Hello, everyone -
I have a story as old as time (or at least as old as the NIH MSTP training pathway), and I just wanted help getting some perspective. Highlights:
- MD/PhD graduate late 2010s
- did a fast-track IM residency
- and now in a second year of a heme-onc fellowship, physician-scientist track
I didn't match at my dream place by any stretch for fellowship, but it had a critical mass of research and is a place with some great scientists. The program also tried to recruit me and promised me support because of my research background, including money and a tech, for my research endeavors. This is where things kind of fell apart.
First, the program has never mentioned this support again, and when I brought it up gently, no one did anything. The promise of support wasn't in writing, so I've basically accepted this as a lesson that nothing means anything unless it's written.
Second, I started the second year of my fellowship (research years, 90% protected) with the absolutely wrong mentor. He was superficially nice but used me as an administrative assistant and clinical research coordinator and was just generally very inconsiderate of me. I did the most utterly menial, non-fellow work imaginable. To be clear - I don't have opposition to doing things to help, but it was clear he didn't have any robust research program with sufficient staff for me to join and that I was going to be used as a tech/clinical research coordinator/admin.
I started over in a new lab that's much more considerate and well-organized. I have two exciting projects but lab work of course takes forever to gain momentum so I am 10 months into my 3 year post-doc and have absolutely nothing to show for it. Lesson learned. I know 10 months isn't a lot, but when you're as old as I am in this training pathway, it feels like a lot.
Which brings me to my question: in terms of having a back-up plan if my scientific career fails, which it looks like it might, what level of specialization is too much clinically? If I leave my fellowship trained to see every GI tumor in the lumen + pancreas/gallbladder/cholangio/HCC but utterly unable of treating any other organ system (much less malignant heme), do you think I am doing a disservice to myself? I essentially want to have a purely clinical career available to me if I cannot start a scientific career in industry or academia.
Thank you very much for any input.
I have a story as old as time (or at least as old as the NIH MSTP training pathway), and I just wanted help getting some perspective. Highlights:
- MD/PhD graduate late 2010s
- did a fast-track IM residency
- and now in a second year of a heme-onc fellowship, physician-scientist track
I didn't match at my dream place by any stretch for fellowship, but it had a critical mass of research and is a place with some great scientists. The program also tried to recruit me and promised me support because of my research background, including money and a tech, for my research endeavors. This is where things kind of fell apart.
First, the program has never mentioned this support again, and when I brought it up gently, no one did anything. The promise of support wasn't in writing, so I've basically accepted this as a lesson that nothing means anything unless it's written.
Second, I started the second year of my fellowship (research years, 90% protected) with the absolutely wrong mentor. He was superficially nice but used me as an administrative assistant and clinical research coordinator and was just generally very inconsiderate of me. I did the most utterly menial, non-fellow work imaginable. To be clear - I don't have opposition to doing things to help, but it was clear he didn't have any robust research program with sufficient staff for me to join and that I was going to be used as a tech/clinical research coordinator/admin.
I started over in a new lab that's much more considerate and well-organized. I have two exciting projects but lab work of course takes forever to gain momentum so I am 10 months into my 3 year post-doc and have absolutely nothing to show for it. Lesson learned. I know 10 months isn't a lot, but when you're as old as I am in this training pathway, it feels like a lot.
Which brings me to my question: in terms of having a back-up plan if my scientific career fails, which it looks like it might, what level of specialization is too much clinically? If I leave my fellowship trained to see every GI tumor in the lumen + pancreas/gallbladder/cholangio/HCC but utterly unable of treating any other organ system (much less malignant heme), do you think I am doing a disservice to myself? I essentially want to have a purely clinical career available to me if I cannot start a scientific career in industry or academia.
Thank you very much for any input.