what opportunities are available in the corporate world for an MD? is an MBA necessary for a doctor who tries to go corporate?

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One of the doc I rotated with act as the medical officer at national headquarters. Lots of chart review and no patient care. 9-5 hour with minimal liability. Freelance opportunity available. Guess the specialty.... Occupational medicine..

There are numerous opportunities for MDs at pharm companies, if you want to be a glorified salesman leveraging your degree to influence other MDs.

iron horse,

what kind of MDs are pharmaceutical companies looking for (i.e. internal medicine doctors, anesthesiologists)?

how many years of experience after residency is preferable in the eyes in the pharm group (or can u come straight out of residency)?

are any business credentials needed to work for a pharm company? (i.e. do u need an MBA)

are doctors who work for pharm companies well compensated?

if u or anyone else could address these questions, i would appreciate it.

I don't have lots of details to offer, but I do know that many pharm companies employ MDs of varied training in order to speak about specific drugs/research to MDs of the same background (e.g. allergist to allergy fellows/MDs). While I have heard that they do pay well, I cannot quote you numbers. Those MDs that pitch need no formal business training, but public speaking is key. Those MDs that aspire to higher levels of management within the company do benefit from MBA/PhD.

Go sell your soul. ;)

physicians are often successful find non-clinical positions in many different fields. Pharma and medical devices are an obvious choice, with specific knowledge of their product considered to be very useful (i.e. more training is better), however, they also take people are entry level marketing positions as well although not as often.

Consulting on the other hand has traditionally recruited physicians of all types, valuing their ability to think on their feet, absorb large quantities of information and spit back out something coherent based on minimal data. Consulting as an industry was destroyed however in this recession meaning that few jobs are available in it period. Try looking at McKinsey's and BCG (Boston Consulting Group) websites and you will find a track for gradutate and professional degree holders. Both of those are considered "prestige" locations for MBA's to land and I know personally that they each have sought MD's in the past, even without clinical experience (including sending a recruiter to our medical school, much to the chagrin of the administration) The story is fairly similar for investment bankers.

Will an MBA help as well? Absolutely. But it is not 100%necessary to do it to enter industry. It probably will help you advance in the future, but there is always plenty of time to get it later. (Keep in mind, the top 10 MBA schools all average at least 3 years of work experience)

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Insurance companies is another option. They all have/need Medical Director(s).

tanya, thanks for the post

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