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Pathways to Success:
Professional Development Throughout the Career-Span

Answering my office telephone was probably one of the most enjoyable (and bizarre) experiences after graduating from my doctoral program. I couldn’t help but laugh after I’d answer my office phone with my new and official greeting “Hello, Dr. Neel.” I actually had my husband call me again and again in attempts to desensitize myself to how ridiculous and foreign it felt to realize, “Yes, I’m a doctor…finally.” I know I struggled with Imposter Syndrome in the truest sense. In many ways, I was so proud of my accomplishments and the success of completing my doctoral training, but in other ways, it was a bit scary to own the title of “doctor.”

I opted for an official post-doctoral fellowship following my internship year. There was some comfort in the formality and structure such positions provided and, after being in school for 20-plus years…I guess I’d taken to formality and structure! I did find that, following internship, I continued to crave more training and specialization of my skills. And as I saw it, this year was one of the last golden opportunities to obtain formal supervision. For me, the position I accepted provided such opportunities. Even while completing internship, I began to see how liberating this post-doctoral / pre-licensure year would be. I found myself making choices that were solely based on MY goals, my agenda, and my priorities. No longer did I feel the pressure and tension that was so familiar from graduate school interviews and internship match day. No longer did I feel compelled to say, “yes” to every project that came my way just to build my vitae and expand my experiences. I’d hit a point where my goals were much more focused and I knew what would and would not be important in attaining them. I found that having this type of discussion with my supervisor clarified the responsibilities I would maintain on my fellowship.

This was one component of our mentoring relationship. And I saw such a relationship as a critical component to my fellowship year. I attempted to be an “active mentee” by clarifying my goals and seeking out training that my supervisor had to offer. For example, he had extensive experience in various clinical interventions I’d not yet been exposed to and was an excellent model and teacher of these clinical skills. But these aspects fell under the “supervisor” realm to me. What I was able to obtain from him as a mentor was much more important and valuable. And these “lessons” tended to come in more informal discussions over lunch, or as we walked together to and from meetings. These moments of mentoring provided me with opportunities to ask questions or hear his casual insights into various aspects of the profession. It tended to be during these moments that he’d give me his input on the dynamics of working in an academic medical setting, or on factors that were impacting the utility of services on our unit. It was during these times that I could ask him questions about salaries or balancing a professional career with a family. These were the critically important types of lessons that I learned and valued. These were the factors that transitioned our relationship from supervisory to mentoring.

This post-doctoral / pre-licensure year also seemed to be a “year of balance.” It was the first time since elementary school that I could go home and not think about homework. How liberating!!! And also a bit unsettling. I found early on that I didn’t really know what to do with myself. While I’d always thought that I’d maintained an adequate amount of self-care during my graduate training, I now found that I had time to pursue new interests or new hobbies, to take weekend trips or go to the theatre. And the best part of the deal was I now actually had the money to do it!! It became very freeing to have a job that I loved, but that was clearly “over” at 5:00 p.m. – after that, the rest of the day and weekends belonged to me.

That being said, I missed certain aspects of graduate school and the constant contact with multiple psychologists and professors. I found myself signing up for multiple list-serves and found them to stimulate that connectedness I was missing from my graduate program. The other thing I’ve attempted to do (and would encourage others to do) is become involved in the community of psychologists by joining state, national, and divisional psychological associations. This type of experience also provided me contact with others within the discipline and frequently provided opportunities for learning (another aspect of graduate school that I missed). Learning seemed to be an area where it was obvious I was not still a graduate student, but not quite a licensed psychologist. There were no more courses that were required for school, and continuing education credits were not yet required since I am not yet licensed. I did enjoy taking an occasional continuing education course that was of specific interest to me. Such experiences also offered the opportunities to network and further connect with other professionals with similar interests.

The last hurdle that seems to be of primary focus during the post-doctoral year is getting licensed…how could we not address this. I guess studying for licensure is the harder part. While everyone has different learning styles, I opted to go again with something more structured. I did buy one of the licensure review courses with written materials and cassette tapes (as did a group of my friends from graduate school). We attended the weekend review course together, which was a great opportunity to spend time with people I’d previously seen at least on a weekly basis. I think one of the hardest parts about getting licensed is that there’s no required “due date”…so it becomes WAY to easy to procrastinate. So use the behavioral principles you’ve learned about, and work in some contingencies and reinforcements to stay on top of the studying…it’s easy to let it get away from you.

Having said all this, this post-doctoral year is a great one. It’s a year of transition that allows YOU to take control of the reigns to your professional identity. A lot of hard work has gone into getting to this point. During this year, jump in and enjoy the ride.

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