I've decided that I'm leaving medicine. i completed a medicine intern year and started a PGY-2 year but had to quit in mid-year for personal reasons. Are there any medically related fields that I could go into, where my medical education wouldn't be completely wasted? I have never enjoyed/done much research. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Leaving medicine
- Thread starter pmgran
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Work for a drug or medical device company.
You could try gov't entities like the FDA, but usually they want residency-trained physicians (at least FDA does, from what I have seen).
Some consulting companies hire PhD and MD folks.
You could go get an MPH and then work in public health in some capacity.
What is your undergraduate degree in?
You could try gov't entities like the FDA, but usually they want residency-trained physicians (at least FDA does, from what I have seen).
Some consulting companies hire PhD and MD folks.
You could go get an MPH and then work in public health in some capacity.
What is your undergraduate degree in?
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I think you should really consider an MPH. There is an MD, MPH at my institution who never did a residency. She is heads some research and does a lot for the med school.
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What do you like?
I'm just asking b/c people often suggest, for example, that someone should be a pharma salesperson if they quit residency. For me, personally, I know I'd suck at sales b/c I hate trying to sell stuff to people...I even sucked at selling girl scout cookies.
I could see myself teaching or doing physical therapy, however, had I not pursued medicine.
As a stopgap, you could probably get a job doing some type of teaching or tutoring, if you can't think of what else to do. If you have research experience, could probably get a job in a lab or something.
If you just want a less stressful job, could go into something more in the business realm, but behind the scenes or where you might be able to make your own schedule more. ? accounting or computer stuff.
Are you sure you don't want to switch specialties, into something like pathology or preventive medicine? If you don't like medicine in general, that's no good, but if you just got ground down by being a surgery, IM or fp intern, you might feel different in another specialty.
Although medicine is more stressful, there is going to be stress in any job. Some of your stress problem may follow you whatever you do, wherever you go, if it's just your personality. I stress out a lot too, but I'm trying to find better ways to deal with it than brooding and worrying...it is an ongoing process.
I'm just asking b/c people often suggest, for example, that someone should be a pharma salesperson if they quit residency. For me, personally, I know I'd suck at sales b/c I hate trying to sell stuff to people...I even sucked at selling girl scout cookies.
I could see myself teaching or doing physical therapy, however, had I not pursued medicine.
As a stopgap, you could probably get a job doing some type of teaching or tutoring, if you can't think of what else to do. If you have research experience, could probably get a job in a lab or something.
If you just want a less stressful job, could go into something more in the business realm, but behind the scenes or where you might be able to make your own schedule more. ? accounting or computer stuff.
Are you sure you don't want to switch specialties, into something like pathology or preventive medicine? If you don't like medicine in general, that's no good, but if you just got ground down by being a surgery, IM or fp intern, you might feel different in another specialty.
Although medicine is more stressful, there is going to be stress in any job. Some of your stress problem may follow you whatever you do, wherever you go, if it's just your personality. I stress out a lot too, but I'm trying to find better ways to deal with it than brooding and worrying...it is an ongoing process.
I'm kinda in the same boat......I've tried applying to Pharma companies but the furthest i got was a face to face interview where they later told me i don't have enough experience. I've also been looking at some of the medical consulting stuff, but it is VERY competative. without a degree from an ivy league institution or a reputable MBA its deficult to get in.
With the market the way it is, i'm being forced to go back to residency to at least have a job and make myself more marketable after residency, maybe to a medical device or pharma company.
I feel your pain......
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Yes, I think someone who can tough it out and finish some kind of residency, to be able to get a license, and perhaps board certification, will have >> job opportunities. To bail out after 4 years of med school plus 1-2 yrs residency is kind of throwing in the towel right when you are getting to the good stuff, though I can certainly understand the impulse if one is very unhappy in residency.
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If you aren't worrying about paying back any loans, then you might consider teaching high school health and biology classes. Those are often poorly taught, so could use a little expert opinion.
Yeah, teaching high school is something i've considered. Teaching health is tough to get into, as there's usually only 1 per high school if that. I'd be a solid health/biology teacher. The money wouldn't be so good, but maybe i would enjoy it more. I've also looked into doing random things like personal training. again the money would suck, but at least I'd be doing something I enjoyed. MPH would make me more marketable for health care jobs, but I'm not thrilled about spending more money on education. Thanks for all the advice.
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How critical are your loan repayments? I know that the state I'm in currently offers 100% of your salary when you retire after 30 years of teaching. The neighboring state offers 85%. The state where I grew up, teachers retired at age 55 and got lovely retirement packages (like full salary for 5 years and then 80% or something). Seniority and years worked really matter a lot (i.e. 30 years gets a MUCH better retirement package than 20 years). With the medical education, you can argue that you could teach biology and perhaps chemistry classes, also depending on your major in UG. Many schools require a masters in the subject. Although MD is not a doctoral degree in science, I wonder if it could substitute for a bio/chem masters degree.
Also, nice perk is that vacation time off, which is just amazing. I guess it could be boring if you have to teach the same classes over and over again several times a day over many years, but you can probably make it more entertaining by running things like student clubs, science competition prep, coordinating Intel science competition projects, etc.
I really did think of teaching as an alternative to medicine. In the end, I decided that the low initial income, trouble students and the many social issues and violence issues that are occurring more and more frequently in middle and high schools, and geographic restrictedness of state certification was not something I wanted to deal with. However, I think it's a pretty good job otherwise.
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Teaching is a nice other career if you like it. To teach high school, some states want you to have a teaching certification, which is more school. Teaching at a junior college of at the university level could work for you as well, and they wouldn't have the teaching certificate requirements. My undergrad physiology couse was taught by an MD. Research may be an expectation with such a position.
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you could consider a preventive medicine residency. basically it is one year of internship (which you have already done), one year of mph, and one year of a project. you would be getting paid a resident's salary, could get board certified in preventive medicine and and would come out able to earn decent money without practicing medicine. this seems like one of the least stressful paths if you like public health and is something i have considered. good luck!
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This is a good idea.
There also might be other fields you could get into with just an intern year...
There also might be other fields you could get into with just an intern year...
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I encourage you to explore all your options in the world of non-clinical medicine. Best of luck to you.
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I recommend this ONLY if you have the following:
1) a strong stomach, man seeing those stocks go down and not come back up can have you feeling suicidal
2) can exercise impeccable control and are willing to get out at a set point
3) have a backup plan in case you have a Few *unsuccessful trades*
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I am guessing Day trading is your hobby?
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A spot recently opened up for Craigslist killer. Don't know what the pre-reqs are though.
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If it's not too late, check out your local, state, and federal government job boards. I know in California if you have completed a residency in preventive medicine you can become a medical consultant.
