John Krumboltz, an eminent psychologist at Stanford University coined a term for  the process of scientific research – ‘planned happenstance’.

What is planned happenstance?

 ‘Planned happenstance theory is a conceptual framework extending career counseling to include the creating and transforming of unplanned events into opportunities for learning. The goal of a planned happenstance intervention is to assist clients to generate, recognize, and incorporate chance events into career development’.
Mitchell, Levin and Krumbotz – 1999. Journal of Counseling and Development, (77), p115-124

What does this mean in practice?

Krumboltz’s approach implies an important shift in thinking about how best to plan one’s career.

He is not saying that there is no place for the traditional 4 stage model of career planning (ie self-assessment; option exploration; decision making; plan implementation). (put link in here)

But he is saying that these 4 stages alone don’t equip people with sufficient career planning tools given that all employment sectors are in a constant state of flux.

So in addition to working one’s way through the 4 stages outlined in this microsite Krumboltz proposes that people need to develop 5 key skills in order to recognize, create and use chance career opportunities.

Curiosity: Exploring new opportunities
Persistence: Exerting effort despite setbacks
Flexibility: Changing attitudes and circumstances
Optimism: Viewing new opportunities as possible and attainable
Risk Taking: Taking career decisions in the fact of uncertain outcomes

How might this apply to medical career planning?

Curiosity: There are over 70 different medical specialties – Have you looked at the national medical careers website (www.medicalcareers.nhs.uk) and spent a bit of time finding out about specialties that you have not yet encountered? How can you be sure that you would hate a particular line of work if you know almost nothing about it?

Persistence: This has to be balanced with flexibility (see below). But one of the most important skills for lifelong career planning is not giving up when you meet your first hurdle. (Many medical students and junior doctors can reach a surprisingly advanced stage of their career before they experience a setback – and can then be disproportionately thrown off course when they fail an exam or are unsuccessful in applying for a particular training post). If you encounter a setback you need to ask yourself what you can do differently next time, to increase the chances that you will be successful.

Flexibility: Different specialties are not all equally competitive. And there is often regional variation in the availability of job opportunities. What are some of the ways in which you could become more flexible in your career planning?

Optimism: It can be pretty demanding working as a busy junior doctor and simultaneously trying to plan the next stage of your career. In this situation it is easy to get down-hearted when you encounter setbacks. As an alternative – focus on a situation at work that you know you handled really well. What can you learn - about yourself, or about aspects of work that seem to suit you – from reviewing times at work that you have really enjoyed?

Risk Taking:
Let’s be clear – we are not talking about clinical risk taking – but rather, career risk taking! And we are not suggesting that you should thoughtlessly take career risks. But if you are unsure what specialty training path you want to follow post-foundation, working abroad, or getting a temporary job in a different specialty in the UK, may be a sound career move. As long as you can demonstrate further down the line, how the experience has helped you with your career decision making, and has made you a better candidate for the specialty you finally choose – then this seemingly ‘risky’ strategy can be a smart career move