What Jobs Can I Do With a MD Degree?

Medical School Graduates Have a Wide Range of Career Paths to Choose From

Although the vast majority of medical students intend to practice medicine, it’s far from the only career option available to U.S. and Caribbean medical school graduates.

A medical degree is surprisingly flexible, with numerous lucrative opportunities available to med school graduates. Whether you intend to sample the job market prior to beginning your residency training or want to seek out an alternative medical career instead of a medical license, here are just some of roles where medical graduates have achieved exceptional success:

Hospital Administration

Medical training will give you an advantage when applying for administrative positions at a hospital. Graduates of medical schools have gone on to excel in a variety of executive roles at many hospitals around the world, including medical directors, executive directors, and more. 

While you’re rotating through clinical clerkships, you should actively network with hospital administration to see what’s available and what life as a hospital administrator is like. These roles increase the efficiency of physicians, foster an environment that improves patient care, and ensure that various departments function cohesively.

Hospital Administrators are the people behind the scenes who oversee the daily and overall business operations of a hospital, including, but not limited to, the management of facility services and electronic medical records personnel, finances, and quality assurance. While doctors tend to the health of the patient, administrators focus on the health of the hospital.

Medical Researcher

Just like becoming a physician, clinical research positions allow MDs to continue the tradition of being life-long learners. This medical profession is on the frontline of discovering the cures for tomorrow by collecting data and making sense of the numbers. 

Instead of healing one person at a time, you could be healing the world with the medical breakthroughs from a research project under your guidance. If you decide to join this field, you will need a strong resume and health background. While you’re in medical school, try to submit your independent research to conferences and academic journals in the field(s) where your research is most relevant. Being a published researcher is a huge boon not only if you want to be a researcher but also for your applications for residency programs. 

Note: you may need to obtain a PhD for certain research positions.

Pharmaceutical Company Executive

Pharmaceutical companies are always on the lookout for people with a medical education and a keen eye for business. Through an articulation agreement with Urbana University, American University of Antigua (AUA) College of Medicine offers an online MBA program. This program will teach you how to climb the ladder in the pharmaceutical industry and develop the qualities that make a great executive. 

Through the Urbana program, you will also learn what healthcare professionals are looking for in a strong resume and how to build one of your own. To understand the industry and determine whether it’s right for you, visit Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine’s website.

Medical Consultant 

You remember all that medical jargon you heard on House and Scrubs? A medical consultant reviewed all of that before it made it to air. Medical consultants are advisors to organizations that need assistance in analyzing the accuracy of their use of medical terminology. 

Consultants have reviewed advertisements, marketing campaigns, screenplays, teleplays, plays, manuscripts, and more. They’ve also been hired to help design hospitals and medical facilities. Consultants have worked with medical practices and helped them improve their efficiency. You will have to network to get your name out there, but once you make connections, your name could be listed in the credits at the end of a film or honored by the architects you consulted in building the new wing of a hospital. It’s an incredibly broad career path that suits the flexibility of an MD degree.