Other than this has been a really great experience for me listening to all the speakers today and I have to say it feels a little bit like a master class and I don't feel necessarily like a master in this class, but my purpose with you here today is really actually to kind of use myself as a case study and walk you through my own experience in hopes that perhaps that will draw some parallels to some things that you're experiencing and maybe some things, some tips that you can take away. I had a lot of fun looking into this topic and speaking with people who I really do consider experts in this area and so I'm looking forward to sharing this with you guys today and hopefully talking more about it later. Thank you Dr. Jacoby for the introduction and I'll go into a little bit more about my journey and kind of how I got to where I got to momentarily as part of this case study. So I think before we get into this discussion it's really important to set the stage on what are the different career stages and kind of what that means when we're talking about changing jobs mid-career. So typically in our early 20s is really what is the exploration stage of our career and that is when typically we've maybe just finished our schooling and we've just gotten our first job. A lot of those decisions and where we are at that time are related to influences we've had in our life with our parents or our friends, our teachers. We're kind of just figuring things out at that point and then in our maybe mid-20s to early 30s is the establishment phase of our career and at that point is when we may seek out mentors. We try to kind of figure out which direction we think our career may go. We may seek out additional certifications or training to really set ourselves apart. I kind of feel like this is the foundation laying phase of our career. And then mid-career, this is the fork in the road. So it's the point at which a lot of people either kind of continue on on that trajectory that they started on and keep plugging along or they decide at that point maybe this isn't exactly what I anticipated, maybe I'm ready for a change and kind of pursue that exploration that we'll really dig into for the next couple moments. So late career, typically we think of that as being our late 40s to early 50s. And this is the time when maybe we're pretty established in our career and so we're now that we're providing that mentorship to more junior people in our field and trying to help bring them up and perhaps even thinking about what we might do in our retirement. And then this word decline for the last stage of our career, I really don't like that connotation. But that is typically when we're nearing retirement. And we're kind of thinking, okay, so what do I see myself doing in retirement? Do I want to be a Judy Jacoby, you know, continuing to work and give back to the profession significantly? She's actually doing it all. She's also a tennis star and lots of other things. But typically as we're nearing retirement, we're thinking about where we see ourselves post-retirement. If there's a hobby that we're interested in, kind of laying the foundation there so that once we're retiring, we are really hitting the ground running towards, you know, those goals. Okay, so there's a lot of talk about the great resignation. And a lot of that has to do with this interview that Anthony Klotz gave, a major news outlet. And in that, he said, it's not just about getting another job or leaving the workforce. It's about taking control of your work and personal life and making a big decision, resigning to accomplish that. So he made the statement not realizing that that was going to propel this massive social media movement where people started essentially announcing their quits on social media. And it was a pretty big deal and very, you know, visually like apparent. But I want to point you to some data to actually look at that. So according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you can see this kind of like, you know, linear trend perhaps over time of the average monthly quit data in the U.S. And actually what happened was during the pandemic, the quit rates probably dropped down. A lot of people were really nervous about the future and maybe didn't want to step out of their roles. And so they actually stayed in their jobs. And then in 2021, it kind of, we almost corrected for that. And so the, it was an abrupt change. And so it felt like a massive resignation, but it actually was sort of following along the lines of what we had been seeing in prior years. All right. So when it comes to changing job mid-career, you know, how often do we see people actually changing their job at that moment in their career? Well, the data tells us that really it's more maybe early to early mid-career that most people are considering changing their job. And I think that ties into some of what we heard about with, you know, perhaps the newer generations being more mobile in their careers and seeking out more of a change. And then you see that maybe in the mid to early late careers when the, that rate really drops off. And then later in our career, we're probably trying to think about retirement and like seeking stability. And so the likelihood of changing a job is probably not as high. However, when you look at the average age where people do change jobs, it's actually 39. So it really does fall in that mid-career range that most people consider that job change. And so it probably relates to that fork in the road that we talked about. Before we go too far, I want to kind of set the stage with some of the semantics. So when we talk about a career versus a job, I think it's important to distinguish the two. And the way that I would kind of describe this is your career is your umbrella. It really is your overall like big picture. And then these raindrops are your job. So you may have a number of jobs over the course of your lifetime. And they can contribute to varying degrees to your overall direction of your career. Some of those jobs that don't really appear to have a lot of relevance to your overall trajectory may contribute in other ways that you may not realize through different skills or perspectives. So when we talk about a job change, it's really those raindrops, not necessarily that big picture umbrella. So for an example, if I were to change my career, I would perhaps go from being a pharmacist to being a rock star, very different from changing jobs where perhaps I would be a pharmacist going into an industry role, for example. Okay. So there are a lot of elements that we need to consider when thinking about why we would want to change a job. And I think we've talked about a lot of these throughout the day. A top driver, obviously, it's pay. And that comes up a lot in surveys. The inability for advancement. And I know we had some discussions about that at our roundtables. So when people feel really stagnant in their roles, they're kind of seeking out other opportunities. And then, of course, respect. If you don't feel respected in your workplace, you're going to seek out other opportunities. Interestingly, the personal reasons for changing jobs, although they were maybe didn't make up the vast majority of reason over like individually, if you put them all together, the various personal reasons why people would consider changing jobs, it probably does make up the largest bucket of those reasons. So for example, flexibility in hours. And so people who have small children were very likely to want to change jobs if their job did not provide them that flexibility with hours in order to be able to kind of provide that stability that you need in their personal life as well. We talked about the great resignation or the lack thereof, I guess. And so what if the grass is not actually greener on the other side? And so interestingly, there was a study looking at the individuals who did quit their jobs during the great resignation, during the pandemic. And one in five of those people did not end up having a fulfilling job or a job at all after that big quit. And so it really begs the question, are you really responsibly considering and weighing all of the factors when you're making that change? So for example, if pay is the reason why you're seeking that job change, perhaps you are getting that higher salary, but at your new job, the work doesn't feel as valued. There's a negative work culture. There's a disengaged boss. So it's a toxic environment. And you left, perhaps, a supportive boss and a positive work culture. Is it worth really seeking out that increased pay and losing all of these other advantages? So I think before we make that change, we really do need to think about all of these factors and realize that sometimes after we make the change, we may not always be happy. Navigating a mid-career job change obviously is very complex. I've talked to a lot of people actually at this conference who have recently made job changes mid-career. And the common theme, I think, is it was a really hard decision. I had to think about it for a really long time. It wasn't easy. In the end, this is what I decided was best for me, for my career, my family, et cetera. And there is a lot involved in making that decision. And I don't think that there's necessarily one aspect of this that necessarily happens first or second or in any kind of particular order. But we typically think of the components or the elements that we need to think about when making this change, the exploration aspects, so really thinking about what your interests are and identifying knoweth thyself, I suppose, figuring out how to diversify your portfolio and make yourself really a candidate that employers would want to hire, obtaining the appropriate education, and then the networking, which we talked about as well. All right. So I'm going to, as I said, use myself as a case study for this and walk you through my experience with those four elements. And hopefully you can take away some of those aspects for yourself. So in 2016, I found myself perhaps early mid-career, very happy with where I was in my career, very happy with the role that I had, content with personal life, living in Connecticut, working at Yale New Haven Hospital, and loving my hashtag YNHH pharmaly. But I also felt like it was time for a job change. And the main reason for that, in thinking about my exploration phase, was that I'm a Marylander. So my goal ultimately was to move back to Maryland for personal reasons. My husband and I both had pretty busy jobs. We had one child and were really hoping to grow our family and wanted to be closer to our parents who were in the Maryland-Pennsylvania area. And so to me, that was the number one driver, was that personal reason. I was very happy and fulfilled in my professional role. But when I thought about, when I tried to know thyself and figure out what would be my ideal job, I really envisioned a job in academia. I really wanted to maintain some involvement in patient care, specifically taking care of medical ICU patients. I really hadn't taken care of patients other than medical ICU patients for a while. And so I felt like that needed to be the area that I would be practicing in. And I needed a flexible schedule because of that family life and realizing the demands of balancing that with my work as well. And so I was kind of waiting for the perfect opportunity to come up. But I knew this for a number of years. One of our attendings joked, Moja's been looking for a job since 2009. So it was truly an exploration that took a really long time, but was over the years kind of an evolving process as I figured out what my values were, what my interests were. And I really started to diversify my portfolio in order to achieve that goal. And so although I had my ideal interests and what I envisioned for myself, I also recognized that that unicorn job may never come about. And so I tried to be strategic with identifying, similar to the way we diversify our portfolio in stocks, I tried to gain some skills that would help me potentially get opportunities in other areas if this ideal opportunity never came about. So I sought out experiences in patient safety, became certified as a high reliability organization trainer. I did research and scholarship, made sure that I was presenting at conferences and doing some publications here and there with what I was able to do in my job. I even sought out some administrative responsibilities thinking that maybe that would open up some doors and obviously there was an interest there, but also I thought that that could help me with my future trajectory as well. Made sure that I was teaching. So I was teaching at Yale University School of Medicine and Nursing, as well as University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy. And then I also tried to maintain my clinical skills. I had transitioned into a more administrative role as supervisor of clinical services, and I knew that I was at risk for getting out of touch with clinical practice. And so I made sure to go out of my way to schedule myself into the MICU shifts, even the emergency department pharmacist shifts, the medicine wards, just to maintain some clinical competency there. And then also during that time, I sought out additional certifications. And so I made sure that I got a teaching certificate through the University of Connecticut, which really was something that was what our pharmacy residents were doing. But I recognized that if I had this, perhaps that ideal job trajectory in academia would be something that would be more available to me. Obtained board certification, maintained board certification in pharmacotherapy because you never know. And then tried to be one of the first pharmacists to get board certified in critical care, even though, again, I wasn't really in that direct patient care role at that point, but wanted to kind of prove that if that opportunity were to come up, that I could step into that. And then the networking, which we talked about earlier, so important. And I think the key to this is really it's a marathon, not a sprint. And it's about establishing those connections, but also maintaining them. And so for me, that was knowing that I wanted to go into academia, maintaining some relationships with the School of Pharmacy over the years, and kind of keeping an ear out for any opportunities that were to come about. So when we're ready to make the leap, how do we do this? Well, I reached out to my friend who is a director of HR at Pew, and she really suggested, make sure that you make the connection. And so if your CV is representative of all the different areas that you've been practicing, make sure that it's focused on the area that you're seeking out. So connect those dots. Similarly, connect the dots in the cover letter. Make sure that you're tailoring your experiences and skills. Make sure that they stand out in connection with the experiences and skills that are necessary to do the future job. Oh, and I skipped a slide, but I can't go back. We're low on time anyway, so I will keep going. So I'll end on a positive note. So let's say you do get this new job, and so how do you start this off on the right foot? Well, the first thing is really, again, know thyself. And so figure out what is your personal brand going to be in this new role, making sure to reach out to that new employer and kind of get the feel for the work culture. The first couple weeks, really listening to others and kind of taking it all in, making those connections and making that face time with others at the institution, really celebrating some of those initial wins. So what are the first successes that you make at this new institution? And then making sure, too, to constantly communicate with your new manager or chair and scheduling regular check-ins to maintain that relationship as well. With that, I look forward to continuing these discussions later.

mid-career

job change

career stages

Great Resignation

advancement opportunities