How to switch from medicine to finance/PE?

Hello all, been lurking this forum for a while now and decided I would post my question here. Im a current MD/MBA student at Penn who is currently unhappy with the MD portion of my life.

Coming from a poor immigrant family, I thought medicine was the way to a secure future. I still think it is somewhat however I ultimately realize that I chose medicine for the wrong reasons ($$$) and now I want to switch into a career that focuses on that aspect.

I have been thinking that out of IB/HF/VC/PE, PE seems to be the most appealing for a variety of reasons. I like the idea of investing in something underperforming, helping it turn around and making a profit. My only problem is that I have no background in finance and I think this will be a problem despite getting an MBA from Wharton.

So far, I have only completed MD requirements and I havent started at the business school yet (that will be next year) but I have hated every portion of medicine so far. I really want to switch but having no family connections and no work experience makes me think I should just suck it up and stay in medicine and be unhappy. What should I be doing now before starting business school to help put me on that path? Is it worth it to take a year or two of leave from medicine school to work in IBD?

Thanks in advance for any helpful advise :)

3 Comments
 

In order to make the switch, would it be advisable to take a year off to work in finance before starting business school? If so, should I target PE groups as an analyst or go for IBD positions?

Also, given my fairly non-traditional route, are some other larger PE firms like KKR or Bain out of the picture down the road?

 

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