How big of a disadvantage doing research in non field of interest summer M1?

[PatchAdams25]

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I committed to doing research in a surgical subspecialty that at the time I thought I was interested in; however, the more I shadowed it over the year the more I realized it was not for me. I received a grant to do research over the summer in the field and it should end up being pretty productive, but I am slapping myself for committing to this research so early and now I can not do research in the other field where I know I am interested in.

How big of a disadvantage will this be??

Field I am doing research in is Ortho and field I wish I was doing research in is Optho

 

[LoGo]

Normally I'd say it doesn't matter, but the two disciplines you were looking at (ortho and ophtho) are both fairly competitive. Since you have a grant (yay money), and the summer is underway, I'd continue the ortho research and meanwhile start building connections in ophtho so you can roll with that starting in September/October. Even offer to help with a case report or review article this summer - that's not too involved. Yes, you''ll be working harder than if you were just doing ortho research alone, but such is the cost for hedging your bet and aiming for competitive specialties. You will have some catching up to do in terms of connections, but you're not too far behind. This will mean careful planning for step while balancing research.

 

[FlameGrilledChicken]

So hearing from alot of others it sounds like what's most important is showing productivity during research. It's nice if its in the field you want since you can build connections and potentially help spread your name around but I think most would agree productivity is the #1 metric of how well your time was spent doing research and will help regardless of the field.

 

[PatchAdams25]

So hearing from alot of others it sounds like what's most important is showing productivity during research. It's nice if its in the field you want since you can build connections and potentially help spread your name around but I think most would agree productivity is the #1 metric of how well your time was spent doing research and will help regardless of the field.

Yeah I thought that productivity is really all that matters, but the more and more I hear about how competitive the surgical subspecialties are the more it psyches me out about not having the whole "pick one and gun for it from the start of M1" mentality.