Early PICU attending career in an academic setting vs Non-clinical Pharmaceutical career, what to choose?

[upbeatdoc]

Hi everyone,

I am a new PICU attending [10 months of work experience right after fellowship] and I am currently on 3 months of maternity leave after having my third baby. I also have Ph.D. and research-related experience. I have a friend who left adult hem onc job after 10 years of attending experience and is extremely happy in the pharmaceutical industry as a clinical research physician. I am considering joining the pharmaceutical industry too but it's a giant leap of faith hence I made this pros and cons list based on my current understanding of the two very different career options to make the process a little bit easier -

Pharmaceutical industry job Pros -

1. same or higher salary, with bonuses, and higher salary increase during the career
2. more departments to learn from and to switch within
3. weekends free
4. No night calls
5. No long hours
6. With a better lifestyle, will be able to pursue hobbies and have more family time
7. may continue to work in some clinical form like locum or urgent clinic if I choose to on weekends to continue to be a physician
8. Long-term growth, more vertical growth opportunities
9. Making a difference in many patients' lives at one time rather than one patient at a time in the clinical job
10. No stress related to at least one patient trying to die during my shift [less acuity]

Pharmaceutical industry job Cons-

1. no patient interaction
2. initial learning curve which is also present in my current clinical job since I am a new attending anyways
3. less prestige since it's not a physician role according to some [though I don't necessarily agree]
4. May be lesser job security but the pharmaceutical industry is still considered more stable than banking or finance or any other industry
5. Physicians are eligible not only for physician-related job roles in the industry but also for non-physician-related job roles for which competitors can be nurses or providers or physician assistants, etc. [in summary people who are less trained than physicians.

PICU attending job pros

1. patient care, procedures, and satisfaction related to it
2. variety of clinical cases [though this can correlate in the pharmaceutical industry too, as working in different clinical research projects]
3. love my current team

PICU attending job cons

1. long hours
2. night calls
3. weekend working
4. less work-life balance, less time for growing children and hobbies
5. Less vertical growth in terms of position
6. Salary reaches ceiling after initial few years after which it stays the same for rest
7. More stress while taking care of the critical patient, more chances of burn out

I derive equal satisfaction from clinical work and also from research at present and don't prefer one over the other. And I don't believe that I have to continue clinical just because I gave in so many years in training since I believe that life priorities and choices change depending on multiple factors and life experiences/exposures, and can't be predicted so much in advance. I have had a chance to travel extensively till now and have friends from different lifestyles and professions and know that there's life outside of medicine too but it's just that I have never lived it. Medicine is the only life I have lived till now, and it's going to be a giant leap of faith to make a career switch. In the long term, I think I am leaning toward joining the pharmaceutical industry due to a better lifestyle.

I wanted to know what your advice is knowing my current information and thought process from above. I am not sure if I am missing anything or if this list is enough to make this important decision. Is a corporate industry like the pharmaceutical industry have equal growth opportunities for both men and women during long-term careers? Is there more politics in the corporate industries like pharmaceutical compared to hospitals or is it the same? My husband works in IT industry and is supportive of whatever decision I make.

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[SurfingDoctor]

I had a friend leave PICU for pharma. She did it cause she was burned out. She told me that she worked as many hours (maybe more… products don’t sell themselves), but your right that she had no night call and obviously no patient interactions. The salary she made was equal to if not higher than her current PICU job.

Just some caveats, once your out, your out. Your job is to be a pharma executive, not a PICU moonlighter. In fact, not only at some point would that be dangerous to patients, but what would be the point of taking ad hoc jobs were you have to move to temporarily move a different state and work nights if you don’t work nights? You boss at the pharma company isn’t paying you to do some other job either. Also, not to burst bubbles, but as a pharma executive you won’t make any difference in patients lives. Your point is to make a profitable drug. That’s it. That’s literally the goal. If you work at a big company, your goal is to climb the ranks to the C suite and manage other people. If you work at a small company, your goal is to work and hopefully find something that a big pharma company wants so that all those stocks the CEO gave you ends up not being worthless paper.

There’s a good thread in the Physician-Scientist forum about leaving academics for the pharma industry.

What are careers like going from academic heme/onc to pharma?

I'm an MD/PhD student at an upper mid-tier school. COVID ran a bulldozer through my PhD and it's looking like I'll graduate with 6-7 basic science papers to my name, 3-4 first author, nothing in super high impact journals. My chances of being a PI at a high-tier institution without extra...

forums.studentdoctor.net

Starts on mid way down page 1 I think…

Lastly, I will say this. If you are having doubts 10 months into a job, then you better find a new job. I mean, your PICU pros list was the shortest list and could essentially being condensed to “I don’t entirely hate it”. That’s not going to get better with time.

 

[oldbearprofessor]

A really important topic and thanks for two great posts. I only would add that in neonatology I have seen folks double doing a small amount of clinical work to keep up skills while working a corporate job, but that's not common I admit and may be more difficult to arrange for PICU. To me, the most important thing is whether you feel that you gain the most personal satisfaction out of patient care in the PICU. If that satisfaction isn't high (and it appears it isn't, for good reasons) then the lifestyle pharma choice, although imperfect, is likely better.