Medical student thinking about going into consultancy but disappointed with grade

Hi eveyone,

I'm a medical student at Cambridge and I've just finished the 3rd year of my degree where we intercalate, I did Natural Sciences (Pathology) and unfortunately got a 2.2 (with some mental health issues involved but still). Over the last 3 years I've realised that medicine may not be for me and I was thinking I trying my hand at consultancy, even if its just an internship so see what its like. I've heard that it generally pays well and it may give me the opportunity to work on a variety of different projects with a variety of different companies. Either way, its something that I would like to explore, but I just don't know how I'd even go about getting an internship with my dismal BA grade this year. I am planning to stay for clinical school to finish my degree, has anyone been in a similar position/have any good advice on how to go about this?

Would be much appreciated! xxx

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

Surely if you finish medical school, the degree you would be applying for any potential jobs/training schemes with with would be your medical degree, which is pass/fail as far as I'm aware?

Well done for realising medicine is not for you. Better to realise it at this stage than after several years of being unhappy as a doctor.

Reply 2

dx7

take the GMAT and see what you get. spent 4 months studying for my 91st percentile MCAT and 6 weeks studying for my 98th percentile UCAT, but GMAT took me all of 3 full days before i was ready to sit exam and scored 94th percentile - its fairly basic maths and english, just have to learn the "speed" or pace of the test. you're lucky UK has 1yr MBAs, with a MD equivalent from Cambridge and an 1yr MBA you could look at comparable compensation in the UK to what consultants make from what I understand (I come from an American edu background). shame you already "used" your intercalated degree opportunity, I asked in my UK med interview just to have a question and bcs it was offered if anyone had done an MBA as theirs, but from what I understand med and biz are far more separated in the UK than the US...

Reply 3

tdog97

Original post by Anonymous

Hi eveyone,
I'm a medical student at Cambridge and I've just finished the 3rd year of my degree where we intercalate, I did Natural Sciences (Pathology) and unfortunately got a 2.2 (with some mental health issues involved but still). Over the last 3 years I've realised that medicine may not be for me and I was thinking I trying my hand at consultancy, even if its just an internship so see what its like. I've heard that it generally pays well and it may give me the opportunity to work on a variety of different projects with a variety of different companies. Either way, its something that I would like to explore, but I just don't know how I'd even go about getting an internship with my dismal BA grade this year. I am planning to stay for clinical school to finish my degree, has anyone been in a similar position/have any good advice on how to go about this?
Would be much appreciated! xxx

How's it going? also a 2.2 graduate from Cambridge in my intercalated year. What are you up to? Could we talk? I've not passed an exam at clinical school and think it may be the end of the road for me.

Reply 4

ErasistratusV

There is much talk about 'working as a consultant' outside of medicine in the associated fields and allied industries such as big pharmaceutical or tech companies, even the world of finance.

However, it would be unrealistic to expect you'll readily find a ready-made consultancy job outside of medicine as a graduate who is post F1 or post F2. You won't be alone in the sizeable number of people who will have had quite enough of NHS-lyfe by the end of F2. Some students I know already voice their feelings in that actual clinical practice doesn't appeal to them in the slightest and to be fair, I can understand their views completely as shift working up to 12 hours a day isn't necessarily the dream for young people who are sub 30 years of age whilst they have lots of other ideas about what is important in their lives.

The real question then is what experience does a person leaving clinical practice at the end of F2 have? The reality is that there are thousands of such people being 'generated' every year and if you have come straight from school, A levels and now University you won't necessarily have a lot of experience of the world of finance or commerce or skills that are automatically transferable. I know people who do have certain skills though. People who write code virtually in their sleep or who have worked in STEM fields already or been project managers in a previous life. The fact they have a medical degree is almost secondary to some of these achievements.

My advice then if you are genuinely serious about leaving clinical practice and going for it in the commercial or academic, etc worlds, you're going to have to have some bits on your CV outside A level and your BMBS and start emailing and talking with companies ASAP so that you have maybe an internship or similar ready for when you leave medicine. Yes, you'll have a degree and you'll be a qualified doctor but the world of commerce often revolves around how much money a company can make out of employing you otherwise, they generally don't hire people just for the lulz. Get on linked in or instagram or whatever platform people use these days and start forming connections because you're going to need them. I can tell you this with near certainty because I worked in industry and from time to time the economy contracts and companies pull their claws in and won't be actively seeking to employ brand-new people on a salary of 40K plus all the costs associated with that. You may also be required to relocate elsewhere in the world. I was offered a job by a big name (at the time ) company but it involved a transfer to North America. It was too big a step for me at the time and I declined but I mention it only to illustrate that life outside of the NHS mothership isn't necessarily greener.