By Kay Linder, Partner and Practice Lead, Healthcare Technology & Innovation

Healthcare professionals and organizations all recognize the importance of paying attention to our health. Every day we witness the negative consequences of neglecting to cultivate and maintain healthy routines. Sickness loves to seek out the overburdened mind and body. With today’s frantic pace of life and the speed at which we all must make decisions about where and how to invest our time and energy, it is not surprising but yet ironic that healthcare professionals often fail to properly nurture their own careers.

The Big Picture

Professionals in the healthcare field now more than ever face an amazing number of enticing career options, if they are mindful of them. In an effort to meet the rising needs of aging boomers, rising “at-risk” patients, and many other challenges, the healthcare industry is using the latest technologies into all workplaces and seeking the most talented and passionate minds available. Prospective healthcare candidates, particularly those willing to relocate, have an enviable number of rewarding career paths to pursue. Recognizing and navigating those options, however, can be intimidating.

You should know that great recruiters should be keenly aware of how a job change affects not only the individual but also their families, friends and communities. Career navigation should be guided by a well-planned and thoughtful strategy that addresses both a candidate’s goals and their individual personality and strengths. As a recruiter for ThinkingAhead, I invest my time and effort into truly understanding the sensibilities and nuances of candidates I represent. My goal is to match their talents and skills not just with a position but with a work culture and environment that will encourage their professional growth and personal happiness, making the change an overwhelmingly successful one, both for the professional and their intimate circle.

Know Thyself

We’re all well beyond busy — we need to accept this as the new normal. It can seem as if there is never an opportunity to sit and contemplate who we are professionally and what we want long-term from our careers. But if candidates don’t take the time to think about their lives’ direction, they’ll end up following someone else’s lead or agenda. I personally focus on working to impress upon candidates the value of exploring the positives and negatives of their career decisions and the need to be proactive about reaching their professional objectives. This process needs to begin with an assessment of their professional achievements to date – what tangible positive imprints they have made professionally that are rewarding to them in retrospect and keep them excited about going to their offices daily.

When I’m working with candidates, I often hear that they are uncomfortable with “bragging” about what they have accomplished. When discussing professional backgrounds, candidates have a tendency to shift to discussing their roles and responsibilities, rather than highlighting the projects/programs they headed that added significant value to their organization. This supposed “humility” impedes a candidate’s ability to see the true trajectory of their careers and personal strengths and weaknesses and conceals their own truths. Careers, like lives, are defined by actions and deeds, not titles and roles. An honest evaluation of an individual’s accomplishments—and how we feel about those successes— can provide a detailed career profile for candidates who have difficulty defining what about their job fulfills and frustrates them.

Embrace Synergy via Technology

Adeptly using technology is part of the new bedside manner. Candidates and clients in the healthcare industry are at the forefront of figuring how technology can change the way we work, heal and live. The data garnered through devices and systems throughout the healthcare industry can often improve everything from patient care and satisfaction to the financial performance of an organization. Data is becoming increasingly integrated into every healthcare job and organization. Data drives decisions from how hospitals invest money to what demographics and geographic areas are most in need of proactive care.

Technology is the catalyst behind the synergy that is morphing traditional healthcare jobs into dynamic, modern positions that require an appreciation for data. Technical and operational responsibilities are no longer siloed. As an example, my clients value IT professionals with a clinical or operational background as well as clinical experts with technical acumen. This merging of duties can often means that a chief nursing officer is most valued if they have informatics and optimization skills or that a CIO must show a strong success in working with the clinicians at their organizations. Candidates who are willing to embrace technology and understand how it impacts health care from every angle are poised to lead the industry into a new and inspiring era of care for everyone.

So be true to yourself and understand your passion and strengths to lead you to continued success in your profession!