Physician offers key advice in career, life: ‘You don’t have to do it all at once’
The adage of, “careers are not a straight line, but more of ups and downs” has been a true statement for Carrie A. Thompson, MD, MS.
“The challenges women face in academic medicine are real,” Thompson, the residency program director and associate chair in the department of medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, and a Healio Women in Oncology Peer Perspective Board member, told Healio. “I’ve certainly had them. I’m a mom of three kids who are all within 22 months of each other — I have a daughter and twins. The early part of my career was filled with trying to balance the many commitments at home and work.”
Thompson, who was also recently promoted to professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic, said she is proud of the work she put in to get to where she is today.
“It feels like a great accomplishment, and I also recognize how many women have come before me to pave the way,” she said. “I recognize my mentors who have provided me with opportunities and sponsorship to help get me here.”
Key advice
Thompson said three key pieces of advice helped her along the way during the times she found herself “struggling a bit.”
“One piece of advice is having a community around you, both professional mentors in terms of my career goals, research and clinical work, but also having a community of other academic women who have walked the path before me has been incredibly helpful for key advice and tips in how to manage it all,” she said.
Another key piece of advice that she learned early on as junior faculty was that “Comparison is the thief of joy.”
“That quote resonates with me as I found myself at times getting down on myself, frustrated and having a lot of ‘I should of’ statements about myself, and feeling disappointed in my perceived lack of advancement compared with some of my other colleagues,” Thompson said.
It wasn’t until she became intentional and clear about her goals for what she wanted to achieve in life and what was truly important to her, that she felt more fulfilled and happier.
She offered a third piece of key advice: “Communication is key.”
Thompson recalled a time when she and her husband had small children at home who were all under the age of 3 years, and her husband was heading to an out-of-town conference and she was on hospital service for the weekend.
“We realized on Thursday night that we neglected to communicate with each other, and it was pure chaos,” she said. “We, of course, figured it out with some last-minute help from babysitters and grandparents, but that prompted us to identify what our system of communication was.”
That system consists of shared electronic calendars and sitting down with each other once a week to talk about their schedule.
“I have been so fortunate to have a spouse who has supported me incredibly in my career, and I hope that I’ve done the same for him. Recognizing that having that communication is of the utmost importance for not only the coordination of childcare and such, but also to continue to have a healthy work-life integration,” Thompson said. “Also, life is not only your role as a mother or spouse, but also considering what you need for yourself to remain happy. Having outside interests and time for exercise, hobbies and friends is so valuable, even if it’s for a short amount of time. Communicating with your significant other, so that they know what you need, and you do the same for them, is so incredibly important.”
‘Career seasons’
“In life and career, you don’t have to do it all at once,” according to Thompson.
“This was a piece of advice that I was given early-on in my career from a senior hematologist and chair of medicine at the time,” she said. “He said, ‘You can think of your career as having seasons. You can focus for 10 years, for example, on more of a research-type career, then you can pivot and focus on medical education. You don’t want to say yes to everything, because then you’ll end up spread too thin and unhappy.’ That has been incredibly helpful to me.”
Now that Thompson is mid-career, she sees that “career seasons” have held true for her.
“You also don’t know what opportunities may lie ahead and so having some flexibility in terms of what you want to do with your career can be extremely helpful,” she said. “When opportunities have come up that I haven’t expected, that has actually brought me some of the most fun and fulfilling things that I’ve ever done in my career.”
‘Work-life integration’
To handle all the ups and downs in life and career, Thompson said it takes “work-life integration.”
“[Life] is not ever a 50/50 balance on a day-to-day basis. Work-life integration is the way that it has always had to work for me,” she said. “When I was a junior faculty member, my kids were very young, which was a whole different level of responsibility and a lot of hands-on time required. My husband is also a physician, and so we had a full-time nanny who was an amazing and wonderful part of our family, and that made all the difference for us. I was also part time for a long period of time — for at least 8 years — where I had 1 day off per week and that was amazing.”
Thompson went back to full time at work 5 years ago when she became program director for internal medicine residency at Mayo Clinic.
“Our kids are now older, so it is easier in terms of hands-on time, but we’ve found actually that the tween and teenage years are just as challenging, if not more challenging as the younger-age years, just in a different way,” she said. “As a family, we made decisions where my husband stepped away from clinical medicine at the beginning of this summer in order to have a parent at home during this time because it fit with what he wanted to do as well. That has been a real role transition but has been wonderful for our family. That being said, I love being a mom and love being connected to my kids, participating in the day-to-day things as much as I can.”
On the importance of family, Thompson shared a quote that is near and dear to her: “Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls, family, health, friends and integrity, are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”
“I believe that and that we have to really care for all those other areas in life,” she said. “Being a parent is the hardest job I’ve ever had. I love my career, but I know at the end of the day that one of the most important roles I have right now is mom. There have been times when I’ve had to take time away from work, a week off, for example, unexpectedly because of something related to one of my kid’s health and such, and that is something that we as physicians are not good at doing. We need to remember to take time for ourselves and our families.”
For more information:
Carrie A. Thompson, MD, MS, can be reached at thompson.carrie@mayo.edu.
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