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I have two people in my close circle who made jump between medical profession and information technology and vice-versa. [1] My cousin became a medical doctor
by akg_67 12y ago
I have two people in my close circle who made jump between medical profession and information technology and vice-versa.
[1] My cousin became a medical doctor and practiced for a year. He just couldn't disconnect himself from his patients sickness and that was causing him depression. Long term, he just couldn't see himself around sick people without becoming mental nut-case himself. He was very interested in Technology but couldn't see himself starting from entry level. He decided to go for MBA at a top 5 school. It seems not many medical doctors apply for MBA so it was easy for him to get admission. After MBA, he initially worked in healthcare technology consulting. He found his medical degree, Dr before his name and MD and MBA after his name very valuable since then in his career. Today, he leads healthcare technology practice for a major technology service provider and responsible for over billion dollar in revenue and P&L for his division.
[2] My eye doctor has graduate Electrical Engineering degree and worked for about ten years in development with SoCal defense contractors and NorCal technology companies before quitting to go to medical school. He is now a successful Eye Surgeon. While working in technology, he didn't like the politics of the workplace and overall work environment and expectations of technology companies. He has been very happy since becoming Eye Doctor and enjoys working with his patients. He still gets his technology fix by getting involved in medical technology innovations. He says his EE + Medicine qualifications makes him quite a desirable person in medical device industry.
It might take you a decade in technology to even get to the level of starting salaries of medical doctors. If you have high medical school debt, you may want to consider this in your decision to switch career.
You may benefit from your medicine background in a "relevant" technology company if you slide into the company at mid-level where you medical background is valued. Entry-level developer or IT person may not offer you any extra credit for being a medical doctor. Also in a non-medical technology company, you may be at a disadvantage compared to a person with CS degree with promotions and being taken seriously.
Unless you are interested in going to Business School, personally I will not recommend switching field from medicine to technology. You can always continue as medical physician while being involved with technology on the side.
- rukshn 12y agoThanks, I think I'm more like your cousin. I just can't take the stress of working at a hospital and with patients, heavy night sifts sleep deprivation just drives me nuts. Well since I get the education at medical school for free I don't have any debt to pay. I think I've made the wrong decision in entering medical school in the first place, here getting in to a med school for free is like a once in a life time opportunity at they young age I couldn't resist it but now older I feel I made the wrong decision. None of my friends who are outside of med school believes in the stress and depression as they only see the high salaries and good life doctors are living but doesn't see the stress until you enter the field,
- akg_67 12y ago"None of my friends who are outside of med school believes in the stress and depression as they only see the high salaries and good life doctors are living but doesn't see the stress until you enter the field," Grass is always greener on the other side. I will encourage you to explore more your options between medicine and IT and make sure you are not afflicted with same syndrome as your friends. Medical profession has a good reputation and doctors are held in high regards in non-medical professions. I will suggest leveraging this reputation and respect to get yourself into a good position in non-medical profession if you don't want to practice as a medical doctor. Don't squander it away by becoming an entry level drone in technology industry. Another alternative may be to consider medical profession as means to achieving the end you want. Tough it out for a few years, achieve financial independence as quickly as possible and then do what you want to do in technology whether medical related or not. Have you heard of White Coat Investor http://whitecoatinvestor.com http://whitecoatinvestor.com? He is an ER doctor who started blogging about personal finance from doctor's viewpoint. He seems to have become quite popular in finance area with books and speaking engagements specially targeted at medical professionals. It seems he is drawing almost $200K from his finance-related side activities on top of whatever his ER compensation is. You could follow on his footsteps. Suck up and be a medical doctor for a few years, keep technology as side activity until your side activities become as big as being medical doctor then do whatever you like.
- rukshn 12y agoThanks, no i'm not giving up on my current degree, as I'm going to graduate by the end of this year I'll be a doctor anyhow, it's after getting the degree I'm thinking of following an alternative field with the use of my medical degree. I was reading this article on the Atlantic, that talks about following MBA together with the MD degree http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/09/the-rise-of-the-mdmba-degree/380683/ http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/09/the-ris... Although I love computers and technology it doesn't mean I want to work in a software company, what I need is an alternative field so I can have a good family life and I don't have to work in a depressing environment and committing suicide few years later. Thanks for the suggestions they are really helpful