It’s apparently quite common for people to have a few pangs
of anxiety near the beginning of a career as life decisions and consequences
suddenly become uncomfortably real. The catchy term “quarter life crisis” seems
to be commonly used recently to describe people in their twenties and thirties who
feel unsure of their direction.
I turned 26 this year, and it seems a little optimistic to
mark this as “quarter-life” as the odds of me reaching 104 seem remote. But
then again, I’ve been experiencing one sort of worry or another for as long as
I remember so perhaps my quarter life crisis began some years ago, transitioning
from the previous trivial anxieties without me noticing.
The most current worries are naturally career-related as at
the end of the month is the deadline for applying for specialty training. I’m
in the second of two compulsory foundation years post qualification and am
expected to now declare my intended career, or accept unemployment.
Traditionally this would be a busy time of year for FY2
doctors, each scrambling to polish their CVs to compete for sought-after
training positions in the various specialties. In recent years this has become less and less the case with the dwindling motivation of doctors to continue
working in resource-stretched environment feeling undervalued. Such is the “state of unease” as understated by the annual GMC training report that the vast
majority of FY2s I talk to have no intention of applying to speciality training
this round.
A simplified flowchart of medical training (nicked from Google)
I think I am amongst a large number of FY2s who plan to take
a gap year to take a break from the system. In my absence all the problems of the NHS and medical careers will be completely solved just in time for me to apply for further training in a
year or two from now. I am warned by my wise parents that this plan of action
sounds a lot like no plan of action,
and I am merely prolonging the duration of my quarter-life crisis by postponing
crunch time for a year or more. In addition there is some concern that a few specialties want to see evidence of "commitment to specialty" - and unfortunately taking time out of training to piss around is viewed as the opposite of "commitment".
Personally I don’t see the rush; if my lottery plan doesn’t turn out I as I expect it to then I will have to work until I’m 68, so I owe it to my next 40+ years to try and make a sensible decision. To that end I expect to spend my crisis rigorously researching my options and optimising my CV. Perhaps I'll try and save enough money to do a spot of travelling or, signing on, moving back with my parents and watching countdown in my underwear. At the moment, both seem preferable to the yoke of the unrelenting SHO rota.
Personally I don’t see the rush; if my lottery plan doesn’t turn out I as I expect it to then I will have to work until I’m 68, so I owe it to my next 40+ years to try and make a sensible decision. To that end I expect to spend my crisis rigorously researching my options and optimising my CV. Perhaps I'll try and save enough money to do a spot of travelling or, signing on, moving back with my parents and watching countdown in my underwear. At the moment, both seem preferable to the yoke of the unrelenting SHO rota.
http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/Fewer_foundation_doctors_are_going_straight_into_specialty_training,_says_GMC
http://www.gmc-uk.org/news/27482.asp
