Are you working on holidays?

Physicians and other health care professionals have to work on holidays. Hospitals need to stay open. If you transition into the business world, you may no longer work on holidays, but you may need to travel, work on weekends, and work in the evenings depending on the type of work that you choose. Some jobs are "9 to 5" with no obligations on the weekends. If you're tired of working holidays, can you find an alternative way to maintain coverage? Perhaps your practice can contract with locums agencies. Maybe there's a role for some outsourcing.

Holidays - a great time for networking

This week, I am taking a personal break. I encourage you to spend time to expand your professional network this holiday season. You may discover that one of your relatives is connected to someone who is highly influential. Or, you may reconnect with a colleague from the past.

As for me, I'm spending my time with family and recharging my batteries so that I can start 2012 with a good start!

Happy Holidays! (enjoy this personal little video)

Happy Holidays! I wanted to share this little video that we developed at our company:

MCM Holiday Video 2011 from Annie Marcelino on Vimeo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

A kind "thank you" note from a pharmaceutical physician

As Thanksgiving approaches here in the United States, I'm often reminded to be very thankful for all the blessings in my life. I've been told that many of you have benefited from the information that is freely posted here on NonClinicalJobs.com.

Periodically, I'll receive a "thank you" note from one of our readers and I'll post those comments on this site. The other day, I received the following thank you note from a pharmaceutical physician:

I am a medical doctor working in the pharma industry. When I transitioned my career from a clinical side to pharma industry, I learned a lot about non-clinical jobs from your informative website. Since there were not many doctors working in a non-clinical side in Japan before, your website was of the major sources of information about non-clinical jobs to me and it helped me greatly and still continues to help me to build my non-clinical career to become a successful leader like you one day. Thank you so much.

Thank you for your kinds words. I'm glad to hear that NonClinicalJobs.com has been a useful resource and I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

Please continue to tell others about this resource and visit NonClinicalJobs.com on a frequent basis to show your support. Thank you for being a reader and for being a part of the NonClinicalJobs.com community.

Happy Labor Day!

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September (September 5 in 2011) that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.

The first big Labor Day in the United States was observed on September 5, 1882, by the Central Labor Union of New York. It was first proposed by Peter J. McGuire of the American Federation of Labor in May 1882.

I hope you're having a blessed time with your friends/family this Labor Day weekend. I had a wonderful time with my wife and kids and we enjoyed the beach, good food, and lots of ice cream! Now, we're back getting ready for a busy fall. We'll be closing our swimming pool and saying good bye to those hot summer days!

Every Labor Day, I'm reminded that I need to re-evaluate how I am balancing work and my personal life. How is your work/life balance? Is your career consuming you? Do you feel trapped or enslaved by work? I hope you'll find a way to escape into a career that is both satisfying and freeing.

Happy Independence Day!

Wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable Independence Day!  I hope you're not working in the hospital on this holiday (I remember those days, watching fireworks out the hospital windows)

Good bye 2010 and hello 2011. Happy New Year!

I would like to warmly wish everyone a Happy New Year! I feel like 2010 flew by and I'm sure that 2011 will move quickly as well.

As debates continue regarding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), a number of physicians will choose to pursue alternative careers outside of clinical medicine. The New Year could be a great year for physicians transitioning out of clinical medicine as the economy recovers and allows companies to create new jobs.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! From NonClinicalJobs.com

Hope you have a wonderful time with family and friends. Remember that the holiday season is a great time for networking.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful to my family for their love and support. I'm thankful to have a great job where I enjoy what I do. I'm thankful for the unique opportunities I've had over the past few years. I'm thankful for my friends. I'm thankful for the freedom we experience in this country. I'm thankful for the numerous ways that God pours out His blessings on us. What are you thankful for?

Are you working on Independence Day?

Happy 4th of July! If you work in a hospital, maybe you're working today. I've been there. In fact, we've all been there. Whether it was as a medical student, intern, resident, or attending, we've all had to sacrifice holidays and weekends for work. How many holidays have you worked this year?

What's one of the key reasons why physicians choose to leave a career in medicine? To spend more time with family and to spend less time working, even at the expense of making less money. It's true. Physicians are burning out and they want to have more time for themselves.

Switching to a non-clinical career does not guarantee that you'll work less and have more free time.  In fact, in many circumstances you'll be working more. However, you're more likely to have your evenings, weekends, and holidays to yourself. There are a few exceptions to this:

• If you spend a lot of time traveling for work, then you may spend even less time with your family compared to your clinical days.
• Working internationally? Don't expect to have your "standard" holidays off like your U.S. counterparts.
• Consulting or working on deadline-driven projects? Those deadlines may not care about weekends or holidays. You'll just need to get the work done.

I work in a small company and this holiday weekend, our office was closed on Friday and Monday so that we could all celebrate the 4th of July. I know that many people leveraged the long weekend to get away and relax.  Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

Happy Father's Day!

To all the dads out there: Happy Father's Day!

I hope you have a wonderful day with your family. If you've been thinking about looking for a way to spend more time with your family, maybe you need to make some changes with your work schedule. We can never turn the clock back. We can't go back in time.

I've spoken with so many physicians who really wished they had worked less so that they could spend more time with their families. Don't look back with those types of regrets. If you're working too much, make some changes so that you have a healthier work/life balance. Your family's worth it!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day! I'm enjoying a weekend away with my wife. Hope you're all getting some rest this Memorial Day.

If you're still practicing medicine, then perhaps you're working in the ER or in the hospital. Are you tired of working holidays? Do you want to spend more time with your family? How's your work/life balance?

A non-clinical career could provide you with more flexibility (but be warned because some non-clinical careers may demand more of your time).

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Today is a very special holiday for me. I realize that Christmas is not celebrated by everyone, but to those who know the "reason for the season," Merry Christmas!

This holiday really isn't really about the gifts under the tree. Today, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ who entered the world many years ago.

Wishing everyone warm holiday wishes this Christmas season. Don't forget to use the holidays to expand your social network. This is an opportune time to reconnect with old friends and colleagues. 

Spending time with family

I work in a company that will be closed between Christmas and New Years. So, that means that I'll get to spend a lot of time at home with my family. I've been so busy lately, so I'm really looking forward to this time away from work. I love my day job and I also love my night job, but I love my family even more. I may not be the best example of someone who maintains a healthy work-life balance, but 2009 has been a year where I've felt like an entrepreneur in many ways and I've had to invest a tremendous amount of time and energy to launch and grow some different ventures.

I hope you'll have a wonderful time with friends and family this holiday season. I'll still publish an occasional blog post. If you're visiting this site for the first time, I hope you'll spend some time looking around and exploring the various resources on this site. Here is a link to a great place to get started.

Travel gifts for the physician executive (non-clinical)

If you're shopping for holiday gifts and you're trying to find something for a physician who now works in a non-clinical career, consider travel gifts if that individual does a fair bit of traveling.

I used to do more traveling, but now I may fly somewhere 3-4 times each year. I really don't mind that since I have young kids and I'd prefer to spend time with my family. Others love to travel and they don't mind the time away from home. Business travel has its mix of pros and cons, but it's heavier with cons for me.

So what types of gifts could you get? Well, I'm a gadget lover, so I could create a very long list of gadgets that are great for travel. Just visit SkyMall and you'll find all sorts of things from innovative bags to noise canceling head phones. Fortunately, I don't need any of these gadgets since I already have too many gadgets.

Hiring slows down over the holidays

Hiring may slow down over the holidays, but this doesn't mean that you should give up. I personally choose to place family first, so if you share that value, then you may wish to spend some quality time with your family this holiday. However, if you're actively looking for a new job, remember that many HR (human resources) departments slow things down because they have difficulty coordinating and scheduling all the necessary meetings and interviews to move things along. Therefore, you may not hear anything for a few months while they're waiting for hiring managers to return from vacations. If you're a physician and you're applying for non-clinical jobs in various companies, you should expect several rounds of interviews with a handful of people. It can be very difficult to schedule these interviews if people are away on vacations. So, I'd encourage you to continue your job search, but cherish your time with your family this holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving this holiday season! We often have a tendency to take things for granted, don't we? I'm so thankful for my family. If you've busy with job searching, then take a little break and enjoy some good food. Expand your social network as you mingle with friends and family and tell others about your career plans. You simply never know who you will meet.

Happy Easter!

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Easter today!