What are the options open to medical graduates who do not wish to progress to the preregistration house officer year?
BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.329.7457.s12-a (Published 10 July 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:s12Abstract
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Each year a number of medical graduates choose to pursue another career without ever practising medicine. This essentially places them on an equal footing with graduates (albeit with the equivalent of a masters degree) from any other course. The easiest place to find a job is at any of the graduate recruitment fairs, which are held across the country and where big firms have a presence.
There are pros and cons to this approach. If you are dead sure that you do not want to practise medicine then the clear advantage is that you don't waste any time on a career that you are not interested in progressing. You enter the graduate recruitment pool quickly and progress in whatever sphere you wish to from day one. However, the medical degree itself is much harder to use (in other words, it is less transferable), so if you want to work as a medical specialist in the city, for a drug company, in law, or in any other area you would be at a disadvantage compared with doctors who have been in clinical practice and then made the move. It does not make it impossible to go down this route—just more difficult.
My instincts are that because of the much larger number of medical graduates qualifying each year it is becoming more common for graduates to do exactly what you are suggesting and go for a job outside medicine immediately after qualifying. Many graduate entry programmes begin in September, although it might be possible to enter a job from the beginning of July in the year that you qualify—again allowing you to use your time efficiently to begin whichever career you want. In terms of choosing what to go for, again my best advice is to go along to some of the recruitment fairs (normally advertised in the national press or student unions) and talk to people about what opportunities are open and what the jobs are like.
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