When physicians choose to leave clinical medicine to pursue alternative careers, what motivates them to make such changes? Is it money? More time with family? Scheduling flexibility? Avoiding litigation? To pursue new challenges? Maybe you’re getting bored with medicine.
Depending on that key motivating factor, physicians end up choosing all types of career paths. For instance, let’s take a look at some of these motivators:
Money. Let’s face it. Some physicians love money. They may be good at their job, but they have a stronger passion for a higher salary. If you’re driven to make more money so that you can enjoy life’s luxuries, then perhaps you plan to climb the corporate ladder and eventually rise to become a VP, Executive VP, Chief Medical Officer, or even President/CEO of a company. The earning potentials can go up exponentially if you’ve got the right business skills to excel in the corporate environment. Alternative careers in the business world can be financially rewarding if you’ve got the skills to excel in the business world.
Time with family. Maybe clinical medicine has you burned out. Perhaps you’re looking for an alternative physician career because you don’t want to spend so much time at work. You may see other people spending more time with their families and you want that as well. Certain alternative careers may give you more flexibility in your schedule. Perhaps you can even set your own schedule. Maybe you’d like to work from home so that you can take lunch breaks and eat with your family.
Pursuing new challenges. I seem to meet many physicians who are bored with clinical medicine. They see so many new business opportunities rising up in the world of health IT, consumer health education, online medicine, and other industries. Maybe you love clinical research and you want to be involved in drug development. Perhaps you’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurship bug and you’d like to start your own company.
Regardless of your reasons for wanting to pursue an alternative physician career, it’s important to make sure that you know how to map out your career transition plan. It’s not easy to leave clinical medicine and jump right into a company. There can be many challenges and barriers that you may need to overcome to prove your value to a business organization.
Are you serious about making a career transition?
Joseph Kim is a physician-executive who blogs at Non-Clinical Medical Jobs, Careers, and Opportunities.
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