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GUEST COMMENT: I was a doctor, I want to be a banker
15 June 2009COMMENTS
I actually knew a dentist turned trader, so it is possible. Read all comments »
After the crisis in financial services, you might think anyone working in medicine would like to remain where they are. However, as a former doctor I want to become a banker. I appreciate that financial services jobs are less secure than jobs in medicine, but I’m intrigued by the financial services industry and willing to take a risk.
I’m currently in the first year of an MBA at a leading European business school. Before I started the course, I worked as a doctor in Sweden and then as a surgeon in a London hospital for a year.
Medicine wasn’t my only focus during this time. I’ve always been interested in business, and pursued business opportunities alongside my medical career. For example, I started a small company focused on skin rejuvenation therapy and worked on some projects for a venture capital firm looking into medical tourism.
When my MBA course finishes I’d like to go into healthcare M&A. Investment banking appeals to my interest in business. Doctors and bankers need similar character traits: curiosity; an ability to work with other people; and eagerness to do the best job possible, whether for clients or patients.
I’ve spoken to several former medics who’ve gone into banking and they’re happy with the move. All are working with healthcare clients; they get to combine a passion for healthcare with their passion for business.
I feel fortunate that in this environment the healthcare sector is one of the best areas of banking to be in. It wasn’t easy to land an internship this year, but I was fortunate enough to get my first choice offer.
If someone said to me that I contributed more to society as a doctor, I’d say that doctors are very dependent on pharmaceutical and biotech companies’ ability to develop new drugs. If can help those companies to improve their performance by giving them good financial advice, then I feel this is a valuable contribution too.
COMMENTS
GP, Operations, Mon 15 Jun 09
I am a GP wannabe investment banker - do i stand a chance? Any M&A team looking for a GP?
Add your comment »Ex Lehman, Accounting & Finance, Tue 16 Jun 09
Im former IB'er wanting to be a medic any ideas?
Add your comment »ponterotto, Derivatives, Tue 16 Jun 09
Johnny Moondog:
"Conversely, as an M&A guru, you could advise RBS to pay $30 billion for ING, a company with negative present value. In that case, you'd probably end up with a 400,000 pound bonus! Nowhere is failure rewarded better than in banking."
A theoretical scenario (i.e. ING not ABN) or you are an idiot?
Zaa, Asset Management, Tue 16 Jun 09
Baffling.
Doctors worth any cop are on anything from £60k-£100k guaranteed until 65 plus private work plus NHS pension. Through the miracle of compound interest it's very hard to be poor.
Banking, like joining a band, is a hit or miss affair. A lucky few do indeed make out like bandits but most toil away in obscurity with no job security.
BC, Derivatives, Tue 16 Jun 09
you got to the point where you worked as a surgeon, started up your own business and now you want your a*sed kicked as a bottom-of-the-rung associate in M&A doing mickey mouse, essentially back of the envelope, calculations, the usual power point after power point of the same stuff??
You are crazy. It's not all that glamorous, and not so well paid. You really will not make your fortune in this.
Johnny Moondog, Trading, Tue 16 Jun 09
Ponterotto, RBS already bought ABN.......that ship has sailed.
As for calling me an idiot, why don't you meet me outside the Liverpool St. tube tonight at 5 and I can demean you in front of your co-workers?
why?, Accounting & Finance, Tue 16 Jun 09
You could actually just get a job as a doctor treating all those sick rats on the trading floors!!!!! If being inside the building is all you want then hooray, they might even give you 2screens to google on!
Add your comment »ponterotto, Derivatives, Tue 16 Jun 09
well, i was asking if you meant "in theory" or not - which you have answered "theory" - i.e. you are not an idiot. so i wasn't calling you an idiot.
....Then again, ING is healthier, a more diversified business than RBS, has taken less from the dutch government than rbs took from uk, had a much smaller loss in 2008, so you are not quite right above, by whatever you mean by "negative present value". And to make your point better i'd have gone for a more dramatic acquisition than ING, because it's not quite obvious what you meant.
Just sounds like you don't know much (a misunderstanding of how the ABN purchase affected RBS), more so as your response to a put down is "violence".
mauderoc, Tue 16 Jun 09
Why don't you consider strategy consulting in healthcare. Decent pay and you'll probably have more impact on clients compared to m&a.
Add your comment »Mariska, Compliance / Legal, Tue 16 Jun 09
Oh, no more investment bankers please...
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