Alternative Careers as a DO?

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CjOz

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Hey all,

I've heard of several people who graduate from an MD school and dont go to residency, but get jobs in alternative fields of work. Business, administration, etc. I was wondering if this sort of path is possible or as friendly toward a DO? I am just curious because I have many interests outside of medicine and was wondering if the DO degree will open doors like an MD would. Thanks

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To the best of my knowledge, you kind of have to go to an ivy league school to do something like that. It probably wont happen as a DO. You're going to have to do a residency.

You can always get involved with administration, industry, or business after your residency.
 
If you don't want to practice medicine after getting your DO degree, you might want to skip med school. There are faster, cheaper, and less stressful ways to get into the business world.
 
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Janitor, D.O.

Custodian is saved for M.D.s.
 
Damn. How about something in the biotech industry?
 
Damn. How about something in the biotech industry?

When you graduate from medical school you are pretty worthless. You have a basic understanding of disease and the treatment of disease, but you're not legallyI allowed to practice medicine independently. Unless you did research during your medical school career you will have no research skills. You're basically this late 20 something year old with no marketable talents.

You could do a clinical pathology residency then go on to work in biotech or pharmaceuticals.
 
don't go to med school unless you are willing to go through residency and come out board-certified or at least as a GP. It's not worth it otherwise.
 
It's entirely possible to get an alternative career, but I would urge you to complete a residency first, as others have said your degree is worthless without training in something. I have zero inclination of ever working as a GP...will most likely complete a residency in anesthesia, path, or IM->specialty and then either start a business in one of those fields or practice a few years and go into admin or industry.

For me it's all about a ROI and medicine guarantees me a job while I'm hunting for a niche to fill or building a business.
 
Nowadays it is rather difficult to land a job in research or management without a top-tier portfolio or inside connections. And as already hinted above, if your employer changes their mind and lays you off, you'll be in a world of hurt as an MD/DO without a residency.
 
If you want to work in research, you'll probably have to do a post-doc and publish a few articles before they even consider you. If you want your own lab, it'll be anywhere from 4 to 9 years of post-doc.

Going into consulting is very unlikely. Those jobs even ask you for your SAT scores and undergrad GPA. I know a few UCSF PhD level post-docs that applied to these jobs. They first need to compete in a summer internship before actually being hired. The only ones that even got the internship for the tryout had gone to a top 20 undergrad and PhD program.

Alternatively, you may want to consider doing an MHA and going the administrative way, but unless it's an osteopathic-affiliated hospital, I don't see much hope in being at the top of the food chain.
 
Finish medical school and a residency for sure. At least your degree will get you a job to fall back on in any city. You can do locums work while interviewing for jobs you're interested in, so money may not be so tight and you can wait until you come across the perfect job outside of clinical medicine.
 
some people have floated the idea of letting unmatched MD/DO grads work as midlevels (like PA's).
 
You can work as a lightning bone setter.
 
Hey all,

I've heard of several people who graduate from an MD school and dont go to residency, but get jobs in alternative fields of work. Business, administration, etc. I was wondering if this sort of path is possible or as friendly toward a DO? I am just curious because I have many interests outside of medicine and was wondering if the DO degree will open doors like an MD would. Thanks

Your signature says C/O 2017.

If you want to do something else at this point you really should do yourself a favor and not even start.
 
If you're not interested in being a clinician then do not attend med school.

If you want to do some research on the side then you can do a fellowship after you graduate or you can take time off to do research. Also, if you want to consider doing something in business you might want to start looking for internship opportunities between M1 and M2 year.

Getting your own lab is a long career arc.
 
Hey all,

I've heard of several people who graduate from an MD school and dont go to residency, but get jobs in alternative fields of work. Business, administration, etc. I was wondering if this sort of path is possible or as friendly toward a DO? I am just curious because I have many interests outside of medicine and was wondering if the DO degree will open doors like an MD would. Thanks

Massage therapy.
Acupuncture.
Yoga.
Summoning A.T. Still and throwing that good banner to the breeze.

'you get the picture'

The world will be your oyster, my friend.
 
Do residency in a lifestyle/shift-work field like EM. Pay off your loans ASAP. Use your ample free time to network with local realtors, mortgage brokers, general contractors, etc. Live frugally and put your $250k+ income toward purchasing real estate until you have enough income through rentals or flipping to quit medicine.
 
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