MD (Medical Doctor) wanting to get into healthcare ER

Hello everyone, I am currently a resident in internal medicine that is planning to forgo fellowship to get into ER. Why now? Because I didn't know the field even existed until last year.

About me:
BS in biochemistry at a University of California school.
MD from a BIG 10 school in the Midwest.
Currently doing IM residency at an academic institution.
Planning on completing residency and being board certified before applying to these ER associate jobs.

My issue:
Most of these job postings seem to require prior finance experience. How do I approach this? Take finance courses while not working? Apply for a MBA business schools">M7 MBA program? CFA Level 1? Self-study? I know I don't want to practice clinical medicine on a long term basis anymore (no autonomy, healthcare inefficiency, etc.). I want to do ER because I have been managing my own brokerage portfolio for sometime now and enjoy it.

Thanks for your help.

41 Comments
 

For the love of god, don't do it!

But it is your life, so if you wanna get into ER, I'd recommend just browsing job forums for anything related to biotech, med tech, or pharmaceuticals. A MD doesn't really help for covering managed care or facilities - besides, biotech and pharma are hotter spaces.

Also, since people with your pedigree are in short supply, you could definitely shoot to go directly to the buyside. I've seen a couple jobs out there for some top notch funds that explicitly state you need a PhD or MD to be considered.

Bottom line, I doubt you need to get the whole CFA (level 1 alone will give you 90% of the value that the charter has to offer) and depending on your vertical, the finance element will be a piece of cake for you. An MBA would be a similar waste of my time imo - lemme know if you want me to expand on this.

Happy to discuss more via PM.

 

I think the best path is CFA (mostly to learn basics/ demonstrate interest) and some basic finance courses: (accounting, corporate finance, something involving valuation of stocks if they have it )via a local university.

At that point I would say you're good to go in terms of pursuing ER or buyside roles. To maximize your chances you need to do more work on which sectors specifically you're interested in. I'd then come up with a few good pitches/ stock ideas and a very solid story about how your experience as a doctor makes you better qualified than Joe Schmo healthcare analyst.

Sell-side loves your type of background because its an easy selling point (he's a real doctor!) and what they do is sell. Assuming you can prove the finance fundamentals you should have a great shot. For buyside you will probably need to prove more expertise/ deeper knowledge of a specific field of interest.

More for the clowns above than for you: doctors make a lot of money but the work (in many specialties) is actually one of the places that compares to finance in terms of share stress/brutality. Ultimately, you still have more upside in finance (can cross 1M/yr under 40 in finance; doesn't really happen anywhere else) so its actually not crazy to want to pursue this path instead.

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