A Candid Review Of “50 Nonclinical Careers For Physicians”

[Disclosure: The author sent me a free copy of her new book, asking if I would review it. I make no commission, and we have no affiliate relationship.]

During orientation week in my first year as a medical student, a particularly thoughtful classmate in an adjacent apartment building concluded by week's end that she didn't want to become a physician. She'd pursued medicine to make her parents happy. What she wanted was to become a teacher. She left UCSF the following week.

At the time, most of my classmates thought she was nuts. It took several years looking through the retrospectoscope for me to recognize that she'd be better described as honest, even brave. Many of us are unable to be this honest with ourselves.

When Do You Sell A Losing Stock?

The problem with a bad stock is that you tend to have trouble letting it go, hoping desperately that a recovery in value is right around the corner. Unfortunately (if not surprisingly), a subset of physicians feel that way about having undertaken a career in medicine.

This realization can be tough to own up to.

There may be family projecting their hopes and dreams onto your academic achievements. Perhaps you feel that you've sacrificed too much to turn back - taken out considerable educational loans, stayed in too many nights when your friends went out, bailed out on relationships that distracted you from your goal of becoming a physician. There are numerous reasons you might feel that you cannot leave medicine until you've obtained some greater return on your investment.

Dr. Sylvie Stacy, MD, MPH, is a preventive medicine physician who has demonstrated a form of bravery akin to that of my lost classmate. Dr. Stacy is a Hopkins-trained physician who experienced her this is not my beautiful life crisis with clinical medicine and used it as an opportunity for growth, exploring alternative uses for an MD degree. Her journey became the basis for a website, Look For Zebras, whose emphasis on financial security earned her a coveted spot on the list of Physician Finance Bloggers.

As the culmination of her time and effort, Dr. Stacy has written a book to help others who have grown disillusioned with medicine but would still like to make the relationship work: 50 Nonclinical Careers For Physicians. Let's dive in!

Look Out, Britannica

Dr. Stacy has written the definitive reference on alternative careers for physicians, one against which all future books will be measured, and she set the bar high.

She has networked extensively with physicians who inhabit these roles, and one of my favorite features of the book was the interviews she sprinkled throughout the text with physicians who explained how their career paths developed (sometimes organically, other times with deliberate planning) into unique roles suited to their interests and lifestyle goals.

A brilliant move was the decision to include a range of compensation for every listed alternative career, and compare it to the typical physician salary. Many physicians find that they dislike clinical medicine, yet they expect to transition to a nonclinical career with comparable remuneration. While alternative jobs with commensurate income do exist, they are often based on prior years of experience within the niche of expertise.

Dr. Stacy has considered nearly every possible iteration of alternative careers for physicians, with a well-considered description for each. A partial list includes:

• administration
• pharmaceutical industry
• medical device development
• artificial intelligence
• information technology
• business development
• management consulting
• investment banking
• wealth management
• law, insurance
• writing
• education
• public health
• entertainment / media

Show Me The Money

The vast majority of alternative jobs have lower starting salaries than the average income from clinical medicine. Then again, these jobs also come without night shifts, ER call, or body fluid exposures. When misery is the price of luxury, you may be willing to embrace a more modest income (at least in the beginning) in exchange for career satisfaction.

Another point to make is that many physicians transition from clinical medicine into alternative careers gradually, so that as income from clinical care tapers off, the income from the new endeavor is ramping up.

The take-home message from the book is that you will earn less at first, but that earning less in order to be significantly happier is the path most physicians who are unhappy in clinical medicine end up pursuing as a quality of life priority.

The Caveats

The biggest challenge of reading this text is the same reason we don't bring encyclopedias to the beach on summer vacations: they can be dense in their attempt to be comprehensive, and can run a little dry.

This slight drawback is easily overcome: you'll use this book like any reference book, by identifying the potential career category that interests you in the table of contents and focusing on those few careers that promise to be potential matches for your skills and interest.

Another minor sticking point is that on occasion, the job descriptions and terminology seem crafted by and for MBAs, making it a little challenging for MDs and DOs to decipher.

The counterpoint to this critique is that for physicians looking to break into the business, tech or finance worlds, you will need to learn to understand their language. Developing fluency in a different profession will make you a valuable intermediary between their world and medicine, and provided you don't choose a field where the messenger gets shot, being one of the few bilingual entities should only increase your value to an organization.

In A Nutshell

We start our professions with optimism, certain we're right around the corner from discovering a job we love. Experiencing disillusionment in medicine creates a sense of cynicism often grounded in realpolitik: we'll settle for the job we detest the least that enables us to fulfill our financial and lifestyle goals.

Dr. Stacy makes it clear that you don't, in fact, have to detest your profession. If clinical medicine turns out not to be your bag, there's a good chance to use that higher education while still retaining some return on your considerable investment.

50 Nonclinical Careers For Physicians is a phenomenal resource, and one I see as ideal for physicians struggling with burnout; those looking for a change in mid-career after obtaining a degree of financial security; and even those late in their career looking to keep working in a less exhausting capacity.

The SEAK conference and its affiliated products were previously the main purveyors of resources for burnt out physicians desiring change. Friends who attended had positive things to say about the experience, and altered their trajectories based on those experiences.

With the addition of Dr. Stacy's new book, those physicians now have an affordable way of dipping a toe into the world of alternative careers before committing time and money to pursuing one.

If you are navigating a personal or professional crossroads and seek assistance, I'd be grateful if you'd consider my burnout coaching service. Thank you.