Recent college grad weighing MD/MBA against a job opportunity

The email below came to me from a recent college graduate who I met through my Princeton alumni network. He’s a really sharp guy who is interested in a career that bridges the areas of business and healthcare/pharma. In our previous conversations, we’ve talked about his options for academic/professional building blocks for his path to meet his longer-term goals and it is clear to me that this guy has a bright future ahead of him.

In the email below, he explains that he’s weighing a couple of great options, both of which could be good interim moves to help him reach his goals.

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AD wrote:

Hey Marquis,

Over the past 16 months, I have been preparing/applying to medical school while reaching out to individuals in the industry.

To my honest surprise, I was admitted to Emory medical school last week. Also, last week while I was in San Francisco, I met with a consultant and partner at [a boutique consulting firm], and they asked if I was interested in going out to San Francisco and working with them.

This has given me a lot of think about over the past couple of days. As I have dug deeper, it has been reiterated to me that many doctors are unhappy with their work. Yet, those with MD/MBA’s appear to enjoy what they are doing at a higher rate. That being said, I still believe I would like to make the transition into the drug development industry one day.

Those who are in the industry (and even a guy who worked at [the boutique firm]) are telling me to go to the MD/MBA. I would not even need a residency. My gut was telling me to go do the MD/MBA, but now, I’m not sure. It is very expensive and I keep reading articles about the ridiculous sacrifice it is (though I believe any job/industry would require that), I worry that turning down medical school may be an impediment in the longterm for my career. Yet, consulting in drug development would be more synergistic to the investing I do and working on the commercial side one day.

I have been reaching out to many individuals for input, and I was very curious your thoughts. If you need any other information, let me know. Thank you very much for your time. I hope you and your wife are doing well.

AD

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My response:

Hey AD,

Let me start by saying CONGRATULATIONS on getting into Emory Medical School. That’s monstrously great news. I’m really excited for you, especially because it’s something that you’ve wanted for a while now and it fits so well into your career goals.

As I think about the decision that you’re facing, there are a ton of issues to consider, so I’ve tried to structure it all into some key points below:

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• Is medical school the right next step?
  Based on what you’ve told me previously about your goals, I knew that medical school was part of your plan because it offers a great middle ground / prep stage to get you from your college experience to your goal to move into the commercial side of pharma. The big question is whether now is the right time to make that move.

  After spending this first stage post-undergrad doing academic research, you’ve set up a good foundation for the type of work that you want to do long-term, but now it’s time to take another step forward. Medical school feels like the right next step because it’ll build on both your undergrad studies and research experiences while giving you the deeper expertise in medicine that you’ll need later. Also, the longer that you stay out of an academic setting, the harder it is to go back to being a student. Trust me on that…I started my first grad program 3 years post undergrad and it took a while to catch my stride in the classroom. For you, a 2-year break between undergrad and med school, especially one doing something related to what you’d study, seems like a good fit.

  From what I’ve heard, the med school admission game is tough and you’ve already won it by getting into Emory. There’s no guarantee that, if you play that admissions game again later on, you’ll come out a winner for a second time (either with Emory or another school). There is always the chance that Emory will let you defer your offer of admission for a couple of years, but, with so many people trying to get into medical school, that probably isn’t likely. Keep that mind as you weigh your options here.

• Is an MD/MBA the right move?
  I do think that the MBA would be fun for you, but I’m not 100% sure if you actually NEED it to make a transition into business. For what you aspire to do with consulting and eventually investing in the healthcare space, an MBA would be a good asset, but the MD and the subject matter expertise that would come with it would be the headliner for you.

  Back in my McKinsey days, we had plenty of people who held non-MBA grad degrees (including lots of MDs) with a common theme being that they were really smart and were good problem solvers. For these folks, McK put them through a training program called “Mini MBA” before they started serving clients and would give them additional coaching on business concepts over time. This way, they were able to provide value by virtue of their foundational expertise without being handicapped by not having gone through any academic training on business concepts.

  Now, if you decide to get an MBA, you’ll have to ask yourself whether Emory’s MBA program is the right one for you. Just because you’re doing your MD at Emory, that doesn’t mean that you HAVE to do your MBA there. Plenty of business schools are willing to do joint-degree arrangements for students with the non-MBA degree being from another school (several of my Stanford MBA classmates did that). If you take this approach, you could not only possibly end up in a higher-ranked MBA program than Emory’s, but also gain access to a third alumni network, which could provide huge longer-term benefits.

• Is [the boutique firm] the right place and is now the right time?
  I checked out [the boutique firm]’s website and it looks like the firm does the kind of work that fits well woth your goals. Also, judging from the bios of the partners and principals there, the subject matter expertise of the folks there is top-notch. The company seems like the kind of place that would be a good training ground for you, but, with all things considered, this may not be the optimal time for you to join them.

  As I think about your relationship with [the boutique firm], it really feels like this is an opportunity that will still be there for you if you defer it for a few years. Whether you go work for them now or you reach out to them for summer internship opportunities later, that will probably always be something that you can always fall back on. Maybe that’s something that you can talk to those guys about as a possibility. If they’re presenting this opportunity as a now-or-never sort of thing, that is definitely something to consider, but I have a feeling that isn’t the case here.

  Another thing to remember is that, if you want to consult to the pharma or life sciences areas, there are many options out that you could pursue. In addition to the specialized boutique firms, you’d also have a shot at larger global firms, like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain, all of which would be interested in bright folks with backgrounds like yours. Long story short, consulting would be a great addition to your professional profile, but that doesn’t mean that you have to jump into that kind of work immediately.

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Net-net, my advice would be for you to definitely go for the MD and to revisit the idea of adding on the MBA in a year or so. Nowadays, gaining admission to med school (especially a good one) is tough, so you’d likely end up kicking yourself in the future if you pass up this shot now to join [the boutique firm] and don’t get into med school later on. As old folks say, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and your admissions letter from Emory is that proverbial “bird in the hand”.

I know that the above is only one man’s opinion, but that’s how I’d think about it. I hope that my comments were helpful. Take care and good luck with your decision.

Marquis