I remember an interesting piece of advice someone once gave me when I was considering whether to train through the FRCP or CCFP route for emergency medicine. And that advice was to “consider which route would help me build something AFTER I started to wind down my emergency medicine practice.”
I don’t know why that advice stuck with me, but certainly it felt normal for me to plan for a career outside of clinical medicine. I never considered myself a lifer in medicine. Considering how much effort it takes to train to become a doctor, I know my view is not common.
You’ve likely already tried some different ways of practicing medicine-adjacent skills such as teaching trainees, research, speaking at conferences, and administrative work. Or maybe you’ve experimented with a clinic-based vs. hospital practice, community vs. academia, fellowships to enhance your skills, or virtual delivery of your care. I don’t really consider these as side gigs, but rather variations on how you deliver clinical medicine. But if you’re feeling your career needs a boost, these are all easy places to start.
But many of you are interested in exploring what’s possible outside of medicine.
I don’t use the term side gig–I prefer the term side passion. Unlike hobbies (which I see more of as pleasurable activities during your leisure time), side passions or side gigs are secondary ways to complement your primary career and have some income earning potential. Hobbies can certainly evolve to become side passions, but if you’re interested in starting a side gig, I assume you would like to make some money from this side work.
You already know that my way of discovering meaningful hobbies is to follow your interests and curiosity without thinking too much of the end goal.
But when it comes to side passions, you need to be more strategic. If you want to earn some money from a side passion, you need to create value. And one of the easiest ways to create value is to:
a) consider how your skills and interests can be applied to
b) solve a problem that someone else has
c) and that you have solved for yourself in the past
Skills + passion + interest –> applied to a big PROBLEM you’ve solved for yourself and that others want to solve
= excellent side passion candidate!
Here are some other ways to think about what this might be:
1. What do people commonly ask you to talk about? Or seek your advice to help them?
2. What problem have you solved that you notice other people struggle to solve on their own?
3. What problem do you keep coming back to? You read about it, you love talking about it, you enjoy asking other people about their experiences in this area?
Then, when you identify the problem you want to help others solve, start to weave this identity into your clinical practice, your speeches, the topics you teach, the types of research you do, and how you mentor trainees.
Slowly, you will start to be known for your expertise in the area you love. Not only does that have value, it’s incredibly difficult to replicate.
Question: “Spend 30 minutes and brainstorm possible side passion ideas. Now, how can you weave that interest into a short talk you can share with your group or the next batch of trainees you teach?”
