What to do with a medical degree

If you’ve studied for a medical degree or are considering whether to invest your time and money into obtaining one, it’s important to know what you plan to do with it. Although many people with a medical degree will naturally progress to become doctors, there are other interesting roles too that become onward career destinations for graduates.

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Other careers for graduates with medical degrees

Where medical graduates don’t go into direct medical practitioner roles, the main areas they tend to go into include research, lecturing and scientific journalism. In these fields, a deep knowledge of medicine and the medical industry is essential.

Whether it’s related to the safe handling of medication or accurate prescribing, medical skills are highly transferable. Find out more at: tidaltraining.co.uk/health-and-social-care-courses/safe-handling-medication-training. The academic rigours of a medical degree also mean that you will be well placed to move into a variety of highly paid, skilled roles.

Some common job options

The types of jobs that are natural links from a medical degree include surgeon, cardiologist, hospital doctor, general practice doctor, psychiatrist, clinical radiologist and anaesthetist.

Other aligned career paths

If the safe handling of medication, diagnostics, local GP services or specialist medical fields don’t appeal to you, then other aligned fields might.

You could go into fields as diverse as medical sales or health service management, consider research or lecturing or look at clinical science.

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Whichever career path you do choose, there’s no doubt that the medical industry provides a rich scope of employment and a huge range of opportunities. It’s also a career field that is remarkably recession-proof and likely to grow in the future, especially as exciting new fields such as AI-supported care and personalised healthcare begin to evolve.

The more you can grow your own skills, knowledge and expertise, the more doors are likely to open to you as you forge your career in a medicine-aligned field.