Career by Choice — private 1:1 coaching for physicians
You don't need certainty. You need enough clarity to trust yourself to make the next decision.
A private, personalized coaching experience to help you make a career decision you can trust and be excited about.
when success no longer tells the whole story
You're successful, respected, and genuinely good at what you do — but you still sense that something no longer fits.
Maybe you’ve been thinking about a change for months.
Or closer to years.
Or perhaps circumstances have changed and you're suddenly facing a career decision you weren't expecting to make.
You’ve made the lists. Talked it through with people you trust. Searched job boards to see what else is out there.
Read about physicians who have made career changes.
Perhaps you’ve even applied for a position or two — only to find yourself wondering whether you're really excited about the opportunity you’re pursuing, or just believe it's the thing that people have said is easiest to transition in to.
And still, the same questions keep circling:
Should I stay? Should I leave? Am I expecting too much? What would I even do instead? What if I make the wrong decision?
The problem isn’t that you haven’t thought about this enough. You may have been trying to think your way to certainty before giving yourself permission to fully explore what you want.
When every possibility immediately has to pass the tests of practicality, income, identity, family expectations, training, and “But I’ve invested so much in getting here,” possibilities get eliminated before you’ve had the chance to understand them.
And when the stakes feel this high, more thinking doesn’t necessarily create more clarity. Sometimes it just creates more noise.
You don't have to wait until work becomes intolerable, until you're burned out, or until you have a perfect next plan before you're allowed to reconsider your career options.
A successful career can still be one you've outgrown. That persistent feeling isn't a failure of gratitude or grit — it's information. And you're allowed to listen to it and decide what comes next on your own terms.
What this is
Career by Choice gives you a different way to make the decision.
Over three to six months, you’ll have dedicated space to step away from the noise, get curious about what you really want, and make thoughtful decisions about what comes next.
You won’t be pushed toward any particular path. The work is centered on helping you understand your options and find the answer that fits you.
Space to hear yourself think
Step away from expectations, obligations, and everyone else’s opinions long enough to hear your own. This is a place to explore what you want without having to justify it—or act on it before you’re ready.
Permission to explore what’s possible
Considering an option doesn’t mean committing to it. You can question assumptions, explore possibilities, and discover choices you may not have allowed yourself to consider before.
Support to make a decision you can trust
You don’t need perfect certainty before you move forward. You’ll learn to evaluate your options, understand the tradeoffs, and trust your judgment about what fits this season of your life.
The goal is a choice you can trust —
one that fits who you are, what matters to you, and the life you want to live now.
The measure of good work here isn't a dramatic change. It's the confidence of knowing you chose, deliberately, in line with what matters to you now.
Schedule a private career consultationThe approach
Three stages to help you find enough clarity to make a decision you can trust.
Clarify
What matters now. What's no longer working. What you want your work and life to make possible — named plainly, without having to justify it.
Consider
Explore possibilities, question assumptions, and understand the tradeoffs — because considering a potential path isn't the same as committing to it. This is where options you may not have allowed yourself to consider before can come into view.
Commit
Make a decision that supports what matters to you in this season, then determine what moving forward looks like — with enough clarity to trust your judgment even when you can’t know exactly how everything will unfold.
About Dr. Michelle Bailey
You don't have to figure this out alone
I'm Dr. Michelle Bailey—a physician, certified coach, and physician executive who understands career crossroads from both sides of the conversation. After a 20-year career in academic pediatrics, I made my own transition into a nonclinical career.
Today, I help physicians create the space to think clearly about what they want next—without assuming there is one "right" path or that they should already know the answer.
My role isn't to tell you what to do. It's to help you hear yourself think, challenge the assumptions that may be limiting your choices, and trust yourself to make a decision that supports what matters to you now.
The program
What working together looks like
A personalized coaching partnership designed to give you the space, structure, and support to make your next career decision thoughtfully.
Who it's not for: If you're looking for a quick answer, a résumé service, or someone to make the decision for you, this isn't the right fit. Career by Choice is for physicians who want to engage thoughtfully in the process of deciding what comes next.
- A 3- or 6-month private 1:1 engagementWe’ll decide together which length of support best fits your specific situation and goals. Investment starts at $4,500; payment plans are available..
- A private space for honest reflection Your coaching conversations are private, giving you room to explore possibilities, concerns, and questions you may not be ready to discuss elsewhere.
- Personalized sessionsOur sessions are shaped around your specific situation, questions, and goals. There’s no fixed curriculum or predetermined path—we’ll focus on what will be most useful to you at each stage of the process.
- Support between sessionsQuestions and decisions don’t always arise during a scheduled session. You’ll have access to me between sessions for brief coaching, questions, and support as you put what we’re working on into practice.
- Begins with a private career consultationA conversation first, to see whether this is genuinely the right fit before anything else.
You don't have to have it figured out to begin.
Start with a conversation. We'll explore what you're navigating and whether Career by Choice is the right next step for you.
Schedule a private career consultation