5 Alternative careers if you don’t want to practice after MBBS

Hamid Saeed
Jul 13, 2021
6 min read

If you talk to most medical students and ask them about their plans after graduation, most people will talk about their dreams of becoming famous surgeons preferably in extremely competitive fields like neurosurgery and cardiothoracic surgery, etc. in some amazing hospital abroad usually and at the top of their field, with everything else in life managed perfectly of course.

However looking at the changing sociopolitical landscape of the world and our country, the extreme competitiveness of all these fields, the significant cons associated with a lot of these choices such as dangerous burnout levels, etc. and most importantly the unpredictable nature of life in general; how our priorities and interests change in life sometimes, I often find myself wondering what alternate paths there could be if someone decides to use their medical degree other than as a practitioner.

So after a lot of hours spent searching, the 5 most popular options I found are:

1) Medical startup entrepreneur

One of the most exciting and increasingly important part of our economic landscape is the tech startup and entrepreneurship culture these days. This has impacted nearly every industry and healthcare is no different. From apps to record systems, to medical appliances and robotics in surgery, health tech is a growing and popular field for many doctors.

Some people with medical degrees are finding physician entrepreneur and startup career paths to be a better way to impact healthcare delivery and ultimately, more patients’ lives. For example, working on devices and innovative med-tech has the potential to impact many more lives than a physician would be able to touch in a traditional practice. For those non-risk-averse, starting or joining a fledgling life sciences company could be an interesting career transition.

This makes sense too; with their hands-on experience, medical students and physicians are primed for developing solutions they face at the bedside every day. If you have the courage, the creativity, and a lot of patience, you could become a physician innovator yourself and even create your own start-up!

While the startup culture in Pakistan is obviously nowhere as strong as the US, the tide is very encouraging; especially for healthcare-related businesses. There are so many recent startups ranging from online pharmacies like Dawaai and Dawaago to companies like Vitealth (which produces health sensor watches), CareActions, EzPz Sehat(an online portal created to make a collaborative base for doctors and patients), Trequant (which helps patients with essential tremor keep a self-check of their disease),doctHERS( established by a trio of female physicians) among many others. Every day new startups emerge with more innovative ideas to change the healthcare landscape of Pakistan and help provide more relief to the public. If you have a diverse range of interests, still want to keep in touch with your medical knowledge, and want to work together with people to create something of your own, entrepreneurship could be the life for you. However, this path does come with its considerable risks so tread lightly and always have a backup plan!

2) Medical education /teaching

Maybe not the most exciting but probably one of the most common options that immediately come to mind when you consider a career outside of clinical practice is of course academia or education. However, as you can see there is a wide variety of choices even inside this avenue:

Medical Teacher

Whether you want to make an impact on educating a large number of people, want a steady paycheck without the stress of clinical practice, or are much more interested in pursuing research work, a career in teaching could be perfect for you. There are so many ways to get involved including, lecturing, creating and running courses, writing exam questions, or even adopting roles such as the Director of Postgraduate Medical Education, etc.

This is a very common pathway for young and even older medical graduates in Pakistan and abroad.

Medical writer/editor

Another very common and low-risk alternative is to go for medical writing and editing. If you’ve always been interested in content writing and disseminating information via books, etc., and teaching, consider this.

Expert health writers and editors are always needed for textbook development, test prep materials, peer-review articles, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and healthcare publications like magazines and websites. Medical writing can often be done remotely and on your own schedule, making it a good alternative for those looking for ultimate flexibility. It can also be quite a well-paid career depending on how much work you produce and which organizations you work with.

Medical illustration

Another very interesting but less popular idea usually, at least from what I’ve seen in Pakistan, is medical illustration. When I heard the word, the first thing that came to my mind was, as you can probably guess, the great Frank H. Netter and I started to realize just how important his career was in helping countless medical students throughout the generations become better doctors. If you have a creative and artistic streak then a career in medical illustration could be right for you. Of course, you could also pursue this passion as a part-time interest along with a more traditional career.

The modern world has transitioned to freelancing and the gig economy and it turns out medical illustration is another one of the skills that people are willing to pay lucrative amounts of money for. If you want to try this path out, the door is just a few clicks away!

3) Public Health

Public health is about protecting and promoting the health of the general population. You might work on preventing the spread of infectious diseases or environmental health hazards, or you could be involved in strategies to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of your health service. A desirable quality for professionals in this field is a creative and strategic mindset since public health workers are often asked to propose solutions to major public health problems like different epidemics, drug addiction crises, etc.

If you think about it, a public health job can be very meaningful and satisfying because it allows you to provide significant assistance to a very large number of people while at the same time working more reasonable and less stressful hours.

Furthermore, the recent Covid pandemic has exacerbated the need for good public health officers and epidemiologists (another sub-sect of Public Health). Those countries with a strong public health sector were able to manage and control the pandemic much more effectively as compared to others and limit both illness and loss of life. That’s an enormously impactful field to be a part of.

In addition, if you plan to pursue the Civil Service after medicine, as some graduates do in Pakistan, getting a public health degree would be very useful as it would allow you entry into many fields.

4) Pharmaceutical Consulting

The medical expertise of doctors is also frequently sought after by pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies when they are creating, testing, and investigating new products and drugs for example. If you are someone who has always loved research, this may be a pathway of interest for you.

A major perk of these jobs is the fact that they usually have only business hours and can be extremely lucrative in some roles. In Pakistan too, this is quite a popular avenue for a lot of graduates, as in other countries.

5) Medical Influencers

This is probably the newest and most versatile direction you could take after a career in medicine since this is a career trajectory that pretty much everyone in any field can take. The world nowadays has transitioned so much to social media and streaming platforms such as YouTube and the like that having a significant presence on these sites is actually a whole career choice now. Whether you start it off as a side hobby or transition to a full-time job as a content creator, the options are endless in terms of what you want to choose to talk about from topics like entry in med school, residencies, and the like to more healthcare-related information such as nutrition and diets, healthy lifestyle choices, etc. You’re only limited by your imagination!

Cool Pro: If you play your cards right and your content takes off, you could end up earning significantly more than you could in even clinical medicine.
Not-so-cool Con: you’ll need a lot of luck and patience for that so best to start out with a proper career and then transition, or start out when you're a student.

If you want inspiration, there are already so many examples such as Dr. Mike, Dr. Jubbal, Med School Insiders, Ali Abdaal, etc. on YouTube. There are more who have their own podcast channels such as 2 Docs Talk, Dentalpreneur, straight talk MD and so many more.

These are obviously just a few of the most common options I found when searching for alternative careers. It turns out that there is an almost non-exhaustible range of opportunities. Whether you’re a confused student or are sure about your plans and goals, it’s always useful to see what other options you have. Whichever one you eventually choose though, obviously depends on your own life priorities, the flexibility you want, and what gives you the most meaning in life. Happy exploring!