5 things I wish I knew before starting my healthcare administration career

Dr. Ashley Hussain-Okorafor, DBA
Former lecturer and hiring-side healthcare administrator

I built a career in healthcare administration, and I made a mistake at the start that cost me years. I want you to avoid it.

The same five lessons come up every single time I talk to someone entering this field — the things I wish somebody had told me before I began, rather than after. Here they are.

1. Start working in healthcare while you're still in school

This is the big one. It's the lesson I'd change first if I could.

I went straight into a master's degree with no paid work experience in healthcare. Not a mistake to get the degree — a mistake to not be working in the field while I got it.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: in healthcare, you start at the bottom regardless of your education. Bachelor's, master's, doctorate — it doesn't change your starting line. If you've never held a clerical or business-side role in healthcare, you are an entry-level candidate.

So I finished a master's degree and started at minimum wage. Then I worked my way up.

Do it the other way round. Get a job in healthcare — any clerical role will do — and let your degree stack on top of experience instead of standing in for it. Graduate with two years behind you and you're not competing for entry-level roles at all.

2. Get a mentor, and keep getting mentors

You need a mentor at every stage of this career, not just when you're looking for work.

During your education, a mentor tells you which experience actually matters. Early in your career, they introduce you to people and recommend opportunities you'd never have found on your own. As you move up, they help with the part nobody trains you for: managing difficult people.

In healthcare administration you will deal with physicians, stakeholders, and personalities under real pressure. That is not a technical skill you can read your way into. It's something you learn from someone who has already done it.

Start with someone two steps ahead of you rather than ten. Ask them something specific. Most people will help.

3. Imposter syndrome will cost you opportunities

I had imposter syndrome through my master's degree. I looked at everyone else in my cohort and assumed they knew more, had more experience, and belonged there more than I did.

Then I graduated, and instead of that going away, it followed me. Every opportunity that came up, I found a reason I wasn't ready.

Those opportunities were never as big a deal as they looked. I could have handled them.

If you're looking at something right now and thinking I'd need more experience first — try it anyway. If you fail, it isn't the end of the world, and you'll be exposed to the thing. Exposure is everything for growth — in this field and in life.

4. Expect healthcare to move slowly

Healthcare moves slowly. Almost like government, which surprises people.

It's strange, because the United States has the best medical technology in the world. Our research and development spending is top tier and the output is enormous.

But the system around that technology is expensive, regulated, and full of policy. There's bureaucracy between a good idea and a changed process.

The reframe that helped me: the slowness isn't a bug you're there to fix. It's the environment you're there to navigate. The people who succeed in healthcare operations aren't the fastest movers — they're the ones who can get a good decision through a slow system.

5. Start before you feel ready

Every one of the four lessons above comes back to this.

You will not feel ready. Not for the job, not for the title, not for the responsibility. Waiting until you do is how years disappear.

You are good enough. The work is learnable, the metrics are learnable, and the exposure is what builds all of it.

Where to start this week

If you take one thing from this: get into the field before you feel qualified for it. Apply for the clerical role. Ask the person two steps ahead of you for fifteen minutes. Say yes to the thing you're not sure you're ready for.

The free 90-second scorecard will show you how far your current résumé is from the director-level roles — and what to fix first.