Preparing yourself to become a competitive professional

Do’s

• Give priority to internationalisation from early on: start with an Erasmus scheme or an International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) exchange. It will definitely make you much more open minded and tolerant, boost your personal development, enhance your language skills, and help you establish a good network of contacts and friends. Once you get the hang of it, you will never want to stop.
• Get involved in research: every good clinician is a researcher at times, and it might even be a career option later. Remember what they say: “Publish or perish.” Moreover, your tutors and supervisors will be some of the best sources of letters of recommendation.
• Collaborate with your students’ association: there are always dozens of projects that you can participate in. There will surely be something to suit your taste and talent. Work on your team working skills.
• Learn a “non-mainstream” European language, such as Czech or Hungarian. This will open up prospective new labour markets for you. Moreover, you will be able to get much more out of an exchange scheme in such a country rather than by just relying on English.
• Develop your reading habits from an early stage: you will be much more comfortable with medical literature when you become a doctor than if you just start reading the New England Journal of Medicine once you graduate. Choose one major general journal that you most identify with, and stick to it.
• Keep yourself well informed. Search the web regularly for exciting new happenings: conferences, congresses, scholarships, and so on. Keep an eye out for the notice boards in school. The opportunity of a lifetime may be out there somewhere.

Don’ts

• Do not neglect hobbies: develop activities outside school. They’re fun, powerful social tools, and will make you a much more interesting person. In your professional life, charm and public relations skills are sometimes almost as important as the work itself.
• Do not be afraid of competitive environments—they will help you develop your skills and knowledge to the best of your ability. Having people to learn from is always good.
• Do not forget that nothing is worth the risk of losing a good friend or collaborator. Do not let the competition fever make you do unfair, dishonest, or mean things.
• Respect your competitors. Do not get yourself in those “underground” competitions.
• Do not let competition take over your life. Remember, you have a family, friends, and a social life.