SEAK faculty member who is a physician owner of a medical communications company answers the question: What advice would you give to physicians who are considering leaving clinical medicine and getting a non-clinical job in the medical communications field?
I would say that the biggest piece of advice is to take your time and research your options. Too often people reach the point in clinical practice where they are really strongly considering making a career change, and all they know at that point is that they want to leave what they are doing now, and they haven’t necessarily thought through their options for the future. As a result, they start grasping at the first opportunity that arises. I think that’s a mistake.
It’s important to take the time to research what the opportunities are and really think about your own needs and what’s important to you in your future job, and make sure that those are aligned and from there start to hone in on a specific option and really start to pursue your job. I think if people do that then they will be extremely happy with their career change. If they don’t, they may be somewhat happy, but maybe not as happy as they could have been.