Editor’s Note: This account involves 2 years of early career development & decisions made during that timeframe.
As a senior orthopaedic trainee, I was asked to drive a visiting foreign professor around our city. As this orthopaedic surgeon was well known and well connected, I asked him for names of orthopaedic contacts in his home country who specialized in the area of orthopaedics I was most interested in. This ultimately resulted in a “Visitorship” in his country with three surgeons and attendance at the annual academy meeting. The original surgeon, who I had shown around, eventually became one of my career mentors.
Mentor #1, mentioned above, eventually offered me a seemingly great opportunity to head a new orthopaedic specialty section at the academic institution where he was chairman. One drawback, however, was that I would need a formal in-country based fellowship to qualify for employment.
Through specialty connections, I met future Mentor #2. This individual had just left a leading orthopaedic institution to begin practice elsewhere. He had no fellow but was open to one in my area of interest. After discussion, he offered me a unique opportunity: a six-month fellowship with a stipend of $5000 with free room and board provided by his affiliated hospital. To make this opportunity financially feasible, I sold my house back home.
After the six-month fellowship, I moved on to the position of Section Head at the academic institution mentioned above. This was the start of my formal practice career.
Six years later, I returned to my home country to be geographically closer to my aging parents.
I do not believe in living with regrets but the truth I have learned through these experiences is that I was not adequately compensated for my early work. I have never fully recovered from the financial sacrifice I made by selling my home to afford to live during my fellowship and early academic career.
Over subsequent years, I have begun to appreciate the difference between Equality and Equity and how this relates to my experiences. (Editor’s Note: Equality is when the law and government treats everyone the same irrespective of status or identity. Equity allows, in some instances, for people to be treated differently to provide meaningful equality of opportunity.)
Overall, I would not have lived my professional life differently. I believe one must take chances to succeed. I have valued the two mentors mentioned above and the lessons they have taught me.
My advice to those in training, in early or even later career, is to value yourself. Don’t succumb to Impostor Syndrome. Negotiate for what you are worth rather than being grateful for an opportunity and taking less. Finally, take advantage of mentoring and education offered about negotiation and early career decision-making.