Breaking into Healthcare IB
I’m looking for some objective advice from people in IB/finance, particularly UK-based bankers or people who have recruited from non-target universities.
I’m currently studying Medicine at the University of Leicester. I'm around half way through and I have the opportunity to exit with a bachelors of clinical science and apply for high finance roles that interest me.
I’m now considering two paths:
Option 1 — Stay in Medicine
• Finish the MBChB and qualify as a doctor.
• Potentially pursue medicine long-term, but I’m increasingly interested in finance/business.
• The major concern is the risk of failing another major hurdle later in the course after investing several more years.
• The upside is that a medical degree provides a very strong professional qualification and significant career optionality, including potentially moving into finance later.
Option 2 — Leave Medicine and enter final year Clinical Science
• Graduate with a Clinical Science degree at around 23/24.
• Use the final year to build a strong finance profile: networking, technical preparation, internships/insight programmes and applications.
• Target investment banking, potentially with healthcare/life sciences as a niche given my background.
• If IB doesn’t work out, I would have Clinical Science/NHS as a reasonably secure fallback career.
• The concern is that Leicester is a non-target and I’d be competing against candidates from traditional target universities, so I’m unsure how realistic the transition actually is.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here’s a breakdown of your situation and advice for navigating your options:
Option 1: Stay in Medicine
Pros:
Cons:
Option 2: Leave Medicine and Enter Final Year Clinical Science
Pros:
Cons:
Key Considerations:
WSO Insights:
Ultimately, the decision depends on your risk tolerance, passion for finance, and willingness to put in the extra effort to overcome the non-target hurdle. If you’re deeply interested in finance and ready to commit to the transition, Option 2 could be a viable path. However, if you value the stability and optionality of medicine, staying the course and transitioning later might be the better choice.
Sources: Leave Top Surgical Residency Program for Finance, 3rd year Harvard Medical School student thinking about high finance transition- am I being realisitc?, What would you do if you were me? (Medicine vs Business), Give up medicine for ibanking? (Undergrad at Northwestern BS MD)
UK and as someone in HC IB from medicine also: option 1.
If you did option 2:
- You graduate with a degree that is no more niche or specialised as the next person that did biomed/bioscience/neuroscience/basically any another science degree
- On top of the point above, and also your biggest drawback too, is coming from Leicester
- You also graduated with absolutely 0 finance experience, let alone IB experience vs hundreds of UK & European grads that have done multiple
- Developing a “strong financial profile” in your third year is, at this point, a weak one as the eligibility to even apply to insight programmes and internships are ships that have already sailed, given you would have supposed to have done them in your 1st/2nd year and your graduation year won’t line up with that
- I get targeting IB with a HC background but it’s not some prerequisite or a huge differentiator in IB. It’s more of a “nice to have” when combined with a genuine financial interest, experience and technical capability. Most teams would prefer someone with that experience and knowledge already vs someone with a HC background and little-to-none experience
If you did option 1:
- You become eligible for insight programmes and internships as your graduation date is pushed back. It also gives you time to build technicals and your network
- You complete a rigorous and competitive degree from Leicester, which is way better than a “generic” scientific one
- A medical degree gives you a genuine back-up plan if things don’t work out in finance. And let’s face it, the NHS isn’t doing great and junior doctors are having more trouble than ever securing training posts. But it gives you optionality to go abroad, private etc. And more so than a Clinical Sciences degree
- You worked hard to get into Medical School. Whether that’s what you want to do long-term or not, you’d be proud to have completed it in the end. And who knows, what if you do IB and realise later down the line you want to do something more meaningful than churning out powerpoints at 2am for a VP that thinks we should do an extra bit of analysis on something trivial that the MD never asked for?
Them options should tell you which is clearly the better route. It’d be different if you told me this story again, but came from a target uni, had solid technicals and good understanding of the job alongside internships.
Forgive me if any of the above sounds harsh and if I’m being judgemental here, but you have 0 experience of IB and seems you haven’t even spent a day inside a bank, and are willing to significantly reduce your current career prospects over it. For most grads in IB, there came about 2/3 years of work before it to land them that spot, and that will likely have to be the same for you too which is doable under option 1.
Really appreciate your perspective and guidance. I suppose part of my reasoning is the uncertainty of the degree and potentially leaving with nothing if a fail at some point which is real as opposed to getting experience in a field im increasingly interested in.
It’s a cut throat and demanding degree (like most other healthcare courses) - my peers and I didn’t enjoy that part and I’m not envious at all, and get that it could be a reality. But from the way I see it, you should be prioritising all your focus on tackling that hurdle and making sure you don’t fail, rather than positioning yourself for IB - a career you have 0 experience in - as another avenue, which requires it’s own commitment in preparing/applying for. E.g., if you’re concerned on failing due to personal circumstances, maybe take a year out and rejoin the next academic year when your situation is better? Or being proactive in getting the support you need. You’re clearly clever enough to get on the course, and therefore to finish it too, nor are you the first or last med student to be going through this period right now - there’s help there.
If you do option 2, all that time you’re spending on little-to-no upside will probably do you a disservice on ensuring you won’t fail in the first place. And to be honest, even if you didn’t do option 2 and failed a module (meaning you have to graduate at year 3), you’re in no better position than if you did option 2 anyway.
So, take a step back and weigh the options up and really address whatever it is that might cause you to fail the course in the first place. Once you overcome that, figuring the path to IB - or if thats what you even want to do as we haven’t even gotten to all the options there are (e.g., healthcare consulting/biopharma equity research/healthcare spec sales/BD at a pharma/venture capital) - will be the next step which can wait.
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