Applying to a long list of programs doesn't come cheap, of course. "Get over the shock as quickly as possible," Jasmin advises. "Start working. You'll need the money."
She began by asking her school's alumni office for advice on how to strengthen her application and also asked for feedback from her top-choice programs. She also attended a residency fair and made a point of talking to people from various programs. Over the following months, she kept in touch with the people she met there, in hopes that they would remember her when they saw her application.
Many students who intend to reapply look for a research program, but Jasmin was concerned that a research project might take more than a year to complete. She had a business background, so she chose to look for a job in hospital billing. She worked as a clinical documentation specialist, reviewing charts to make sure that they were documented properly for billing.
Alternative Careers
Some medical students end up in nonclinical careers in the long term, too. Mazansky's Drop Out Club is a hub for them.
Mazansky went to medical school at Columbia but chose not to enter the match. He says he already knew at that point that he would prefer a career in business and now holds both MD and MBA degrees. The Drop Out Club grew out of a group of friends who had ended up in careers outside of medicine for various reasons. At first it was social, but the group grew larger and the friends began to pass around job postings that might interest other members.
In 2008, the website for the Drop Out Club officially became a job board. In 2016, it acquired a similar service for PhDs called Oystir. Employers find these boards useful, Mazansky says, because quite a few jobs outside of medicine are perfect for people who have MDs but not necessarily any clinical experience.
By far the most popular type of job he sees, making up what he figures is between 25% and 40% of postings, is in sell-side equity research. This is typically a job at an investment bank, where research analysts are needed to keep an eye on a certain part of the industry in which the bank might consider investing. The bank has a team that assesses information regarding the companies they are interested in and has them write reports for investors. To research healthcare, medical, and biotech companies, an analyst with a medical degree is a great candidate. Because the job does not require any clinical experience, a residency is not necessary.
The next most common job Mazansky sees on the Drop Out Club is medical consulting. Consulting firms provide advice to companies, and the field is varied. Consultants may end up advising companies in the scientific, medical, or healthcare industries on any of a wide range of topics about their business strategy or details about how they run their business.
Medscape Med Students © 2017 WebMD, LLC
Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: Unmatched After Match Day -- What's Next? - Medscape - Feb 10, 2017.
Comments