Adapting to Change, Pivoting for Career Growth

Last Updated December 1, 2020

In embarking down a career path, many find that their career trajectory resembles a winding, even jagged road rather than a straight line pointing upward.

For Robert Bonk, his career and life path led him to California where the art major earned his master’s in graphic design and dreamed of designing concert posters and album covers. Economic realities forced a career pivot and led him back home to Chicago to go to mortuary school and get his funeral director’s license before he eventually embarked on his third career (and third degree) in healthcare management.

This diverse background and his ability to pivot serves Robert well in his current role with Advocate Medical Group, where “right now I wear many different hats,” he says. “As a patient services representative, I check in patients, set follow up appointments, make sure their referrals are in the system.”

In March 2020, Robert pivoted in his responsibilities, as his administrative supervisor moved to another position and COVID-19 impacted organizational hiring. While Robert had applied for his former supervisor’s position before the hiring freeze, he’s currently sharing the duties of administrative supervisor with the lead patient services representative, “helping each other with what our administrative supervisor did before he left,” Robert says.

Advancing into the role officially remains Robert’s next goal in his career plan, as he explains, “That’s why I’m going to Michigan State to get that degree so I can become an administrative supervisor…and go to a practice manager after that. And get my own facility to run.”

In pursuing his Master of Science in Healthcare Management – Leadership online with Michigan State University, Robert is looking to gain the leadership skills and business management perspective, combined with his professional experience, to help take him to his ultimate goal: “I’d like to get into the hospital aspect, possibly pediatrics, and see what the hospital side is,” he explains. “I’ve worked at six different facility sights…I’ve been seeing how multiple facilities operate for five years now, so I’d like to see what I can do in the hospital setting.”

A Better Understanding of How Healthcare Operates

Robert is already applying concepts and practices from his courses in his workplace, and they’re helping him to shine in his current responsibilities.

“When COVID hit, the practice manager came to me to do a re-design of the parking flow and seating in the lobby,” Roberts says. He implemented “cones and arrows to pull into the parking lot, a nurse and MA standing outside to take temperatures, asking you the questions, if you have any of the symptoms. Then, you go inside [with] chairs spaced six feet. You’ve got the hand sanitizer as soon as you come in the door. Out of one of my classes I was able to implement that right away when COVID happened.”

COVID-19 has impacted so much of the operations of healthcare, and Robert sees how in this disruption he is able to learn and create new operations, both on the job and through his coursework.

“I’ll have a better understanding of how healthcare operates,” he says of his motivation for pursuing his degree with MSU. “You’re getting the broad overview, the core overview…I’m getting a lot of information out of [the courses] to put into my work every day.”

While the online program was a bit of an adjustment, Robert’s fellow students quickly became a source of support and professional connection.

“You don’t have your traditional in-class setting with 18-20 other students,” he explains. “But how Michigan State set it up, you’re four students to a group, so you learn to be good friends with those students in your group. Everyone is quick to text their problems and questions and they get back to yours.”

Of Robert’s core group of four, he has made “good connections” with fellow professionals in Maryland and Florida, “and we’re at that point that if I’m ever looking to get out of Chicago, [they] said to send my resume to help me find a place.”

“With having a small group, all of us are here to help each other in moving forward in what we’re trying to accomplish after graduating from Michigan State,” says Robert.

The School You Want To Go To

Throughout his career, Robert has demonstrated a willingness to adapt, pivot and even relocate to accomplish his career goals, and this flexibility can be a differentiator for advancing within a dynamic industry where change is a constant.

“With healthcare, you’ve got to be aware of what’s changing and adapt to that, and that’s what Michigan State is showing you right now in these classes,” Robert says. “From the previous classes to now, I’m getting more knowledge as to where healthcare’s been and where healthcare is coming to with [telehealth]. At Michigan State, they’re showing you how it’s been done in healthcare, but now how to make a progression, because things aren’t going to stay the same with healthcare. I feel that with the classes I’ve been taking, that they’re going to help me see, as an immediate supervisor, you’re going to have to wear many different hats and have an open-mindedness to change.”

MSU’s M.S. in Healthcare Management prepares the industry’s future leaders to meet this change through collaborative leadership, evidence-based decision making and strategic and tactical thinking, an educational approach that is making Robert’s current superiors take note of the “new way of doing things” that he is bringing to the organization.

“My [department] boss completed her master’s several years ago, but now I’m bringing in new ideas that she hasn’t thought of, so I like the way Michigan State is laying everything out for the students here,” he says.

In fact, Robert’s immediate supervisor has been “impressed with how Michigan state teaches their students healthcare…and I think he probably wishes he had gone there!”

To those professionals considering what program and school would be best for their graduate education, he says, “I really think that Michigan State is a school you want to go to…I think people think that you need the MBA to get ahead, but I don’t feel that’s true because an MBA is really more accounting…Michigan State gives you the whole overview of healthcare.”

Gain the skills to lead the business of healthcare with MSU’s online M.S. in Healthcare Management