Career advancement & family life: perspectives from a Medical Officer of Health with Lawrence Loh

Tell us what you thought of this episode - send us a text!

We launched the Career Advancement and Family Life series in the last episode with our guest Lathika Laguwaran. We are big believers here at PH SPOT of learning from those who have done something before us and using their lessons and experiences to craft our own path. We want to share the stories of public health professionals at various phases of their lives and careers to get a glimpse into their way of life and thinking. We hope you will reach out to us and share your perspectives and experiences with the public health community.

Show Notes

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Lawrence Loh. You may recognize his name from two very popular posts on the PH SPOT blog: Start with Yes and Choosing impact over location: the myth of the “global health gamble”.

When we talk about career advancement and family life, TIME is an important topic. Our relationship with time changes as we progress through our careers and when we begin to build a family. This is exactly how our conversation with Lawrence begins: how time has changed for him during his career, and how this has influenced the opportunities and choices he has made.

We also get to hear about the decisions Lawrence has had to make with discontinuing clinical work, and reprioritizing where and how he uses his time. With two young daughters that mean everything to him, Lawrence is very particular with how he spends his time, and we were so grateful he said yes to sit down with us to share his perspective on career advancement and family life.

You’ll Learn

• “Time” as it relates to building your career
• How “time” has changed for Lawrence over the course of his career and children came into the picture
• How and why he decided to conduct an inventory of his activities to reprioritize his time and consolidate various activities when he was expecting his second child (for example, he decided to stop practicing clinical medicine – we talk about how that made him feel)
• The way Lawrence sees one’s life and early career – divided by the following 5 standard phases:
  • Inquiry/questioning phase
  • Generative phase
  • Consolidation phase
  • Second generative phase
  • Second inquiry phase
• How once he got to the consolidation phase he rediscovered his love for fictional writing (he’s even got the manuscripts written!)
• What a typical day looks like at work and at home
• How he set up his parental leave
• Though it is not his lived experience, we discuss starting a family in the “inquiry phase”, rather than later on in one’s career (as was the case for Lawrence)
• Five career tips he wraps up the conversation with:
  • Nothing is irreversible
  • The past decisions you make often shape your future decisions (sometimes you need to walk through one door to get to th

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!