I have always been a huge believer in grabbing opportunities that come my way. There has been a recent swing towards 'not taking on too much' and 'learning to say no'. I absolutely agree that you need to know your limits and not take on too much, but also don't miss out on opportunities that could be really valuable. Here are a few examples of ways that I became involved with the surgery world prior to my residency; - I organised the referral centre journal club in Sydney for a few years. All this took was a phone call to my local referral hospital to ask if they had a journal club, then after a few times attending I offered to organise it. This is a great way to connect with other surgeons/GPs/residents and there are the obvious learning opportunities. - I sat my Memberships in Small Animal Surgery. This opened several doors to be involved - firstly the opportunity to examine. This is how I met Adjunct Professor Philip Moses (....this eventually led to my residency, you can see where I am going with this post). - As a member, you can also be nominated to be on the Surgical Chapter committee, which was another thing I enjoyed. As part of this I helped organise 'Members Day', a preliminary day of science week (hence the flowers from my beautiful colleagues to say thank you). So in summary, ways to get involved could be; -Developing a relationship with the referral hospitals in your area for visits and journal clubs. - Study towards Memberships. Get started as soon as you graduate. - Be involved in organising where you can. People are grateful for your effort.
(p.s. totally irrelevant side note, but I don't know if you can see that QT Cockatoo lamp. I have always wanted one but the QT closed the gift shop - devastated).