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Emma B. Holliday: Is it lame to want what you already have?
Aug 30, 2023, 17:42

Emma B. Holliday: Is it lame to want what you already have?

Quoting Emma B. Holliday, a Radiation oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, on Twitter:
“Question: in a world where everyone is always looking for the next best thing- is it lame to want what you already have?

Every year- leadership asks: Where do you see yourself in 5yrs? …Here! Doing this!

What’s your dream job? …I already have it, boss!

On the road to academic medicine, there is always a “next step” to achieve.
Even once you get that coveted first big-shot attending job, there is always the next paper, the next grant, the next promotion.
I’ve learned it’s ok to get off the careerism stairmaster & just be!
As a new class of senior residents enters the job search, I also want to make a plug for us “simple clinical docs” in academic medicine.
We don’t write big randomized trials, we don’t pull in millions in grant funding, we don’t publish in the NEJM. So what to we contribute?
I am in awe of my colleagues doing all of the above PLUS writing big RCTs, pulling in $$$ grant funding and publishing in the NEJM. But that is their path, not mine.
So here’s to a new academic year of doing what I love. Senior residents & new docs- I hope you find the same!”