There is wisdom in remembering that a medical doctorate is the most flexible graduate degree conferred anywhere in the world, opening doors to clinical practice in a wide variety of specialties and settings, basic biomedical research, clinical investigation, policy analysis and formulation, administration and economics. The information provided at this web site is in no way intended to replace the roles of your advisors and mentors in providing individualized counseling and guidance to you as you plan your career. Keep in mind that, within any given specialty, there is an almost infinite range of career paths. Clinical practice, clinical research, basic science research and health care administration are only a few of the many “types” of careers physicians may pursue following residency training in virtually any specialty. Most physicians actually combine several career paths at different stages of their professional careers.
Each medical student has unique long-term career plans regarding preferred geographic area or setting for their professional life, type of work schedule/setting preferred and other complimentary interests, talents and/or professional education which may be combined with medical training in order to pursue nontraditional career paths. Many physicians choose to pursue advanced degrees, in law or business administration, for example, or may have entered medical school with advanced degrees in fields ranging from journalism or computer science to fine arts and anthropology. So, it is entirely possible that the “perfect career” for you, in this very rapidly advancing and changing profession of medicine has not yet been pursued (or even thought of) by anyone else!
The intent of this website is to provide you with a means to start broadening your horizons about the very wide range of specialty choice possibilities so that you are as fully aware as possible of all the opportunities for residency training available to you immediately following medical school.