Alternatives to Residency??

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jimmybee

Internal Medicine Hospitalist, formerly med/peds
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Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anyone out there knows someone who got a diffrent job with their MD title than being a resident. I have heard stories about people doing "consulting" for drug companies and things like that. Ever hear of such a thing? If so, let me know the names of these companies.

Catch you later,
jimmybee.
 
jimmybee said:
Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anyone out there knows someone who got a diffrent job with their MD title than being a resident. I have heard stories about people doing "consulting" for drug companies and things like that. Ever hear of such a thing? If so, let me know the names of these companies.

Catch you later,
jimmybee.
Click to expand...


You can grow a big white beard and start advising everyone to eat broccolli. :laugh:


Like this guy. 😉

weil_andrew3_med.jpg
 
Hey, maybe you could get a job which is mostly low-skilled drudgery, work a huge amount of hours every week, get no repsect from anybody, and make next to nothing to boot.

Oh, wait a minute, I'm already doing that.

Never mind.

Panda Bear, MD
Intern
 
docB said:
Is the search back up? If it is search this because there have been numerous threads on it.
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Even if the search isn't working, you wouldn't have to look far through the "General Residency Issues" threads; someone brings this up every week at least. There are a lot of folks looking for alternative paths.
 
But few folks finding them (alternate paths). This seems to be a seasonal post. Is it the holiday blues that is prompting people to look elsewhere?

Because I can never get the search to find what I am looking for, here is my take: There are lots of jobs for MDs who have not completed a residency. For the most part, these jobs require you to have diverse skills (did someone tell you that majoring in pre-med in college was a bad idea?), motivation (no one is going to come and recruit someone with, likely, no real work experience), flexibility (these jobs are probably focused around certain metropolitan areas), and a willingness to start on the bottom of a corporate ladder, work your way up and have your future determined by your performance. In some ways, it may be easier than residency, but it is certainly more difficult to find and less financially stable.

A website that someone posted a while ago: apd.mckinsey.com is fascinating for its "day in the life" area of what its consultants (a portion of which are MDs) actually do. The hours look as bad or worse than residency, the starting pay is less than you will make as an attending, and they have a strict "up or out" policy (90-95% of their consultants do not go on to become partners, a sharp difference from residency to attending).
 
yea i would like to know also,
I don't have any debt, not married, no kids, and my family would support me financially if i wanted to go back to school.
so i am kind of a free man, i just dread doing residency
 
Panda Bear said:
Hey, maybe you could get a job which is mostly low-skilled drudgery, work a huge amount of hours every week, get no repsect from anybody, and make next to nothing to boot.

Oh, wait a minute, I'm already doing that.

Never mind.

Panda Bear, MD
Intern
Click to expand...
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
 
Several of my classmates dropped out of med school or opted out of doing residency after graduation and most of them are headed to industry. There are many opportunities, especially at biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Research experience helps. PM me if you want.
 
cytoborg said:
There are many opportunities, especially at biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
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Sounds like a fate worse than death to me. But each to their own, I guess.



BTW: A word of warning to all you whiny losers who're disenchanted with medicine and imagine an easy life in the business sector - think again. The business world is tough and extremely cut-throat. Having worked in business, I laugh when I hear medical folks talk about this as an easy alternative. Try to toughen up a bit. In medicine we have it pretty damn good. 😉
 
PatrickBateman said:
Sounds like a fate worse than death to me. But each to their own, I guess.

BTW: A word of warning to all you whiny losers who're disenchanted with medicine and imagine an easy life in the business sector, think again? The business world is tough and extremely cut-throat. Having worked in business, I laugh when I hear medical folks talk about this as an easy alternative. Try to toughen up a bit. We have it pretty damn good. 😉
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True. I know of some biotech companies that have very cutthroat, competetive atmospheres, and will hold internal competitions and stuff to foster that. Life can be brutal. Others are more congenial and friendly and are considered havens from academics. Just depends.
 
Yeah, some companies are better than others. My point is that people in medicine often assume that if they were in business they'd have things a lot easier. That's definately not a sure thing.
 
cytoborg said:
Several of my classmates dropped out of med school or opted out of doing residency after graduation and most of them are headed to industry. There are many opportunities, especially at biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Research experience helps. PM me if you want.
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edited, plz delete
 
Hello! Just wondering if anyone knows of anyone who has lectured for a university or medical school without having completed a residency? Is this possible without extensive teaching experience? Thanks
 
pathology123 said:
Hello! Just wondering if anyone knows of anyone who has lectured for a university or medical school without having completed a residency? Is this possible without extensive teaching experience? Thanks
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Not sure why you bumped a ten year old thread to ask this. But from what i recall many of the professors from my preclinical med school years were not MDs. Pretty much all had PhDs, were PhD candidates or had substantial research and grants though. So you don't per se need a residency but you'd generally need more than just an MD.
 
pathology123 said:
Hello! Just wondering if anyone knows of anyone who has lectured for a university or medical school without having completed a residency? Is this possible without extensive teaching experience? Thanks
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I mean, maybe. You'd probably make more money selling cars, or getting your realtor license. Cosmetology school? Personal trainer? Closet organizer? How do you feel about manual labor? I mean, the life of a visiting lecturer or adjunct faculty is not stable or remunerative. People tend to do those things while they try to get a more stable faculty position or fellowship or something. You would just be staring into the abyss, with no prospect of doing anything else. There are other things that you *might* be able to do in the pharm/commercial sector with just an MD, but taking what would likely be a low level teaching job doesn't sound like a great option. People have a hard time understanding that the 4 year medical education is not meant to be the end of your training; you know something about the Krebs cycle and how to remove staples. You come out half-cooked, and that only works out well for soft-boiled eggs. Yum.
 
typhoonegator said:
...People have a hard time understanding that the 4 year medical education is not meant to be the end of your training; you know something about the Krebs cycle and how to remove staples. You come out half-cooked, and that only works out well for soft-boiled eggs. Yum.
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Half cooked is even generous. You aren't useful after med school. You have the mere foundation upon which to START your training to be a doctor, but that's basically raw ingredients. It's pretty sad that so much confusion abounds, but MD doesn't equal physician, and nobody should consider themselves ready to use this "education" unsupervised in a clinical setting.
 
Last edited:
Do a research fellowship or post-doc, then go into research.

Get an MBA and into hospital administration.

Become clinical faculty and teach full-time. I have colleagues who have done that.

Hello! Just wondering if anyone knows of anyone who has lectured for a university or medical school without having completed a residency? Is this possible without extensive teaching experience? Thanks


jimmybee said:
Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anyone out there knows someone who got a diffrent job with their MD title than being a resident. I have heard stories about people doing "consulting" for drug companies and things like that. Ever hear of such a thing? If so, let me know the names of these companies.

Catch you later,
jimmybee.
Click to expand...
 
Maruko said:
could you tell me how an MD can become a clinical faculty and teach full-time, if he doesn't need to do a residency?
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Ah I misunderstood your response; when you said "do a residency in MEDICINE" I assumed you believed that academic faculty are internists who've done a residency in Internal Medicine.

I'd venture its unlikely to be hired without completion of any residency unless you had another degree and were teaching a relevant subject (typically basic science not clinical).

If you wish to be faculty in the US teaching medical students clinical medicine, you should expect to be required to have completed a residency.
 
Goro said:
...
Get an MBA and into hospital administration...
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Possible but not realistic. There are lots of full fledged health care professionals ( doctors, nurses) who get MBAs and would bring so much more to the table than OP who hasn't even worked in healthcare as a resident. Let's not pretend that spending 1-2 years getting another degree is going to qualify OP for this right out of the box. The MD degree doesn't open this door -- experience WORKING in health care does.
 
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