July 18, 2024 • 39 mins
#059 Ever wondered how to successfully transfer your skills as a rehab professional into the MedTech space? Growing up in Central Jersey, Yera was initially drawn to physical therapy. However, struggling with the increasing demands of her job and witnessing issues within the healthcare system during her mother's health crisis, she sought a path that better aligned with the flexibility she desired and her career aspirations.
In this episode, you will learn what MedTech is, how your skills as a rehab professional can be transferred into this crowded space, how Yera navigated this journey into the MedTech space, and what her current role as a senior performance manager at Exos consists of.
Transitioning into medtech might be overwhelming but Yera gives us practical strategies for tailoring your resume and enhancing your skills. Upskilling, embracing change, overcoming imposter syndrome, and leveraging transferable skills are key elements in navigating this career transition successfully. Tune in if you are looking to navigate a successful career pivot into the MedTech space.
For links and show notes, head to: https://rehabrebels.org/059
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:01):
Welcome to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
Are you a rehab professionalready to transition to an
alternative career?
Hear inspiring stories fromothers just like you and learn
the best ways to bridge yourcareer gap.
This podcast has you covered.
Now here's your host, doctor ofphysical therapy and podcaster,
Tanner Welsh.
Tanner Welsch (00:21):
Welcome back to another Rehab Rebel episode.
Welcome back to another RehabRebel episode.
In this episode, we're going tointerview Yira about
transitioning into the medtechspace and her journey and
transition to this new medtech,what it is, how she navigated it
, and go a bit deeper into herjourney.
(00:44):
So a little bit about her.
She's from Central Jersey yes,it exists.
So you've lived in New YorkCity for 10 years now and then
went to physical therapy schoolat NYU, and I'm currently
working as a senior performancemanager at Exos.
That's exciting.
A summary of what we're aboutto get into.
The takeaway for thisparticular episode is that
(01:06):
recognizing when something isn'tquite right in our careers is
the first step towards positivechange.
It's crucial to listen to ourinstincts and be open to
exploring alternative paths thatalign better with our passions
and goals.
Embracing change, overcomingimposter syndrome and leveraging
transferable skills are keyelements in navigating career
(01:26):
transition successfully.
So, with all that, welcome tothis show, yira.
Yera Patel (01:31):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
I'm really excited to be here.
Tanner Welsch (01:35):
Yeah, me too.
I'm excited to dive into thiswith you, and let's just go to
the bio first and just get thisknocked out.
The Central Jersey yes, itexists.
What's this about?
Yera Patel (01:44):
Tell us and just get this knocked out.
The Central Jersey, yes, itexists.
What's this about?
Tell us, yeah, you know, we'reour own unique experience in
Central Jersey, and people tryto act like there's only a North
Jersey and a South Jersey.
No, there's a Central Jersey.
We are real.
It's not just about cork rollsand Taylor hams, but Central
Jersey, we've got our own littlebubble.
You know we go to New Yorksometimes, we.
(02:05):
But Central Jersey, we've gotour own little bubble.
You know we go to New Yorksometimes.
We also go to Philly.
Some people support the Giants,some people support the Eagles,
and so I like to rep CentralJersey because that's where I
grew up and I believe we're real.
Tanner Welsch (02:14):
Get it straight guys.
Yera Patel (02:16):
Thank you.
That's really the purpose ofthis podcast.
I think, now that we'veestablished that, you know we're
good, we're good that you knowwe're good, we're good, Perfect.
Tanner Welsch (02:27):
So what made you?
Yera Patel (02:28):
decide to become a rehab professional in the first
place.
My mom is a nurse, as well asmy sister, so we always grew up
in a house where health care waswas there.
It was an industry we knew wewanted to explore Growing up.
I love the security and, youknow, the aspect of being able
to help people and be therethroughout their healing process
.
So I explored various routes,whether it be, you know,
(02:49):
medicine or pharmacy, andeverything that I dipped my foot
into.
With medicine, you know, I feltyou weren't really able to get
to know the patient and thatfrustrated me.
It was a lot of ins and outsand negotiating with insurance
companies, which we do in PT aswell.
I've learned now, but I waslooking for more of this
connection with patients andwhen I did end up shadowing a
(03:12):
physical therapist, it wasreally cool to see that you know
PTs see patients two to threetimes a week for an hour and you
really get to know the personon a deeper level, and I
appreciated that about physicaltherapy.
So once I started to reallylearn more about it, I knew that
was the field that I wanted toget into.
Tanner Welsch (03:32):
That's actually similar to what happened to me
as well.
I went out and tried somedifferent professions and
shouted them, and then one Iactually didn't think about was
physical therapy.
It was like one of the lastones and I went and checked it
out and I was man.
This seems really practical andI'm digging this.
This is great.
What were some of the first?
Maybe a first sense ofawareness that things weren't
quite right with the traditionalyou know, rehab career path
(03:55):
that you were going down.
Yera Patel (03:57):
There was a certain change we were experiencing at
one of the larger hospitalsystems in New York I was
working at and things weregetting a lot more saturated.
Our schedules were, you know,maybe before there was a
30-minute block and you wereable to cash up on documentation
or talk to your co-workers, and, with the clinic being so
(04:18):
backloaded, we were just gettingpatient after patient after
patient and there was no morebreaks in the day.
It became really frustratingwhere, even if there was a sick
day or, for instance, I had anemergency in my life where my
mom was in the ICU for a coupleof weeks and we found out that
she needed this emergent surgeryclose to two weeks before.
(04:40):
So I go to my supervisor, Ineed to clear out my schedule.
I can't be at work these twocouple of weeks.
I'm going to be in Philly withmy mom at the hospital, and the
protocol at that time was to beable to call every patient.
You had to call each and everyperson and say, hey, I can't
come to work because of Xreasons or whatever reasons or
(05:00):
whatever.
And so I start calling mypatients and clearing my
schedule for the week andliterally there's 12 people a
day, right.
So I'm calling a person andsaying, hey, I can't come.
And people were frustratedrightfully so.
They had waited for anappointment for months and now
for me to cancel when one of thepatients was dealing with a
concussion and they were soeager to get in there.
But it was also sodisheartening for me as a
(05:22):
clinician because at the sametime I just knew I was trying to
be there for my mom and I hadpeople crying on the phone.
I'm feeling guilt and I'mfeeling this system has to work
in a better way.
This can't be it.
And it was just so challengingfor me to navigate that.
And then, you know,simultaneously, about a month
and a half later, I'm inCalifornia with my sister who
(05:43):
had transitioned into med tech,the field that I'm in now, and I
see her working from home,driving this impact.
She was in sales and hadlearned so many new skills and I
looked at that and I was likeyou know what?
I think I got to make a change.
I still cared a lot abouthealth care I still do, you know
but I needed to make an impactin a different realm and I
(06:04):
didn't think the hospital systemand clinical care was really
suiting me anymore.
Tanner Welsch (06:10):
For sure.
Just want to clarify a coupleof things.
Were you in an inpatienthospital setting and they made
you call all the patients intheir rooms and tell them that
you weren't coming?
Yera Patel (06:23):
That would have been really insane.
No, no, thankfully it wasn'toutpatient then.
But, you know, affiliated witha really well-established
hospital in New York and theyhad an intake vet who scheduled
appointments.
But in all honesty, they werejust so overloaded.
We had a team of 45 cliniciansso intake staff couldn't even
take up this task anymore, so itwas outpatient orthopedics.
(06:45):
But I would call each and everypatient and say, hey, we are
canceling this appointment.
Let me try to find another sloton somebody else's schedule.
But, mind you, you know, Ithink people who don't work in
health care don't recognize thatthis is all extra time that
clinicians stay after work to doright.
You don't have admin timeblocked into your schedule.
There's no flexibility.
(07:06):
So I'm coming in two hoursearly to work to be able to call
patients and you're stillstaying and working your shift,
now being on the other side.
I think these are realitiesthat people don't recognize.
In healthcare there's so muchthat you're just doing outside
of your shift to stay afloat.
Tanner Welsch (07:23):
Yeah, it's something that isn't right.
People should get compensatedfor their time and we're just
getting taken advantage of mostof the time.
Medtech define medtech in thismedtech space, or what is all
that?
Yera Patel (07:36):
I'm in the corporate wellness tech space right now,
but there's a lot going on inmedtech.
So COVID, I think, was a hugecatalyst for us in healthcare,
where a lot of hospital systems,including the one that I was at
, shifted to telehealth veryquickly.
And it was really interestingbecause we recognized in COVID
(07:57):
that, though we probably had thetechnology and the
infrastructure to make thesechanges, it hadn't happened
right Until we had this massivecatalyst to do so.
It hadn't happened right untilwe had this massive catalyst to
do so.
So during that time, I think wesaw a lot of health tech and
med tech companies opening up asthese point solutions to plug
and play these issues that wewere having in health care,
whether it was patient access orsocioeconomic barriers to
(08:21):
health or specific issues likedealing with women's fertility,
and all of these really pointsolutions within health care.
And so what's exciting withthat is, I think, that there's a
lot of room for health carepractitioners to transition into
these roles and perhaps learnnew skills and contribute to
health care innovation in uniqueways.
But it's tricky because a lotopened up and not everything is
(08:45):
effective.
You know you can't always plugand play point solutions without
the evidence to back up thatthey're working and they're
effective.
I personally work at Google,actually through the company I'm
at Exos, which has a vendorrelationship with various
corporate entities, and wemanage their health and wellness
(09:05):
offerings at those companies.
So I'm on the Google account inNew York City.
Specifically, there's fitnessvenues in each and every Google
office.
We plan larger communityoffering like 5Ks for the Google
community.
We have personal training thatwe offer.
There's a lot of really coolstuff, especially in tech.
You know, I think they try toinvest in employee health and so
(09:28):
my company, exos, we navigatethose program offerings.
Tanner Welsch (09:31):
And since we're diving into that, is a lot of
what you do virtual informationor do you guys within your
company also do personaltraining?
So do you have personaltrainers that are actually on
site helping people with theirfitness?
Yera Patel (09:44):
Yeah, so it's actually fully on site.
Google has close to maybe eightbuildings in New York and at
least three of them have staffedfitness sites within the
building.
We've got on-site coaches andpractitioners that are there
delivering personal trainingclasses, practitioners that are
(10:07):
there delivering personaltraining classes, and they are
also involved in the largerwellness programs that we offer,
whether it be global eventslike 5Ks and push-up and squat
challenges and all of thesethings.
But it's fully on site andthere's an option to do so
virtually, but a lot of peoplereally interact with the
practitioners and the fitnessvenues right there at work,
which is really cool.
Tanner Welsch (10:30):
That is cool.
Did you start in the seniorperformance manager role, or
what was your initial step into?
Yera Patel (10:32):
EXOS.
I did start in the managementrole.
I was working as a physicaltherapist before but there was a
lot I was involved in with oursports performance center at the
hospital, involved inorganization of that, and being
able to be involved in with oursports performance center at the
hospital, involved inorganization of that, and being
able to be involved in clinicaleducation, was really helpful.
So I think there were so manytranslatable skills that when I
(10:53):
was interviewing for thisposition I was able to really
leverage that as well to be ableto make the transition and
that's huge.
I think a lot of times when weI'm sure you see this speaking
to so many clinicians, we don'trealize how much diverse skills
that we have in clinical careand that's translatable to other
fields.
And I think all of the verbiagewhen we look at job roles are
(11:15):
so overwhelming.
It's like stakeholdermanagement and customer success
and what are all these wordsmean.
But we're doing a lot of thaton a day to day.
So a lot of what I was doingwas so translatable.
It was just being able toreally understand that language
and the vocabulary to speak toit.
Tanner Welsch (11:33):
For sure.
What would you say are theskills that we learn in the
rehab profession that you'reactually using?
I mean, they just transfer overdirectly in this senior
performance manager role.
Yera Patel (11:46):
Oh, wow.
There's just so many Workingwith patients on a daily basis.
When we're seeing 12 patients aday with so many diverse
backgrounds and experiences andconnecting with those people,
that's, in many ways,stakeholder management, right?
Your patients are yourstakeholders and you're having
to adapt and learn where they'recoming from and be able to
(12:08):
create programs that resonatewith them.
And that's customer success aswell, right?
Who knows customer successbetter than clinicians when we
have to work under constraintsand still deliver this optimal
experience to every patient?
So that was so easy to translateinto this role.
You know, it just feltintuitive because we were doing
it all the time.
(12:28):
For project management skills,I mean juggling 12 patients and
then 30 minutes of doc timewriting notes for 12 patients
while filling out documentationforms, calling a patient if you
need additional information, allof these things documentation
forms, calling a patient if youneed additional information, all
of these things, juggling thosetasks and the level of
(12:51):
organization that you need.
We do that on a daily basis,and so that was really easily
translatable as well.
Just learning the verbiage.
Of course, learning how tocreate Gantt charts and learning
the you know, vocabulary wasimportant, but it was easily
translatable in terms of youknow what we were doing really
is a lot of what you're doing inthose project management roles
as well.
Tanner Welsch (13:07):
For sure.
I want to dive in more intothis, definitely around how you
landed this role and found thisrole.
But let's back up first and getback into was there a specific
moment that you realized thatyou know this traditional rehab
path wasn't for you, or adecisive moment?
Ok, this happened.
Now I'm going to go dosomething different.
Yera Patel (13:28):
I don't know if it was a decisive moment.
I wish I had that because Ifeel like it would make for a
much better story, you know.
But I think it was more of aslow burn of moments of stress,
with taking care of my familyand feeling my job wasn't able
to fully support that, or nothaving the flexibility to make
(13:49):
my own schedule, and there wereso many little things that I
think caught up with me.
It was more just slowfrustration, you know, of
wanting to be able to learn newskills and try new things, and I
felt I was stuck in my role andI think that's important to
note because oftentimes, nowthat I've left, people assume
(14:09):
that I experienced burnout right, everyone's.
Oh, you were burnt out.
That's why you left health care.
It's such an awful field rightnow.
It's not taking care of itsclinicians and I wouldn't even
say it was burnout till the lastday.
I did enjoy what I was doingand I loved health care.
I think I was more frustratedby the lack of lateral mobility
(14:30):
and diverse experiences.
Clinical care was great, but Iwanted to be able to learn new
things and try new things and Ifelt I wasn't suited to do that
in my role anymore, Absolutely.
Tanner Welsch (14:41):
How did you land on this med tech space the tech
side of health?
Did you explore otheralternative categories of where
you could take your career?
Why this specific med techthing?
Yera Patel (15:05):
that were coming out during COVID.
So I always had a pulse on thatwhen I was in the hospital
system of hey, you know what arepeople doing to innovate in the
healthcare space, and so Idon't know if I really
considered anything outside ofthat.
You know, I think I looked atjob postings and was curious,
but I really was alwayschanneled in the med tech world.
There was a couple of people Iwas following on LinkedIn that
would post new jobs that hadopened up weekly, and this one
(15:27):
came up in corporate wellnesswith Exos, and I had heard of
Exos before because theyactually have physical therapy
offerings and on-site clinics.
The job role no information.
It didn't say Google, it didn'tsay anything regarding the
specifics of what I was doing,but I was like, hey, let me just
interview you Diversely, I'llget experience.
Interviewing is hard.
And then, once I learned moreabout the job, I thought, hey,
(15:50):
this is actually pretty cool andI'll be able to learn new
things, which I am.
We're opening a new site, newGoogle building, in about a
month, and I've been involved inmanaging the success of that,
which is a totally newexperience.
It wasn't very deliberate.
I do feel like I just landed onsomething.
So it was a mix of luck andconsistent job searching, and
(16:11):
here we are.
Tanner Welsch (16:12):
That's cool, the finding the medtech jobs.
So let's say somebody'sinterested in exploring other
medtech possible careeropportunities or job openings.
What are some helpful websites?
What are maybe some keywordsthat can help them navigate that
specific niche of alternativecareers?
Yera Patel (16:32):
LinkedIn is a great resource and you have to use it
properly.
Really, being able to networkthrough LinkedIn is huge because
, when it comes time to searchfor these jobs, having those
connections and having referralsis really, really beneficial to
actually talk to someone andinterview so LinkedIn jobs.
You know they're always postingthings up there, which is great,
(16:54):
but even I think expandingbeyond that is also important,
because a lot of that contentcan be promoted.
So you'll see a job that's beenposted there a month ago but
it's still on the top of yourlist, right.
So, those people that areinterested in med tech, there's
also a lot of really coolwebsites built in.
You know NYC, for instance, hashealth tech postings that they
(17:15):
post new roles that opened upwithin the day or within the
last week and you can learn moreabout those companies and
channel it according to whatyour interests are, whether it
be customer success or analyticsor DevOps.
That's a really great resourceas well that I found that I've
always kept an eye on, but Iwould say time is of the essence
with it.
It's a tough job market.
So if you see something you'reexcited about, take a chance,
(17:38):
apply, maybe network and messagesomeone that you know is at the
company and try to learn moreor get a referral in there.
But networking goes a really,really long way when you're
trying to make a pivot.
Tanner Welsch (17:50):
Would you say it's fair to say that was
actually pivotal or necessary inyou landing this role Was the
networking that you did and theconnections that you made and
all that.
Yera Patel (18:02):
I would say so 100%.
I learned really quickly when Iwas pivoting that it was a
saturated market this podcast isevidence of that that there are
a lot of clinicians out therethat we are excited and looking
to do and try new things as well.
So it was hard.
I was applying to a lot ofthings really broadly and not
(18:23):
hearing back for a very longtime, and what I learned is that
networking was really the key,you know.
So I started inbox messagingpeople on LinkedIn.
You know I would apply to a joband then I would find a
counterpart role and connect andsometimes people don't respond.
Other times people are reallygenerous and offer to speak with
you on the phone, you know, andthen would put a referral for
(18:46):
you.
I will say, every interviewthat I actually had without fail
was because I got a referral orhad connected with someone
personally that was able to putin a good word or talk to their
hiring manager.
But just broadly applyingthrough these websites and
getting filtered through the ATS, it was tricky.
I didn't really have luck thatway and landing my current role
(19:09):
actually is funny.
I ended up finding acounterpart position, another
performance manager on the teamat Exos and I guessed his
corporate email about why I'd bea good fit and attached my
(19:32):
resume and it landed on hisinbox.
He forwarded it to who is nowmy current manager and they
interviewed me and that's how Ilanded here.
But if I was just sitting in arecruiter's inbox with 200 other
applicants, would I have beenhere?
I don't know, you know.
So I do think networking ishuge and getting really scrappy
about it.
You know cold email people, butit's effective to really be
(19:53):
able to connect and land theinterviews that you want.
Tanner Welsch (19:56):
I was thinking about the same thing.
You know sending out these coldemails and we actually talk and
touch on this in episode 25with Adam and talk about coffee
chats is, I think, what we callthem in that episode where you
reach out to people on LinkedInor you know social networks and
really just try to drum upconversation about you, the role
(20:17):
that you're interested in and,again, like you mentioned, why
you'd be a good fit, or justtalk more about the company show
you're interested and yeah itseems to really move the needle
to landing positions like this.
Yera Patel (20:29):
Yeah, and it just motivates you.
Every conversation I had withsomeone in that space it was so
great to understand why they hadmoved into that sphere and why
they wanted to drive innovationin health care, and it's really
motivating in a job search to beable to talk to people like
that and learn about whatinspires them, because searching
(20:51):
for a new job can be soulcrushing in all honesty.
You know so.
People will try so hard topivot and they get discouraged
when they've applied to a coupleof things and don't hear back.
But those connections canreally go a long way and it's
great to hear people's stories.
Tanner Welsch (21:06):
How many applications did you put out,
would you say, or how many jobsdid you apply for within this
med tech space before youactually were getting interviews
back, and then you landed thisjob that you have now?
Yera Patel (21:19):
Oh, tanner, I don't even know how to answer that
question.
I mean, we're probably talkinghundreds.
At first, I had such abeautiful little spreadsheet of
this is the company I applied to.
This is the pros and the cons,and I was doing such deep
research into companies that Iwas interested in, and then I
just gave up on that processbecause I was well, this is
(21:41):
taking up a lot of time and I'mnot always hearing back.
I would say once I reallystarted being able to network
better, it was a much highersuccess rate of getting
interviews and even figuring outif I wanted the job, but it was
.
It was a journey, though Iwould say we're probably talking
hundreds of applications, butit lands.
You know, I think that's theway the job market is right now,
(22:01):
which is tough.
Tanner Welsch (22:03):
For sure.
I had to ask because I rememberin episode 25, where we talk
about an alternative tech careerpath, adam was saying he
applied to hundreds also, andthis is common within this
particular space.
That's just what applicants doand what you have to do and do
this networking if you'reactually going to get an
interview and have a real shotat landing one of these jobs.
(22:25):
So that's wild.
What was the time frame betweenstarting to apply to these jobs
to actually landing the currentrole that you're in?
Yera Patel (22:34):
Close to a year I mentioned going out to Talley
and being with my sister andwatching her work remote.
That was September, I remember,of that year, and then it was
close till August of the nextyear, at which I had
transitioned into the newposition here at XO.
So it took a long time, and Ifeel like I created a playbook
that I haven't put on paper yet,except, you know, emails to
(22:57):
people that asked.
But a couple of months was justapplying and not even tweaking
my resume right, just applyingwith the resume I had for
clinical jobs, which got menowhere.
So at first it just made nosense.
Looking back then you learn howto really fine tune your resume,
which is also huge.
All of that clinical experience, though it's great and you're
(23:17):
so proud of it, maybe it's notas relevant when you're
translating into different jobroles.
So it took close to a year, butit was worth it, because I
think now, even when peoplereach out and ask for advice,
I'm able to give them abreakdown of.
This is how you can tailor yourresume.
This is how you startnetworking efficiently.
That journey was really helpful.
Tanner Welsch (23:38):
There's a couple of things that you mentioned.
I think that really helped you.
It was the interviewing that'scome up several times, and then
catering your resume.
Let's say somebody is wantingto go down the path that you did
, this med tech path, and theywant to improve.
We'll start with the resume.
They want to improve theirresume to cater towards the med
tech role or job that they'rewanting to do.
(23:59):
What would you recommend and oris there any resources that you
found super helpful to be ableto accomplish this goal?
Yera Patel (24:08):
I did upskilling a lot initially and I think that
was the first step.
I took project managementcourses.
I took one through Villanovawhich was close to six months
long, but it was helpful because, in all honesty, I was also
able to understand the job rolesa lot more Initially in the
search.
You know, I'm looking onlineand I'm what do these positions
(24:30):
even mean?
I think learning the verbiagewas really helpful and learning
to how to be able to organizethings in a better way.
So I did, you know, upscalingon my own with that.
I took a couple of UX coursesto learn the user experience and
help tech, because a lot ofcompanies you know are in the
product space.
So I wanted to be able tounderstand that mentality of how
(24:51):
they're navigating thosechanges.
But initially, I would say, withthe resume, it was really
important to be able totranslate clinical skills into
skills that make sense whenyou're applying to these roles.
So again, if you're treating 12patients a day, that's great,
but how are you really beingable to engage with customers?
How are you connecting withcustomers in a way that makes
(25:12):
sense and don't lie?
But definitely translatelanguage-wise is important
because, just like we don'tunderstand, perhaps, project
management language initially.
Similarly, when we're talkingabout healthcare and EMR and
documentation that doesn't landto somebody in health tech
that's not a clinician, andwherever you can to make it
(25:33):
quantifiable with metrics ofthis is the impact I made you
know, and it's so clear on paperto see why you would be a good
fit for that role.
So changing that language isimportant, making it
quantifiable and changing theorder of things.
You know the amount of timespeople have shown me a resume
and their education is the firstthing at the top.
(25:55):
But they graduated 10 years agoand they've got such awesome
experience after.
Put that at the top, reorderthings because, honestly, most
often a recruiter is looking atyour resume or hiring manager
and in 10 seconds maybe less,maybe three seconds, right
they're deciding if they shouldeven email and interview you.
Those things, I think, arereally important.
Tanner Welsch (26:18):
For sure and I love hearing about you really
learned new skills and took newcoursework to be a better fit
for this particular the med techspace, with project management
courses and then the UX courses.
I think that's awesome.
Were there any other coursesthat you know you took or you
felt that you really needed totake to be able to, you know,
maybe up to speed or qualify forsome of these med tech roles?
Yera Patel (26:41):
Yeah, definitely.
I like learning a lot and tothe point that I could enjoy
just spending an evening onCoursera hours just learning new
things, and it's something Ienjoy.
So sometimes I have to actuallyput a block on myself to say,
ok, this is enough for today.
Now I have the luxury of $5,000Con Ed through ATSOS yearly,
(27:03):
which is huge, you know, andthat's a big blessing because in
healthcare oftentimes we don'thave a budget that large.
So since then, you know, I'vetaken product management courses
to really understand productroadmaps better and how to
successfully launch new products.
That's been really helpful.
I've taken coursework onCoursera, which has been really
(27:24):
helpful, about healthcareanalytics and now AI in
healthcare to see what thatimpact is like and how those
initiatives are made, and it'sreally interesting.
So I would say when I waslooking for a job, it was tricky
because upskilling is expensive.
So I had to be reallyparticular about what I wanted
to put my money towards andthat's why I chose that
(27:44):
Villanova course.
But there's a lot out there.
It doesn't always have to be acourse that you spend a lot of
money on and put on your resume,even if you're just taking a
free YouTube course and learninglanguage and learning the
concepts to be able to reallyspeak to it and apply it.
That's powerful as well.
Tanner Welsch (28:02):
For sure, upscaling.
You keep saying upscaling.
Yera Patel (28:26):
I am not familiar with what upscaling is.
Can you tell us to upskill inthe position to be able to take
coursework or to learn, you know, new things, to then deliver in
that new capacity?
So we're doing it all the time,and I remember one day I came
to work and I had a TMJ patienton my schedule.
I never treated TMJ before andall I remembered from preschool
(28:48):
was a little bit about a discand oh, I don't really know how
to diagnose this though.
So even that week I rememberupskilling, but it's just really
a term of just learning new,new thing that you need for your
position.
Tanner Welsch (29:00):
Thanks for explaining that.
The interviewing part we youknow, mentioned the resume and
then this additional coursework.
What were some things that werereally helpful for improving
your interview skills?
And maybe even falls into thesame category as networking with
some of these employees or thecompanies you're applying to, or
is there any courses you did onthat, or mock interviews, or
(29:23):
how did you improve your skillsthere?
Yera Patel (29:25):
Interviewing itself was huge practice, even roles
that maybe I wasn't super keenon.
If I got an interview, I wouldtake it always, because you
never know what questions aregoing to be asked and any
opportunity you have tointerview is practice, even if
you're not in love with the job.
So I remember one time I wenton an interview, which is just
(29:45):
funny.
So I remember one time I wenton an interview which is just
funny I was asked to explain 10different ways to make the
process of making a pizza andthen getting it delivered to the
customer faster, so making itmore efficient On the spot.
I'm sitting there, moredelivery drivers, you know, more
ovens, whatever, but it's funny.
You never know what they'regoing to ask you right, but
being prepared and interviewingitself is a huge skill.
(30:07):
You never know what they'regoing to ask you right, but
being prepared and interviewingitself is a huge skill.
Beyond that, it was helpful tojust take courses and learn.
A little hack that I reallyliked was you often get
situational questions ofdescribe a time that you were
involved in process improvement,for instance, and a framework
that I really loved was the STARframework.
So when you're answering aninterview question, you start by
(30:28):
describing the situation or thescenario in detail of what you
were involved in.
Hey, this is the problem athand.
We needed to improve our EMRsystem and people were
documenting for way too long foran initial eval.
And then you move into the T ofSTAR of the task.
You know, what did you do?
What were the actual thingsthat you were able to outline to
(30:49):
address?
A is action how did you actupon it?
And then R is the result.
So what was the result?
But it was really interestingto learn those things because I
think before I was going inblind, didn't know what would be
asked and I was often justbabbling.
One guy I really liked wasAndrew DeCevita.
I think he's got a YouTubechannel that I really liked and
talked a lot about interviewskills.
(31:11):
But it was helpful to learnthose frameworks.
Tanner Welsch (31:14):
Yeah, like a structure, a template, to be
prepared for the actualinterview.
For sure, we've talked about, Ithink, some struggles and
transitions throughout ourconversation, but I just wanted
to open it up and ask what was apersonal struggle that you went
through going through thistransition into this alternative
career space, and how did youovercome it?
(31:34):
Because I imagine there'sprobably a few different
barriers that you had to getthrough to be able to actually
go from treating in a clinic,one-on-one with patients, to
getting to where you are now.
So what's something that reallycomes to mind and you feel
would really resonate withothers that are trying to do
what you have done?
Yera Patel (31:52):
It's not much of a practical thing, but fear was
just huge for me, and I know wetouched upon discussing imposter
syndrome, but for me that was ahuge barrier of just feeling I
was applying to positions orinterviewing and not feeling I
was up to par or, as a clinician, I had the experiences that
(32:14):
would make sense for it.
And sometimes it feels the jobsearch process itself reaffirmed
that for you, because you getso many denials or sometimes
rejections literally hours afteryou applied and you're like, oh
my gosh, I just sent thisapplication in, how could you
reject me this quickly?
So it's a tough process and Ithink at times it just starts to
(32:37):
be something you internalize ofOK, you know, I'm just not
equipped.
There's so many people outthere that are more equipped for
this position than I am, thathave MBAs and advanced degrees.
Why am I even trying?
And so I think the fear offailure and imposter syndrome
was really difficult.
But getting over that andframing everything as a growth
(32:58):
opportunity was so much betterfor my success in landing the
role that I wanted, but alsojust being able to persevere and
have the energy to.
So when I failed at aninterview and when I got a
rejection letter, sometimesafter five, six rounds of
interviews.
There was one position that Ireally cared about six rounds of
interviews and prep and timeand I got a rejection afterwards
(33:20):
for that role.
I allowed myself to wallow.
You know you're allowed to feelOK, maybe it's not going to
happen.
And then a couple of days laterit was just OK.
What did I learn?
What questions from thatinterview were things that I
tripped up on a little bit.
You know that I could improvethe answer for next time.
What is the growth that comesfrom this?
And you get better.
Every interview, practicalthing that helped me in the
(33:46):
journey.
But really just tackling thatfear and maybe when you feel
uncomfortable, do it.
You know that probably meansthat you're going to grow from
that experience.
Tanner Welsch (33:55):
What do you think helped you get over that fear
and overcome that impostersyndrome?
Yera Patel (34:00):
Just continuing to run towards that feeling of
discomfort.
It's so counterintuitive and wedon't want to do that, but
anytime I felt that feeling ofthose butterflies or that
discomfort, I'm okay, I have todo this, and it went to the
extreme.
You know it's funny.
Last year, after I got the jobI really want to just tackle
(34:21):
this in multiple realms I did anopen mic.
You know, I grew up singing, Iwas in choir for years and years
but I hadn't sang publicly inso long.
And I got to do an open mic, Igot to challenge this.
I don't want to feel fear andso probably to this ridiculous
level, but it helps, right.
Anytime you feel really, reallyscared to do something, you do
it and then the next time itfeels a little less scary.
(34:43):
So I think it was just exposureand continuing to reflect
afterwards, if there was failure, of what could have been done
better, and not taking itpersonally.
Tanner Welsch (34:52):
I love that.
You're definitely talking abouta growth mindset versus a fixed
mindset, so I love all thisgrowth mindset stuff.
That's great.
What do you love most aboutyour new reality?
Yera Patel (35:02):
That's a great question.
There's a lot I love about it.
I would say the flexibilitycoming from healthcare is really
huge to be able to make my ownschedule.
My current role is hybrid, so Ican work two days from home and
then three days in the office.
And the flexibility to say,okay, you know, even if it's a
(35:25):
day full of meetings, if I canschedule it in a way of I've got
a 15 minute break here becauseI want one, or I want to take a
walk, and so I'm going to askthis person to shift the meeting
and they're okay doing so andwhatever it might be.
You don't have that inhealthcare because it's just
back to back, patient afterpatient, and oftentimes to the
point that you're not even ableto take a sip of water.
(35:46):
Right, it's tough.
So it's been huge to just beable to actually make my own
schedule and have thatflexibility.
Not always, you know, busytimes like right now, it's a
really busy season.
It's tougher, but it's stillhuge to be able to just pencil
in little slots when you need itfor yourself.
Tanner Welsch (36:03):
I love that flexibility and it sounds like
it's a lot easier to really havemore of self-care within your
daily schedule, which definitelywe don't get in health care.
I have to ask did you stillkeep your license or did you
just, nope, let it go?
Yera Patel (36:19):
No, I did.
I think it would break my heartif I let my life expire.
Okay, I let my life expire, so Ikept it and I still treat.
Actually, I am working throughthis health tech company, kins,
that uses this multi-modal modelof care, as they say, so you
can treat either virtually or inperson at the patient's home.
(36:39):
So a couple of times a week,sometimes two, three times a
week, I'll go see a patient inthe evening.
It's still something that givesme a lot of joy, but being able
to do it again in a moreflexible way and it's not the
only role that I that I'm doingin a day I've been really
enjoying that.
So I still have my license andno plans to get rid of it
anytime soon.
Tanner Welsch (36:59):
Awesome.
Last question here to wrap upwhat is obvious to you now?
That maybe you struggled to seein the moment, back when you
were working in the traditionalrehab field and you know, to
getting to where you are now.
Yera Patel (37:13):
When I was working in health care, it just felt
this crazy impossible task topivot Again.
It was confirmed when I tried.
But I think, understanding thatanything can be learned and
oftentimes people don't knowwhat they're doing in their role
and not in a way that they'reincompetent I don't mean that at
all.
I just mean we don't alwayshave answers Right.
(37:34):
And so I think when I was inhealth care I would look at
these positions and roles andI'm well, how will I ever learn
how to do this successfully?
And even when you enter thecorporate space which I'm in now
, I realize that people arewinging things.
You know we're learning as wego and even if you've come to
the role with a certainbackground, it's still
challenging to be decisive inthat position, and especially
(37:56):
when you're working in tech andthings move quickly and you've
got to be agile.
It's helpful now to have thathindsight of again how much you
can grow and learn and adaptfrom your peers as well and to
learn new things, because Ithink in health care it just
seemed impossible wheneverything was foreign.
The language is foreign,industry felt foreign.
So it all can be learned and wecan all grow and achieve what
(38:20):
we need to, you know, but it'shelpful to know that now.
Tanner Welsch (38:23):
Absolutely, it is possible.
You're proof.
Yera Patel (38:26):
I'm happy to be proof and anytime anybody needs
advice or is struggling to makethat pivot, I'm happy to be a
resource or to even share in themisery of job searching
sometimes.
Tanner Welsch (38:38):
For sure.
We'll include everything wetalked about in the show notes
and then your LinkedIn contactand all that so people can reach
out to you.
Ira, thank you so much fortaking the time out of your day
to share your story and give ussome insights on your
alternative transition, andthank you so much for joining me
.
Yera Patel (38:53):
Thanks, tanner.
This was great Loved being onhere and, yeah, happy to connect
with anyone that wants to chat.
Intro (39:00):
Thank you for listening to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
If this podcast was useful,make sure to hit that subscribe
button and leave a review.
For more information abouttransitioning to alternative
careers, head to rehabrebelsorgor follow us on Instagram at
rehabrebelspodcast.
We'll see you next time.
Welcome to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
Are you a rehab professionalready to transition to an
alternative career?
Hear inspiring stories fromothers just like you and learn
the best ways to bridge yourcareer gap.
This podcast has you covered.
Now here's your host, doctor ofphysical therapy and podcaster,
Tanner Welsh.
Tanner Welsch (00:21):
Welcome back to another Rehab Rebel episode.
Welcome back to another RehabRebel episode.
In this episode, we're going tointerview Yira about
transitioning into the medtechspace and her journey and
transition to this new medtech,what it is, how she navigated it
, and go a bit deeper into herjourney.
(00:44):
So a little bit about her.
She's from Central Jersey yes,it exists.
So you've lived in New YorkCity for 10 years now and then
went to physical therapy schoolat NYU, and I'm currently
working as a senior performancemanager at Exos.
That's exciting.
A summary of what we're aboutto get into.
The takeaway for thisparticular episode is that
(01:06):
recognizing when something isn'tquite right in our careers is
the first step towards positivechange.
It's crucial to listen to ourinstincts and be open to
exploring alternative paths thatalign better with our passions
and goals.
Embracing change, overcomingimposter syndrome and leveraging
transferable skills are keyelements in navigating career
(01:26):
transition successfully.
So, with all that, welcome tothis show, yira.
Yera Patel (01:31):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
I'm really excited to be here.
Tanner Welsch (01:35):
Yeah, me too.
I'm excited to dive into thiswith you, and let's just go to
the bio first and just get thisknocked out.
The Central Jersey yes, itexists.
What's this about?
Yera Patel (01:44):
Tell us and just get this knocked out.
The Central Jersey, yes, itexists.
What's this about?
Tell us, yeah, you know, we'reour own unique experience in
Central Jersey, and people tryto act like there's only a North
Jersey and a South Jersey.
No, there's a Central Jersey.
We are real.
It's not just about cork rollsand Taylor hams, but Central
Jersey, we've got our own littlebubble.
You know we go to New Yorksometimes, we.
(02:05):
But Central Jersey, we've gotour own little bubble.
You know we go to New Yorksometimes.
We also go to Philly.
Some people support the Giants,some people support the Eagles,
and so I like to rep CentralJersey because that's where I
grew up and I believe we're real.
Tanner Welsch (02:14):
Get it straight guys.
Yera Patel (02:16):
Thank you.
That's really the purpose ofthis podcast.
I think, now that we'veestablished that, you know we're
good, we're good that you knowwe're good, we're good, Perfect.
Tanner Welsch (02:27):
So what made you?
Yera Patel (02:28):
decide to become a rehab professional in the first
place.
My mom is a nurse, as well asmy sister, so we always grew up
in a house where health care waswas there.
It was an industry we knew wewanted to explore Growing up.
I love the security and, youknow, the aspect of being able
to help people and be therethroughout their healing process
.
So I explored various routes,whether it be, you know,
(02:49):
medicine or pharmacy, andeverything that I dipped my foot
into.
With medicine, you know, I feltyou weren't really able to get
to know the patient and thatfrustrated me.
It was a lot of ins and outsand negotiating with insurance
companies, which we do in PT aswell.
I've learned now, but I waslooking for more of this
connection with patients andwhen I did end up shadowing a
(03:12):
physical therapist, it wasreally cool to see that you know
PTs see patients two to threetimes a week for an hour and you
really get to know the personon a deeper level, and I
appreciated that about physicaltherapy.
So once I started to reallylearn more about it, I knew that
was the field that I wanted toget into.
Tanner Welsch (03:32):
That's actually similar to what happened to me
as well.
I went out and tried somedifferent professions and
shouted them, and then one Iactually didn't think about was
physical therapy.
It was like one of the lastones and I went and checked it
out and I was man.
This seems really practical andI'm digging this.
This is great.
What were some of the first?
Maybe a first sense ofawareness that things weren't
quite right with the traditionalyou know, rehab career path
(03:55):
that you were going down.
Yera Patel (03:57):
There was a certain change we were experiencing at
one of the larger hospitalsystems in New York I was
working at and things weregetting a lot more saturated.
Our schedules were, you know,maybe before there was a
30-minute block and you wereable to cash up on documentation
or talk to your co-workers, and, with the clinic being so
(04:18):
backloaded, we were just gettingpatient after patient after
patient and there was no morebreaks in the day.
It became really frustratingwhere, even if there was a sick
day or, for instance, I had anemergency in my life where my
mom was in the ICU for a coupleof weeks and we found out that
she needed this emergent surgeryclose to two weeks before.
(04:40):
So I go to my supervisor, Ineed to clear out my schedule.
I can't be at work these twocouple of weeks.
I'm going to be in Philly withmy mom at the hospital, and the
protocol at that time was to beable to call every patient.
You had to call each and everyperson and say, hey, I can't
come to work because of Xreasons or whatever reasons or
(05:00):
whatever.
And so I start calling mypatients and clearing my
schedule for the week andliterally there's 12 people a
day, right.
So I'm calling a person andsaying, hey, I can't come.
And people were frustratedrightfully so.
They had waited for anappointment for months and now
for me to cancel when one of thepatients was dealing with a
concussion and they were soeager to get in there.
But it was also sodisheartening for me as a
(05:22):
clinician because at the sametime I just knew I was trying to
be there for my mom and I hadpeople crying on the phone.
I'm feeling guilt and I'mfeeling this system has to work
in a better way.
This can't be it.
And it was just so challengingfor me to navigate that.
And then, you know,simultaneously, about a month
and a half later, I'm inCalifornia with my sister who
(05:43):
had transitioned into med tech,the field that I'm in now, and I
see her working from home,driving this impact.
She was in sales and hadlearned so many new skills and I
looked at that and I was likeyou know what?
I think I got to make a change.
I still cared a lot abouthealth care I still do, you know
but I needed to make an impactin a different realm and I
(06:04):
didn't think the hospital systemand clinical care was really
suiting me anymore.
Tanner Welsch (06:10):
For sure.
Just want to clarify a coupleof things.
Were you in an inpatienthospital setting and they made
you call all the patients intheir rooms and tell them that
you weren't coming?
Yera Patel (06:23):
That would have been really insane.
No, no, thankfully it wasn'toutpatient then.
But, you know, affiliated witha really well-established
hospital in New York and theyhad an intake vet who scheduled
appointments.
But in all honesty, they werejust so overloaded.
We had a team of 45 cliniciansso intake staff couldn't even
take up this task anymore, so itwas outpatient orthopedics.
(06:45):
But I would call each and everypatient and say, hey, we are
canceling this appointment.
Let me try to find another sloton somebody else's schedule.
But, mind you, you know, Ithink people who don't work in
health care don't recognize thatthis is all extra time that
clinicians stay after work to doright.
You don't have admin timeblocked into your schedule.
There's no flexibility.
(07:06):
So I'm coming in two hoursearly to work to be able to call
patients and you're stillstaying and working your shift,
now being on the other side.
I think these are realitiesthat people don't recognize.
In healthcare there's so muchthat you're just doing outside
of your shift to stay afloat.
Tanner Welsch (07:23):
Yeah, it's something that isn't right.
People should get compensatedfor their time and we're just
getting taken advantage of mostof the time.
Medtech define medtech in thismedtech space, or what is all
that?
Yera Patel (07:36):
I'm in the corporate wellness tech space right now,
but there's a lot going on inmedtech.
So COVID, I think, was a hugecatalyst for us in healthcare,
where a lot of hospital systems,including the one that I was at
, shifted to telehealth veryquickly.
And it was really interestingbecause we recognized in COVID
(07:57):
that, though we probably had thetechnology and the
infrastructure to make thesechanges, it hadn't happened
right Until we had this massivecatalyst to do so.
It hadn't happened right untilwe had this massive catalyst to
do so.
So during that time, I think wesaw a lot of health tech and
med tech companies opening up asthese point solutions to plug
and play these issues that wewere having in health care,
whether it was patient access orsocioeconomic barriers to
(08:21):
health or specific issues likedealing with women's fertility,
and all of these really pointsolutions within health care.
And so what's exciting withthat is, I think, that there's a
lot of room for health carepractitioners to transition into
these roles and perhaps learnnew skills and contribute to
health care innovation in uniqueways.
But it's tricky because a lotopened up and not everything is
(08:45):
effective.
You know you can't always plugand play point solutions without
the evidence to back up thatthey're working and they're
effective.
I personally work at Google,actually through the company I'm
at Exos, which has a vendorrelationship with various
corporate entities, and wemanage their health and wellness
(09:05):
offerings at those companies.
So I'm on the Google account inNew York City.
Specifically, there's fitnessvenues in each and every Google
office.
We plan larger communityoffering like 5Ks for the Google
community.
We have personal training thatwe offer.
There's a lot of really coolstuff, especially in tech.
You know, I think they try toinvest in employee health and so
(09:28):
my company, exos, we navigatethose program offerings.
Tanner Welsch (09:31):
And since we're diving into that, is a lot of
what you do virtual informationor do you guys within your
company also do personaltraining?
So do you have personaltrainers that are actually on
site helping people with theirfitness?
Yera Patel (09:44):
Yeah, so it's actually fully on site.
Google has close to maybe eightbuildings in New York and at
least three of them have staffedfitness sites within the
building.
We've got on-site coaches andpractitioners that are there
delivering personal trainingclasses, practitioners that are
(10:07):
there delivering personaltraining classes, and they are
also involved in the largerwellness programs that we offer,
whether it be global eventslike 5Ks and push-up and squat
challenges and all of thesethings.
But it's fully on site andthere's an option to do so
virtually, but a lot of peoplereally interact with the
practitioners and the fitnessvenues right there at work,
which is really cool.
Tanner Welsch (10:30):
That is cool.
Did you start in the seniorperformance manager role, or
what was your initial step into?
Yera Patel (10:32):
EXOS.
I did start in the managementrole.
I was working as a physicaltherapist before but there was a
lot I was involved in with oursports performance center at the
hospital, involved inorganization of that, and being
able to be involved in with oursports performance center at the
hospital, involved inorganization of that, and being
able to be involved in clinicaleducation, was really helpful.
So I think there were so manytranslatable skills that when I
(10:53):
was interviewing for thisposition I was able to really
leverage that as well to be ableto make the transition and
that's huge.
I think a lot of times when weI'm sure you see this speaking
to so many clinicians, we don'trealize how much diverse skills
that we have in clinical careand that's translatable to other
fields.
And I think all of the verbiagewhen we look at job roles are
(11:15):
so overwhelming.
It's like stakeholdermanagement and customer success
and what are all these wordsmean.
But we're doing a lot of thaton a day to day.
So a lot of what I was doingwas so translatable.
It was just being able toreally understand that language
and the vocabulary to speak toit.
Tanner Welsch (11:33):
For sure.
What would you say are theskills that we learn in the
rehab profession that you'reactually using?
I mean, they just transfer overdirectly in this senior
performance manager role.
Yera Patel (11:46):
Oh, wow.
There's just so many Workingwith patients on a daily basis.
When we're seeing 12 patients aday with so many diverse
backgrounds and experiences andconnecting with those people,
that's, in many ways,stakeholder management, right?
Your patients are yourstakeholders and you're having
to adapt and learn where they'recoming from and be able to
(12:08):
create programs that resonatewith them.
And that's customer success aswell, right?
Who knows customer successbetter than clinicians when we
have to work under constraintsand still deliver this optimal
experience to every patient?
So that was so easy to translateinto this role.
You know, it just feltintuitive because we were doing
it all the time.
(12:28):
For project management skills,I mean juggling 12 patients and
then 30 minutes of doc timewriting notes for 12 patients
while filling out documentationforms, calling a patient if you
need additional information, allof these things documentation
forms, calling a patient if youneed additional information, all
of these things, juggling thosetasks and the level of
(12:51):
organization that you need.
We do that on a daily basis,and so that was really easily
translatable as well.
Just learning the verbiage.
Of course, learning how tocreate Gantt charts and learning
the you know, vocabulary wasimportant, but it was easily
translatable in terms of youknow what we were doing really
is a lot of what you're doing inthose project management roles
as well.
Tanner Welsch (13:07):
For sure.
I want to dive in more intothis, definitely around how you
landed this role and found thisrole.
But let's back up first and getback into was there a specific
moment that you realized thatyou know this traditional rehab
path wasn't for you, or adecisive moment?
Ok, this happened.
Now I'm going to go dosomething different.
Yera Patel (13:28):
I don't know if it was a decisive moment.
I wish I had that because Ifeel like it would make for a
much better story, you know.
But I think it was more of aslow burn of moments of stress,
with taking care of my familyand feeling my job wasn't able
to fully support that, or nothaving the flexibility to make
(13:49):
my own schedule, and there wereso many little things that I
think caught up with me.
It was more just slowfrustration, you know, of
wanting to be able to learn newskills and try new things, and I
felt I was stuck in my role andI think that's important to
note because oftentimes, nowthat I've left, people assume
(14:09):
that I experienced burnout right, everyone's.
Oh, you were burnt out.
That's why you left health care.
It's such an awful field rightnow.
It's not taking care of itsclinicians and I wouldn't even
say it was burnout till the lastday.
I did enjoy what I was doingand I loved health care.
I think I was more frustratedby the lack of lateral mobility
(14:30):
and diverse experiences.
Clinical care was great, but Iwanted to be able to learn new
things and try new things and Ifelt I wasn't suited to do that
in my role anymore, Absolutely.
Tanner Welsch (14:41):
How did you land on this med tech space the tech
side of health?
Did you explore otheralternative categories of where
you could take your career?
Why this specific med techthing?
Yera Patel (15:05):
that were coming out during COVID.
So I always had a pulse on thatwhen I was in the hospital
system of hey, you know what arepeople doing to innovate in the
healthcare space, and so Idon't know if I really
considered anything outside ofthat.
You know, I think I looked atjob postings and was curious,
but I really was alwayschanneled in the med tech world.
There was a couple of people Iwas following on LinkedIn that
would post new jobs that hadopened up weekly, and this one
(15:27):
came up in corporate wellnesswith Exos, and I had heard of
Exos before because theyactually have physical therapy
offerings and on-site clinics.
The job role no information.
It didn't say Google, it didn'tsay anything regarding the
specifics of what I was doing,but I was like, hey, let me just
interview you Diversely, I'llget experience.
Interviewing is hard.
And then, once I learned moreabout the job, I thought, hey,
(15:50):
this is actually pretty cool andI'll be able to learn new
things, which I am.
We're opening a new site, newGoogle building, in about a
month, and I've been involved inmanaging the success of that,
which is a totally newexperience.
It wasn't very deliberate.
I do feel like I just landed onsomething.
So it was a mix of luck andconsistent job searching, and
(16:11):
here we are.
Tanner Welsch (16:12):
That's cool, the finding the medtech jobs.
So let's say somebody'sinterested in exploring other
medtech possible careeropportunities or job openings.
What are some helpful websites?
What are maybe some keywordsthat can help them navigate that
specific niche of alternativecareers?
Yera Patel (16:32):
LinkedIn is a great resource and you have to use it
properly.
Really, being able to networkthrough LinkedIn is huge because
, when it comes time to searchfor these jobs, having those
connections and having referralsis really, really beneficial to
actually talk to someone andinterview so LinkedIn jobs.
You know they're always postingthings up there, which is great,
(16:54):
but even I think expandingbeyond that is also important,
because a lot of that contentcan be promoted.
So you'll see a job that's beenposted there a month ago but
it's still on the top of yourlist, right.
So, those people that areinterested in med tech, there's
also a lot of really coolwebsites built in.
You know NYC, for instance, hashealth tech postings that they
(17:15):
post new roles that opened upwithin the day or within the
last week and you can learn moreabout those companies and
channel it according to whatyour interests are, whether it
be customer success or analyticsor DevOps.
That's a really great resourceas well that I found that I've
always kept an eye on, but Iwould say time is of the essence
with it.
It's a tough job market.
So if you see something you'reexcited about, take a chance,
(17:38):
apply, maybe network and messagesomeone that you know is at the
company and try to learn moreor get a referral in there.
But networking goes a really,really long way when you're
trying to make a pivot.
Tanner Welsch (17:50):
Would you say it's fair to say that was
actually pivotal or necessary inyou landing this role Was the
networking that you did and theconnections that you made and
all that.
Yera Patel (18:02):
I would say so 100%.
I learned really quickly when Iwas pivoting that it was a
saturated market this podcast isevidence of that that there are
a lot of clinicians out therethat we are excited and looking
to do and try new things as well.
So it was hard.
I was applying to a lot ofthings really broadly and not
(18:23):
hearing back for a very longtime, and what I learned is that
networking was really the key,you know.
So I started inbox messagingpeople on LinkedIn.
You know I would apply to a joband then I would find a
counterpart role and connect andsometimes people don't respond.
Other times people are reallygenerous and offer to speak with
you on the phone, you know, andthen would put a referral for
(18:46):
you.
I will say, every interviewthat I actually had without fail
was because I got a referral orhad connected with someone
personally that was able to putin a good word or talk to their
hiring manager.
But just broadly applyingthrough these websites and
getting filtered through the ATS, it was tricky.
I didn't really have luck thatway and landing my current role
(19:09):
actually is funny.
I ended up finding acounterpart position, another
performance manager on the teamat Exos and I guessed his
corporate email about why I'd bea good fit and attached my
(19:32):
resume and it landed on hisinbox.
He forwarded it to who is nowmy current manager and they
interviewed me and that's how Ilanded here.
But if I was just sitting in arecruiter's inbox with 200 other
applicants, would I have beenhere?
I don't know, you know.
So I do think networking ishuge and getting really scrappy
about it.
You know cold email people, butit's effective to really be
(19:53):
able to connect and land theinterviews that you want.
Tanner Welsch (19:56):
I was thinking about the same thing.
You know sending out these coldemails and we actually talk and
touch on this in episode 25with Adam and talk about coffee
chats is, I think, what we callthem in that episode where you
reach out to people on LinkedInor you know social networks and
really just try to drum upconversation about you, the role
(20:17):
that you're interested in and,again, like you mentioned, why
you'd be a good fit, or justtalk more about the company show
you're interested and yeah itseems to really move the needle
to landing positions like this.
Yera Patel (20:29):
Yeah, and it just motivates you.
Every conversation I had withsomeone in that space it was so
great to understand why they hadmoved into that sphere and why
they wanted to drive innovationin health care, and it's really
motivating in a job search to beable to talk to people like
that and learn about whatinspires them, because searching
(20:51):
for a new job can be soulcrushing in all honesty.
You know so.
People will try so hard topivot and they get discouraged
when they've applied to a coupleof things and don't hear back.
But those connections canreally go a long way and it's
great to hear people's stories.
Tanner Welsch (21:06):
How many applications did you put out,
would you say, or how many jobsdid you apply for within this
med tech space before youactually were getting interviews
back, and then you landed thisjob that you have now?
Yera Patel (21:19):
Oh, tanner, I don't even know how to answer that
question.
I mean, we're probably talkinghundreds.
At first, I had such abeautiful little spreadsheet of
this is the company I applied to.
This is the pros and the cons,and I was doing such deep
research into companies that Iwas interested in, and then I
just gave up on that processbecause I was well, this is
(21:41):
taking up a lot of time and I'mnot always hearing back.
I would say once I reallystarted being able to network
better, it was a much highersuccess rate of getting
interviews and even figuring outif I wanted the job, but it was
.
It was a journey, though Iwould say we're probably talking
hundreds of applications, butit lands.
You know, I think that's theway the job market is right now,
(22:01):
which is tough.
Tanner Welsch (22:03):
For sure.
I had to ask because I rememberin episode 25, where we talk
about an alternative tech careerpath, adam was saying he
applied to hundreds also, andthis is common within this
particular space.
That's just what applicants doand what you have to do and do
this networking if you'reactually going to get an
interview and have a real shotat landing one of these jobs.
(22:25):
So that's wild.
What was the time frame betweenstarting to apply to these jobs
to actually landing the currentrole that you're in?
Yera Patel (22:34):
Close to a year I mentioned going out to Talley
and being with my sister andwatching her work remote.
That was September, I remember,of that year, and then it was
close till August of the nextyear, at which I had
transitioned into the newposition here at XO.
So it took a long time, and Ifeel like I created a playbook
that I haven't put on paper yet,except, you know, emails to
(22:57):
people that asked.
But a couple of months was justapplying and not even tweaking
my resume right, just applyingwith the resume I had for
clinical jobs, which got menowhere.
So at first it just made nosense.
Looking back then you learn howto really fine tune your resume,
which is also huge.
All of that clinical experience, though it's great and you're
(23:17):
so proud of it, maybe it's notas relevant when you're
translating into different jobroles.
So it took close to a year, butit was worth it, because I
think now, even when peoplereach out and ask for advice,
I'm able to give them abreakdown of.
This is how you can tailor yourresume.
This is how you startnetworking efficiently.
That journey was really helpful.
Tanner Welsch (23:38):
There's a couple of things that you mentioned.
I think that really helped you.
It was the interviewing that'scome up several times, and then
catering your resume.
Let's say somebody is wantingto go down the path that you did
, this med tech path, and theywant to improve.
We'll start with the resume.
They want to improve theirresume to cater towards the med
tech role or job that they'rewanting to do.
(23:59):
What would you recommend and oris there any resources that you
found super helpful to be ableto accomplish this goal?
Yera Patel (24:08):
I did upskilling a lot initially and I think that
was the first step.
I took project managementcourses.
I took one through Villanovawhich was close to six months
long, but it was helpful because, in all honesty, I was also
able to understand the job rolesa lot more Initially in the
search.
You know, I'm looking onlineand I'm what do these positions
(24:30):
even mean?
I think learning the verbiagewas really helpful and learning
to how to be able to organizethings in a better way.
So I did, you know, upscalingon my own with that.
I took a couple of UX coursesto learn the user experience and
help tech, because a lot ofcompanies you know are in the
product space.
So I wanted to be able tounderstand that mentality of how
(24:51):
they're navigating thosechanges.
But initially, I would say, withthe resume, it was really
important to be able totranslate clinical skills into
skills that make sense whenyou're applying to these roles.
So again, if you're treating 12patients a day, that's great,
but how are you really beingable to engage with customers?
How are you connecting withcustomers in a way that makes
(25:12):
sense and don't lie?
But definitely translatelanguage-wise is important
because, just like we don'tunderstand, perhaps, project
management language initially.
Similarly, when we're talkingabout healthcare and EMR and
documentation that doesn't landto somebody in health tech
that's not a clinician, andwherever you can to make it
(25:33):
quantifiable with metrics ofthis is the impact I made you
know, and it's so clear on paperto see why you would be a good
fit for that role.
So changing that language isimportant, making it
quantifiable and changing theorder of things.
You know the amount of timespeople have shown me a resume
and their education is the firstthing at the top.
(25:55):
But they graduated 10 years agoand they've got such awesome
experience after.
Put that at the top, reorderthings because, honestly, most
often a recruiter is looking atyour resume or hiring manager
and in 10 seconds maybe less,maybe three seconds, right
they're deciding if they shouldeven email and interview you.
Those things, I think, arereally important.
Tanner Welsch (26:18):
For sure and I love hearing about you really
learned new skills and took newcoursework to be a better fit
for this particular the med techspace, with project management
courses and then the UX courses.
I think that's awesome.
Were there any other coursesthat you know you took or you
felt that you really needed totake to be able to, you know,
maybe up to speed or qualify forsome of these med tech roles?
Yera Patel (26:41):
Yeah, definitely.
I like learning a lot and tothe point that I could enjoy
just spending an evening onCoursera hours just learning new
things, and it's something Ienjoy.
So sometimes I have to actuallyput a block on myself to say,
ok, this is enough for today.
Now I have the luxury of $5,000Con Ed through ATSOS yearly,
(27:03):
which is huge, you know, andthat's a big blessing because in
healthcare oftentimes we don'thave a budget that large.
So since then, you know, I'vetaken product management courses
to really understand productroadmaps better and how to
successfully launch new products.
That's been really helpful.
I've taken coursework onCoursera, which has been really
(27:24):
helpful, about healthcareanalytics and now AI in
healthcare to see what thatimpact is like and how those
initiatives are made, and it'sreally interesting.
So I would say when I waslooking for a job, it was tricky
because upskilling is expensive.
So I had to be reallyparticular about what I wanted
to put my money towards andthat's why I chose that
(27:44):
Villanova course.
But there's a lot out there.
It doesn't always have to be acourse that you spend a lot of
money on and put on your resume,even if you're just taking a
free YouTube course and learninglanguage and learning the
concepts to be able to reallyspeak to it and apply it.
That's powerful as well.
Tanner Welsch (28:02):
For sure, upscaling.
You keep saying upscaling.
Yera Patel (28:26):
I am not familiar with what upscaling is.
Can you tell us to upskill inthe position to be able to take
coursework or to learn, you know, new things, to then deliver in
that new capacity?
So we're doing it all the time,and I remember one day I came
to work and I had a TMJ patienton my schedule.
I never treated TMJ before andall I remembered from preschool
(28:48):
was a little bit about a discand oh, I don't really know how
to diagnose this though.
So even that week I rememberupskilling, but it's just really
a term of just learning new,new thing that you need for your
position.
Tanner Welsch (29:00):
Thanks for explaining that.
The interviewing part we youknow, mentioned the resume and
then this additional coursework.
What were some things that werereally helpful for improving
your interview skills?
And maybe even falls into thesame category as networking with
some of these employees or thecompanies you're applying to, or
is there any courses you did onthat, or mock interviews, or
(29:23):
how did you improve your skillsthere?
Yera Patel (29:25):
Interviewing itself was huge practice, even roles
that maybe I wasn't super keenon.
If I got an interview, I wouldtake it always, because you
never know what questions aregoing to be asked and any
opportunity you have tointerview is practice, even if
you're not in love with the job.
So I remember one time I wenton an interview, which is just
(29:45):
funny.
So I remember one time I wenton an interview which is just
funny I was asked to explain 10different ways to make the
process of making a pizza andthen getting it delivered to the
customer faster, so making itmore efficient On the spot.
I'm sitting there, moredelivery drivers, you know, more
ovens, whatever, but it's funny.
You never know what they'regoing to ask you right, but
being prepared and interviewingitself is a huge skill.
(30:07):
You never know what they'regoing to ask you right, but
being prepared and interviewingitself is a huge skill.
Beyond that, it was helpful tojust take courses and learn.
A little hack that I reallyliked was you often get
situational questions ofdescribe a time that you were
involved in process improvement,for instance, and a framework
that I really loved was the STARframework.
So when you're answering aninterview question, you start by
(30:28):
describing the situation or thescenario in detail of what you
were involved in.
Hey, this is the problem athand.
We needed to improve our EMRsystem and people were
documenting for way too long foran initial eval.
And then you move into the T ofSTAR of the task.
You know, what did you do?
What were the actual thingsthat you were able to outline to
(30:49):
address?
A is action how did you actupon it?
And then R is the result.
So what was the result?
But it was really interestingto learn those things because I
think before I was going inblind, didn't know what would be
asked and I was often justbabbling.
One guy I really liked wasAndrew DeCevita.
I think he's got a YouTubechannel that I really liked and
talked a lot about interviewskills.
(31:11):
But it was helpful to learnthose frameworks.
Tanner Welsch (31:14):
Yeah, like a structure, a template, to be
prepared for the actualinterview.
For sure, we've talked about, Ithink, some struggles and
transitions throughout ourconversation, but I just wanted
to open it up and ask what was apersonal struggle that you went
through going through thistransition into this alternative
career space, and how did youovercome it?
(31:34):
Because I imagine there'sprobably a few different
barriers that you had to getthrough to be able to actually
go from treating in a clinic,one-on-one with patients, to
getting to where you are now.
So what's something that reallycomes to mind and you feel
would really resonate withothers that are trying to do
what you have done?
Yera Patel (31:52):
It's not much of a practical thing, but fear was
just huge for me, and I know wetouched upon discussing imposter
syndrome, but for me that was ahuge barrier of just feeling I
was applying to positions orinterviewing and not feeling I
was up to par or, as a clinician, I had the experiences that
(32:14):
would make sense for it.
And sometimes it feels the jobsearch process itself reaffirmed
that for you, because you getso many denials or sometimes
rejections literally hours afteryou applied and you're like, oh
my gosh, I just sent thisapplication in, how could you
reject me this quickly?
So it's a tough process and Ithink at times it just starts to
(32:37):
be something you internalize ofOK, you know, I'm just not
equipped.
There's so many people outthere that are more equipped for
this position than I am, thathave MBAs and advanced degrees.
Why am I even trying?
And so I think the fear offailure and imposter syndrome
was really difficult.
But getting over that andframing everything as a growth
(32:58):
opportunity was so much betterfor my success in landing the
role that I wanted, but alsojust being able to persevere and
have the energy to.
So when I failed at aninterview and when I got a
rejection letter, sometimesafter five, six rounds of
interviews.
There was one position that Ireally cared about six rounds of
interviews and prep and timeand I got a rejection afterwards
(33:20):
for that role.
I allowed myself to wallow.
You know you're allowed to feelOK, maybe it's not going to
happen.
And then a couple of days laterit was just OK.
What did I learn?
What questions from thatinterview were things that I
tripped up on a little bit.
You know that I could improvethe answer for next time.
What is the growth that comesfrom this?
And you get better.
Every interview, practicalthing that helped me in the
(33:46):
journey.
But really just tackling thatfear and maybe when you feel
uncomfortable, do it.
You know that probably meansthat you're going to grow from
that experience.
Tanner Welsch (33:55):
What do you think helped you get over that fear
and overcome that impostersyndrome?
Yera Patel (34:00):
Just continuing to run towards that feeling of
discomfort.
It's so counterintuitive and wedon't want to do that, but
anytime I felt that feeling ofthose butterflies or that
discomfort, I'm okay, I have todo this, and it went to the
extreme.
You know it's funny.
Last year, after I got the jobI really want to just tackle
(34:21):
this in multiple realms I did anopen mic.
You know, I grew up singing, Iwas in choir for years and years
but I hadn't sang publicly inso long.
And I got to do an open mic, Igot to challenge this.
I don't want to feel fear andso probably to this ridiculous
level, but it helps, right.
Anytime you feel really, reallyscared to do something, you do
it and then the next time itfeels a little less scary.
(34:43):
So I think it was just exposureand continuing to reflect
afterwards, if there was failure, of what could have been done
better, and not taking itpersonally.
Tanner Welsch (34:52):
I love that.
You're definitely talking abouta growth mindset versus a fixed
mindset, so I love all thisgrowth mindset stuff.
That's great.
What do you love most aboutyour new reality?
Yera Patel (35:02):
That's a great question.
There's a lot I love about it.
I would say the flexibilitycoming from healthcare is really
huge to be able to make my ownschedule.
My current role is hybrid, so Ican work two days from home and
then three days in the office.
And the flexibility to say,okay, you know, even if it's a
(35:25):
day full of meetings, if I canschedule it in a way of I've got
a 15 minute break here becauseI want one, or I want to take a
walk, and so I'm going to askthis person to shift the meeting
and they're okay doing so andwhatever it might be.
You don't have that inhealthcare because it's just
back to back, patient afterpatient, and oftentimes to the
point that you're not even ableto take a sip of water.
(35:46):
Right, it's tough.
So it's been huge to just beable to actually make my own
schedule and have thatflexibility.
Not always, you know, busytimes like right now, it's a
really busy season.
It's tougher, but it's stillhuge to be able to just pencil
in little slots when you need itfor yourself.
Tanner Welsch (36:03):
I love that flexibility and it sounds like
it's a lot easier to really havemore of self-care within your
daily schedule, which definitelywe don't get in health care.
I have to ask did you stillkeep your license or did you
just, nope, let it go?
Yera Patel (36:19):
No, I did.
I think it would break my heartif I let my life expire.
Okay, I let my life expire, so Ikept it and I still treat.
Actually, I am working throughthis health tech company, kins,
that uses this multi-modal modelof care, as they say, so you
can treat either virtually or inperson at the patient's home.
(36:39):
So a couple of times a week,sometimes two, three times a
week, I'll go see a patient inthe evening.
It's still something that givesme a lot of joy, but being able
to do it again in a moreflexible way and it's not the
only role that I that I'm doingin a day I've been really
enjoying that.
So I still have my license andno plans to get rid of it
anytime soon.
Tanner Welsch (36:59):
Awesome.
Last question here to wrap upwhat is obvious to you now?
That maybe you struggled to seein the moment, back when you
were working in the traditionalrehab field and you know, to
getting to where you are now.
Yera Patel (37:13):
When I was working in health care, it just felt
this crazy impossible task topivot Again.
It was confirmed when I tried.
But I think, understanding thatanything can be learned and
oftentimes people don't knowwhat they're doing in their role
and not in a way that they'reincompetent I don't mean that at
all.
I just mean we don't alwayshave answers Right.
(37:34):
And so I think when I was inhealth care I would look at
these positions and roles andI'm well, how will I ever learn
how to do this successfully?
And even when you enter thecorporate space which I'm in now
, I realize that people arewinging things.
You know we're learning as wego and even if you've come to
the role with a certainbackground, it's still
challenging to be decisive inthat position, and especially
(37:56):
when you're working in tech andthings move quickly and you've
got to be agile.
It's helpful now to have thathindsight of again how much you
can grow and learn and adaptfrom your peers as well and to
learn new things, because Ithink in health care it just
seemed impossible wheneverything was foreign.
The language is foreign,industry felt foreign.
So it all can be learned and wecan all grow and achieve what
(38:20):
we need to, you know, but it'shelpful to know that now.
Tanner Welsch (38:23):
Absolutely, it is possible.
You're proof.
Yera Patel (38:26):
I'm happy to be proof and anytime anybody needs
advice or is struggling to makethat pivot, I'm happy to be a
resource or to even share in themisery of job searching
sometimes.
Tanner Welsch (38:38):
For sure.
We'll include everything wetalked about in the show notes
and then your LinkedIn contactand all that so people can reach
out to you.
Ira, thank you so much fortaking the time out of your day
to share your story and give ussome insights on your
alternative transition, andthank you so much for joining me
.
Yera Patel (38:53):
Thanks, tanner.
This was great Loved being onhere and, yeah, happy to connect
with anyone that wants to chat.
Intro (39:00):
Thank you for listening to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
If this podcast was useful,make sure to hit that subscribe
button and leave a review.
For more information abouttransitioning to alternative
careers, head to rehabrebelsorgor follow us on Instagram at
rehabrebelspodcast.
We'll see you next time.
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