Doctor in need of advice - 2021 internships

Hi,

First things first, I'd like to thank all WSO users/contributors - really found it to be a helpful resource for some questions I had. 

I recently graduated from med school in a western European country and have always been interested in business and finance, which is why I decided to enter the CFA program during med school and passed CFA exam level 1 and 2 in my last 2 years of med school.

Being that I'm 24 yo, I feel that I may be too young to know exactly what field I want to work in for the next 40 years and I decided not to enter residency directly and rather do internships in finance. While I enjoy investing and doing financial analysis, I really enjoy business strategy and I think an IBD internship may be more interesting than an ER internship. Given that I'm a doctor and have been following the biopharmaceutical space for some years now, I'm particularly interested in healthcare banking.

I was wondering if getting an internship in IB at BBs/EBs was doable, given that I have no prior experience in finance. Which banks are the top players in healthcare banking in Europe?

I've researched M&A activity in the biopharmaceutical space from 2019 to now and what I seem to notice is that JPM/GS/BAML and Lazard/Centerview/Evercore are the most active players in M&A advisory. But what I couldn't find was which office was involved in these mergers. Considering that I only have an intermediate level in German, I guess FFM and Zürich are not within reach. However, I'm fluent in French. 

Thanks a lot for your help

18 Comments
 

From what I've seen, some of the bigger players have roles in IB for ADC (advanced degree candidates), is it something one commonly comes across?

So getting an internship w/o an MSc in finance is that hard? Doesn't the fact I passed level I and II of the CFA exam help? 

 

Unfortunately don't have too much to add here. But if you are comfortable sharing, I was curious how you are thinking of the opportunity cost of not continuing with the medical path? I admire that you are willing to switch careers and pursue something you'd find more interesting. I'm not completely sure how med school / residency works, but have you spent a ton of money at this point and are somewhat close to being a doctor?

 

The sister of a highschool friend did the following (she was from a European country):

- Master/PhD in Pharma+ internships, realized she didn’t like it

- Master of business/finance at a top school

- did some internships on the back/during her masters 

- BB IB HC team intern and MF PE intern

So it’s doable, but suggest going down the masters route.

 

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