In the ideal world, your specialty picks you. If you are paying attention, you will be pulled towards the specialty that fits you best. If the pull towards a particular specialty is very strong, you really shouldn’t ignore it.  Some of the most miserable doctors picked their specialty based on income, “lifestyle” or other “practical” issues…and then were miserable.

• The “pull” towards a specialty can be really strong or not so strong. So does one figure out what one should do if one doesn’t have a strong calling for a specific field of medicine?
• Most of us are either “surgical” or “medical” in the way we view our professional world.  It’s like the Yin-Yang symbol – the two halves that make up the whole.
• There is some “medicine” in every good surgeon and some “surgery” in every good internist or pediatrician.
• The first step in deciding on ones career is to decide where he fits on the medical-surgical spectrum.
• Most “surgical” specialties are general surgery, vascular surgery, cardiac surgery and trauma surgery while the most “medical” specialties are general pediatrics and internal medicine, as well as many of the subspecialties in pediatrics and medicine (e.g. nephrology, rheumatology, etc).
• There are surgical specialties that have more of a “medical” component (e.g. ophthalmology, ob-gyn) and medical specialties that have a significant “surgical” component (e.g. gastroenterology, invasive cardiology, interventional radiology).
• As one is exposed to specialties, think about where one fits on the “medical-surgical spectrum” and how wide ones “bandwidth” is i.e. is it a larger number of specialties that fit ones personality and talents, or is it really a relative limited number of specialties?
• The second step in thinking about ones future career is to decide if one wants to work with adults, children or both accordingly it will narrow the specialties one is considering.
• Practical issues are important to consider when one is choosing his specialty.
• Learn the technical skills needed in your specialty.  Physical talents may be the most obvious talent we think about, but there are other talents that play a role as well.
• It’s a good idea to consciously think about ones talent and ask people close to him to help him with this task.
• If one has a family to support choosing something that requires more years of training is problematic then his issue is going to be how much to let financial considerations affect his decision… without letting them totally drive the decision.
• Medicine – no matter what your specialty – is not “easy”.
• Every field has issues that will keep one up at night and working at times one wished he didn’t have to work.
• There are some that are worse than others, but don’t confuse “lifestyle” (i.e. the ability to have a balanced life and be happy) with an idea that your specialty will be “easy”.

Read More on http://wellnessrounds.org/choosing-your-specialty-or-sub-specialty/