There Are More Career Opportunities Than You Realize—How Doctors Can Explore a Career Change in Health Tech

Do you want to explore some non traditional ways to use your medical degree- but you are unsure where to start?

This episode is your ultimate quick start guide to exploring the world of Health Tech.

In this interview with Lauren Curtis of Hey Health Tech, you will learn:

➡️ How to create your dream postion using intrapreneuership

➡️ Why trying to make a 10 year plan for your career is limiting your possibilities and keeping you stuck

➡️ A fun technique to start brainstorming and exploring new, exciting career opportunities.

Press play now to get ideas for your next career move!

Join the Life After Medicine Telegram Community

Life After Medicine explores doctors' journey of finding purpose beyond their medical careers, addressing physician burnout, career changes, opportunities in non-clinical jobs for physicians and remote jobs within the healthcare system without being burned out, using medical training.

Transcript

0:00

As you know, this week I'm prepping for pivot potentials and I'm going back into the archives and taking the episodes. From all of our featured speakers to re-share them. And today we are revisiting Lauren Curtis's episode. And this is actually one that was done quite recently. But the cool thing about her episode, even though this part's not recorded, so once we got done recording, we had a whole vibe afterwards where we chatted for a bit, and this is actually when I told. Lauren, the idea for having a summit, I was telling her like, yeah, I really wanna put a summit together. And she gave me some advice and like insight and resources to look at for Summit for like making a summit that actually really helped Kickstart, I. This summit into motion. So in a way, this conversation itself was the origin of the summit, although the part where we have that conversation is not recorded and you won't hear it. But I think it's cool to just really bring it back to the origins because every time I talk to Lauren, I, we just have so much synergy and such good vibes with like how we think about career.'cause she's also a career coach, so she's like, had this great story herself. But she's also a career coach. And so yeah, I think there's just so much synergy in how we approach careers. She is joining us for Storytelling Day on Sunday of Pivot Potentials, a summit, and she's gonna share parts of her story live. And I don't actually know what she's gonna be sharing yet, which is the fun part is. You know she's gonna, we're gonna just open this up to her and I have a feeling it will be so good. We had a whole conversation to like prep for it and brainstorm ideas. And since she is joining us live, you'll be able to ask her questions and get real time feedback and guidance from her. So that's even. More reason to sign up because you'll be able to interact with her in real time. And so I am so excited to reshare this episode, but then also for you guys to join us for Pivot Potentials to hear even more depth about her story. Live on career Storytelling day, so head to coach chelsea md.com/summit to sign up. It is not too late. You are right on time. Be sure you don't miss your chance to join us for Pivot Potentials. In this episode, you will learn how to find new aligned career opportunities. Welcome to Life After Medicine, the podcast, helping millennial health professionals leave the system and build a fulfilling career. I'm your host, Chelsea Turin, residency Dropout Turns six, figure entrepreneur and world Traveler. I'll help you discover your unique path to making an impact without the burnout, because you were meant for more than 15 minute patient visits under fluorescent lights. In today's episode, I interview Lauren Curtis of Hey, health Tech, who made the leap from feeling misaligned at retail pharmacy to finding her place in the world of health tech. In this episode, you will learn about how to create your dream position Using entrepreneurship while trying to use a 10 year plan for your career will limit your possibilities and keep you stuck. A fun technique to start brainstorming New, exciting career opportunities. Welcome back to another episode of Life After Medicine. Thank you so much for pressing play today. We are here with Lauren Curtis of Hey Health Tech to explore the cornucopia of opportunities that are available for clinicians in the health tech world. And I wanna jump right in to the good parts of your story. So Lauren, let's start with. That first leap of faith you took from retail pharmacy at CVS into PillPack?

Speaker 2: 3:40

I felt pretty misaligned with the work that I was doing at CVS, um, at a retail pharmacy, a lot of the workflows really are treated like retail. It was about getting people in and outta the door as quickly as possible. It wasn't about counseling patients, it wasn't about. Quality of care. It felt like it was just about speed and about numbers. So I knew that long-term that wasn't aligned with what I wanted to be doing. Um, but I didn't really know immediately that that meant I needed to go work in digital health. Like that was not a thought that I had

Speaker: 4:15

there. It sounds like initially you're in, you're not this phase, you're like in the day-to-day grind and it feels like this is not quite right. You feel misaligned? There's just like something in you that says, not this.

Speaker 2: 4:27

I knew that something was off and it was really scary because I thought that community pharmacy was it. When you go to pharmacy school, you're given pretty much two paths. There's community and there's hospital. It very much feels like you have to pick once and you better pick, right? Because once you get experience in one of those paths, no one is going to wanna hire you in the other class like you've made your choice. So the fact that I was feeling like this isn't, it was pretty scary because I didn't know how, how deep that went. You know, like, is that community pharmacy's not right? Pharmacy's not right. Healthcare's not right. Like what, what is this? Um, and on top of that, I think part of what was really pushing me was that I, I was going to have my first child. And I was realizing that I wasn't gonna be home four nights or weekends or holidays. I was gonna be working and that just didn't sound like what I wanted. So I knew I wanted something different, but I didn't know what that different looked like yet. And it happened to be that right at that time, uh, an old preceptor of mine posted on Facebook that there was this new digital health startup in the area. Um, run by an old, like, sort of alumni of the same school that, that he went to. So he was like a proud alumnus, you know, saying like, look what this grad has done. He started this company, he was a pharmacist as well. Um, and that company was PillPack. So I just clicked on the article and just like devoured the website, startups in healthcare were so brand new that. I was taking it all in, right? Like the, the branding and the colors and the people and what types of, like, what states do they serve and all of it. Um, and I went to the careers page and it turns out they weren't hiring, but I knew that something was pulling me to this company and they also happened to be local to me, so it felt all sorts of right. I was like, why don't I just send an email? Let them know that, hey, I, I see that you're not hiring right now, but when you are, I'd really love to work there. Um, here I'm a pharmacist. Here's my resume. Like, give me a shout when you are hiring. Um, and I heard back from the CEO because at a small company like that, there's no HR team. So he emailed back directly and said, you're right. We're not hiring right now. We'll keep you in mind for when we are. And what do you know, a couple of months later, um, that time came. So it involved me having to get licensed in a different state because it was in a neighboring state. But, uh, after going through that process there, I was working at a digital health startup, um, supporting patients in multiple states across the country and sort of without knowing it, like opening up the doors to working in big tech and. A whole tech career that I had no idea was like really on the table for me.

Speaker: 7:37

I love the way that it all happened through a synchronistic Facebook post that you clicked on. I love that you said it felt all sorts of right, because it's like you're really in the realm of just listening to your body at this point. Because it's like in the retail day to day like it that's feeling wrong. And then this feels right. And I know that's like sounds so simple and I'm making it sound like kindergarten career stuff, but I think it really can be where it's like. This feels wrong. Move away. This feels right. Move towards,

Speaker 2: 8:06

totally. Yeah. And I, I think it is, it is a good call out because that's not to say it wasn't scary, right? Like it was feeling right. But I was scared because I had no idea what this would look like. And I knew that what I was, you know, quote unquote running from was wrong. I didn't really even know what I was running toward. I just knew that there seemed like there was possibility there and something different. And that was enough for me to. To take the leap.

Speaker: 8:33

I was listening to a story, I think on another podcast you were interviewed on, and I wanted to go into this because it highlights this concept called entrepreneurship, where it's like you're not making your own business, but you're kind of pitching yourself for a role within a company. And I think that's such a cool concept that people don't realize they can do. So can you tell us a little bit about how that went down?

Speaker 2: 8:54

Yeah, absolutely. It, yeah, it's funny because I've heard that too and at the time I wasn't like, oh, I'm such an entrepreneur. I'm gonna, you know, like pitch this new job for myself. Like, I didn't know what I was doing. I just knew that I was like having a lot of fun doing stuff that probably wasn't actually my job. And I worry about telling this part sometimes of my story because. I don't want people to take away that in order to change positions. I had to like take on all this extra work and show and prove that I could do it, you know, before they would give me a promotion or something. I actually don't think that was it at all. I, I just think that I was seeing natural gaps in the work that I was being asked to do. Were, what were the gaps that you

Speaker: 9:40

were seeing?

Speaker 2: 9:40

Yeah. The type of work that I was doing was essentially patients calling into. Like customer support. We were handling multiple types of escalations, both, you know, shipment related or just questions about the service. We were helping people sign up, but also I was handling clinical questions, so it was an assortment of different type types of patient interactions that were happening. You really just start to see everything that can happen in the lifetime of the patient or the customer we were seeing. Whether it be shipment delays or, you know, certain addresses weren't getting delivery through UPS or through USPS, certain things that happen in pharmacy about people like this color medication instead of that one, can they get this generic instead of that one? You know, just the whole gamut of things that can happen in both a healthcare and sort of a delivery or logistics type of business. We kind of just kept getting the same types of calls all the time with people that had the same questions over and over, and you start thinking, well, like, wow, my job would be a lot easier if we could just solve these problems at their root rather than me answering this question a hundred times a day. And so those are the little things that I started taking on. It was like, okay, well if they have this question, maybe I find the right person so that we can like just get this FAQ answered on the website and then people don't have to call in about it, right? It was like just starting to find random solutions and then being the person that was like, lemme just take charge and figure out who can do this. And if no one is the answer, then that's fine. I'll figure out how to do it. Or, you know, we, we also like live chatted with patients and it was a great. A great service, but there were things within the tool that we could do to make it better. And so there was really no one to ask to say, Hey, can we optimize how we're using this? So I just had to learn it myself. So I started just taking on little projects that I thought would help the patients and also help the team serve the patients. And that's what that looked like rather than like, I was doing it out of trying to make people's lives easier, not trying to like make my life harder by taking on more work to get some promotion or something like that.

Speaker: 11:50

Yeah, and I love the distinction that you made around. It's not that like in order to get promoted or to change roles, that you have to work really hard and do all of this, like unpaid labor. That's not it. It's really not that. It's that like you probably didn't know you would like doing these things. You didn't really know that you wanted a different role. You just kind of were being in your role, but then going a little above and beyond, solving extra problems and realize that's something you actually wanted to do. Exactly.

Speaker 2: 12:19

That's exactly right. And then once I noticed that that work was not only something I enjoyed, but was also starting to take up more and more of my time, that's when I approached my manager and was like, Hey, I'm sure you've noticed that I've been doing all of these things and we had been talking about it, you know, all of the improvements over time. And I said, I'm starting to really feel like you could hire another pharmacist to do the clinical work that I've, and I should just focus on this. If that's okay with you. And he was like, yeah, that sounds great. We need somebody doing these things, and you've been like crushing it, so let's

Speaker: 12:56

make it happen. The other thing I'm thinking about as, as we're talking about like taking on the extra stuff, because when I think about my clients and people listening to this, they might be in a place where. They're like, yeah, I see a lot of those problems too. I see a lot of things that there's more root causes to go into, but I don't have capacity to do anything other than get through my day. What would you say to that?

Speaker 2: 13:19

Hmm. That's probably where I was at CBS, right. There were definitely things that I thought needed fixing. I just couldn't do them. I was staying late every day, just getting the bare minimum done. From a filling prescriptions perspective, I do think that if you're at capacity, you have to potentially ask for permission first. So like one time finding a moment in your day and putting together like a thoughtful proposal of what you actually intend to do, identifying a problem, thinking about potential solutions, maybe even thinking about how you might measure success, and then pitching that. To someone like that in and of itself is already kind of gearing you toward the skillset that you can use in nonclinical work. Then like find something really small. Um, and, and, you know, time box it because if you do have to, if you're told that you do have to spend time outside of your regular hours, at least you know that you're only committing to something that's maybe like a week or two long and not like a year. So come up with something small and that should be like a nice way to sort of prove like, Hey, I, I set out to do this. I did it. Here's the impact. And then I think that sort of buys you time to start carving into maybe the other expectations that they have for you. Like maybe in the future they say, okay, great. Let's use like 50% of your capacity to do things like this. And the other 50% can be used to do your, your day-to-day tasks.

Speaker: 14:47

I love that idea.'cause that makes it really tangible of like just craft a proposal. Like if there's one problem that's like literally driving you insane and like you want it fixed for you and you think you have solutions, just take a moment, like one, you know, evening or something, craft a proposal around it and you're already gonna learn so much from doing that. Even from creating the proposal, you'll learn like, do I love doing this? Like, oh, this is actually fun. Like I would actually, this would be so much better than my day job. Like, you're gonna learn a lot from that. From pitching it to, to the institution, right? You'll learn like, are they receptive? Are they just kind of being toxic about this whole thing? You'll just learn so much through that whole process of creating a proposal and pitching it. It's one of these things I have my clients do, like mini career experiments and so it sounds like a, a perfect mini career experiment someone could do to test out and no matter what happens, if they say no, you're gonna learn so much from it about yourself and then about the place where you're currently working.

Speaker 2: 15:41

Absolutely, and it, it starts to create like great interview fodder for your future, right? When they ask you, tell us about a time that such and such happened, even if, even if the project went nowhere, you can still use it as an example. I just being able to identify problems and brainstorm solutions is a skillset that people want.

Speaker: 16:01

So as I'm talking to you, what I'm noticing is you must have some level of openness around career because you had that initial Facebook post that you just saw and you're like, oh, this could be a thing for me. You went to the website, you sent a cold email. There's just like all these moments where you continued to move forward where other people would've been discouraged. I just wonder like what your general thoughts are on career that you think allowed you to keep moving your career in a direction that you enjoy.

Speaker 2: 16:28

This is something that came to me very recently, which is I kind of signed on knowing that I was going to be at a community pharmacy and there was like pharmacist and pharmacy manager, and that is really it. And I knew that the growth potential was really low. I think at some point along the way I realized that I, I wasn't really learning anymore and learning is what had been driving me for so long, and so I think that. That's really what sort of guided my career and the decisions that I was making. Um, clicking that Facebook post was actually not about me wanting a new job, even. Right. It was like, oh, a new, a new online pharmacy. That's interesting. Right. It was all curiosity looking into like, what are they doing? How are they doing this? Why has nothing like this existed before? And then that's when it was like, okay, well, like if this is possible, then. Maybe, maybe I could work there. Right? And then, so that happened. And then same thing. It's like, I would like to fix these problems that are happening and maybe I don't have all of the skills, but I can certainly learn them. And then I enjoyed the learning and that's sort of where things have opened up. I certainly no longer prescribe to like really having, you know, a five or 10 year plan. And that's something that I was like pretty attached to early on in my career. My career in, in digital health has now been. A little over 10 years and like 10 years ago when I started, I didn't even know that the job title that I have right now existed. So, so the thought that I could have this on some sort of roadmap seems so silly. Um, but I really think that it, it has just been driven by learning and being open that, you know, if I just explore my curiosity, that opportunities will appear.

Speaker: 18:19

I think everyone needs to hear that like a hundred times that. It's really the following of your curiosity and allowing things to unfold. Mm-hmm. And the fact that if you're not gonna make any moves until you can fully see a 10 year plan of where your moves are gonna lead to, you're probably not gonna get to where you actually wanna go.

Speaker 2: 18:38

It's hard because I, I was that person. I was big planner. Still am. Still am and sometimes I, I, I do feel like I need to do all of the preparation and I need to know all of the different things that can happen. In order to make one move, but then you really, you don't get anyone, like at some point you have to take that first step because you're never going to have all of the information. You just have to do the best you can with what you have.

Speaker: 19:05

How did you like start to let go of that need for the five to 10 year plan? Or did you kind of transition it? Into a different area of life. Like I'll just plan this area of life and that's okay. And then career can be like the open

Speaker 2: 19:17

box. It's funny that you say that. I am like notorious for in my notes app on my phone. Have all of our family trips planned out for the next like five to 10 years,

Speaker: 19:26

like perfect birth control. That's a much better 10 year plan exercise. Like just plan your vacations for the next 10 years. Let your career be what it is. I'm gonna quote you to you, which is super fun to hear all the, just talking about your career journey. It's like all these role changes came from genuine curiosity of how far I could stretch my healthcare background and knew in different ways I didn't have some big five or 10 year plan that I was executing on. Once I left my retail pharmacy job, I realized how incredibly boxed in I had been and how much more there is. If you're willing to step outside the box.

Speaker 2: 19:58

I don't even remember saying that, but you're like, well said. Yes. Help

Speaker: 20:03

Lauren. Yes, pat on the back. So true. Mm-hmm. So let's talk about the, just stepping outside of the box piece, because I think that's a huge part of your journey is like you said, initially in school, you're kind of given two paths, like community or hospital. What do you want people to know who are in that place where they only see these two paths or like these very limited paths? How can they start thinking outside the box, stepping outside of the box? How can they just start to expand what they realize is available to them?

Speaker 2: 20:34

I think I, I mean, I think you can step as far outside of the box as you want, but that might be scary to people, right? Like maybe take a first, a baby step and that baby step is usually just looking right around you. Um, sometimes that could look like, okay, I am saying that I'm boxed in, in this particular role. What are the tools that I'm using every day? Who are the people that I'm talking to? Because all, all, it's like a spider web, right? Like all of those people that you're connecting with and collaborating with every day are getting different, like. Little bite-sized versions of like your value, like in a little, a little package, right? And so you're providing different types of value in different ways to different, oh gosh, this is so big tech, like corporate of me, but like to different stakeholders. Your patients are stakeholders. Your coworkers are your stakeholders, your managers, your stakeholder. Like you've got all of these different parties. How are you providing them value? And which ways get you excited? About doing, you know, about coming into work every day, evaluating just your own personal environment. I think the next step is like really healthcare in a broader sense. Looking around you and saying like, well, what else is going on in healthcare? You know, say you're a physical therapist. I would look at the companies that are providing telehealth services via physical therapy. I would look at what are the new. Products that are available, like all of those little things that are happening in the industry that feel maybe disconnected from what you're doing every day, but ultimately they're in your realm, they're adjacent to what you're doing. Like start learning about those things and lead with curiosity, right? Like how are they working? What types of people are working at these companies? Uh, that's sort of like where I tell people to start is first looking inward at what they're experiencing and then maybe. Like remembering to look at the broader healthcare landscape. There is a lot going on. Some of it is really cool and really promising. And I think that's a great place to start is like, what is the possibility? And, and then trying to kind of squeeze together how you fit in to that possibility.

Speaker: 22:58

No, I love that. I, I, well,'cause I think it's giving tactical things, so I wanna even go a little bit deeper on some of them. And I wanna use, like, I have a client I was just working with yesterday, so I just kind of wanna use her. As an example. So she's working in student health right now and let's say she's like wanting to just expand, do something different. How would you start looking at how you can start zooming out and looking at the bigger landscape? Are you like looking on Google or like where exactly are you looking? What are you looking for? Yeah, yeah. I

Speaker 2: 23:24

That student health is a great example.'cause it is hard. Actually. One good thing about looking at it from a tech perspective is that the thing that tech companies definitely get right is that they're. Laser focused on solving really specific problems for people, and they're also usually quite focused on the experience that they're providing for folks. So those are the types of things that I would start looking at in the student health space. It may not be like, oh, is there a student health tech company? Probably not. But it might be like, okay, let me, you know, maybe I work at school a. I start looking at schools B through Z to understand like what are their offerings? How are they making the lives of their employees and their patients better? What technology are they using? Like honestly, just grabbing what you can from the website. You know, like how do they make it delightful for somebody to book an appointment? Like students notoriously like need it to, they need it to be as easy as possible. How are they making it easy for people? And then you start drilling in, you're like, okay, so school D uses this really cool booking platform I've never heard of, let me look into that platform. Are they HIPAA compliant? I assume so. You know, like just like starting to, to think through all of the details and trying to almost reverse engineer, like how did these programs. Decide on the structures that they did, what might be better or worse than the structure that your, your environment is using. Um, those are just like the types of thought experiments

Speaker: 25:00

that I might use. Yeah. As you're talking, I'm thinking like, then it's like student health in like the straight up clinical like place. That's how they're booking appointments and that kind of thing. But then also you can start thinking about, well, how do universities promote help for students in general? So like, maybe there's like. STD companies that are like doing something around like that kind of thing. Or like there's totally like student health in the realm of like alcohol and substance use. And so maybe there's just like other companies or things like initiatives that are happening outside of the direct clinical care part that you can also start looking into. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 25:35

totally. And that makes so much sense too because yeah, I definitely went down like a company path. But what you're bringing up also starts getting people thinking about other roles and responsibilities that make up that full ecosystem of student health. Yeah. So to that point, like the person who's working on, you know, STD awareness is like potentially has a marketing background and is really thinking about how, how do we market this type of information to students? How do we make it interesting to them and not just some boring plug about something they think they know. Um. You know, are they using brochures? Are they using posters? Yeah, exactly. Thinking about all these different people that are needed in order to sort of accomplish this goal that the school has. Yeah,

Speaker: 26:20

I wanna make sure it's like tactical for people. Let's say they're like looking at the student help part of their website. Then they're seeing like what booking platforms they're using. And then if you see anything that kind of mentions like a tech solution or a company that you're kind of interested in or curious about, then you can just look that company up on its own, maybe add them on LinkedIn. How do you kind of go from from there?

Speaker 2: 26:42

Yeah, exactly. I, I do normally follow the company on LinkedIn. Um, start just kind of seeing the things that they're mentioning, bringing up on a day-to-day basis. Um. I will also usually visit their, like about us or even their jobs page. Not to like, not to look for a job, but to look for the types of roles that they're hiring for. I like to understand, does a company have clinicians or are they building for clinicians? Um, just sort of what types of roles do they have and like what types of people are they, are they looking for. Then also like looking for news articles related to them as well. How are they talking about the things that they're putting out in the market? Because what you see is one thing, but then like when you read how they're positioning it, sometimes you get a deeper understanding of what problems they're focusing on and why they think those are the right problems to solve. And sometimes you even get like really tactical information about like, or tangible information about, you know. How much they, they decreased this or that on campus. You know, like there was some flu outbreak that affected other universities, but they had a lower percentage because of whatever tactics. So you just start learning about all sorts of different paths and then go follow your curiosity. Like if that's the stats, great. If that's the technology, great.

Speaker: 28:08

I know you have like such a success story from a cold email, so do you have any thought or tips on like what to say in a cold email, in a cold LinkedIn message? Any kind of like key points that would be helpful in making this initial connection?

Speaker 2: 28:24

Yeah, I think you have to be really specific in two ways. One, you wanna show that you've done your research. And you understand their mission, you understand things that they are doing right now and problems they're trying to solve. So that might be from reading some recent press releases about products that they've released. And then you wanna be really specific about like where you fit into that. It kind of depends on your goal, right? Like if you're straight up looking for a potentially a job, like I was, um, I was very specific about what I thought my skillset was that would add value and. I think that part is scary for people because a lot of people are like, well, I could do anything, or I'm willing to do anything to get out of my current position. And my advice would be to actually just focus on the things that you want to be doing, um, and market those things. So in this example, um, I knew that I wanted to be patient facing. It was the part of my job that I wasn't able to do enough of. It, it felt like it was lacking in my community, uh, pharmacy job. So I led with that and said I have very strong patient experience skills and, um, communication skills. I'm sure it was done in a much better way. I think I still have the original cold email, which would be fun to pull up. That would be really fun. I would love that.

Speaker: 29:46

But like frame, that's like so much that came from that. That's

Speaker 2: 29:50

a

Speaker: 29:50

email.

Speaker 2: 29:51

But it's funny because, um. One part that I left out of this job journey with PillPack is that when a job finally did come up, it was actually for like a fulfillment pharmacist that was going to sit in front of a computer and check prescriptions all day. And they came to me and they said, Hey, we did tell you that we were gonna come to you when there was a job available. However, this is the role we have available. And they were like, from speaking to you. It feels like potentially this isn't the right fit, like you would probably do better in a customer facing role. I was like, yeah, you're absolutely right. I agree. And that's what would make me happiest. So I actually turned down the first available pharmacist role. I was not willing to just do anything. And I was like, no, I, I would like to wait until you have something else available. And so I did wait some extra time to get

Speaker: 30:45

the right. I love that part of the story too,'cause it's almost like a hold the standards moment. Or like know yourself and know what's really gonna make you happy. And I think we can get into places of desperation when we're really burnt out. That's why it's like, I really want people to start doing this work before they're in their deepest burnout. Yeah. Because, because then you, you don't have that level of desperation where you're like, anything to get me out. You were in a place where you're like, I can wait for the right thing. Absolutely. So did that answer your original question? Oh, that one we were talking about the cold email. You're saying we need to be specific in two ways. One is like, know their background. Yes. And like what they do, and then kind of know how you fit into the company. Like the value you can provide.

Speaker 2: 31:27

Exactly. Be ready to sell. You're solving a problem for them. You are not like asking them for, you know, pity or a job. Right. You are saying like, I, you need this. I have this. Let's see what we can do. Yeah,

Speaker: 31:40

it's like a collaboration basically. Exactly. I think I'm exactly like a collaborative experience. It's not like, please hire me and'cause that's like such a bad, weird energy to bring to something. It's like the pick me energy of like, you know, I'll do anything. Like, just take me like, no, nobody wants that. Like know your worth. Know what you bring to the table. Be clear on it. Have that clarity. Know your goals. That was another thing you said at the beginning is like, well, what are your goals when you're reaching out to them? Is it a job? Is it just like really general networking? Yeah. Know your goals, know yourselves, know the company. It's all just like clarity work really.

Speaker 2: 32:14

Yeah, and that goes for whether you're emailing the company directly or you know, starting the networking process. Of course.

Speaker: 32:19

Okay. What would you say to someone who's wanting to get into the health tech world, but just feel like they're not qualified enough?

Speaker 2: 32:27

I would say that the first place to start is to. To reach out to people that are in the industry. It doesn't have to be people that have made this specific career move, but, um, start to reach out to people and you would be surprised at the number of people that are willing to just have a quick coffee chat to tell you more about what they do, um, and you know, what it looks like day to day for them. So I think that's a great way to start exploring. I think also gaining confidence, hearing other people's stories. Like you're not gonna hear people say, well I have a four year degree in, in tech. Right? Like, that's not even a thing. And so I think hearing other people's examples of like how they carved a path will start making you feel more confident that like there isn't some one path that you need to take that might be scary.'cause I think healthcare professionals like to have a very specific path in order to get somewhere. Um. But I think you'll find that there's like no secret combination of skills that is the right fit. You not having experience in tech is not like a disqualifier for you working in the industry. They need people of all skillsets, all backgrounds, all interests, so that we're building products that actually solve.

Speaker: 33:51

Everyone's problems. It almost sounds like tech in some ways is like wild west vibes, which I think is just how my brain works in general is like what doors are open for me? Where can I open doors from my interests, my skills, my this, and then it's just like a lot more based on skills and value and like mission alignment than it is the rigid degrees and experience kind of thing.

Speaker 2: 34:12

Absolutely. And some of the problems that people are looking to solve in tech are so specific that. They, they need you coming to them and saying like, I have this very specific skill. Right? Sometimes they really are looking for a unicorn, and you might be that person. So it's not just about like, oh, there's 500 applications. How am I ever gonna stand out? It's like you, you have to position yourself so that you, you show them that you know what problems they're trying to solve. Like you really might be the unicorn in that group that they're looking for to just put

Speaker: 34:47

the help out there. I love that.'cause I think a lot of my clients are like, how do I find that unicorn job out there that fits me? And if this is such a good perspective ship, you are the unicorn. I love that. And you've created a resource that is incredible. You've created the hey Health tech job board. Yes. Tell us about this job board. How can people use this as a resource?

Speaker 2: 35:07

I've had the job board for about two years and it's been like such a passion project. Um, I think that my goal for the job board is not so much like, oh, here, this is the place that you come and apply for jobs. Although I've definitely heard from people that they have applied to jobs on the job board and have gotten the job, which makes me very excited. The real purpose is to show the wide variety of titles and companies that I'm talking about when I'm talking about these types of jobs. Right. I try to keep at least a hundred or so jobs on there at any given time that are open and hiring. Um, but it shows you like which companies you might be looking out for, which titles, uh, might be available and good for you as a clinician. Um, so you'll find jobs that are like in project management, program management, um, operations in, you know, clinical operations. I think that. The goal is to just bring awareness and, and show the, the wide variety of jobs that are available. Um,

Speaker: 36:08

it's just this like evidence of like, whoa, there's so much out there. There's so many different things to do. I, we can tell people, Hey guys, the opportunities are infinite. But then you actually go somewhere like this job board and you see, oh, they kind of are. And then you can also see the companies that are hiring there and then like, go find them on LinkedIn and like see what else they're hiring. Really cool. Starting point for like. Anyone who potentially interested in health tech, um, and want. And I think if that's just the mindset, I think both of us wanna impart on everyone is just, there's options, there's opportunities. Like you don't have to stay stuck. There's so many ways to use your degrees if you want to, your experience, your skills. There's just so much out there for you. Any final words that you wanna say to people who are in clinical medicine, wanting to do something different but feel just kind of stuck?

Speaker 2: 36:54

Yeah. I think the first thing is that normal, uh, because sometimes I think people feel very guilty when they've gone through all of this work, uh, maybe paid a lot of money and are starting to feel like maybe this isn't the right path. I think the second thing is, is it's nice and you, you should almost feel thankful that like something in you is telling you something might be misaligned for you. And now it's your job to use the things at your disposal and use the people around you to help you sift through what might be right, looking within, looking at what you enjoy, finding your, the things that light you up, and then figuring out how to, how to follow those things in a way that feels meaningful.

Speaker: 37:41

Thank you so much for coming on, Lauren. I think you bring such a cool perspective to it, so thank you for sharing your journey. Thank you for being so generous with all of the information that you shared, and thank you for creating the job board. Yeah, so there you have it. My loves there are so many career opportunities available to you as a healthcare professional. You won't be able to see any of them if you keep replaying all of the narratives of limitation. It's like the quote from Wayne Dyer who says, when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. When we put on our lens of abundance and opportunities, there are so many opportunities that we see available to us.