If you could give your younger self one piece of career advice, what would it be? In this ongoing STRIDE series, we invited APodA member and MSK Special Interest Group committee member Blake Withers, to reflect on this question.
Blake’s answer starts with finding a good clinic. For him, this meant moving eight hours away and taking a 46% pay cut – at least, initially. Now reflecting on his mistakes, growth opportunities and turning points – Blake makes a compelling case for seeking out the right clinic culture and mentors early on.
Introspection is something I don’t do often enough. It happens during odd times: after speaking to a group or at a conference, after exercising, in airports, on trains, or while listening to music. I enjoy my career for many reasons and, rightly or wrongly, it is part of my identity. I have great satisfaction in helping people return to, and stay consistent with, movement, usually in the form of exercise.
I think about this question often. I think, how different would things have been if I had started doing something earlier, made a tough decision, or listened to people who had the experience? I think back to all the examples from my younger years, with older generations trying to impart wisdom, but you don’t listen.
My advice, which I believe would have helped me realise the path I wanted to take sooner, and get me further down that path, is this: find the right people to start your career with. Find the clinic, the people, and the culture.
What type of clinician do you want to be? What type of person do you want to be? You may or may not be familiar with a theory called ‘five chimps’. Chimps, when together, often become very similar to the five chimps they are around, and this changes as the surrounding chimps change. I like this theory.
Early on, I wanted to see biomechanics. I thought that was everything. Until I took my second job, which saw the most ‘biomechanical’ caseload I’d ever seen. I realised it was much more than that. It was beyond biomechanics. It was musculoskeletal. Beyond that, it was helping people through all types of within-scope therapies from movement, specific exercise, foot orthoses, footwear, pain science, and so forth.
I learnt the bigger picture. I was shown the bigger picture. It’s also why I don’t like the term ‘people see us for biomechanics’ or ‘I have a biomechanical’ coming in. I realised you could solve some really big problems, and solving those with the right people is a lot of fun – and as a bonus you get to be a good clinician.
This idea of thinking of something initially – such as biomechanics – then having something like an epiphany; it happened with a lot of ideas. It’s like when you first start out, you think pronation is everything, then you understand the context in which it matters more.
It became fun to be wrong. It made me come to understand one of my favourite sayings, which I open with every time I teach: I am trying to be ‘less wrong’.
So, we’ve established: find a good clinic. Yet how do you decide that? Won’t all the good clinics have all the staff they need? How do I vet a clinic? How do I know if I am good enough to work in a clinic like that?
There is some self-development one should do. Just like treatments change and evidence updates, we should, as humans, also aim to improve. Here are a few questions you can ask someone involved in the hiring. Use your judgement as to which particular questions may be appropriate. I think any person who has really thought about their clinical practice and philosophy has thought about this:
One good principle every good clinician has is humility. Take tendons, for example. I have heard some say they find treating tendons easy – and get it right every time. I think to myself, it’s odd that this is the case when some of the most knowledgeable tendon researchers and clinicians in the world say it’s a real struggle.
Finding a good place to work supports you early on. The right people will try to help you not make the mistakes they’ve made, essentially getting you to a point in five years, which may have taken them 10 years to reach.
The reality of life is that it’s difficult to get there. As the saying goes, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be great. Moving away, moving a family or partner, moving to the cold, moving rural, taking less money, working weekends, all of these may be factors. It’s a true conditioning process, with rationality needing to prevail.
For me, I moved eight hours away. I took a 46% pay cut per week, going from five days to three days to change jobs. I had to grow a list, with help of course, but I got lots of structured, well-thought-out support. I was back earning the same within 12 months, teaching at the university in two years, and I felt confident enough after spending every day with medical specialists and working with complex cases to start a podcast and social media, which has led to travelling around Australia and the world, being paid to speak. Four years later, I am now doing a PhD. Of course, I was motivated. I still spend several hours a day trying to learn. In part, I was motivated because I was around people who were trying to do the same. That is my story.
Now, any situation can be true. Maybe you want the most perfect work-life balance. All the same principles apply. You must be with the right people, able to communicate and work together. Maybe the dream is to work three days a week, and previously you thought it would take several years to get there. You might get there in half that time, in the right place, with the right people, so it’s worth aiming for it.
Find the people, find the place, do the research, it’s worth it. You’re going to spend the majority of your life at work, so it is well worth trying to find the right place to spend it.
I am a clinician first, academic second. One thing I don’t like is not getting practical advice, so I hope I can add to this impossible question.
In closing, here is some more detail around what I would do differently:
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