On completion of your undergraduate studies and at the beginning of the Foundation Years, there appears to be a bewildering choice of medical career options available.  In the hospital medical specialties there are over 50 different specialties to choose from!

As a starting point, it may be useful to consider the following factors which apply to your own personality, skills and qualities:

• Your own strengths and weaknesses
• Your abilities, skills and interests
• The type of patients you see yourself working with
• Do you see yourself in a hospital or community setting?
• What sort of colleagues would you like to work with
• The overall length of training to CCT
• The opportunities for research?
• Work/Life balance
• The age of the patients
• Do you want direct patient contact at all?
• Do you want to treat patients holistically or be very specialised?
• Do you like interventional procedures e.g. endoscopy or cardiac catheterisation?
• Look at the competition and availability of the posts
• You may want less-than-full-time training or a shared job
• Do you fell comfortable dealing with uncertainty?
• Are you attracted to a multidisciplinary team?
• Would you enjoy supporting other specialists e.g. in radiology
• Salary prospects
• How your specialty might develop over the next 10 years
• Work intensity

In order to assist your personal assessment there is a psychometric programme called SCI45 or the new SCI59 which is a series of questions which can be answered on a keyboard.  The programme will then give you a list of careers, based on your responses, which may be more appropriate for your skills and personality.

Several excellent websites are also in development and available to help in your self-assessment and choice:

• www.cxdx.qmul.ac.uk is from Barts and The London teaching hospital
• www.medicalcareers.nhs.uk is the newly developing NHS website which is derived from a USA careers programme

 What are the steps in choosing a career?

One system which has been proposed is the REDI model:

Review you experience, skills and qualities
Explore the specialties which attract you
Decide
Implement your application

It is essential to look carefully at your own abilities and personal qualities before choosing a specialty.  Academic ability is only one factor and you may have valuable feedback from appraisal or your e-portfolio and assessments from your trainers in the Foundation Programme.

Where do you get information for the "exploration" phase?

There are many ways to get information about future careers:

• Network with the undergraduates of Foundation Trainees above you to learn their experiences and gain their advice on specialties
• Visit the websites above and the Royal Colleges websites
• Complete the SCI45 by contacting Dr John Collins at NIMDTA (john.collins@nimdta.gov.uk) to arrange a visit
• Organise a short taster in a specialty which interests you
• Request a 4 month rotation in a specialty which interests you during your Foundation programme
• Attend the undergraduate and postgraduate careers fairs or events
• Speak to your UG teachers or professors, clinical supervisors and arrange a meeting with the Heads or Deputy Heads of School through NIMDTA.  These names are on the Specialty Schools pages of the NIMDTA website