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.