Hey everyone, it’s time for my weekly post. I was going to originally write about update to the Value Cost Ratio. However, it’s Match Week for the NRMP Match, so I figured it was better to talk about that. So today we’re going to talk about “Congratulations, you have matched!”
Congratulations, you have matched!
Many medical students should have received this email on Monday. I don’t want to reiterate things too much, so I’ll refer everyone to my original Match Day post from 2017:
For now, there isn’t much for you guys to do if you matched. Take some time to just relax and do whatever you want to do and take your mind off the “where” for now.
Then, when you find out “where” on Friday, go here:
That should get you started. There is a ton of information and posts you should read in the Post-Match Checklist. It’s a lot of stuff I wish I knew.
Ok, then what?
Then you need to plan for what is to come. Go here:
This will help you get started with what you want out of your life and medical career.
Life comes at you fast.
I think a majority of doctors come out of medical school and dive headfirst into residency, fellowship, and attending life without a real plan in place for what they want. You kind of just move through these different decisions without an idea of your end-game. Additionally, everyone’s end-game is different and there is no one-size-fits-all plan.
The unfortunate truth is that if you don’t make plans for what you want, you’re just a sailing ship drifting in the ocean. Eventually you look up and ask yourself, “Uhhh…. where am I?” Then you try to right the ship to where you want to go, but you’re behind in your plans because you didn’t realize it until you were in your 50s or so.
I provide my thoughts behind my plan a little here:
The 20 Year Career
The “20 Year Career” is kind of my thing. I think it’s a great “template” for people coming out to assume they will work for 20 years. This assumption provides so much flexibility on the backend of things. You can either accelerate your retirement in a 15 year career, or slow down your retirement into a 25 year career — but it’s all on your terms.
The one big thing in that post that I want to reiterate here is that the decision on when you retire is yours and yours alone. Don’t let others say “Oh, you’re retiring early? What a waste.” or “Someone else could have used your spot.” or whatever vitriol they want to spew.
You don’t owe anyone anything.
The one who went through all those years of education, training, and work is you. It’s your life:
What else you got?
If you’re reading this particular post, I’m assuming you’re a medical student or someone in your family is a medical student. There are a ton of other posts about Medicine on this little blog of mine. I also talk about Finance and other random stuff. It’s a good idea to just subscribe to my blog which is only a weekly email about whatever new post I wrote. If you’re not really sure where to get started, just go here:
In particular, the Roadmap posts are very good, even though they haven’t been updated recently. I promise I will get around to updating them again sometime. Here they are for ease of access:
Roadmaps:
- Medicine Mondays Roadmap Update 7-29-2019
- Whatever Wednesdays Roadmap Update 7-31-2019
- Finance Fridays Roadmap Update 8-2-2019
In general, I’m pretty good about including links to related posts/subjects in my posts. The vast majority of the links should open in a new window. You can find yourself lost down a rabbit hole of blog posts if you care to read them. I’ve also tried my best to make it as mobile friendly as possible as well, so it should be pretty easy to read on your phone or tablet. To be honest, I think it may be easier to read on your phone or tablet as you just kind of hang out in bed.
Anything else?
Yea.
Shoutout to my little brother Alan for passing his Pharmacy Boards. We’re all proud of you kid. Keep moving forward.
Also, shoutout to my boy Dougie Fresh for matching into Anesthesia. I tried to get him to do Radiology, but the allure of gas was too strong, I guess. Wherever he ends up, I’m sure he’ll do fine.
TL;DR
Match Day has come and gone… but the where isn’t known yet.
Things to read/do this weekend to plan for your future.
-Sensei
Agree? Disagree? Questions, Comments and Suggestions are welcome.
You don’t need to fill out your email address, just write your name or nickname.
Like these posts? Make sure to subscribe to get email alerts!