Life on the other side: Hillary Oneslager
Gif by Ann Cutting.
Hillary Oneslager previously worked in advertising at Razorfish Austin, before making a career pivot to work in the medical field.
Tell us about what first brought you into the advertising industry and how you got from there, to starting a new career in medicine?
I was an art history major in college and interned in various marketing and design rolls as an undergrad. I’ve always loved art, design and writing and it seemed like a natural fit. Shortly before graduating, I applied to an entry level UX role without really knowing what it was. My penchant for details and organization served me well and I worked as a UX designer for 4 years.
Medicine definitely wasn’t my plan at the beginning.
Hillary testing for Covid in her capacity as medical assistant manager at Remedy Urgent Clinic medical centre.
I’d always been praised for my right-brain skills and spent most of my life leaning into that. I feel very lucky to have had parents, teachers and professors who encouraged that side of me. My favorite client projects were always healthcare related; it felt like my work mattered when I made websites easier for patients and clinicians to navigate.
I worked with an incredible team of designers and developers to bring those sites to life but I found myself wanting a career that allowed me to give back even more. One night, the pieces fell into place. When I was asked directly why I hadn’t pursued a career in medicine, I couldn’t come up with a good answer.
The person who asked the question had listened to me idolize my grandmother who was one of three women in her medical school class, rant about lackluster sex education in schools, and rave about the anatomy cues I had perfected for the yoga classes I taught weekly.
I was more interested in the users of the healthcare sites I had designed than I was in the sites themselves. And as a cancer survivor, I had firsthand experience with transformative healthcare. Once the light bulb went off, there was no turning back. I’ve spent the last 3 years preparing to apply to Physician Assistant programs and will be submitting my applications later this spring.
What would you say your ‘purpose’ is? Is this something you’ve always been clear on or something you’ve gotten clarity on over time?
To me, purpose is anything that makes you feel the most like yourself.
While I enjoyed working in UX and the field played to a lot of my strengths, I never felt as passionate about the work as my colleagues or managers. I feel so fortunate to have found my purpose in medicine. I’ve never felt more like myself than when I’m taking care of kids. It puts every rejection—professional and personal—in to perspective. Of course those things didn’t work out; I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing and I wasn’t who I was supposed to be.
Was there ever a time where you felt like your career was in conflict with your purpose? Explain.
Looking back, there were definitely moments where I just wasn’t engaged in the work in the way I felt I should have been.
I remember having a thirty minute debate with two of our designers about whether we should use the word “edit” or a pencil icon for a dashboard we were working on. I could not have cared less.
It just didn’t matter to me but they each had strong opinions about why one was better than the other. That was the first time I remember thinking “I can’t believe I get paid to make these kinds of decisions” and was the first inkling I had that perhaps I wasn’t in the right field.
What have been some of the most surprising, challenging and rewarding aspects of changing careers?
It’s always a challenge to start over as a beginner. I had to go back and take roughly 20 undergraduate science classes at my local community college to be eligible to apply for Physician Assistant programs. Even though I’m so happy I made the leap, it’s hard watching peers hit career and life milestones while I’m slaving away over chemistry problems.
I’m so happy to be doing what I’m doing, but it hasn’t come without sacrifice.
I was also surprised at how easily other relationships and elements of my life fell away. Once I realized how much more like myself I felt on this new path, people and practices that no longer served me weren’t hard to let go of. I’m so grateful to have made the change when I did so I know that the rest of my life will be filled with people, places, and things that better align with what I want out of life.
Tell us how your life changed since you left advertising behind. What are the biggest shifts you’ve noticed in yourself and your day-to-day?
The biggest shift I’ve noticed is just how excited I am about everything. Even though it’s been an ultramarathon (and I’m just approaching the halfway mark) the journey has been worth every step. It’s so much easier now to make decisions about everything else in my life because the path just seems so clear.
And even with detours along the way, I never question what I’m doing or “what’s next.” I’m excited about any and all possibilities that come my way.
How have your experiences working in medicine so far changed your relationship with your purpose?
Working in medicine has shown me just how much joy can be found in the mundane.
I now work at Children’s Hospital Colorado and I just love that every patient is a new opportunity to make a baby giggle.
I get to talk about Halloween costumes every week no matter the month and my knowledge of dinosaurs and trucks has increased exponentially. It feels good to help people and make them happy and that brings me back to my purpose every day.
Now having the perspective of an entirely different industry, what do you think needs to change about the advertising industry to improve the workplace for those of us still there?
I so admire my former colleagues who were so passionate and well versed in their fields but I had a hard time taking some of the minor details so seriously and working with clients who assured us that our work was changing the world by updating their websites.
Even though medicine is now actually life or death (at least sometimes), it’s much easier to approach everything with a sense of levity and humor.
What are ways in your life you’ve cultivated a sense of purpose outside of work?
I spend more time doing things that actually bring me joy. Long walks with my dog, reading before bed, wearing perfume to the grocery store just because. Working in medicine definitely gives you a new perspective on what it means to be happy and healthy.
The kids are so incredibly resilient you can’t help but think “if they can make it through THAT then I can make it through THIS.”
We should all talk about unicorns and Halloween costumes more often.
Starting out in the medical profession while being in the midst of a pandemic must’ve been incredibly challenging and eye opening. What has this past year taught you?
The pandemic has absolutely illuminated the disparities in healthcare that we all know exist but don’t always see. I spent all of 2020 working for an urgent care clinic testing COVID patients and you could predict the likelihood of a positive test based on a patient’s zip code.
It was also alarming to see how poorly so many people understand science and anatomy.
I’m currently applying to PA school but I know that I’ll eventually pursue an MPH (Masters of Public Health) as well. There’s so much that people don’t understand about their own bodies and the healthcare system and I’d love to be involved in promoting health and medical literacy in some way.
What advice would you give to people who want to pivot out of the industry?
First, do your research. I spent three months looking up, writing down, and making spreadsheets of nursing versus PA programs. Second, take the first step today. As soon as I got serious about making the switch, I signed up for a CPR class (because I knew it would be required for every program) and began volunteering at my then local children’s hospital. Those two things were easy to do even while working full time and got the ball rolling. Lastly, you eventually have to just do it. Don’t research yourself in the ground; having enough material to know your next few steps is all you need.
