DIY career guidance

One of the most important things you can do for your career is to allocate some structured time to thinking about, reading about and writing down on paper all about your career concerns. This is invaluable if completed before going to talk to anyone about your career (whether you talk to a colleague, a tutor or Medical Forum). Why? Because it ensures that you go into a career discussion with a better grasp of what your key career concerns are, what you want to achieve  (or the fact that you don't have a clue - which is just as valid) and what you want out of that meeting. To go in ill prepared and to expect the meeting to be productive is in two words - folly and unreasonable.

To help you in this - we have a number of publications and materials that you can order and use on your own in the first instance.

Career Guide (two hours) - a 40 page overview of how and where career guidance fits into medicine, how Medical Forum approaches career guidance, case histories and comments from past users.

Career Audiotape (1 hour) - some vital tips for gaining the right approach, attitude and skills for getting the most from your career.

Career Workbook (6 hours) - a searching questionnaire which can enlighten you on your key skills, values, achievements you have made in and out of work, your dreams (or the fact that you've lost them) and if you return the workbook as part of the Career Review this provides us with a lot of interesting information about you that a CV could never do (this ensures that we don't offer feedback without the whole picture).

Career Guidance Essentials Personal (2 hours) - a distance learning self directed pack which teaches some of the basics of career guidance so that you can start applying these to your own career as well as being more prepared for seeking career guidance from others. This training material is only available if your Trust or Deanery have taken out a license for it.

Defining Career Success (2 hours) - an electronic course delivered by email or available in hard copy which focuses attention on working out what your own personal definition of success is. Could it be influenced by others? Have you changed your definition over time? A good starting point for re-evaluating what is wanted from a career as without a clear view of what success constitutes for you and you alone - finding it will be more like a needle in a haystack situation!

To order any of the above please visit our order page.

Licensing

The above items may be available to you free of charge if your Trust, PGC or organisation has subscribed to Medical Forum's organisation membership.

This service is relatively new so please ask your organisation if they have subscribed and if not perhaps direct them to our Organisation Membership pages.