Business Insider asked more than 20 healthcare executives at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual June conference what career advice they would offer aspiring healthcare workers.
Here are nine pieces of advice leaders suggested:
1. Pursue passion. Following one's passion was the most frequent suggestion from leaders. The executives advised aspiring healthcare workers to let their passion drive them, and attempt to become an expert in whatever healthcare area they love.
2. Establish high standards. Setting high, distinct standards keeps an individual on track and not settling for silver linings.
3. Practice flexibility. As important as it is to set high standards, Business Insider also found leaders in healthcare think flexibility is key. When rewards are not immediate, leaders advise healthcare workers to re-evaluate and reroute.
4. Don't map every step of a career. With so many career options to choose from, leaders advise to not limit a career to one trajectory. "I think you have to be open to opportunities. Be able to take risks, and seize the opportunity and don't have a preconceived notion of where you're going," CEO Jill O'Donnell-Tormey, PhD, of the Cancer Research Institute told Business Insider.
5. Reach out to a mentor. Mentors help maintain focus and keep a person guided toward their true interests, leaders said.
6. Pursue publication. "Be dedicated to a project, complete it and publish it," Edward Kim, MD, of the Levine Cancer Institute at Charlotte, N.C.-based Carolinas HealthCare System told Business Insider. "You have to be able to write and publish. That is your only currency."
7. Check out immunotherapy. The development of immunotherapy has been explosive, leaders said. It is a good time to enter the field for those seeking constant innovation.
8. "Characterize your favorite day." One leader, CytomX CMO Rachel Humphrey, MD, tells aspiring healthcare workers to picture their perfect day. If their career does not end in that favorite day, re-evaluate.
9. Keep learning. "You meet some people, they reach a certain point in their career and they just stop learning," Jonathan Zalevsky, PhD, vice president of biology & preclinical development at Nektar, told Business Insider. "But the moment that you say that to yourself, you've probably regressed, you haven't stopped, you probably dropped."