .
That is a Haitian .
Hello , not sure why everything I'm sorry , that's a Haitian .
I think that person is Haitian , hilaire .
Also , this might have been for .
Renee , I doubt it though .
Most people don't write in for Renee . Are you sure about that ? He said he's not sure why everything came in at all cops , but he says I'm a listener of your podcast it is . It was instrumental in my deciding to pursue medicine as a 30 plus year old non-traditional Really .
Yeah , okay , he wanted to thank you and let you know that he's been accepted to their top choice school and he really appreciates the podcast . Oh , okay , what's his ?
name , vladimir , vladimir , vladimir , yo , congratulations , man . That's a big deal . I think it's a big deal in the United States to go to medical school when you're in your 30s , because you know it's just like more than likely you've changed your career from something else .
And then not only have you changed your career from something else , you also , like , change your financial situation because you have to take out a lot of debt Right To pay for going to have to take out a lot of debt right to pay for going to school .
And you know , now you're going to school in your 30s and there's just like that little bit less amount of time that you have to catch up with everybody else who went to school in their 20s . It's minor , it's a minor change and so forth , but it can be very scary , it can be very daunting , but shout out to you , vladimir , like that's a big , big deal .
I think in my class in med school , the oldest that we had was in someone in their 50s , right , and I think they're still practicing now , right , because I graduated in 2006 . Oh my God Damn . So it's about to be 22 years . Next year is about to be 20 years , so they're in their seventies right now they're in their seventies , right , I'm .
I'm right , alfred , bleep out my age from that , right , and so that means you know . So , like that should just tell you something , right , like I've been out for 20 years Wait , oh , 19 years . So , like this person is in their 70s , practicing like when I was in , when I was in college , you know , I , I knew that .
Like when I finished college , the goal for me was to get into medical school , whereas with my friends who were engineers or they were marketing or whatever , like for them it's get a good job , right . So then , once I got into medical school , then it's the next four to almost 10 years of my life are already predetermined .
Right , it's not really working , it's just in school , right , whereas if you are not in medical school or you're not in law school , it's you climbing up the ladder , you're developing experience In those 10 years that you work , versus that I'm in school , you could shift to different businesses or shift to different companies .
But then there's a point where I remember , in their mid-20s to late-20s , my friends were changing jobs or changing professions , and I just didn't understand that , right , because I'm in the midst of finishing med school or going into residency .
And then it's funny , like now , that when I finished residency or fellowship I started doing locums and then I had a major shift and you know , now I started doing locums and then I had a major shift and you know , now I'm doing locums . I feel like like everything that I've done is like five years to 10 years behind .
My friends , my friends , are like ahead of the game because they didn't have to do the whole school thing continuously . Did y'all have to do any of that ? Like , did you guys ever have to shift gears like that ? Audrey , you too young maybe .
Well , I was in the military , so yeah , no , straight out of high school Straight into campus engineering . There was no shift or change .
Audrey , what kind of engineering did you study ?
I studied biosystems engineering .
Say that again .
I did study biosystems engineering . I don't know if you can hear me .
Biosystems okay , biosystems yeah .
It's more of mechanical systems combined with you integrate mechanical systems into civil engineering and then also into , like electrical , so a combination of the three so there's a lot with this , so so that's thermodynamics right yeah , and then that's , that's materials . Material science .
Yo , okay . So if y'all don't know so , I , Audrey's the type of people that I went to school with and yeah , so you had to know chemistry on a whole different level . Oh my goodness , yeah .
Physics .
So you did PCAM and all that , or yeah , physics , chemistry , mathematics , all that . The whole time . We're sitting on a genius right here . Wow , wow , wow , wow , okay . Do you get to use that degree ? Are you using that degree much Like ? Tell us about , like , the trajectory of , like , what happened after high school and so forth .
So after high school and so forth . So after high school , um , okay , I got into school engineering I studied , for it's supposed to be a five-year program , so like a five-year program without any breaks . But then covid happened and one year went down the drain . Because you're just home , you know studying , you can't study online . It's math .
The lecturer in class is struggling to make you understand , so there's no way you can understand online whatever he's teaching . So one year down the drain . So it took six years graduated . I kind of changed trajectory .
I don't talk engineering currently .
Because , yeah , here we are . So I decided to just do freelance work and , yeah , be a virtual assistant , and I think it's also part of the contribution in the country .
I mean , because you have to start , you have to start claiming the leader , you have to start with a salary of about $150 or $200 max and climb the ladder like throughout the years and hope for the best that you'd get a promotion or something . So I was like , nah , this can't work . So , yeah , I changed trajectory .
I was saying no initially , but then I realized , oh , yeah , I did change my trajectory . Life happens .
I appreciate that perspective , because that's a perspective that we don't really get to consider , which is okay . There's a certain predetermined state that you're in and the question is do you want to do what everybody else is doing ? In essence , you're non-traditional yeah , and you go the complete other way and stuff .
So yeah , yeah , I appreciate that , kiara , you went from uh oh , I changed multiple times . How do you guys describe it ? You would be a non-civilian to a civilian , or something .
A service member to a civilian Okay . But before that I actually had a scholarship to school and I dropped out . Okay , I was initially going to . I actually dropped out twice . I wanted to be a lawyer first . I stopped Once it got too political and I was just like , hmm , and then I went . I got a scholarship , full ride to UMass , dartmouth .
I went for psychology and then I dropped out and that's when I joined the military . I worked with I was the aircraft administration while I was in the Marine Corps . Once I finished that up , I worked at a daycare , like just because .
And then I went to school , graduated with a bachelor's in marketing and management and I guess essentially that's what I do now , right . So I guess it kind of worked out . And then I'm about to switch gears again and start working for a certification for a data analyst , which kind of all ties in anyway . So I guess that's my trajectory .
Let me ask you a question before we get out of here . Let me ask you , cause I heard you say something about working in a daycare . You didn't like that and like what's the worst job you guys ever worked .
All right . Well , first of all , the daycare . I was not in daycare . I do not watch other people's children .
I want to make that fair . I was the front desk receptionist , which is the worst job . Actually , I was the front desk Because you got parents who are like I want to know what's going on with my kids .
Yes , yes , I did not last very long there . I was like maybe six months and I was just like , yeah , I can't do it . My worst job . I want to say it's either that one or retail . I did retail before , like as a teen .
¶ Customer Service and Patient Advocacy
Just people are just nasty .
Yeah , yeah , I heard that . I heard that , audrey . What's the worst one ?
And if you say , this one , yo , the worst , the worst job I've ever done is customer service like answering , like phone calls and emails and texts . People are rude and I don't think people realize that I am not the problem . It's the company I work for . That's the problem .
Yeah , you yelling at me or speaking to me in a not so nice way has nothing to do with me . I'm just the person on the other side of the phone and the error did not come from my end . So , yeah , so it's just the longest shift , the longest days . I just couldn't .
I stayed for a year quit and that was a year's a long time you put up with a lot .
It also alters your mental state . The one thing I realized after the entire year I realized my mental like was really tanking . It was bad .
Really .
Yeah .
Oh , so you were taking the complaints personal then .
No , people speak to you like you're the one who did the wrongdoing , like , for example , they were billed wrongly . Like , for example , they were billed wrongly . So instead of just speaking to you in a nice way , like asking you , for example , if you could make the correction , and all that , they're yelling , they're calling you names , they're cursing .
It is just too much After a while . And then you always have to be like the customer is always right , like the notion of the customer is always right . So you're on the receiving end of the not so good things and then you have to change direction and try to calm them down . And yeah , it's just too much .
You know now that Audrey says that because in customer service it is the customer is always right , is that ?
the case . As a doctor , it sure feels like that at times . I'll tell you my perspective . My perspective is no , the customer is not always right . Right , I'm very clear with patients , particularly patients who are disgruntled about certain things .
I just say listen , like , consider me like I'm your coach , or consider me like we are collaborating together on your health , right , like I do not , like I work for you in this fashion of I'm advocating for you , I'm helping you get to a certain level of steadiness , but like I'm not like a worker for you who is subservient .
I'm always very clear with that and I think the way how we are in today's world with customer service , there's always this , you work for me , and I'm telling you that I want to do X , y and Z , and I sometimes you may get it with , like I want pain medications and you know this , this , this , this , this , you work for me , and it's like , well , no ,
like I have to help . I can't just , you know , blindly give you pain medication . I'm just using that as a one small little example snippet . You know I have to give you .
I have to look at overall how you're doing and see one yes , are you know exactly what you want in terms of , like the type of pain medications , right , like there has to be a side effect profile that I have to consider and all that stuff . But the way that I'm very clear with patients is that , look , I work with you .
I don't work for you , you know , I'm advocating for you . I will make sure that you know you get the best care and you get my best . But this is something that me and you are working on together , you know . But I definitely see I've seen it more and more that people or patients or people who are very disgruntled .
They come in with the same thought process of regular business and the customer's always right to you know what's happening in medicine . It's like , well , but if you don't understand your diagnosis or if you don't understand what's going on , like how can you say that you're right ?
Like I can understand your complaint and I can say that I hear you and but sometimes your perception is definitely not your reality , particularly in medicine .
That's fair .
That's fair .
You know , because everybody's a doctor . Now you got Google , you got WebMD , you got Wikipedia .
What it's crazy I mean to some extent it makes things better now , because there's a lot like that old ass doctor who was on Worldstar . You know , like during at least now , like people have knowledge .
So you have to really be on the up and up and you have to make sure that you are explaining things in a way that you know helps them feel like they're a part of the team , right , like they have to understand . Like like you can't just say your CV joint is broken and that's it .
Like you got to say listen , like you need this surgery for your appendix because of X , y and Z , and this is what I'm going to do . And here's pictures of what I'm going to do and this is how you are going to get through . Like Renee was right on that last episode where she said like the 99% is the same but that 0.1% makesa big difference .
She explained it way better than me , right , and it's true . Like we all practice the same way .
But like my ability to kind of sit next to you and hold your hand while I'm explaining things to you , or show you pictures of what the surgery will look like or what your diagnosis will look like , or you know kind of physically , you know , take you through the process of where we're going to be over the next three months with your disease .
Disease that means a lot and you can't measure that sometimes . So that's where I you know for me I really hope that I excel because I learned that message from my mom . She was a nurse's aide or a nurse's assistant , so her job is very , very tough job .
If anybody understands what that is , it's not very glamorous , you know , it's a lot of , you know it's just it's tough . So I've always kind of like think about my mom when I'm in these jobs , like what would my mom think of , what would my mom say and stuff .
Because she would oftentimes say , like the doctors you know sometimes could be , you know she would talk about the doctors that were very nice to her . She would talk about the doctors that were very rude to her .
And you know , as a young boy you're like man , when I get those , when I get a chance , I'm gonna get them doctors that were really rude to her and stuff . But I think it's very important , like when , when I was in training and this would be my last point when I was in training um , this , I got to give a shout out and also rest in peace . To Dr .
Dr Weaver , who is the chairperson of our department , and I remember the first thing he said to us is you will treat everybody the same . You will say good morning to everybody the same way . You will say good morning to me the same way you will say good morning to the housekeeper .
And you know that stuck with me forever , right , because whenever I see the housekeeper , or if I see you know some of the aides or the nurse's aides , I always think about like what if it was my mom ? Right ? So I would say good morning miss , good morning dad .
I never say their first names Right , cause I'm , most of them were all older than me and so forth . But there's a certain level of respect that I've always had with patients and , you know , trying to make sure that they understand that . You know this is a collaboration , not just me telling people what to do and stuff .
So you know , on that note , I'm gonna leave it at that and on that note , I'm going to leave it at that .
All right . Well , let's wrap it up .
Kiara , you got to schedule us to do a review of GNX Kendrick Lamar .
When are we going to do that ? Gnx Kendrick Lamar . Let me look at , I'm just teasing .
We'll do that another time , but we'll weave that in . But guys get that album . That album is amazing , amazing album . Audrey , have you listened to it yet ? Oh , you're on mute . I mean I want to hear what she said .
I said , no , I'm going to try and listen to it on Spotify .
Oh , it's amazing , it's amazing .
Okay .
It's a great album . All right , y'all , we are going to end this . Remember , guys , you can reach us so many different ways Instagram , you can reach us through email , the link's below and even on YouTube . If you leave a comment below , we'll read those and we'll comment on those on a future episode . All right , catch you guys on the next one , y'all Peace .
Bye .