Put Your Money Down and Make Your Next Career Move: When and How to Redefine Your Niche

This dynamic session started by introducing the audience to the concept of S-curves. Often used in the business field to show the growth of a product or technology over time, the speakers invite the audience to reframe this concept as a tool to help hospitalists navigate their careers. Our careers can be thought of as a series of overlapping S-curves, where navigating the transition between S-curves can help hospitalists pivot into new roles and develop new niches.

Shallow start: The start of any position may feel slow, where things are hard, you’re trying to figure out what you’re doing, and you are really stretching and growing. Maybe you aren’t getting funded for your activities, or you’re working late into the night and wondering if you’ll ever be recognized for your efforts.

Rapid Growth: Then you hit the inflection point and enter the period of rapid growth where things feel easy, you’re doing great, and you get some protected time. You start seeing more projects that you’re leading and are really building great programs.

Saturation: Then you reach the saturation phase, where projects are running smoothly with little input from you, but it might start to feel like stagnation, where the work isn’t as satisfying. When one curve begins to flatten out, it might be time to start thinking about your next career move and how to position yourself for the jump.

The presenters invited participants to take stock of their current roles and future goals to figure out where they fall on the S-curve. Are you feeling overwhelmed and anxious in the shallow start, or starting to feel excited and focused in the period of rapid growth? Maybe you’re in the saturation phase and starting to feel bored or stagnant, ready for something new. Once you’ve identified where you are on the curve, the next step is to understand and prepare for the types of transitions you might face as you navigate your career.

Known future opportunity: When you know a position that you’re interested in will likely become available soon, think about how you can prepare for that moment. First, know yourself. What skills and experience do you bring to the table, and what other skills do you need to develop? If you know where you want to go, make your interest known and look for sponsors.

Serendipity: But maybe the position just got filled, or you don’t know when a new position will come up. This is when you look for a bit of serendipity. Sometimes this means that an unexpected position opens up at the right time. Maybe you weren’t really looking for it, but it works. We can’t always count on just stumbling across a great position, so Joanna M. Bonsall, MD, PhD, SFHM, an associate professor of medicine at Emory University and chief of hospital medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, also emphasized creating your own serendipity. If you bump into the dean of medicine while getting coffee, introduce yourself. This is where the elevator pitch can be helpful, really understanding yourself and succinctly conveying that to someone else.

Creating your own opportunity: Lastly, create your own opportunities. Sometimes, the position you want doesn’t exist yet, but identifying and filling that gap could lead to your ideal role. While this may come with a bit of unfunded legwork, it also comes back to what brings you energy in your work. If you can show the value of your work, if you really believe in the work you’re doing, this is where negotiating and advocating for yourself can come into play.

With these strategies in mind, it’s time to create your pivot plan. First, take stock of your current skill set. Think about possible career moves or future leadership roles that you want, then plan out anticipated challenges to really dig down into how to prepare effectively for a jump. After all this, make sure to take the jump. Even if the jump doesn’t go as planned or you didn’t get the job, you can learn something about yourself and can prepare for the next attempt.

Dr. Shi is an academic hospitalist and assistant clinical professor at the University of California Davis School of Medicine in Davis, Calif.