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Layla Almeida, MD, infectious disease specialist based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, followed a traditional path in medicine. Motivated by a keen sense of vocation, she earned her medical degree, specialized in infectious diseases, and set her sights on a career in healthcare management. However, over time, the passion that had driven her once gave way to frustration.

According to her, when they enter college, students know that, in addition to specialties, there are different paths within medicine: working on-call, working in a clinic, or working as a surgeon.

“But I was never encouraged to think about my career based on who I am, my psychological profile, or my life expectations,” she said.

The growing competitiveness of the job market is pushing many professionals to reconsider their career paths. Over the past 15 years, the number of actively employed professionals has doubled.

According to a survey by the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine, there were approximately 304,000 doctors in Brazil in 2010. By 2024, this number had increased to over 575,000. This sharp increase, driven by a surge in the number of medical graduates and the rapid expansion of new medical schools, often in regions with limited infrastructure, has led to the saturation of certain specialties and geographic areas.

In the past, it was sufficient to choose a specialty with strong employability. However, professionals are increasingly required to look inward and reflect on their motivations, interests, and skills to strategically position themselves in a rapidly evolving job market.

Almeida is currently undergoing such a transition. She is preparing to work as a strategic consultant for healthcare companies and digital platforms aimed at medical students and professionals seeking greater clarity in their careers and helping them align their paths with their expectations, emotional profiles, and financial goals.

Career uncertainty is a common experience driven by dissatisfaction, burnout, or a desire for growth. In medicine, a field that demands considerable time and financial investment, reimagining one’s career can feel daunting, often leaving professionals feeling stuck. The encouraging news is that tools and structured methods are now available to support the process of reflection and reinvention.

Rethink

In the current context, rethinking a medical career is no longer a luxury but a necessary skill. An excess of professionals, modern technologies, an aging population, and advancements in areas such as mental health and personalized medicine require doctors to be flexible, have a vision for the future, and have the courage to change.

According to Lina Nakata, PhD, professor at the Fundação Instituto de Administração Business School in São Paulo, Brazil, and expert in leadership and people management, medicine is often chosen not only for its vocational appeal and financial prospects but also because of a combination of factors.

“There is a mix of influences: vocation, employability, status, income, and family expectations,” she said. Nakata noted that choosing a career in medicine early on, driven by this blend of motivation, can lead to misalignment later in life. “Often, people who choose medicine may feel trapped in a professional identity built 10 or 20 years ago. However, today, careers last 50 or even 60 years, which means rethinking the path over time,” she said.

This discomfort does not necessarily imply abandoning medicine. Sometimes, small adjustments, such as switching subspecialties, finding a more balanced schedule, or working in a side job, can have a significant impact. The first step is to understand the cause of discomfort.

For many professionals, medicine is an identity not just a profession.

However, as Nataka noted, this identity can be more diverse than traditionally imagined, encompassing roles such as professor, manager, researcher, and communicator. Recognizing this range is essential for addressing dissatisfaction, which, as in clinical practice, requires a good diagnosis, followed by planning and consistent actions.

Self-Assessment

Nataka recommends professionals reflect deeply on their career identity and recognize that any career transition takes time and can be a difficult and profound process. This journey often involves reshaping one’s self-perception and visualizing a new version of oneself in the future.

One tip for this is to apply SWOT analysis — an exercise for identifying one’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This methodology can help not only those who want to change but also those who want to evolve within an already established path.

With this analysis, it is possible to consider the following aspects: Do you provide good services and have a good patient base? Are you someone who is willing to work at any time of the day, or do you feel better with a more stable routine? Do you enjoy interacting with patients? What makes you happy? What brings you the most fulfillment? What aspects of your work make you feel dissatisfied? What stresses you and makes you think about quitting your job? What other needs do you have outside of work? Is it possible to balance one’s personal life and profession?

It is equally important to consider external factors when reassessing a career. What are the current market dynamics? How is artificial intelligence reshaping this field? What are the most pressing healthcare demands today? Which of these shifts represent opportunities, and which could threaten your professional future?

Nataka highlighted the Japanese concept of ikigai — the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. The idea was highlighted by filmmakers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, creators of the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once, during a standout talk at SXSW 2024.

According to Nataka, ikigai offers a clear and focused way to realign one’s career without discarding what has already been built.

Nakata sees this as a way to gain clarity and focus when shifting careers without abandoning your previous experience. “There are many paths, and it is up to each person to find where they fit. As fields become more specialized, differences emerge. It is not about starting over; you bring everything you have already built with you.”

Action Steps

Following self-assessment, the next, and often the most challenging, phase is to draw up a concrete action plan. “You need to gain both formal and informal qualifications — through courses, mentoring, or hands-on experiences — and expand your professional network,” Nataka said. “The importance of people is not always remembered. Building a good network and identifying allies who provide support is essential to opening new paths.”

Tools for creating a professional action plan have been inspired by design thinking approaches and the Silicon Valley Innovation Ecosystem.

In 2006, Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans launched the Design Your Life course to help students plan their careers with greater purpose and creativity. This initiative led to the bestselling book Designing Your Life, which is now widely used by those seeking to align their careers with personal fulfillment. The authors emphasized that self-knowledge and practical experimentation are key to successfully redesigning one’s professional life.

Designing Your Life

In Designing Your Life, the authors outlined seven key steps to help individuals reassess their professional path and explore new directions.

1. Make Projections

Adopt a trial-and-error approach. Ask questions, experiment, and ask for help. Understanding that mistakes are a part of the process. The important thing is to plan to learn, not to get it right the first time.

2. Assess Your Present

Use a “life dashboard” to rate key areas — health, work, leisure, and relationships — on a scale from 1 to 4. Visualizing imbalances can help understand what needs more attention.

3. Define Your Compass

Write two short essays (up to 250 words): one about your vision of life and the other about your vision of work. When comparing the two texts, identify alignments and conflicts.

4. Record Your Good Moments

For 3 weeks, note what energizes or drains you during your daily activities. Reflect on patterns and detail each experience using the Activities, Environments, Interactions, Objects, and Users technique.

5. Outline Three Possible Futures

Create three versions of your professional life over the next 5 years:

• Life 1: Continuation of the current career
• Life 2: If this career were to disappear tomorrow
• Life 3: If money and reputation are not an issue

Evaluate each option for its feasibility, available resources, and how well it aligns with your values.

6. Plan for New Possibilities

Talk to people who already work in the desired field, take courses, attend conferences, and try being a “shadow” for a day, accompanying a professional. This is a practical way to validate or discard ideas before changing directions.

7. Narrow Down Your Options and Make Decisions 

With the information in hand, organize alternatives, eliminate those that make less sense, and accept the anxiety of choosing.

Rather than waiting for absolute certainty, action is required. As the authors of Design Your Life noted, there is no such thing as a perfect decision: “Only by living will you know if you are on the right path.”

This story was translated from Medscape’s Portuguese edition.