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Hi team

Firstly I’d like to congratulate the admin & operators of this forum! This is a brilliant well led forum with gold mines of information!

Now, given the horrid global economic situation; minute size of NZ market (comparatively), I've recently decided to make a career change into podiatry, and as such I've been following a lot of the posts that have been going up especially with regards to the general information on Podiatry/Podology/Chiropods in an attempt to make a well informed decision whether I should delve into this exciting and growing field or should I be focusing my efforts elsewhere.

However I am a bit hesitant and worried and that's mainly due to paranoia (not knowing how it will turn out in the future) and lack of information...and feel like --> lol

I'd be highly appreciative if you could give me as much feedback as you possibly could, so if I may, I’d like to pick your brains (whether you are a fresh grad/experienced POD) with the following questions;

- What attracted you to this field?

- How easy was it finding a job as a graduate (especially in NZ)?

- Have you considered working overseas given all the barriers and re-licensing you have to go through? And if you did go overseas, how easy/hard was it to re-license?

- What are the best & worst bits of this job?

- What are the key skills required for this job?

- Do you have to carry out postgraduate studies? If so how does it help you progress?

- Where do you see this industry going?

- What has been your greatest achievement? Any regrets?

- What specialization are you in? When did you decide on the specialization?

- What is your typical day involve? How do you deal with someone with really bad foot odour?

- What is the pay like? (In relation to the country, public or private practice, specialty) and what (if any) are the perks?

- Have you started working in a private practice?

- Have you had experience working in the DHB/NHS?

- Which is better private or public?

- After how many years, in your opinion, would you open your own (share a) private clinic?

With that I’d like to conclude all the questions I’ve got at this stage.. and once again I’d like to say thank you in advance for your response, time, and effort!

Cheers

Kiwi POD in the making

Also for clinics & practitioners in NZ; i'm very keen to gain as much clinical exposure to help pave the way for me as a POD thus would any practitioners accept to take me on for a few hours a week perhaps to help out around the clinic whether it was in a volunteer, shadow, part-time pay capacity... that would be appreciated.

Hi Pod in the making
So many questions so little time. I work in the public system fulltime and have done so for the last 10years prior to that I was in pvt practice for 15+years.

I see podiatry for people who like dealing with people while at the sametime being manually skilled and able to think outside the square to fomulate treatment plans, more often than not our patients dont fit the off the shelf solutions.
You have to have a good sence of humour - you will need it!! If only to cope with your colleques.
As you go through your training you will find an area you enjoy better than others ie surgery verses biomechanics and that can lead you down different paths.

I think the main thing for you is to look at your strengths - do a myers briggs quiz, and see if you can picture yourself in the role - the rest is learned, some days will be fantastic others will be sh*t.
All the best.
Leigh