Career growth is a step-by-step journey, built on resilience, clarity, and the ability to face challenges head-on - because success never happens overnight
In the new episode of ‘Diary of an oncology leader’, a video series produced under the ESMO Women for Oncology (W4O) initiative to inspire and empower the next generation of professionals, Prof. Jarushka Naidoo, Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre, Dublin, Ireland, and a member of the W4O Committee, engages in a dialogue with Dr Angela Lamarca, a gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine malignancies expert at the Fundacion Jimenez Diaz University Hospital in Madrid, Spain, and Chair of the ESMO Communication Committee as well as ESMO Press Officer.
What aspects of your work do you find most fulfilling, and how do you stay motivated and maintain that sense of purpose on a daily basis?
Maintaining an amount of work mixing clinical commitments and, in parallel, other professional roles like, for instance, those at ESMO or other associations, may be very challenging on a daily basis, because an individual cannot always be everywhere at the same time. What helps is to know where you want to get to, being resilient, not giving up and really going day by day. No one achieves a success overnight ever.
Some situations are sometimes perceived as obstacles and can lead to discouragement or giving up, but I think the most effective approach is to try and find a solution - there is always a way to overcome a problem. Also, it is crucial to understand what the problem truly is and the rationale behind it. At our institutions, we are all on the same boat; we all want to succeed. But sometimes we really have trouble identifying the other person's—or the other side's—point of view. So, spending some time understanding the problem and then trying to work together to find a solution are equally important in the problem-solving process.
Do you think there are specific barriers or issues that arise at specific stages of a career?
Many professionals share the same problems, regardless of what stage of their career they are at. What tends to vary is the severity of the repercussions. The techniques and skills you develop over time may follow the same style of problem-solving process, but they evolve to handle increasingly complex issues. So, I do not believe the problems themselves are fundamentally different; they may become just more complex as you progress in your career, but they often stem from very similar underlying causes.
Another really topical area is this idea of work-life balance, or, as I prefer to say, work-life integration. How do you manage both work and life responsibilities? Do you have any support that helps you navigate that?
We all have family and friends, and maintaining a good work-life balance is very challenging. We sometimes struggle to keep that balance, and it is common to find ourselves spending more time at work than at home. So, one thing I have learned is that work never ends, and nothing bad happens if you do not do something today. Prioritising between what is important and what is urgent – identifying what urgent tasks need to be done – is essential, as well as being able to multitask. By developing these two skills, you can protect your personal space because, as I said, work never ends, and if you do not save some time for yourself each day, no one will do it for you.
For example, I love listening to music, and since I came back to Madrid, I have spent a lot of time going to concerts. It is really good because you may have a long day at work, but later on there is always a little bit of time that you can spend for yourself.