Non-residency options?

[Happymeal40]

I'm wondering what career options there are for those who do not decide pursue the traditional residency+fellowship route after obtaining a MD. How viable are they? How satisfied are they (any regrets)? Earning potential? Or maybe you wished you would have gone a different route?

All input and discussion is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[GoSpursGo]

As I said in your previous thread, in general your options are going to be very limited without being board-certified in something. Which requires residency+fellowship. This is because an MD is a very general degree, and in order to be able to sell yourself as a true expert in something you either need some real clinical experience as an attending physician, or significant and unique experience from prior to medical school (ie you were an engineer prior to med school and now you want to make medical devices). I think you can find other threads that have asked very similar questions over the past several years, as this is not an uncommon question.

I can say this as someone who personally entertained multiple non-clinical job offers from pharma companies after my fellowship, and in fact probably half of the fellows in my program went on to work nonclinically. But we were only able to get those job offers based on having completed residency and fellowship. There may be SOMETHING out there for people with just an MD, but it's the same jobs that folks who get dismissed from residency are looking for, and they are generally not super exciting nor are they particularly well compensating.

Good luck.

 

[EthylMethylMan]

The options available to you are also generally not going to be nearly as lucrative as physician practice. Worth considering that, especially if you have loans.

Edit: If you really don’t like the prospect of being a clinical physician for decades until you retire, but you can stomach a few years of the work, grinding for FIRE is doable in most specialties. Spend as if you were making resident money, aggressively save the remainder, and take as many shifts as your physical and mental health can reasonably bear. Once you hit financial independence, you can scale back to however few shifts per month you want. Or you can just work in an entirely different field that may not pay as much but is enjoyable for you. Or you can just retire. The amount of time that will take will depend on your individual situation (debt, COL in your area, pay ceiling for your specialty, etc.), but I’d bet most physicians could manage, assuming they have the discipline.